sorcyress | (no subject)

So, for teacherclass, we just watched "A Private Universe" which is basically being all "Oh hey, people don't know simple scientific facts like why there are seasons".

This led me to wonder about what other basic knowledge there is that people don't necessarily have. Certainly, it ties in with my basic pop culture thing --while I myself am *woefully* uneducated, there are still things that I will find jawdroppingly shocking if you admit you're not familiar with them. (Like what do you mean someone born, in America, fifteen years after it came out has never read Where the Wild Things Are. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN!?)

I try very hard to not have any resounding pop culture biases, but I recognize that there is a list in the back of my mind of things I expect people in my circles to be familiar with. If not Flying Circus, every geek ever should probably have seen Holy Grail --even if you hate it, you now get roughly 1200% more references.

Or more importantly, The Princess Bride. I mean, I know I'm biased, what having acted in it, but how do you survive as a geek in this country without having seen The Princess Bride? Hell, while it's an amazing read, I don't even demand you read it, just...not having seen it? Dear lords.

Those are all part of the geek set, and I just more or less expect people to know them. Hell, I quoted "Why are you smiling" "Because I know something you do not know --I am not left handed!" last night, and will probably quote something else in the next twenty four hours, just because that's how I roll.

Additionally, I have a personal set of things that I think everyone ought to experience. I don't necessarily expect my friends to have seen Dr. Horrible or The Middleman, but dear lord, admit those gaps in your experience and I will do the best I can to help you fill them. Or holy hell lords, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I don't demand anything past the first book, but seriously, if you *haven't* read at least that one? I...I'm afraid I can never look at you in the same way again.¹

((Of course, I lose out on several people's personal sets for not ever being able to get through the second Lord of the Rings book. I'm sorry, I just...can't. I wish I could, but it's really not happening.))

SOYES! What are the overarching things that all geeks need to experience? What are the personal things, that you believe all people in your friends group need to experience?

Oh and bytheway? Before you leave a comment? Take twelve minutes out of your life in order to watch How To Kill A Mockingbird. Yes, yes it is worth it. It is basically what "To Kill a Mockingbird" would have been if Harper Lee had been aware of tvtropes.org's "Rule of Awesome"

~Sor
MOOP!

1: This is totally why Chris and I wouldn't have ever worked out in the long run. He dating KT for a couple years just saved us the inevitable argument and subsequent heartbreak.

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I think it's less that they are things that I think I (or others) need to see to be a geek, and more a list of things that are often enjoyed by geeky folks, and being that I often enjoy geeky things, I will probably enjoy them too. Or whatever.

As for my footnote, I was speaking *entirely* in jest. My relationship with Chris would've failed regardless. His reading Hitchhikers or not has no impact, nor does the book have any actual impact on any of my other relationships.

I do read chick lit on occasion. The most recently read books I can remember are Twilight, which is just about the *definition* of chicklit, Temeraire/His Magesty's Dragon, which is the most hard fantasy book I've read in an age, and Transmetropolitan 0, which is a depressing, cynical...it should be a comic book, but I see 0 as almost more an illustrated series of essays. I'm currently working on "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman" which is an autobiographical collection of stories about Richard P. Feynman, one of the most fabulous people ever to actually walk the Earth, after Joshua A Norton.

The closest thing I have to a box is my predilection for young adult fiction. It's like grown-up fiction except it can't rely on sex and gratuitous violence to sell the story. Larklight, Slave Day, Boy Meets Boy, I am the Messenger, the Clue books...all young adult, all excellent, and come from three different distinct genres --Larklight is steampunk/fantasy/sci-fi, the Clue series is mysteryish, and the other three are high school stories. Boy Meets Boy would quite plausibly pass for chicklit --it's a romance story (and I will defend like mad the fact that it is the best romance I've ever read), and that's not even taking in the whole "girls love gay boys" thing or something.

~Sor

Jesus Lord, Twilight is not chick lit. Twilight is YA fantasy thing. Some chick lit writers actually know what they're doing, and produce actual quality writing. But as usual, the worst ones are the loudest so the genre gets a bad reputation.

Also I've read Boy Meets Boy. All I remember about it is that I was somewhere between neutral and dislike.

Anyway. If you ask only for "geeky" stuff (and I really don't think it's healthy to be using these labels after high school), then how will you ever find out if there's other stuff out there that you might enjoy?

What do you recommend, then? Beyond Austen, who I know I need to read, and will probably never actually get around to.

I am incredibly amused by your saying you don't think it's healthy to use the label after high school. I'm a geek. I know a lot of geeks, I date geeks, my mom's a geek, I will be a geek my entire life.

In my personal lexicon, a geek is someone who has interests outside the mainstream culture. A nerd is someone who excels in school and enjoys traditional academics, and a dork is someone who is some degree of socially inept. There's a lot of overlap, I myself have bits of all three in me, but I'm primarily geeky.

I suppose I was asking for a list of pop culture with heavy geek bias, but then again, I'd say a good percentage of my friends list self identifies as geek. For what it's worth, only the first part of my question --what do you think all geeks ought to see-- specifically asks for geeky stuff. The second half, What are the personal things, that you believe all people in your friends group need to experience? doesn't mention geek at all, and I've had a handful of suggestions that aren't geek at all --check out kittikattie's reccomendation of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" or NCarraway's suggestion of The Beatles.

If the majority of the things you recommend to people, or think that everyone ought to experience aren't geek, more power to you. I'm still interested in knowing what you consider to be classic pop culture knowledge, that all folk should have, if, indeed, you have such things.

~Sor

Jane Austen =/= chick lit

I... don't think I'd consider Jane Austen to be chick lit. Sophie Kinsella is kind of awesome. I used to refer to her as guilty pleasure reading, but then I realized I legitimately liked her. She has consistent, realistic characters, she doesn't make any flaming Bad Writer mistakes common to the rest of the genre, like coming to a halt to describe someone's appearance. And she's bloody amazing at first person narrative. And she's just fun.

The thing about those labels is that you're forgetting that you're a person, with interests that (hopefully) vary across the spectrum of what might be mainstream or academic. I like sci-fi, but I also like chick lit and nonfiction. Sometimes I wear grungy comfy clothes, sometimes I wear spikes and chains, sometimes I wear classy coordinated outfits, but I always like the way I look. I have some characteristics that society would call "manly," and some that people would consider "girly." What does that make me? Does that make me an androgynous Gothgeek with a preppy twist? Or can I just be a person? Why define yourself by wrapping your broad scope of interests into a tiny little box? Moreover, why use a tiny little box that came from the opinions of the masses? The main point of labels in high school is to try to feel like you're a part of something bigger because you haven't grown into your own identity yet. But once people have grown up a bit, it tends to be like those lesbians who pretty much do nothing with their lives except Be Lesbonic. You're more than your sexuality or the movies you watch.

Besides which, it's pretty much impossible to have interests "outide the mainstream culture." There are different streams, lots of them, most of them resorting to that label thing again. If tons of people didn't like something, how would you find out about it?

There are a few things I recommend to everyone ever. The book Jane Eyre, Richard Brautigan's poems, Isaac Asimov's robot stories, Seinfeld, the book I Know This Much Is True, the book Next of Kin, Sopor Aeternus and the Ensemble of Shadows, Assassins, the movie Mean Girls, the movie Heathers, the movie Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Charlie Chaplin, Disney movies... this is getting to be rather long. Anyway, you get the idea.