Posts
Judging by the responses, geeks are a touch angry about the opinion that geek culture needs to lie fallow for awhile in order for it to return to maximum efficiency. Maybe it's a generational thing, because the geeks/nerds who grew up with readily available videos and DVDs and Internet shopping just come at this from a different mindset. But when you talk about the pervasiveness of geek culture, you really need to understand where this attitude is coming from, even if you wind up having a completely different opinion.
For me, it's not just that geek culture has become pop culture. It's the way it happened. Comic Con is the perfect example. The corporations jumped on Comic Con like a Biggest Loser contestant scrambles for a donut. They put their ad people and marketing departments and accountants on the case, and the job was to deconstruct geek culture. Figure out what makes the people who love this weird shit tick, then give them what they sort-of want but also make it as mainstream as possible. Knock off the interesting bits so it can be mass-produced and distributed and consumed by the largest number of people. This is what a corporation DOES. It takes something quirky and individual and turns it into a cynical bowl of shit.
A lot of people do not notice this, but some people DO and that's why both of these essays resonated with me. We are so inundated with geek culture that we're drowning, and this makes it impossible for anyone to truly be inspired by anything. There's no surprise anymore. Fans know what's coming out, when it's coming out, who's in it, who made it, how it looks. They follow writers, actors and directors on the Twitter and get text updates. They have the books, the games and the action figures before the marketing tool is even released. Because let's be honest here: The movies and TV shows and books are just marketing tools for the product.
It didn't always used to be backwards. At least if it was, it was hidden better. More innocent, maybe, even if being more innocent means you're a sucker. I just don't know if today's geeks get the same rush from seeking out the obscure. And maybe it doesn't matter to them. Maybe it IS a generational thing, and those of us who felt that rush are just fucking old assholes who don't have a place in the new world order. But I'm less concerned with the people who consume and love this stuff than I am with the people who are going to become the creators. If everything is readily, instantly available... if there is no need to seek out information... if there are no secrets and no mystery... if interpretation is something given to you by a studio marketing department... then where, exactly, is the inspiration supposed to come from?
It just seems like there used to be moments where time stops. Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek. Moments that could be separated out from all the rest of the shit. And no matter how people feel about our geek cultural touchstones, you have to admit that they rose like a tower from the landscape. I have no doubt that a lot of you hate these touchstones for that very reason. What makes time stop now? Are there people sitting in the Transformers movie who are completely mesmerized? Those adjusting their 3D glasses in Toy Story 3? We're in a perpetual feedback loop of geekformation. We're being bombarded with it. When everything is self-referential and time moves so quickly, is it even possible for something with an original voice to rise out of the muck?
If the media that people are consuming is simply a pale imitation of what inspired the heroes of THOSE creators, then who are the heroes for today? Can anything be surprising or astonishing or mind-blowing anymore? Maybe it's not necessary. Could be that OUR inspiration isn't THEIR inspiration, and they're going to be just as creative anyway. Or maybe creativity is just so different now that it's alien to us. But I don't think so. It's impossible to keep up with everything, of course. And yes, life DOES move more quickly now. We are instant consumers. But we are also instant creators, making parodies on YouTube and Funny Or Die. Short, funny parodies are the best vehicle for the Internet. Hell, YouTube made it easy by limiting the length of a clip. It seems like we consume, delete, consume, delete, etc. While previously, we consumed, digested, reflected and searched. But did we do that because there was no other option? Is there no real difference between the two? I wonder if our ability to adjust to whatever consumer culture does is actually a detriment. We don't fight for anything. We just let ourselves be dictated to.
Americans, in particular, are bred to consume and we are AWESOME at it. The pervasiveness of collectibles that are mass-produced by the billions... I'm not sure it exists simply because of corporate greed. George Lucas owns Marin County because he had the foresight to get his Star Wars toy money, when companies didn't think the merchandising would be worth anything. Now, of course, merchandising drives movies. But if the consumers didn't demand the toys, the corporations wouldn't have bothered. So is it up to us to stop it? Is the temporary rejection of geek culture necessary for US to find a way to survive, to get back to roots that weren't so fucking obviously materialistic?
This is a delicate balancing act because like a good sociopath, the corporations have overdone it. They know how to market the product to us because we've basically told them how. They understand the geek mind, and it's THAT which has made geek culture mainstream. So is it up to the geeks to forge ahead and create something surprising? It had better be, because the corporations won't do it. They won't take a chance. Somehow, the creators need to find a way to manipulate the system to get their voice out there. People forget that Star Wars was an uphill battle. And yes, it's incredibly sad that George Lucas is re-engineering and spackling his creation like it's Michael Jackson's face. But if anyone earned the right to do that, it's Lucas. It would be great if someone else would come along and earn the right to rape their creation.
Conversely, Joss Whedon can't stop the rights-holders from rebooting Buffy and if there's one King of the High Geeks, it's Whedon.
So maybe the lesson there is that creators need to find ways to see into that future, to hold onto their creations. And maybe it's not so much about geek culture dying, but rather that those who are aware of the oversaturation and long for the days of discovery actually create something new. Surprising. Unexpected. Not derivative of other things, but inspired by them. There is a fine line between derivation and inspiration and I think both Patton and Javi have given voice to that. There's awareness now, even if people misunderstand or disagree. So someone has to do this. Somebody has to find the ingenuity with which to steer the ship.
So what are we waiting for?
*If you haven't heard of it, the Omega Point is a term devised by the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. It's supposedly the moment prior to the singularity and it denotes the organized complexity towards which the universe is moving. He goes into a lot of philosophy that winds up being somewhat dualistic -- the universe is divided into matter and love, kind of a Pushme-Pullyu of complexity. Taken in the context of geek culture, my interpretation is that there's always a push towards the world being created. The world of geeks is the convention, the gathering, the assembling of like-minded citizens. Geeks gathered with their mimeographed Star Trek fanfic, with their fan clubs, on the Well. And one facet of geekdom is the love of world-building. Chardin says that the pieces of the world seek each other out through the forces of love, which is a perfect description for what geeks DO. And then, of course, there must be the wars -- the great Shipper wars of the X-Files world, the Spike Redemptionist battles of the Buffyverse, the myriad skirmishes within the Star Trek universe.
This seems to happen when the world becomes too large and too complex, forcing geeks to huddle in even smaller groups within that larger world. Is that what's happening now? Our geek world is so huge that there isn't even a small corner in which to settle. So maybe razing it to the ground and starting over is a logical way to go.
Lastly:
One might say that, by virtue of human reflection (both individual and collective), evolution, overflowing the physico-chemical organisation of bodies, turns back upon itself and thereby reinforces itself with a new organising power vastly concentric to the first — the cognitive organisation of the universe. To think the world (as physics is beginning to realise) is not merely to register it but to confer upon it a form of unity it would otherwise (i.e. without being thought) be without.-- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man
Happy new year, everyone!
5 comments:
Kay,
I was just having this conversation with a friend this afternoon. Clearly some of us are on the same wavelength.
There's something liberating about all of this -- for awhile now I've been feeling that geekdom is a competitive sport -- who can throw off the most and best arcane (and not) references within another piece of work. I've done it myself -- at some point, all the "references" mean nothing. They become, to use another reference, "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra." It's all metaphor, hyperlanguage.
I too was struck by the confluence of those two particular pieces this week. There's something in the air. It's confusing and sometimes even makes me angry, but in general, I think we'll come out the other side. Maybe I won't be a geek anymore. It won't matter, so long as I stick to my creative vision, such as it is, and make it good.
Here's hoping we can all make it good next year.
What you say reminds me of a realization I had standing in my living room one day, when I realized that between live television, my TiVo, the XBox, Netflix streaming, the internet, and a shelf full of books waiting to be read, I lived in a world where -- inside of one room -- I could be entertained precisely to my whim indefinitely.
It's both amazing and incredibly intimidating.
The moment geek is cool, geek is dead. The moment geek is mainstream, geek is dead. The moment geek is planned, geek is dead. Yeah, we get it, geek is fucking dead. But the killer ain't ComicCon or Michael Bay or a Buffy remake. Geek got killed by cynicism. Which is why geek is still alive. Geeks aren't cynics, they're lovers. Lovers of things that "surface dwellers" watch and enjoy and dig but not love. It's not about access, but about understanding. Deeper understanding. Geek is deep. No need to reanimate. Just recognize.
Whoa. And how these worlds and their fundamentalist jihads -- the necessary creative destruction -- within them -- are planted by those worlds themselves. Don't overlook the whole top-down Lucasfilm character/universe control instituted due to Trek slash pr0n....
In response such an erudite post, is it too tacky to discuss how THE CAPE is more satisfying, with all its flaws, than mid-late HEROES, nu-V, alla THE EVENT, etc.? It's as if it's being allowed to fail, and thus succeed for a while on its own terms.
Howzabout THE CAPE being more politically adventurous than V? Palm City is openly fascist, and characters we're supposed to like say so. Even the criminals are class-conscious in an understandable way.
Also, it's kinda subversive in that its Bruce Wayne character is the proud protagonist in his own story -- his therapist asking about split-personality visits, the concerned opposing daughter protecting him in her own way -- but is the antagonist, traditionally? And his big sadness is how no one wants to play with him, on his level?
The romance between him and Dice was spectacular -- no one was stupid (except for the location of all ARK's T.R.A.C.E tech at a non-hardened site, but then I assume ARK had computer consultants from CAPRICA....). I assume that since Dice isn't dead, she'll be a supervillainess later on, which is the way to do it. Create the ground where the amazing happens, build understandable characters in it, and watch the sparks go off.
It should be given time and money to run -- NBC has something better? Really?
One other thing -- Geekdom is a veal pen. If the culture can pen off the aspirations and desires of a populace through self-affirming fantasies, what lure will reality have?
Geekness and reality shows are part of the same pincer movement -- indulgence and ridicule. The day HOARDERS does a show about an otaku's collection, then we'll know the long knives are out....
Post a Comment