Comments on: It’s the culture, stupid!

By: Jordan

Jordan — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 05:45:17 +0000

happiness with her future good lookinâ€™, shallow, cheating, ex-husband.

I’m not quick enough to come up with this sort of thing on the spot. I think I did manage to say something like “you know, you might have to settle for someone who doesn’t have all the same interests as you.”

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 02:22:08 +0000

Jason, you come up with such fun questions. There’s no way I could respond in these comments, so I posted a new entry here.

http://tsuibhne.net/2008/04/04/questions-answered/

By: Jason T

Jason T — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:00:28 +0000

Thanks for the well-thought-out reply, Matt! I started writing a big post in response, which was mostly in agreement. Part way through, though, I realized I had some questions that were kind of leaving me stuck. So I figure I’ll just ask directly:

1. If I read this correctly, the implication here is that geek culture can also represent a viable alternative as long as we don’t embarrass ourselves by trying to look too desperate for mainstream approval. Would this make geek culture part of the overarching group of “underground cultures”? If not, what sets it apart?

2. You write that if geek culture can orient itself such that it represents another viable alternative to mainstream culture, “we will be in a better situation to achieve the goals that Jason outlines in his post.” So, just to consider some hypothetical examples…

a) What might we consider the road to this? Should we reject media producers’ marketing efforts like the “graphic novel”? Or is this just a matter of being aware of how we think about these sorts of things?

b) What’s the practical upshot? In other words, how does whatever gets suggested in response to (a) above translate into being in “a better position”?

This is super interesting. Thanks for blogging.

By: ChurchHatesTucker

ChurchHatesTucker — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:31:20 +0000

“Last night at dinner, one of my friends started spouting about how she would never date anyone who played video games (sort of rude, given that her comments were inspired by the fact that at the time our dinner host and I were sitting beside her playing SSBB). ”

Sort of rude? Jeebus. She must be pretty good looking to be that tactless. I probably would have pointed that out and wished her happiness with her future good lookin’, shallow, cheating, ex-husband.

But I can be tactless that way.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:50:24 +0000

See, that’s a good example. Which would be the better way to handle something like that? Go on and on trying to prove the validity of video games when she’s apparently already made up her mind? Or ignore her comment and continue to have fun playing the game?

Now, if she had said that she didn’t understand why people played video games and seemed interested in learning why, then that would have been a perfect chance to try and persuade her or at least offer an explanation behind your own personal tastes.

That’s the fine line though. Ignore those people who don’t want anything to do with us anyways and believe that we are in the wrong for who and what we are. At the same time though, remain open to the possibility of educating people about who and what we are when the chance arises.

And now that I have more successfully explained my point in a handful of sentences then I did in this monster post, I think I’m done for the evening.

Where the hell were you when I was writing this Jordan? You could have saved all of us a lot of time. :)

By: Jordan

Jordan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:34:12 +0000

Last night at dinner, one of my friends started spouting about how she would never date anyone who played video games (sort of rude, given that her comments were inspired by the fact that at the time our dinner host and I were sitting beside her playing SSBB). There was a little bit of “I guess Wii bowling is OK”, but for the most part it was a (pointless) condemnation. It’s comments like these that remind me how little I care about sitting at the cool table. Like you say, “You are welcome to join us. Otherwise, leave us alone.”