“Trend story: the mainstreaming of geek culture”
BY: Brian Bigelow
TEXT AS PUBLISHED:
Geeks are staging a coup on Hollywood, and people are getting rich in the process.
Geek culture is invading the mainstream as the potential for large-scale profit from comic book properties and traditional geek interests grows ever more apparent.
“Geek. Nerd. Dork … These are terms used for people who have interests that are outside of popular culture,” said Johnny Yu, in his paper, “Looking Inside Out: A Sociology of Knowledge and Ignorance of Geekness.”
However, a group of self-described “geeks” at APSU say that particular definition of “geek” is somewhat outdated and broader than the currently accepted, functional definition of the word.
“Geek” no longer holds power as a general-purpose slur; it has been transformed by self-identification into a term that can be embraced with some level of pride.
Geeks are people who are extremely enthusiastic about a particular interest or set of interests, said Aaron Tiffner, a self-described geek and student at APSU.
The term “geek,” then, can apply to many individuals and many interests – anyone who is “inexplicably obsessed” with any particular thing, said Tiffner. There are “band geeks,” “theater geeks,” “anime geeks,” “comic book geeks,” “computer geeks” – the list is near inexhaustible.
The term “nerd,” Tiffner said, represents a subset of the broader category of “geek” – one whose interests are largely academic.
“Each phylum of geekdom has different tiers,” says Tiffner, referring to the scientific method of classification used to group organisms in an analogy for the complex interrelations and affiliations that unite and distinguish the various types of geeks.
But if a geek can like anything, what is geek culture?
The definition of “geeky” interests, and by extension that of “geek culture” is less inclusive than the identity of “geek,” and harkens back to Yu’s definition as “interests that are outside of popular culture” or “things that the dominant group does not approve of.”
As geek interests increasingly invade popular culture and as geek interests expand to encompass cultural imports, the second part of the definition gains greater importance – whether the disapproval be tacit or explicit, informed or ignorant.
“America is fairly backwards as far as comic book reading is concerned,” said Byron Troy, the customer service manager for Mile High Comics – the “largest comics dealer” in America, according to their Web site www.milehighcomics.com.
“Comic books have been stigmatized since their introduction in the mid-1930s,” said Paul Lopes in his paper, “Culture and Stigma: Popular Culture and the Case of Comic Books.”
“I even experienced this stigma … from colleagues when I chose to study comic books. The most interesting aspect of the stigma was how the stigmatization of comic books as subliterate and a children’s medium prevented this art form from evolving into more adult genres … [which] is how comic books evolved in Europe and Japan,” said Lopes.
The erosion of stigma is centrally related to the success of films based on comics, as well as their impact on popular culture and its relation to geek culture. Box-office receipts may be more a cause than an effect of the lessening of this stigma.
Not all comic books and geek-inspired movies have been blockbuster successes – some have been downright failures – but a few have managed to break box-office sales records and win awards.
According to Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com) the newest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” set the record for the highest opening-weekend gross, bringing in over $150 million domestically. “Spider-Man 2” set a Fourth of July weekend record in 2004, opening to over $88 million.
“The Dark Knight” also places in all-time worldwide sales with over $1 billion in revenue.
And let’s not forget the third installment of the movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s sword and sorcery masterpiece “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” won the Academy Award for Best Picture and that Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Largely as a result of the cross-demographic success of movies like these, the line separating geek culture is beginning to blur, and, to a limited extent, so is the line between the geeks and everyone else.
Since the introduction of the blockbuster superhero movies, “more and more people come into the store that never would have years ago,” said David Saindon, general manager at Mile High Comics’ Lakewood store in Colorado.
Likewise, the effect extends to the individual geek level. Tiffner says these movies have helped him to “talk to people about comics who never read comics before,” a sentiment echoed by John McFarland, a history education major and fellow geek at APSU.
McFarland has shared several geek movies with his family – specifically “Iron Man,” “The Dark Knight” and the recent reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise – whose broad appeal served not only as an opening to talk about his interests, but, also, as an “opening to talk about being a geek.”
Comic book adaptations are the new golden geese for movie studios – Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Lions Gate and New Line Cinema have all released movies based on comic books over the past decade.
Disney recently announced a deal to purchase Marvel Comics for a reported $4 billion.
Marvel owns over 5,000 characters, according to its Web site – some of which are almost universally recognizable like Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Captain America.
“These are characters people grew up with. They were part of people’s lives to begin with,” Saindon said, adding comics can serve as ready-made storyboards and provide a sense of what a finished film might look like.
Add to that the decades of existing storylines and a ravenous fan base, and you have a recipe for myriad movie franchises and sequels.
You may have even watched a comic book movie without realizing it. “The Road to Perdition,” starring Tom Hanks and “A History of Violence” starring Viggo Mortensen didn’t feature any superheroes, but both were based on graphic novels of the same names.
Marjane Satrapi’s comic book “Persepolis” advanced the perceived potential of comic books – and their adaptations – as not only commercially viable but artistically valid as well. The cartoon adaptation of her autobiographical comic book, “Persepolis,” – which detailed her childhood in Iran during the late 1970s and 1980s – won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Because of these and similar movies, a degree of cultural common ground is being established. It is now possible to talk about geek interests with a non-geek audience – to an extent – and have it still be socially acceptable, McFarland said. But, a new conflict of social taxonomy has also arisen, says Tiffner, over “who is really a geek” and who just happens to “like what geeks like.”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN: The All State