Posts tagged Geek Culture
You Klingon Bastard
Nov 23rd
As tempted as I am to let fly with a rant about the inadequacies of the current Canadian Family Law system, I will hold my tongue in order to talk about something a lot more important.
The guy who only spoke Klingon to his child.
Now, on the face of it, this is obviously a horrible parenting idea. You’ve taught your child to speak in not only a fictional, albeit fully developed, language. But you’ve also ensured that the transition to society will be awkward and much harder than any other child will experience.
But here’s the thing: it’s not quite the significant aberration it appears to be. It stands out, primarily because the language spoken is based on science fiction. And that makes it weird. But why?
Is it weird to indoctrinate your child to a set of concepts and values that are based on a fictional history? Only if you consider any religious upbringing to be weird. Christians are teaching their children that there is an Invisible Sky-Wizard who judges everything you do and will treat you accordingly.
In fact, the weird part would seem to be the fact that this Dad isn’t a Star Trek fan, who simply viewed it as an interesting scientific experiment. But even that doesn’t seem so strange, considering people try whatever experimental parenting technique is currently in vogue at the moment, without bothering to do any background reading on it, or considering the consequences. Hence, we have a whole generation of self-entitled kids who never had red pen used on their tests, to avoid hurting their self-esteem.
No, the weird part would simply be that we already consider Trekkies* to be strange outsiders. When someone decides to make their children awkward outsiders by choice, and not give the children a choice, people are outraged, even if they’ve done so themselves, because when it’s something that thousands of parents endorse, it’s not weird. It’s “good parenting”.
Hypocrites. Sadly, I can’t find the Klingon for that.
*Listen, Trekkies-who-prefer-to-be-called-Trekkers. You don’t get to choose your nickname. We are indentifying you from a safe distance, so we get to pick the name. Also, pretend I don’t watch Star Trek. It hurts my credibility in mocking Trekkies.
Fandomonium
Aug 27th
This past Saturday was the annual Toronto Fan Expo, combining comic books, sci-fi, horror, anime (what we used to call "Japanimation" back in the day) and gaming. I went down there with a couple of friends, Kurt and Adam, primarily with the intention of meeting a childhood idol of mine, The A-Team's Dwight Schultz. For those of you not in the know, he played crazed pilot "Howling Mad" Murdock, and carried most of the comic relief for the show. I have been a huge fan of The A-Team ever since it was on TV, and Schultz has always been my favourite of the foursome. In addition, he played one of the most entertaining recurring characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Lt. Reginald Barclay, the nervous engineering crewman who again added comedy into a great show.
The Fan Expo is an interesting phenomenon; it brings together different kinds of sub-classes of humanity. On first hearing about it, one assumes it is the stereotypical Star Trek convention, with every kind of nerd heading out in full Star Fleet uniform to fawn over celebrities who never rose above their science fiction stardom. Don't get me wrong — they're there as well. But that's a small percentage of the kind of people who come out for this type of event.
By combining five interests into one show, you end up with a strange cross-section of niche interest individuals. The sci-fi geeks in all their Comic Book Guy glory are relegated to secondary status after the Anime enthusiasts: hundreds of pre-teens wearing costumes that barely cover any skin, complete with giant swords and fox tails. The Star Wars contingent is a large offering as well, with middle aged men shoving their not-inconsiderate bellies into Stormtrooper armour. Comic fans are a wide variety of people, and are tough to pick out amongst the other fans, although the girl in the skin-tight Wonder Woman outfit was a bit of a giveaway. Finally, there's the "freak" contingent of hairy, pierced and tattooed masses who are the horror fans.
It's tough for me to look at this phenomenon without being a bit biased. I mean, I personally have been a fan of most of these genres at one time or another. I don't look the part of any particular fan base — I am a relatively plain looking guy with no tattoos, no piercings, no costume, and with nary a big sword to be found.
However, I found certain things interesting, from an observers point of view, that I thought I would share with the world today. The culture of fandom is, by and large, a culture of outsiders. Obviously, not completely; the reason these things have fans is that they were successful at resonating with a certain crowd. Star Trek was successful enough, eventually, to spawn 5 television shows, ten movies (apparently, soon to be eleven) and a plethora of merchandise. And that's only one part of the fandom experience. But the people who enjoy it, tend to enjoy it alone. It's not considered "cool", and it isn't a boon to one's popularity to admit a burning love of comics or anime. You have to search far and wide for another person who can name superheroes more obscure than those Hollywood has already plundered. And I'll admit, I was the only one of our trio who recognized any of the artists' names along the Artists' Alley.
The Fan Expo, though, is logically the one place that the outsider culture translates to a sense of belonging. Where being able to speak Klingon only makes you cooler, and more sought after. I joked with Kurt, a nerd of some magnitude, that he had an edge here over most of us to impress the ladies, but in reality, that would be true. There is a low-grade buzz of elitism at the event. A place where intellect is prized, not hidden, or beaten for. I was impressed that people with ordinarily no self-esteem or body image would dress more provocatively than a stripper. And it worked for them, too. Yes, these were the people that I would most closely pigeon-hole myself with, as there was a common interest there that I couldn't deny. Most went farther with their love for camp than I normally do, as yes, I still have some hang-ups about revealing too much of that inner nerd. I have not brought myself to dress up yet.
But one day I may.
I just wanted to share my observations with those who may not know the experience of a mass gathering of shunned peers yet, and with those who never will. Those who have been, and fit in, know exactly what I'm saying.
