Roundtable on Geek Culture

Ellen Klages

When Steampunk shows up as a theme in a comic strip like Luann, you know geek culture has filtered down to the masses.

Stefan Dziemianowicz

Punk jumped the shark when the Clash asked for a million bucks to perform on Saturday Night Live. The shark jumped punk when Hilly Krystal threatened to move CBGBs to Las Vegas.

Guy Gavriel Kay

Paul is being sharp here. The point applies in many ways. I am guilty of joking that when single malt scotches became trendy, I needed to find another drink. The SF community has always had a very ambivalent attitude to being embraced by wider culture. I still remember initial hostility to the first Harry Potter book in the community (she was just doing what others had done, was the protest). I think Paul’s right: edgy culture needs an edge. Travellers to Thailand needed to find more and more remote beaches as their initial ‘finds’ became recorded in guidebooks and occupied by Muggles (and their hotels)…

Paul Graham Raven

Like all subcultural phenomena, “geek” has become a commodity, a marketing category, a target demographic…

*pulls pin from grenade*

… just like “YA”.

*runs away*

Guy Gavriel Kay

Paul, you understand that an arrow can reach you even outside the grenade blast radius?

Paul Graham Raven

Aye; I’ll take my chances. 😉

Cecelia Holland

Low tech wins again.