Growing Up Geeky

When I went to high school, I guess I was one of the geeks. Though I wouldn't have classified myself with them. They were weird. I went to the other side of the library so I wouldn't have to socialize with them. Though every now and then I'd have to cross over to their side of the library to check out the books over there and they'd talk to me. “Have you read Little Fuzzy?” One of them asked me. No I hadn't, I thought the cute little animals on the cover looked silly.

And then I went off to college and met more odd people and they introduced me to other things. Things they liked. Like role playing games, comic books, computer stuff, Dr. Who. I will tell you right now the first last and only computer game I've been good at was Pong. (I could win money at that one.) So I guess I was dragged into geekdom, though perhaps I had latent tendencies.

College work in science and math kept me in contact with some people with geeky ideas. There wasn't a better group to bounce ideas off of. They were quite will to accept some odd assumptions then follow then to their logical conclusions, no matter how bizarre. These people are like the characters on “The Big Bang Theory”. Now there are those that don't like the show, because they stereotype people. But frankly, I've known people (still do) that are like the people on that show. Oh, now most of then aren't that extreme, but if you take the people I have known (and still do) and put them on a spectrum. The characters on that show are just much further out on the spectrum. And what shows don't exaggerate their characters for humor.

So I was well positioned to appreciate getting the chance to see Tom Misuraca's (who wrote several winners in TCT's Playwrights Festival and the show Tenants performed at the BeeKay) Geeks: The Musical in San Diego recently. It's a love story, if you can believe that, set in of all places Comic Con in San Diego. It was filled with geeky references to comic books, science fiction movies, Dr. Who, TV shows, and who knows what else. Having grown up “geeky” I think I probably caught 80% of the references made, but I'm also certain there were little quips that I never caught.

Well as we were going in, we ran into a vice president of Comic Con coming out. Nice guy, though he was dressed more like a biker than a geek. And he had enjoyed the show. And he probably has more experience with geeks than just about anyone. So I suspect he recognized every character in the play. The prototypes that make up the collection of people called geeks.

And geekiness is getting to be more accepted. Geek culture is in. People may not read the comic books, but everyone knows Spiderman, The Avengers, and so on and so forth. So when you think someone's a bit geeky and you don't know if you should hang out with them. You should. They're the future of culture.

Besides, years later when I finally broke down and read the book, Little Fuzzy, it was actually very good.