The Kind of Dweeb I'm Not
Mar. 27th, 2007 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlGod bless Forbidden Planet! Thanks to them I finally own a copy of the first Buffy Season 8 comic. I know Gayle will be excited because she has been dying to discuss it with me for the last week.
Initial response? It was too damn short! I paid three bucks and finished the entire thing in three minutes. The comic was barely the equivalent of the TV show's pre-credits teaser. Most disappointing in that respect. While I am kind of excited to see some old characters taking on new roles - Xander as Buffy's new Watcher, Amy as potential big bad - by the same token I don't know if I currently believe that Xander is competent enough to "watch" Buffy or run a huge segment of her now massive Slayer nation, or that Amy is evil enough to kill Buffy. And why the hell does she WANT to anyway? I'll be interested to see how they explain THAT change of heart. Unlike some other fans I wasn't surprised that the Slayer organization has gone global and could afford lots of crazy high tech equipment. I trust that will be explained. And I don't know how I feel about the military going after Buffy. Wasn't that story line exhausted in season 4? Why does the government even care about her? She runs a grassroots organization that stops evil. Where's the problem?
But, again, unlike others I refuse to fall into the "last season was better" whining that always accompanies the debut of a new season of Buffy. I don't understand why people who think the show sucked from season 4 on even bothered to continue watching it or, now, reading the comic. I found numerous plot, continuity, and character problems throughout the show's run but I continued to watch. Why? Because as the stories moved along I was usually able to reconcile the clashes. Not always, but most of the time. (I still think most of the Spike/Buffy romance was absurdly out of character for both of them.) Plus, no matter how weird it got, Buffy always made me happy. I was so invested in the characters that there was no way I could ever abandon them. Each week I had to know what was going on with them. They were like old friends and I could never hate them. People who do nothing but bad mouth the Buffyverse they love so much they hate it really need to step away from the franchise.
Now, on an almost completely unrelated note, last Saturday while Greg and I were waiting for Jamie Bamber there was a Stonybrook grad student going up and down the line asking if anyone would be willing to fill out a short questionnaire for his thesis project. Always happy to help, Greg and I both volunteered. But once we got past the cover page and the release form it became very apparent that we were not the demographic this guy was hoping to attract. With questions like "I feel compelled to continue my involvement in the sci-fi/fantasy community even though I want to quit" and "I feel inexplicably drawn to the sci-fi/fantasy community as if by fate" and "My involvement with the community takes precedence over all else" it sounded as if he was looking for the hardest of hardcore participants. We completed the questionnaire anyway, but it got me thinking about how I wound up at a sci-fi / fantasy convention in the first place and how much such activities and interests define who I am.
I have never considered myself a fan of sci-fi or fantasy. I've never been interested in LARPs or RPGs, renn faires or chain mail, corsets or comic books. The only anime series that has ever held my attention is Cowboy Bebop. The only genre literature that has given me any pleasure is the Hitchhiker's Series. I have recently come to accept that I am a gamer, though not the sort you find at conventions. I play the Sims, Neopets, and Powerpets regularly; I have no interest in console games, Second Life, or WoW. I generally don't play well with others so I prefer that gaming remain a solitary pursuit. That's one of the main things that keeps me out of the sci-fi/fantasy community: I'm not interested in community.
The only aspect that tethers me to the community is my love of sci-fi and fantasy related television and film. My love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Battlestar Galactica, not to mention The Matrix, Star Wars, and just about all comic book super hero movies. This leads many to assume I am a sci-fi/fantasy nerd; that those interests indicate interest in all other aspects of the community. What actually ties me to the community is the insistence of people who already belong to it that I am a member whether I admit it or not. This strikes me as bizarre, mainly because I've never considered any of the shows I love to be part of the genre. I didn't start watching Buffy because it was a fantasy show. I watched it because the characters and situations spoke to me. Same for the Matrix and BSG. That they fell into the realm of sci-fi/fantasy was beside the point.
Back in college, as I found myself growing friendlier with the gamers, *waves to the nice chaunk of her friends list that falls into this category* I started to think maybe I was a closet gamer/sci-fi/fantasy/renn faire type; that maybe my own stereotypical views of such people as being nerdy, undesirable, and socially awkward (a fully unfounded assumption considering that the gamers were probably the social group getting the most play out of the entire school) was preventing me from owning a central aspect of myself. So, I started asking questions. I asked Gemma about LARP character development, I asked about the tabletop games she hosted in our living room every now and then, I tried to understand what everyone was arguing about at the GIN table over dinner. I watched, I listened, and in the end discovered that it really wasn't my bag. Not at all.
I am not a sci-fi/fantasy dweeb. Trust me on this one. Despite my obsession with BSG and Buffy, my anticipation of the next Harry Potter film, and my Matrix action figures my official status in the community is "dabbler." There are aspects of fandom that I love, but not enough to stick a label on my forehead.
Initial response? It was too damn short! I paid three bucks and finished the entire thing in three minutes. The comic was barely the equivalent of the TV show's pre-credits teaser. Most disappointing in that respect. While I am kind of excited to see some old characters taking on new roles - Xander as Buffy's new Watcher, Amy as potential big bad - by the same token I don't know if I currently believe that Xander is competent enough to "watch" Buffy or run a huge segment of her now massive Slayer nation, or that Amy is evil enough to kill Buffy. And why the hell does she WANT to anyway? I'll be interested to see how they explain THAT change of heart. Unlike some other fans I wasn't surprised that the Slayer organization has gone global and could afford lots of crazy high tech equipment. I trust that will be explained. And I don't know how I feel about the military going after Buffy. Wasn't that story line exhausted in season 4? Why does the government even care about her? She runs a grassroots organization that stops evil. Where's the problem?
But, again, unlike others I refuse to fall into the "last season was better" whining that always accompanies the debut of a new season of Buffy. I don't understand why people who think the show sucked from season 4 on even bothered to continue watching it or, now, reading the comic. I found numerous plot, continuity, and character problems throughout the show's run but I continued to watch. Why? Because as the stories moved along I was usually able to reconcile the clashes. Not always, but most of the time. (I still think most of the Spike/Buffy romance was absurdly out of character for both of them.) Plus, no matter how weird it got, Buffy always made me happy. I was so invested in the characters that there was no way I could ever abandon them. Each week I had to know what was going on with them. They were like old friends and I could never hate them. People who do nothing but bad mouth the Buffyverse they love so much they hate it really need to step away from the franchise.
Now, on an almost completely unrelated note, last Saturday while Greg and I were waiting for Jamie Bamber there was a Stonybrook grad student going up and down the line asking if anyone would be willing to fill out a short questionnaire for his thesis project. Always happy to help, Greg and I both volunteered. But once we got past the cover page and the release form it became very apparent that we were not the demographic this guy was hoping to attract. With questions like "I feel compelled to continue my involvement in the sci-fi/fantasy community even though I want to quit" and "I feel inexplicably drawn to the sci-fi/fantasy community as if by fate" and "My involvement with the community takes precedence over all else" it sounded as if he was looking for the hardest of hardcore participants. We completed the questionnaire anyway, but it got me thinking about how I wound up at a sci-fi / fantasy convention in the first place and how much such activities and interests define who I am.
I have never considered myself a fan of sci-fi or fantasy. I've never been interested in LARPs or RPGs, renn faires or chain mail, corsets or comic books. The only anime series that has ever held my attention is Cowboy Bebop. The only genre literature that has given me any pleasure is the Hitchhiker's Series. I have recently come to accept that I am a gamer, though not the sort you find at conventions. I play the Sims, Neopets, and Powerpets regularly; I have no interest in console games, Second Life, or WoW. I generally don't play well with others so I prefer that gaming remain a solitary pursuit. That's one of the main things that keeps me out of the sci-fi/fantasy community: I'm not interested in community.
The only aspect that tethers me to the community is my love of sci-fi and fantasy related television and film. My love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Battlestar Galactica, not to mention The Matrix, Star Wars, and just about all comic book super hero movies. This leads many to assume I am a sci-fi/fantasy nerd; that those interests indicate interest in all other aspects of the community. What actually ties me to the community is the insistence of people who already belong to it that I am a member whether I admit it or not. This strikes me as bizarre, mainly because I've never considered any of the shows I love to be part of the genre. I didn't start watching Buffy because it was a fantasy show. I watched it because the characters and situations spoke to me. Same for the Matrix and BSG. That they fell into the realm of sci-fi/fantasy was beside the point.
Back in college, as I found myself growing friendlier with the gamers, *waves to the nice chaunk of her friends list that falls into this category* I started to think maybe I was a closet gamer/sci-fi/fantasy/renn faire type; that maybe my own stereotypical views of such people as being nerdy, undesirable, and socially awkward (a fully unfounded assumption considering that the gamers were probably the social group getting the most play out of the entire school) was preventing me from owning a central aspect of myself. So, I started asking questions. I asked Gemma about LARP character development, I asked about the tabletop games she hosted in our living room every now and then, I tried to understand what everyone was arguing about at the GIN table over dinner. I watched, I listened, and in the end discovered that it really wasn't my bag. Not at all.
I am not a sci-fi/fantasy dweeb. Trust me on this one. Despite my obsession with BSG and Buffy, my anticipation of the next Harry Potter film, and my Matrix action figures my official status in the community is "dabbler." There are aspects of fandom that I love, but not enough to stick a label on my forehead.
