Faith Salie: It's All Geek to Me
This past summer I attended Comic-Con, the annual sci-fi/fantasy/gaming/comic book convention often called the world's biggest "geek-fest." About 125,000 fans descend on San Diego, many of them dressed as zombies, Spartans, pirates, Klingons, superheroes and, of course, Darth Vader.
It was my first time so I checked out the Web site to find do's and don'ts, such as, "Projectile costume weapons must be rendered inoperable."
What's on an inoperable projectile?
I entered this event with some preconceptions about what I would see. And, yes, I did see a whole lot of "geeks" who, empirically, should not have engaged in spandex.
But mostly I saw moms, seniors, cute kids, bearded dudes, whites, Hispanics . . . in other words, a whole bunch of regular folk.
And I had this paradoxical revelation:
WE ARE ALL GEEKS NOW . . . which makes "geek" an endangered species.
No longer is a geek identifiable by a pale complexion, black-rimmed glasses, a bowling shirt that says "Nerd World Order."
No, geeks are everywhere. And they're cool!
"Mad Men"'s John Hamm called himself a comic book geek. "The Big Bang Theory" is a hit show. Even our president says he believes in the Final Frontier.
"To geek out" is an oft-used verb. It's become a way to describe an avid interest without promoting yourself as an expert or wonk.
It's more self-deprecating to call yourself a "wine geek" than a "wine snob."
But once something becomes cool, it becomes ubiquitous - which kills the cool. So in order to "save the geek," I think we need to thin the herd.
Here are a few ways to see if you qualify as a real geek:
When you recite the opening of "Star Trek" verbatim and it ends with "to boldly go where no man has gone before," do you feel rapturous - and ashamed for using a split infinitive?
Instead of a fantasy football team, you have a fantasy fantasy team, and you're inconsolable when Harry Potter is put on the disabled list.
Or, you've actually been beamed up (as I was, playing the genetic mutant Sarina in "Deep Space Nine").
Don't mean to brag!
For more info:
faithsalie.com