As a follow-on to his latest post regarding science fiction, Glenn Reynolds links to this Stephenson commentary on the Star Wars movies and what it says about American society.
Ann Althouse responds while guestblogging at Glenn's MSNBC digs.
I'm curious what the SF fans on my f-list (which is most of you; even the anime fans like their SF) think of what Stephenson and Althouse have to say. Has there always been a healthy chunk of American neobarbarism that doesn't care how things work as long as the movies are funny/flashy and the microwave popcorn is sufficiently buttery? Does fandom include a larger proportion of pro-technology geeks and nerds than the population at large, or are we just patting ourselves on the back?
Ann Althouse responds while guestblogging at Glenn's MSNBC digs.
I'm curious what the SF fans on my f-list (which is most of you; even the anime fans like their SF) think of what Stephenson and Althouse have to say. Has there always been a healthy chunk of American neobarbarism that doesn't care how things work as long as the movies are funny/flashy and the microwave popcorn is sufficiently buttery? Does fandom include a larger proportion of pro-technology geeks and nerds than the population at large, or are we just patting ourselves on the back?
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Weird that an article about Star Wars of all things by an author I have a great deal of respect for would take such an unexpected left turn and so narrowly define what goes into being a geek. And also discludes those who analyze media in terms of text and story. What about literature geeks?
Anyway, more on that later, and like I say I think I'm missing some of the finer points, but it was just a hasty read-through.
Yeah. Who the hell is he to define who's a geek and who ain't? I know exactly what you mean about not being able to do the math stuff but still getting all geeky over the literature. In my case I used to be pretty fired up over the space program and cool technological shit, and still am up to a point, but I don't see it as the main attraction in SF any more.
I think it's also a serious mistake (and one unfortunately prevalent in many parts of fandom) to assume that people who don't share your interests are stupid.
It's a restatement of the socioeconomic thesis he built the world of Snow Crash on...I thought it was B as in B, S as in S then, and haven't changed my opinion since.