Now before i begin i must say that while i write this blog post i am suffering from a case of Man Flu. So i have tried very hard to keep this as a coherent post as i can but i might go off topic and start to ramble a bit in places... So with that out of the way lets begin.
"I'm getting deeper into the geek hole. And its all your fault."
That was a quote from a friend....
But it got me thinking on a bus ride to work the following day. What does it mean to be a geek and if your already a self confessed geek can you go deeper. The only real answer would be YES. But there is more to it than just ultimately cutting your self off from the world around you. How deep down the hole are you? Why am i thinking about this on the Bus? Am i a bigger geek than my friend? Should i care if i am or not?
So lets break this down.
I'm getting deeper into the geek hole.
Geekdom is is an individual thing I will openly confess to be a geek but even i know that i define my geekdom and will not let the geekdom define me. At work i'm known as a Star Wars guy and i am fine with people who don't know me saying that as there is so much more to me than that. So how far down a hole are you... That is like asking how long is a piece of string? I can say i am bigger geek than my friend but he knows far more about fighting games than i do. So do we take geek stuff as a whole or do we cut it down in to its own little subgroups. So doy ou like games or are you a gamer or a geek... I know people who are gamers but i would not call them geeks as they are only in to video games not the larger fandom as a whole. But then would you still call a gamer a geek. For every answer i can come up with i can think of an argument against it. Just look at the Marvel movies. There are loads of people who would say their Iron Man fans but have never read an Iron Man comic. the same goes for Batman. I like the Dark Knight Trilogy they are great movies but they are not good Batman movies. For the simple fact that for me Batman was not the Batman from the comics, IE he was not a detective he wasn't a master tactician. But the films were still great and i enjoy them every time i see them. but i know people who have only seen the Dark Knight Trilogy and swear they are Batman fans. But would it be unfair to call them geeks if all they know are the movies. Look at Star Wars fans many of them have never read a Star Wars Book and only know the movies and they are considered geeks but is it the same thing. Can a fan be a geek or can a geek be just a fan. When do you stop being a fan and when do you transform in to a geek. With geek culture becoming more and more mainstream is the term geek now need a new meaning. You can not call someone a geek anymore and give it negative-cogitations as it everywhere you go geekness is there you go to a supermarket and you see t-shirts with Captain America or Darth Vader on them. but before 2008 that would never of happened. Maybe moving forward we need to redefine the terms geek and fan. At one point they were interchangeable and maybe they still are. And thanks to TV shows like the Big Bang Theory being a geek is more normal now.
Back to the question at hand though...
Just because you have started going to comic conventions and you have brought a few things from these convention can be considered going to the next level as you are going out of your way to go to these places the same way a football fan who has only watch their team play on TV then decides to go to a live match to see it being played. There is an atmosphere when a large group of like minded people get together. It is something you want to feel more apart of so you go to more cons or football matches... So i give my friend that but how much deeper has he gone. I like anime he dose not yet we both like Star Wars and video games it is very hard to say as only he can answer how far he has fallen down the hole. He has started to look at things that are created by fans and has spent money on things that have been created by fans so yes he has gone past the point of being a casual observer and is now taking part in the community in a small way but still he is taking part in the community non the less. This blog in part was his idea and in my very, very small way writing this blog is my way of taking part in the wider fan or geek community.
And it's all your fault.
This part is easy he blames me for everything.... Ok maybe not everything but this whole thing started when i ordered/pre-ordered a calender from Comic Book Girl 19s website. I sent him a link and after he hmm and arred he ordered one. And yes i am the one that gives him the heads up when a con is coming up and so on. But really is it all my fault...
The important part was the first and as such was the focus of the post and to be honest i feel like i didn't get anywhere near an answer. I have spent all this time rambling and have not gotten anywhere. It is like the old saying.
"One mans trash is another mans treasure"
So let me know what you think.
Is a fan a geek or a geek a fan are they the same or is there more to it.
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