A while ago I was at a party at a friend’s house, and it was
mostly other members of my MSE course in Halifax . As we were chatting away and generally having
a good time, one of my compatriots noted my Starfleet TNG delta-shield
cufflinks. She shook her head and
dismissed them as my geeky silliness. I
pointed out to her that it was no different from someone wearing a jersey from
their favourite hockey team. She
indignantly claimed it was somehow not the same, though whey I asked why she
had no real answer other than ‘it just isn’t.’
I’m not going to make some ranting post about people
disparaging geeks because that’s just old and doesn't really do anything.
I just found it interesting that there’s a perception that one piece of
fandom (pro sports) is some how more legitimate than another (sci-fi). Granted, to the followers of each, their particular
thing is more legit. Likely, many pro
sports have more fans than a lot of sci-fi.
Fair enough. I no more want to go
watch hockey than she wants to sit down to a TNG or DS9 marathon. Roger out, we’ll go our separate ways on
that. It was the way it was commented
on, as if it were something beyond the norm, that I found a bit irksome. Especially considering everyone in my course
knows I’m the resident geek. Everyone has
their fandom (or they should). Life is
pretty boring and empty if there’s nothing you’re passionate about.
(Funny aside: when I did ask how long a hockey game was
(really, I had no idea), a classmate says ‘three periods.’ I know he was being helpful, but my confused
look probably indicated an actual unit of time would have helped more.)
Wil Wheaton put up a good video about why it’s good to be a
geek in his blog here, (or just
google it). Be passionate about
something. Writing, costuming, sports,
whatever. Otherwise, what are you really
doing with your time?
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