Greetings.
I want to draw your attention to a very old problem that we've not yet been able to sweep from our society.
The problem is called geekism.
Many other isms - racism, sexism ageism - are thankfully in decline as people are finding their age-old prejudices challenged on a regular basis.
Unfortunately it is still socially permissible to discriminate against people on the basis that they play dungeons and dragons, are able to recite obscure Doctor Who plot points from memory and know how to do a Vulcan salute.
I'd hoped that we'd got over this sometime in the nineties with the cross over success of the X-Files and (more recently) Harry Potter and Heroes perhaps indicating to people that genre is not without merit, but it still seems to be a problem in some sectors. I've encountered at least two instances over the past week when the old jokes have been trotted out in the media - i.e. geeks have no girlfriends, geeks all live with their mothers etc.
Had this been any other minority then the broadcasters in question would have been castigated for their stereotyping - but not with anti-geekism.
Like any despised minority we have our meeting places - Gamestation and Forbidden Planet being two of the most important - but we don't yet have our own subculture.
We need geek newsletters that list geek clubs
We need more geek-friendly pubs and b&bs and, in larger cities, geek villages.
We need more prominent celebrities to out themselves on national TV admitting that they've been living a lie and are actually fans of Babylon 5 and Blakes 7.
We need geek pride weekends and geek pride marches in which we walk down the street, humming the imperial theme to Star Wars (You know - it goes DUM DUM DUM DUMDEE DUM DUMDEE DUM)
Women's rights and gay rights have come on so far in recent years but geek rights are, as yet, not recognised in this country.
So I say to you all: let us rise forth from our hidden places, take up our lightsabers and sonic screwdrivers and march on Number 10 in order to force Mr Brown to make Britain a geekier place!
Say it once, say it loud - I'M A GEEK AND I'M PROUD!!!
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Monday, 27 August 2007
Sinister pedicure...
I'd like to present you with the following tribute to the Daniel Day Lewis film 'My Left Foot'.
I feel that I have managed to convey the complex psychological pain of the film (being somewhat of a complex psychological pain myself).
I feel that I have managed to convey the complex psychological pain of the film (being somewhat of a complex psychological pain myself).
Friday, 24 August 2007
Summertime and the moaning is easy....
My bad move of the week has to be the purchase a new winter coat a couple of days before the summer heatwave finally appears. D'oh!
I've reached the conclusion that I can't do hot weather and furthermore I've never really seen the point of hot weather. I like brisk cold days or pleasant warm ones but the kind of days where you can't really do anything more than laze around...well that's not for me.
(Not because I'm in any way active - I can laze around in all climes and I don't need to wait until a socially acceptable climate asserts itself)
I'll admit that it's not been _that_ hot over the past couple of days but forecasters have prophesied a hot weekend I just want to tell the weather gods that its too little, too late and I'm no longer in that 'wanting hot weather' place anymore. Been there, done that, ate the burger and choreographed the musical.
Lets just put summer 2007 down to experience and crack on with autumn, shall we?
I've reached the conclusion that I can't do hot weather and furthermore I've never really seen the point of hot weather. I like brisk cold days or pleasant warm ones but the kind of days where you can't really do anything more than laze around...well that's not for me.
(Not because I'm in any way active - I can laze around in all climes and I don't need to wait until a socially acceptable climate asserts itself)
I'll admit that it's not been _that_ hot over the past couple of days but forecasters have prophesied a hot weekend I just want to tell the weather gods that its too little, too late and I'm no longer in that 'wanting hot weather' place anymore. Been there, done that, ate the burger and choreographed the musical.
Lets just put summer 2007 down to experience and crack on with autumn, shall we?
Monday, 20 August 2007
Haven't visited here for a while....
Greetings gentle reader,
As you may have noticed Blessedarethe geek has been off air for almost a month. It has been both a quiet and a busy month in many ways.
The truth is that tallulah has been indisposed and away from work for weeks now and I haven't really wanted to sneak off of an evening and pour my random brain drippings into this blog and leave her alone and bored out of her skull (she's spending enough of her time in that state at the moment, especially with daytime TV to contend with). As a result I've tried to spend less time with my Pentium enhanced colleague recently - whether it's harassing orcs or tip tapping my thoughts onto various websites - as it's been a long overdue opportunity for me to concentrate on spending some time with my honey. So, gentle reader, you'll have to lie back and think of England while I ease myself back into this blog thing gradually (and with a certain amount of tenderness).
Last weekend was spent north of the border both with the prospective in laws and my sister. It was lovely - both my family and Tallulah's are lovely - but on these occasions a deeply paranoid person like myself cannot escape the dread feeling that something is going to go wrong at any moment. One is constantly tense that either family is going to withdraw their support on the basis of "what so-and-so said about so-and-so" despite the fact that both my family and Tallulah's are pretty laid back. Everyone knows that inter-familial disputes can be far more heartfelt and bloody than anything going on in the middle east.
Oh, and (despite the venom of the previous post) I've actually read the latest Harry Potter. It's actually not too bad because there is a) hardly any mention of quidditch and b) hardly any terminally dull boarding school shenanigans. There is much less padding than the last three books and JK finally appears to have got some balls - gone are the smug school heroics and 'stunt' deaths and instead some major characters are killed off or maimed left, right and centre although (SPOILER ALERT) most of the really annoying ones survive. Still, kudos to ol'JK for providing a children's book with the highest body count since Enid Blyton's ill fated "The Famous Five and the Thermonuclear device".
As you may have noticed Blessedarethe geek has been off air for almost a month. It has been both a quiet and a busy month in many ways.
The truth is that tallulah has been indisposed and away from work for weeks now and I haven't really wanted to sneak off of an evening and pour my random brain drippings into this blog and leave her alone and bored out of her skull (she's spending enough of her time in that state at the moment, especially with daytime TV to contend with). As a result I've tried to spend less time with my Pentium enhanced colleague recently - whether it's harassing orcs or tip tapping my thoughts onto various websites - as it's been a long overdue opportunity for me to concentrate on spending some time with my honey. So, gentle reader, you'll have to lie back and think of England while I ease myself back into this blog thing gradually (and with a certain amount of tenderness).
Last weekend was spent north of the border both with the prospective in laws and my sister. It was lovely - both my family and Tallulah's are lovely - but on these occasions a deeply paranoid person like myself cannot escape the dread feeling that something is going to go wrong at any moment. One is constantly tense that either family is going to withdraw their support on the basis of "what so-and-so said about so-and-so" despite the fact that both my family and Tallulah's are pretty laid back. Everyone knows that inter-familial disputes can be far more heartfelt and bloody than anything going on in the middle east.
Oh, and (despite the venom of the previous post) I've actually read the latest Harry Potter. It's actually not too bad because there is a) hardly any mention of quidditch and b) hardly any terminally dull boarding school shenanigans. There is much less padding than the last three books and JK finally appears to have got some balls - gone are the smug school heroics and 'stunt' deaths and instead some major characters are killed off or maimed left, right and centre although (SPOILER ALERT) most of the really annoying ones survive. Still, kudos to ol'JK for providing a children's book with the highest body count since Enid Blyton's ill fated "The Famous Five and the Thermonuclear device".
Saturday, 21 July 2007
10 things I hate about Harry Potter....
Greetings gentle reader. I notice that bookshops and libraries up and down the country (at least, those not currently under six feet of water) are running 'Harry Potter' days to tie-in with the release of the latest Harry Potter volume. Never let it be said that the geek failed to join in - here is my own personal tribute to the bespectacled berk.
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT HARRY POTTER
1. There are different covers for adults and for children.
How much of a snob do you have to be to buy a children's book in an adult cover to keep up appearances? Are we so insecure about what our fellow human beings think of us that we think that being seen reading the version with the children's cover will make us look childish?
And does anyone actually believe that the adult covers are fooling anyone?
2. It's basically Billy Bunter with wands
Let's face it, Hogwarts is a public school and a public boarding school at that. You can argue that there appear to be no actual tuition fees but there does seem to be an elitist selection process. So only people with magic powers are allowed to attend eh? Sounds like one of those single faith schools that have been attracting a lot of criticism for failing their increasingly insular pupils.
Charms and potions are all very well but what about Mathematics and English? Are Hogwarts students REALLY prepared for the outside world?
I wouldn't mind this but it all must be far removed from the everyday experience of most of the readers. What I'd like to see is Hogwarts comprehensive where the teachers find the threat of Voldemort is vastly preferable to the threat of an unsympathetic OFSTED report. Hermione has a pregnancy scare and Ron and Harry take time out of their glue-sniffing habit to experiment with homosexuality behind the bikesheds.
3. It's all so middle class
A book with a major character called 'Hermione' cannot be anything other than resolutely middle class. Harry might well live in a cupboard, but it is a decent cupboard of a well-to-do family in the suburbs.
It's worth pointing out that a major mode of transport in the Potter novels is Floo powder which allows wizards to travel from fireplace to fireplace. Just try that on a housing estate and see how far it gets you.
4. There is no technology
An odd one this. I'm no Potter scholar but I can't remember if the Internet, I-pods or texting with mobile phones make much of an appearance in the Potter milieu. This is strange, because they are becoming increasingly important to children.
I wonder if this is because technology and the modern world is something Potter readers (and, more importantly, their parents) also find threatening. Presumably, for the Daily Mail readers, there is less chance of children being groomed over Owl mail...
Best to avoid the modern world then and submerge yourself in a vaguely-defined Enid-Blytonesque anytime in the hope that it all goes away.
5. Quidditch
JK Rowling obviously noted that some children like sport and so to sucker in any sport loving children (not traditionally big readers) she invented a sporting element called Quidditch.
As a well thought out piece of background detail it's fine - but there are pages and pages describing Quidditch matches and I try to skip them if at all possible.
There is a reason why sports fiction is a) not a big publishing concern and b) tends to focus on the behind-the-scenes element of sport. This is because to describe a sporting contest is deeply, deeply boring.
Witness my attempt to describe a Grand Prix:
"Michael drive around the track, he drove around the track again, he drove around the track again a bit faster".
'nuff said. Sports literature sucks -whether it's mounted on a broomstick or not.
6. People who read Harry Potter often despise people who enjoy fantasy and science fiction.
I read fantasy literature. I've always been annoyed by the people who sneer at it - and it's even worse if they sneer at it and then pick up a copy of Harry Potter.
Harry Potter IS a series of fantasy novels.
In reading Harry Potter YOU ARE reading a fantasy novel.
For those of you who are reading Harry Potter and who once sneered at the sad people who read Tolkein and were into Dungeons and Dragons - congratulations, you are now one of us!
7. All children's fantasy books are now sold as being 'like Harry Potter'.
Even the noit exclusively children's literature Tery Pratchett has two sets of covers for his books. Will any children's fantasy book ever be published without the boy wizard raising his head?
8. Harry Potter fans who say that the books are a completely original and different concept to anything else out there.
10. Too much padding.
Books one to three were decent enough books. Despite their failings they were, at least, short and snappy....
...and then 'Goblet of Fire' happened and the subsequent books have been somewhat of a chore. There is a lot to be said for brevity but Rowling seems to going more for a "never mind the quality, feel the width" with several hundred pages and only a couple of chapters worth of plot.
We don't care about the Quidditch world cup, Harry's teenage angst, his abortive teenage love affairs, or the changes he is going through which make him speak in CAPITALS. Please, please, please...just get on with the story.
As ever, all opinions expressed are my own. I'll still read the last book (to judge it without doing so would be prejudice) and I'll probably even enjoy it.
I just wish I knew what all the fuss is about.
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT HARRY POTTER
1. There are different covers for adults and for children.
How much of a snob do you have to be to buy a children's book in an adult cover to keep up appearances? Are we so insecure about what our fellow human beings think of us that we think that being seen reading the version with the children's cover will make us look childish?
And does anyone actually believe that the adult covers are fooling anyone?
2. It's basically Billy Bunter with wands
Let's face it, Hogwarts is a public school and a public boarding school at that. You can argue that there appear to be no actual tuition fees but there does seem to be an elitist selection process. So only people with magic powers are allowed to attend eh? Sounds like one of those single faith schools that have been attracting a lot of criticism for failing their increasingly insular pupils.
Charms and potions are all very well but what about Mathematics and English? Are Hogwarts students REALLY prepared for the outside world?
I wouldn't mind this but it all must be far removed from the everyday experience of most of the readers. What I'd like to see is Hogwarts comprehensive where the teachers find the threat of Voldemort is vastly preferable to the threat of an unsympathetic OFSTED report. Hermione has a pregnancy scare and Ron and Harry take time out of their glue-sniffing habit to experiment with homosexuality behind the bikesheds.
3. It's all so middle class
A book with a major character called 'Hermione' cannot be anything other than resolutely middle class. Harry might well live in a cupboard, but it is a decent cupboard of a well-to-do family in the suburbs.
It's worth pointing out that a major mode of transport in the Potter novels is Floo powder which allows wizards to travel from fireplace to fireplace. Just try that on a housing estate and see how far it gets you.
4. There is no technology
An odd one this. I'm no Potter scholar but I can't remember if the Internet, I-pods or texting with mobile phones make much of an appearance in the Potter milieu. This is strange, because they are becoming increasingly important to children.
I wonder if this is because technology and the modern world is something Potter readers (and, more importantly, their parents) also find threatening. Presumably, for the Daily Mail readers, there is less chance of children being groomed over Owl mail...
Best to avoid the modern world then and submerge yourself in a vaguely-defined Enid-Blytonesque anytime in the hope that it all goes away.
5. Quidditch
JK Rowling obviously noted that some children like sport and so to sucker in any sport loving children (not traditionally big readers) she invented a sporting element called Quidditch.
As a well thought out piece of background detail it's fine - but there are pages and pages describing Quidditch matches and I try to skip them if at all possible.
There is a reason why sports fiction is a) not a big publishing concern and b) tends to focus on the behind-the-scenes element of sport. This is because to describe a sporting contest is deeply, deeply boring.
Witness my attempt to describe a Grand Prix:
"Michael drive around the track, he drove around the track again, he drove around the track again a bit faster".
'nuff said. Sports literature sucks -whether it's mounted on a broomstick or not.
6. People who read Harry Potter often despise people who enjoy fantasy and science fiction.
I read fantasy literature. I've always been annoyed by the people who sneer at it - and it's even worse if they sneer at it and then pick up a copy of Harry Potter.
Harry Potter IS a series of fantasy novels.
In reading Harry Potter YOU ARE reading a fantasy novel.
For those of you who are reading Harry Potter and who once sneered at the sad people who read Tolkein and were into Dungeons and Dragons - congratulations, you are now one of us!
7. All children's fantasy books are now sold as being 'like Harry Potter'.
Even the noit exclusively children's literature Tery Pratchett has two sets of covers for his books. Will any children's fantasy book ever be published without the boy wizard raising his head?
8. Harry Potter fans who say that the books are a completely original and different concept to anything else out there.
Lets be honest here - there is are very few concepts in Harry Potter that haven't been done before. I'm not claiming JK Rowling stole any ideas, but merely that she's tapping into a milieu that children's authors and fantasy writers have been using for decades.
OK, lets run through a couple of examples. Harry Potter is a boy wizard with an owl who has the potential to be the greatest wizard ever (see Neil Gaiman's 'Books of Magic' - written years before Rowlings' series - about Tim Hunter, a boy wizard with an owl who has the potential to be the greatest wizard ever). Harry Attends a school of magic where he learns wizardry, flys around on a broomstick and has various run-ins with her teachers (see the 'Worst Witch' sequence of children's books - again written years beforehand - where a girl attends a school of witchcraft, flys around on broomstick and has various run-ins with her teachers). You can even find parallels between Tom Brown's schooldays and Harry Potter for god's sake.
I'll state once again that I'm in NO WAY suggesting Rowling has ripped off other authors - just that her books touch on ideas and themes that are very familiar to anyone who has ever read any children's or fantasy literature.
9. Harry Potter fans are always accusing other fantasy authors of ripping the series off.
This reached a nadir recently when I genuinely heard someone say that Lord of the Rings was obviously a Harry Potter rip-off. "I mean, look at the Nazgul - they are obviously a rip off of the dementors."
I've nothing but praise for what JK Rowling has achieved with her books, but to my knowledge she has yet to conquer the power of time travel and publish her books before 1937.
Terry Pratchett has also fallen foul of the criticism that he based his wizarding college Unseen University on Hogwarts and had to patiently explain that Unseen University appears in a book written 10 years before the Potter series (and is based on the Invisible College, which really existed and was much, much earlier).
10. Too much padding.
Books one to three were decent enough books. Despite their failings they were, at least, short and snappy....
...and then 'Goblet of Fire' happened and the subsequent books have been somewhat of a chore. There is a lot to be said for brevity but Rowling seems to going more for a "never mind the quality, feel the width" with several hundred pages and only a couple of chapters worth of plot.
We don't care about the Quidditch world cup, Harry's teenage angst, his abortive teenage love affairs, or the changes he is going through which make him speak in CAPITALS. Please, please, please...just get on with the story.
As ever, all opinions expressed are my own. I'll still read the last book (to judge it without doing so would be prejudice) and I'll probably even enjoy it.
I just wish I knew what all the fuss is about.
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Fevered brow...
Have been ill with the 'flu' for almost a week now. Normally the opportunity to sit and bed and read for hours on end would be very welcome. Unfortunately this has been coupled with an unfortunate tendency to produce snot.
Can anyone explain to me why I have been able to produce my own body weight in snot over the past four days? It has got to the stage where I have considered this to be some form of mutated birthing process and my snot to be my progeny and by blowing my nose into a tissue I launch my snot children into a cold and uncaring universe.
And yet however much snot I make I still seem to be able to make more. So far I've made both the clear 'original' variety and the new improved 'bilious green' flavour. I'm trying for black cherry or pomegranate any day now.
Anyhow, back to my sickbed
Can anyone explain to me why I have been able to produce my own body weight in snot over the past four days? It has got to the stage where I have considered this to be some form of mutated birthing process and my snot to be my progeny and by blowing my nose into a tissue I launch my snot children into a cold and uncaring universe.
And yet however much snot I make I still seem to be able to make more. So far I've made both the clear 'original' variety and the new improved 'bilious green' flavour. I'm trying for black cherry or pomegranate any day now.
Anyhow, back to my sickbed
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Whither Rodrigo?
It's now a couple of weeks later and my neck has stabilized sufficiently in order for me to contemplate slow moshing, should the situation require it. As it's Tallulah's father's 70th birthday at the weekend I'd say the chances of the situation requiring it are sufficiently remote.
Yes, I'm spending the weekend in Bonnie Scotland (as opposed to spending the weekend in Bonnie Langford which would require some form of anaesthetic - although I'm not sure on who's part).
Have spent the past few days calming down after the emotional turmoil of a Doctor Who finale that didn't live up to expectations. It wasn't bad - I loved some bits - but Martha's departure didn't have the emotional impact of the regeneration at the end of season one or the departure of Rose at the end of season two. Turning our hero into Dobby the house elf then having him rejuvenated simply by people chanting 'Doctor' seemed a bit...well...contrived.
Still not sure what's happening with Martha next season and the news about Catherine Tate is, well, unsettling (and I like her) but I can console myself with the thought that even at it's weakest Doctor Who is better than 99% of anything else on television right now.
(and how much am I looking forward to 'Heroes'?)
Have just returned from seeing Monkey: Journey to the West, a fantastic Chinese opera by the minds behind 'Gorillaz'. A truly original and stunning piece of work (where else can you see women dressed as shrimps?). The highpoint (for me) being something I'm informed is 'silk choreography' i.e. acrobatics performed by a women suspended between two pieces of silk hung from the ceiling.
Given that the ex-front man of Blur has raised the bar with this when can we expect a similar effort from the Gallaghers? I hope to see an Inuit Ballet by Noel any day soon.
Incidentally - I seem to have a comment on my last post from a man called Rodrigo who appears to be selling teeshirts. How odd?
Yes, I'm spending the weekend in Bonnie Scotland (as opposed to spending the weekend in Bonnie Langford which would require some form of anaesthetic - although I'm not sure on who's part).
Have spent the past few days calming down after the emotional turmoil of a Doctor Who finale that didn't live up to expectations. It wasn't bad - I loved some bits - but Martha's departure didn't have the emotional impact of the regeneration at the end of season one or the departure of Rose at the end of season two. Turning our hero into Dobby the house elf then having him rejuvenated simply by people chanting 'Doctor' seemed a bit...well...contrived.
Still not sure what's happening with Martha next season and the news about Catherine Tate is, well, unsettling (and I like her) but I can console myself with the thought that even at it's weakest Doctor Who is better than 99% of anything else on television right now.
(and how much am I looking forward to 'Heroes'?)
Have just returned from seeing Monkey: Journey to the West, a fantastic Chinese opera by the minds behind 'Gorillaz'. A truly original and stunning piece of work (where else can you see women dressed as shrimps?). The highpoint (for me) being something I'm informed is 'silk choreography' i.e. acrobatics performed by a women suspended between two pieces of silk hung from the ceiling.
Given that the ex-front man of Blur has raised the bar with this when can we expect a similar effort from the Gallaghers? I hope to see an Inuit Ballet by Noel any day soon.
Incidentally - I seem to have a comment on my last post from a man called Rodrigo who appears to be selling teeshirts. How odd?
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