Hello all.
A little while back I heard a fellow of prominently public position speak of a film and its director, saying something along the lines that the director was a self-proclaimed "geek", which the fellow took to mean "prone to making immature decisions."
What do you all reckon?
Is there some truth to this?
14 comments:
That is a new definition to me.
That's certainly not geek to me.
I'm not certain what the official definition of geek is, but folks I know use it in a gently self-depreciating way when they get carried away talking about a passionate interest in some obscure topic that most folks aren't interested in or at least don't know much about.
I don't see how 'geek' has anything to do with someone's decision making. I thought that it generally refers to someone being skilled or knowledgeable in a select area.
It used to mean a person who bites the head off of live chickens at a carnival.
Everyone is prone to making immature decisions, and nearly everyone is slightly geekish about something or other, but I don't precisely see how the two things mesh...
...and, Sam Hranac, that is amazingly strange, true or not, and I will never see the word the same way again.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geek
Geek, in my circle, is semi-synonymous with nerd, and over all means an intelligent person who likes things that are considered geeky or nerdy. Examples: DnD nerd, anime geek, math geek, etc.
I suppose there are many people who view geeks and nerds as only immature individuals, in which case, I could see why they would think a self-proclaimed geek equals immature. However, it sounds to me that the prominent figure you mentioned is mistaken and making assumptions rather than his definition being a legitimate one.
'Geeking out' is to do something social inappropriate (like I did when I saw Matthew Reilly's Han Solo in carbonite replica on Collector's last night) so you could 'Geek out' and make a social inappropriate decision. As for immature, would buying a Back to the Future Delorian be seen as immature...well let me be as geeky as Matthew Reilly.
Geeks Rule
In my world geeks are not synonymous with immature decisions.
They are however a great source of information in their specialty subject and often add illumination to non-specialty subjects as a bonus!
The word originates as roughly meaning "freak" as in a circus sideshow, though the head biting act was one of many geeks to be found.
However, it has really evolved into a whole new meaning as many have listed above. Wikipedia has a nice article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek
This reminded me of a quote from Walt Disney, describing his decision to move to Hollywood after going broke.
"An older person might have had too much 'common sense' to do it. Sometimes I wonder if 'common sense' isn't another way of saying 'fear.' And 'fear' too often spells failure."
While this doesn't speak to the term "geek," I think it does shed light on the attitude toward making "immature decisions." Disney's choice to move to Hollywood may not have made sense. But that nonsensical decision spawned a huge media company. So even though some people may disagree, I would argue that immaturity isn't always a bad thing.
After an absence of half a year or so, I returned to Factotum this evening. But having read it twice already in quick succession last year, this time I decided to skip around and read as I pleased. Although there are many wonderful places in that story, my favorite is definitely the home of the Lapinduce. To some folks the idea of idling in and wandering about a decaying courtyard, listening to a self-indulgent monster lord playing the spinet would seem the depth of dullness - but I could imagine myself spending a long, long time there and being quite content. As odd as it may seem, I think that I might well be more content there than even at the home of Mama Lieger or the Court of the Sparrow Duke (does this make me a geek or sorts?).
Perhaps what put me in the mind of MBT this evening is that this afternoon, after work, I took a walk through our local, fairly large park and saw the devastation that had been wrecked by a fierce wind earlier in the day. A vast majority of the trees remain, but the ones felled definitely gave the park a more threwdish air. And another thing, from one spot I was able to count more than twenty squirrels - probably more, but I couldn't be certain of my count because they hopped around too much. If we have a monster lord of our local park, it must be "The Sciurusduce."
The modern appropriate geek generally means someone with a fine specific and detailed interest in a particular topic, who may or may not be socially aware and interactive. eg, I geek out over this, this is one of my fandoms, ok?
The archaic is a bit harsher - a person who bites the heads off chickens for the amusement of drunkards and fools. Someone performing a role as a grotesquely-behaved person at a rural carnival.
I'm glad that times have changed. I'm also glad I don't have to talk about nerds.
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