There's a high
school memory that always surfaces in my mind when the mainstream
success of “nerd culture” is mentioned. During my sophomore year,
a group of friends and I started a video game club. The idea was the
brainchild of a friend of mine and I wholeheartedly supported it. We
eventually found a faculty adviser, wrote up a constitution, and had
the first club meeting. I can't remember what exactly happened during
the first meeting, but I remember the subsequent meetings being full
of Smash Brothers, Street Fighter and the usual political infighting.
I don't know how the last thing came up, but I do know it lead to the
eventual demise of the club.
Aside from the
Smash tournaments, and the political intrigue, I remember the
newsletter. The founder of the club created a layout for a one page
newsletter. We'd all contribute articles and then pass out the
newsletter as fliers to other students. I remember standing around in
courtyard area during the lunch period, with a small stack of
newsletters in my hand. I wasn't a very outgoing person to begin
with, so to approach people I've never met and hand them a flier
about a club they'd probably wouldn't care about was a test in
itself. Eventually I worked up some courage to approach a group of
guys sitting around a bench. I handed one of them a newsletter and
explained the specifics about the club.
“Thanks man!”
He replied, with a smile. “Do I get a free Xbox?”
I looked at him,
eyes narrowed, not really understanding what he was implying. “No,
it's a video game club,” I answered, lamely. Part of me knew he was
screwing with me, but I still tried to represent the club to the best
of my ability. I stood there, hoping he would say something to the
effect of 'just kidding,' or even a 'just kidding, bro.' Instead, I
was met with awkward silence.
“Okay then,” he
said as he balled up the newsletter and tossed it to the ground,
winning a round of laughter from his friends as I walked away, angry
and confused.
I know it probably
makes me petty to hold onto this memory, but I imagine if a student
would try to start a video game club at his or her high school today,
it'll be met with a more positive result than this. I have never been
back to visit my old high school, and I don't ever plan on it, so as
far as I know there could already be a thriving video game club
already. Which is a good thing.
At this point, it's
important to take a survey of current popular culture: the video game
industry is bigger and generating more revenue that the movie and
music industries. The biggest blockbusters over the past few years
have been based on comic book properties. Game of Thrones is a big
deal to a whole lot of people. Big Bang Theory, despite being a
veiled insult to nerd culture (another article for another time), is
one of the most popular sitcoms on television today. Pewdiepie is the
biggest youtube star in the world (his cameo on South Park can attest
to that, I think) and his content revolves around playing video
games. In short, we won. 'Nerd' properties have seeped its way into
mainstream popular culture in a big way. I'm not trying trying to say
that this has never happened before. X-Men and Blade were huge comic
book films, and Lord of the Rings made a big splash at the box
office. Hell, pulpy space opera, Star Wars redefined the movie
industry in the 1970s, but, for some reason, it seems prevalent
today, than ever before.
With that said, I
should be happy. I can go into any Hot Topic store and buy a Legend
of Zelda tee shirt. A few years ago, it was much harder to buy video
game related merchandise like tee shirts, mugs, keychains, etc. And
don't get me started on how much Gamestop's influence has grown in
the past decade. Despite Gamestop's alleged shady business practices
and treatment of its employees, I'm still pretty happy about how
accessible buying games and 'nerd' related paraphernalia has become,
even though the gross mass commercialization of such properties has
some negative side effects. Young people growing up in this
generation have no need to know the history of the culture to take
part in it, which leads me to my next point.
 |
| He has tattoos. That means he's cool. |
I want to quote
an episode of The Cleveland Show. Cleveland Jr. visits ComiCon and is
waiting in line with his fellow nerds, when he makes a controversial
statement: “I think Firefly is overrated” or something to that
effect. Everyone gasps in disbelief. Cleveland goes on to clarify his
opinion (again, I may be botching the quote), “It's about a ship
full of Han Solos. If everyone is Han Solo, no one is Han Solo.”
That's kinda how things are today.
Everyone is a Nerd, if the box
office results of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers will tell
you anything. Current pop culture has made everything much more
accessible to everyone. The marvel movies are excellent primers for
their comic book counterparts. Marvel and DC are resetting their
universes every other week in order to give new readers jumping on
points and Disney axed the Star Wars expanded universe completely to
make a new one more focused on the original trilogy timeline. Right
now, it's a better time and ever to be a nerd, but when everyone is a
nerd, no one is a nerd. Let me clarify.
If you can remember
a few paragraphs ago, you can also remember I'm a petty man (and this
is the part of the article where that will show, and where it becomes
sort of an unstructured rant). So, part of me, the petty part of me,
isn't exactly happy about this new transition. I've never been a huge
fan of comic books, but I was into The X-Men for a long time and I've
read a lot of Scott Snyder's run of Batman, so I say that I know a
little more than the average Marvel Cinematic Universe fan (can you
see the bitterness creeping into my prose, yet?). The Star Wars
expanded universe was more of my expertise. The Thrawn Trilogy is
just as good as the films, in my opinion. When the EU was axed so
J.J. Abrams can remake A New Hope, I was filled with a lot of anger.
The EU and its games, novels and comic books supported the interest
in Star Wars when there wasn't a lot of new movies on the horizon. I
can understand getting rid of the complex web that the EU weaved, so
the writers could can stretch their arms and have total creative
freedom to create something new, but instead this reiterated how much
the original trilogy is loved and how much the prequel trilogy is
hated. The Star Wars franchise moved forward, but remained motionless
at the exact same time. It it's wake was the destruction of the EU
and any hope that people will give the prequel trilogy another look.
I was also left behind in the ruins, picking up torn fragments of
Timothy Zhan's legacy. I know that the books will always be there, on
my self, to read again and again, but it's detached from the official
timeline. The big box office pay day The Force Awakens received tells
me no one cares, or at least a minority of fans care.
 |
| The more interesting Star Wars trilogy. |
I guess the point
I'm trying to make is that nerd culture and franchises related to
nerd culture are bigger and more visible than ever, but they're also
shallower than ever. I'm and old fossil, I'm a bitter grumpy old man,
and that's probably why I can't fully enjoy the new nerd culture.
Things are changing, and I can't get used to them. There are kids on
my lawn and I can't get them off no matter how hard I shake my cane
at them. The younger kids from the city are coming over and knocking
over my trash cans and taking baseball bats to my mail box, calling
me a noob.
On the other hand,
grumpy old man or not, I can go into a store at the mall and buy a
Legend of Zelda tee shirt. I can talk about Star Wars and comic books
with all of my co-workers. Nerd stuff is cool and, inherently, that's
a good thing at its core. However, I still don't know how to feel
about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment