The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
The recession went unnoticed at NYC Comic Con this weekend as thousands of horny, pimple-faced adolescents swarmed the Jacob Javits Center floor. They bought up what seemed like millions of comic books, action figures, collectibles and high-priced original comic art. I was curious so I sneaked past security and found comic nerd-vana. Boys of all ages were swapping X-men comics for Japanese Anime and googling pretty girls dressed like Superwoman, Lara Croft and Aeon Flux. It was a feast for the freaks!
Outside I found Chewbacca, Stormtroopers, Spock and the Joker posing on 9th ave for photo-ops with The Village Voice.
I love sci-fi just as much as the next person but I can't help recalling the S&N 1986 "Get A Life!" skit with William Shatner. Some of these misdirected geeks look like they haven't seen daylight in months. Others are obviously here to poke fun, me being one of them.
posted by Sonja Stark of PilotGirl™ @ 8:50 AM
3 Comments:
For every interest there is a following. I love knowing that there are other geeky groupies out there. It makes my obsessions with things like, oh, say, Che Guevara, seem a little less abnormal.
You know....I really used to like comic books....when I was 7, maybe 8.....but how anyone past that age (or 9 or 10 at the oldest) can be interested in them baffles me
On the other hand, I also don't understand how people can role play with avatars online or play video games at all in fact when there's so much else - real! - to do in this world!
Color me a three-dimensional, real, palpable, nitty-gritty, get-out-there-and-live person. It's better than living in comic-land, folks! Word!
I truly sometimes worry that Idiocracy' (the film) is not fiction but an actual portrait of our future reality in this country.
I sure hope I'm wrong.
I've been trying to decide if my comment on comic book fans is fair, but have decided it is and here's why:
* We have become a nation which buys and consumes instead of building and growing.
* We have become a nation which throws away then buys new junk instead of buying quality to begin with then repairing if necessary.
* We have become a nation which focuses on the virtual - comic books, role-playing avatars in 'Second Life', scores in video games - instead of the tangible - repairs to our streets, bridges, houses, schools, personal health, and getting educations which are actually useful.
* We have become a nation obsessed with tv shows. Many people know more about 'American Idol' than about the causes of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
A comic book world is a fantasy world, one without substance, not the very real world in collapse we urgently need to deal with right now.
Sure, comic books are 'just a hobby' but focusing on them at the moment is the equivalent of fiddling while Rome burns, 'Rome' in this case the world's economy, health, and environment.
We need to build, not to read and trade comic books.
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