This week is “Speak Out With Your Geek Out,” a week dedicated to talking about one’s geekier passions in a positive light. I signed up but now that it’s here, I have to ponder, what are my geeky passions, exactly? A lot of my geeky identity comes from frequent association with other geeks and sometimes it’s hard for me to separate the knowledge, understanding, or appreciation from my own passions.
So I look to Wikipedia for a definition of Geek and find, buried within, this nugget:
A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest. This definition is very broad but because many of these interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of some genres as “geeky” is heavily debated. Persons have been labeled as or chosen to identify as physics geeks, mathematics geeks, engineering geeks, sci-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and film geeks (cinephile), comic book geeks, theater geeks, history geeks, music geeks, sport geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, literature geeks, historical reenactment geeks, video game geeks, and roleplay geeks.
Reading this, I had an epiphany: I am a geek generalist.
Why a generalist? Because I can’t call myself a member of any of those tribes and yet I can speak many of their languages.
- Sci-fi: I’ve seen/read much of the canon but I can’t hold my own in a debate over Asimov versus Heinlein.
- Comic books: I think I can probably pass a DC vs. Marvel character quiz and I do own a selection of graphic novels and comics and Free Comic Book Day is always on my calendar… but again, the minutiae of large arcs elude me.
- Gaming: yeah, I’ve played RPGs and I love polyhedral dice (not as much as Wil Wheaton, perhaps) but it’s been a long time since I’ve played. As for computer games, I am addicted to Angry Birds but first person shooters make me nauseous.
- Science: I love science! But I have a BA not a BSc. I never could stomach some of the upper-level stuff. Still, park me in front of an episode of Nova or Mythbusters or even Bill Nye and I’m likely to be entertained.
- History: That BA? It’s in history but I avoided everything to do with war and a whole lot of other stuff in my weird double focus on Medieval Social History and the History of the West (North America’s West — basically stuff this side of the Rockies) so I’m not much use as a party-argument-fact-checker.
- Film: this is the closest I get to knowing enough to approach geek-hood in a single category but even here there are significant gaps in my knowledge.
As a generalist, I can converse with almost any variety of geek, at least enough to get by at a dinner party. I blame the Genus I edition of Trivial Pursuit. After its launch (and our family’s purchase), I was consumed by things trivial. I soaked up little tid-bits about everything and it’s how, years later, I earned the nickname “TriviaQueen.”
Maybe my true geeky passion is associating with other geeks — my Google Reader feed is chock full of geeky goodness from the aforementioned Wheaton to Boing Boing to Mental Floss to … well, trust me a good 80% is geeky in one way or another. I’m also married to a wonderfully geeky guy and we are likely to encourage each other’s geeky wishes — whether it’s the purchase of a new collectible toy or viewing a documentary about cosplay — so I’d say the whole geek generalist thing has worked out well for me.