Stuff Nerds Like #6: Science Fiction
First, an aside - things are doing well enough here where I can get into limited blogging duty, at least for now. Don’t be surprised if things are a little intermittent around here, though - much of this depends on what time I have left between helping out with the newborn and the ESO. Don’t count on much.
I wasn’t sure when or where to put this one. What I do know is that, thanks to the various nooks and crannies of nerd culture, we’re going to be taking a trip down Science Fiction lane a lot. For now, let’s just introduce the basics:
As we’ve touched on earlier, nerds like things that blow up and things that, well, blow up, if you get my drift. Most science fiction fulfills the former with aplomb - look up the Wikipedia page on the Death Star for confirmation. Sometimes, there’s even some eye candy, which does a reasonable enough job of satisfying the need for things that blow up. There is, however, one additional aspect in science fiction that ropes nerds in, an aspect that taps into their role playing side - the aspect of escapism.
Good science fiction is easy to escape into for nerds for a couple of reasons:
- Nerds are almost always the heroes. Even when they’re not the main hero, they at least serve very important roles as support, providing much needed savvy and knowledge to the hero when it’s needed most. Capt. Spock fits this mold perfectly.
- The science fiction universe, whatever that universe entails, is big - really, really big. This is perfect for a nerd, for each bit of that universe is another random esoteric bit of knowledge to sponge up and disgorge upon the unwitting masses at random, inopportune moments. These esoteric bits of knowledge can also be used to determine who is nerdier; the person with the most bits of knowledge, of course, wins.
So, in science fiction, nerds have an expansive universe in which their superior knowledge and ability to retain as much knowledge about that universe as possible would be a serious advantage - an advantage that, if one were to play their cards right, would lead to them getting the girl, even if she would turn out to be his sister or something. Of course, the reason this need for escapism exists is because the real universe is nowhere near as kind - more often than not, the hero is a mindless windbag who wouldn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground, but just so happens to have just enough charisma to convince everyone around him to cover for his ass and save the day for him, all while he gets the glory and the green chicks and…
In future features, we’ll dig into some of the particulars, such as some popular sci-fi franchises and conventions.
Stuff Nerds Like | David Colborne | 
July 14, 2008 11:25 pm
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