Friday, July 19, 2013

As to why sub-culture is a vanishing concept.

Hello, and long time no see. Blah blah been busy (translation I suck at social media and spend too much time playing video games).

Anyway, so the San Diego Comic-Con is going on now, and looking at how incredibly popular it is, and how much money comic book movies make, I think it is fair to say that geekdom is no longer the province of anti-social teenagers playing Dungeons and Dragons in their parents basement.

Also... not a rip, because I still play Dungeons and Dragons, and if that makes me a geek, gtfo. Not really (Dungeons and Dragons is weird and silly now, so I play Pathfinder and Shadowrun. Much better imho).

I digress. So my wife and I have just finished watching all of Freaks and Geeks, and it was a really good show, but not for the reasons most people like it. Yes, you got to see Jason Segel and Seth Rogen and James Franco before they got HUGE, but more importantly it was a pretty good look at how kids, if given the chance, actually can evolve and mature and grow.

Not going to preach, but I will strongly advocate for episode 18 in particular, how James Franco's character is forced into the A/V group and ends up playing D&D with them and loving it, is a pretty awesome argument for my own theory that kids really do just want to be accepted and respected by their peers.

Hell, adults too for that matter. Being judged sucks, whether socially, professionally, academically, or by your family.

Anyway, with the bazillion dollars Marvel (now Disney, who also owns Lucasfilm, which makes Mickey Mouse gatekeeper to at least 90% of my entertainment quota) is making on comic book films, contrasted with the tanking of The Lone Ranger this year and John Carter last year the indication to me is that comic books are not only "cool" but they are a Juggernaut (sorry) of commerce and success.

Geeks: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geek and I do mean to just skip #1 because that's weird and not relevant, but 2 and 3 I think can be dismissed as no longer being pejoratives.

Hollywood has finally figured out that things that used to get "geeks" beat up for ten years ago are now so awesome that they are worth billions of dollars and are universally appealing (unless you are A.O. Scott... and also a delta bravo). They figured it out with Tolkien, they figured it out with comic books, and Star Wars and Star Trek have always been titans of commerce.

So why is it still geeky to like this stuff, when from all appearances... most people do?