For me, it all started with a blip, a blaster, a blanket, and a bunny.
The “blip” was the glorious sound of a vibrantly ivory square dot bouncing off a similarly white line that I was actually able to control on my TV screen via the Odyssey 2000 game system. Video games? Check.
The “blaster” was shot by various characters in the original Star Wars, which I saw during its initial run somewhere on NY’s Upper West Side (yes, I’m old. Shut up). There were high, narrow windows spanning the width of the back of the theatre, where if you got the angle in the waiting area juuust right, you could see the film running, and I had to force myself (no pun intended) to not peek and get spoiled. It was a uniquely childish, gleeful kind of agony. Sci-fi/fantasy? Check.
The “blanket” was what I was sitting on years later in Central Park while having a pivotal conversation. After our picnic, some close friends wanted to see a scary movie and bring me along, but I was being a big old fraidy cat. So one of them explained to me the formula for surviving all scary movies intact; the [monster/maniac] chases after the [victim/girl in her underwear] until said [victim/girl in her underwear] loses sight of said [monster/maniac]. The scary music builds to a fever pitch and crescendos as the [victim/girl in her underwear] looks in the closet/car/under the bed, then cuts out as the [victim/girl in her underwear] sees, with a sigh of relief, that the coast is clear. And THAT’S when you steel yourself for the [monster/maniac] to jump out of nowhere to induce a lovely crapping of the pants. The movie? Fright Night. The awesome? Roddy McDowell. Horror? Check.
The “bunny” was the title character in the first comic book I ever regularly collected; Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew. It was cheesy as hell, and filled with bad animal puns. It often referenced DC comics characters I wasn’t familiar with. And I freakin’ loved it. For years, comics had floated around the periphery of my awareness in the form of a random issue on the newsstand here, or a small stack of unwanted ones from a neighbor there. Reading them was certainly great, but it was kind of like peeking through those windows in the Star Wars theatre; each issue was only a maddeningly thin sliver of a larger narrative. Being able to actually collect the whole Captain Carrot story (such as it was) from the beginning made me practically giddy. So much so that I would call my friend Jon, another comic collector, every month and describe the entire plot of each issue to him. Within six months after CC #1 came out I was collecting around 30 titles and the new issues covered every flat surface in my room, in neatly organized piles. Comics? Ka-check.
So, those are the 4 corners of my own personal geek square of interest. Or maybe I should say parallelogram, since the idea of a “square” is something I’m trying to distance myself from with this piece.
The flash point for the mainstreaming of geek culture is hard to peg, therefore extremely debatable. And probably somewhat subjective. Dan Trachtenberg of The Totally Rad Show podcast from Revision 3 recently stated he believes it was Clerks, a movie he admittedly loves, with it’s legendary gen-x discussion of the contracted workers on both Death Stars. The Matrix was certainly a huge step towards breaking the, shall we say, fiberglass ceiling of geekceptance, followed by The Lord of the Rings. But I don’t think these really broke full force through their niche perception into full blown pop culture the way the X-Men and Spider-Man movies did.
The superhero genre was the last obstacle to overcome. The first two Superman movies were definitely successful, yet they seemed content to merely be awesome, and not to actually pave the way for anything except perhaps the god-awful last two Superman movies. Generally, comic books were still struggling fiercely to shake off the common outsider perception that they were all as silly as the infamous Batman TV show from the 60′s. And yes, many comics are, and still can be. But for the past 20 years or so, most are not. The X-Men and Spider-Man movies were groundbreaking PR for the comics industry, and a catharsis for the fans. For the first time, visual media technology had caught up with the imagination of Stan Lee…from 40 years ago. The success of these films artistically, technically, and commercially, made Hollywood finally sit up and say hey, there’s gold in them thar tights!! And so the courtship of the geek dollar began in earnest, and the way was paved for the stream of comic book movie properties, good and bad, that we’ve seen since then and continue to see, culminating only 6 years later with the releases of the mind-bogglingly assured and mature Iron Man and The Dark Knight, with legitimate Oscar buzz surrounding the latter. And not just the kids’ table, un-televised technical awards.
Concurrent with the legitimization of the superhero genre in film, on television I suppose we should be grateful that Heroes exists, if nothing else. For really it doesn’t do much more than that- exist. But geekwise, we should probably look to those sturdy and weather-beaten survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. JJ Abrams’s phenomenon Lost has rewritten the rules for serialized drama, sci-fi, and even pop culture interactivity with internet culture, with its real life scavenger hunts and clue searching.
“So, Dan, what’s the point of all this?!”, I hear you cry. Simply this;
It’s good to be a geek. It’s even, dare I say, okay.
Take a look at how the geek Mecca, the San Diego Comic Convention has grown exponentially over the past 10 years. Look at all the comic creators like Paul Dini, Frank Miller, Brian Vaughan, and Mark Millar being drafted to work on TV and movie scripts. Look at actual comic mini-series like Locke & Key, and Kick-Ass being optioned for films before their entire run has even hit the stands. Geek culture is modern mythology, parables, morality plays. And yes, we know, it’s also escapism. More on that in a bit.
So, geek ideas are actually influencing and helping to shape the culture at large, more than ever before, but what about the geek him or herself? I’ve distilled what I think to be the one common geek trait that should be lauded, and remembered. Look at any geek discussion board and you’ll feel it bleeding through the words on the screen. Ask any geek you know about the legal issues the Watchmen movie is going through and they’ll stumble through words and bulldoze through social formalities to unleash their opinion.
Passion. It’s all about passion.
Now, I’m not saying we have the market cornered. ‘Cause, well, duh. I’m just saying that for most people, the world can be a cold, hard dump of a place. It’s the privileged few who can find passion in their everyday lives, in their families, or in their work. Mostly, and especially these days, we’re all struggling just to keep our heads above water. Which is why healthy escapism is so valuable. For geeks, when we love something, we fucking love it. How great is it that something so simple as a fantastic story, splash page, video game, or movie can instantly give us enough soul fuel to get us through the day? Even the announcement of some of these things, connected to a beloved property, and with the right elements, can evoke a feeling of Christmas in July. So many people are just so sad about so much, and have nothing in their lives to alleviate it. We are lucky.
Certainly, you need to socialize. Absolutely, you should get off the couch and go for a walk or a jog every now and then. I did say healthy escapism. But ultimately, be who you are. Like what you like. Hate what you hate. And love what you love. With no shame. And let others do all those things, too. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, including yourself, I believe anything goes.
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