Heading back to college in a day. Have been in a little rush and denial. Trying to eat all I can, while sending mass e-mails to college advisors begging for spots in over-filled classes. As a post, I’m gonna give you guys a pudding cup of my opinion on the Patton Oswalt article that surfaced in Wired magazine a week ago.

It’s got a number of geeks and nerds upset, because it announces that our current track will lead to a apocalypse of nerd culture. This is, according to Oswalt, because, in order to manufacture anything new, we must first destroy the existing plethora of internet lists, you tube autotune mashup alternate endings, co-creator spinoffs, and (the root of a juicy mine field of evil) the Star Wars prequels.  You see, the internet has made everything accessible. In the time of Oswalt’s geek formation, inaccessibility was a key note in what defined geekery (along with the more popular anti-social behavior, chess club behavior, and so on). This has lead to the ultimate flaw of the net: making geek life accessible to every one.  According to the article, this must be destroyed, because it leads to a senseless cycle of spin offs and remakes that have no originality.

Here’s my take. At one end of the spectrum you have the creation of the original geek culture. Any younger geek will bow down to this. A man who was around during the original release of Star Wars is ultimately more powerful than the child who memorizes the stats of his Pokemon deck. But, does that make either any less of a geek? No. But, let’s look at the largest dividing factor between new geeks and the old: the net.

This single thing has changed the spread of culture. Patton’s complaint is that it has done it for the worse. In his geek culture, rare gems of unreleased Alf swearing on the set footage would go around being copied from a coffee stained VHS tape. Now, that same VHS is digitally copied onto youtube, available to everyone. Is the secret mystical path of culture really what sustains the life of a geek? As one who finds himself falling under the title more and more, i think not. The following are my beliefs of what is ignored in Oswalt’s census of the nerd population:

1. Where in the hell do you categorize 4chan? Are they geeks or something more? Arguably, they’re the illuminati of the internet, but because they popularize memes and other media for the net, they’re the source of Oswalt’s complaints. This statement alone could take pages to resolve.

2. Original material: The graphic novel has come back into sway. Lots of people are making them, and the bookstores are selling new, but mostly old reprints, master hardback with the shiny cover “making of”s, and other editions of old classics. Watchmen is all over the place, most notably. With the comic library being represented thus, where is the original content ending up?

At cons and the net. These creators are local and personal. They are not like the old creators who you heard of mystically. No one can smash the magic around the name “Alan Moore.” Even if you could somehow shave off that beard, and explain his genius, the mystery would still surround him. However, a new creator has blogs, pictures on flikr, shows up at cons, and is open. The net is a sharing device.  And the old geek will find this offensive. Because it is like seeing your parents having sex.

Imagine if Patton Oswalt were to walk in to a huffing and sweaty Alan Moore over a typewriter, as he showed the world Ozymandias wasn’t so innocent after all. As Alan’s fingers led the typewriter to a literary climax, he would turn to see little baby Oswlat standing by the door. Alan would try and explain Dr. Manhattan leaves a philosophical ultimatum  in the next scene, but it would be too late. Oswalt scarred for life, because he had seen the magic of what he loved fabricated before his eyes. No one likes to see how their world was made. And no one likes to see it fall. The daddy of the old geeks is dying. And Oswalt is at it’s funeral crying, “If I can’t have daddy, no one can!”. But, it’s not true. New geekery is forming in new ways.

But, admittedly, new content is still more sparse. The actual artistic quality of creations like mashups, autotunes, and fanfics are up for discussion in another blog. However, there are undoubtedly soups bubbling. New creators are being born onto this new geek-iverse.

3. Is Oswalt being a fucking hipster or what?! I looked up the guy, and watching a youtube video of some material from his album “Werewolves & Lollipops” (2007) I heard him say this:

“I DON’T GIVE A SHIT WHERE THE STUFF I LOVE COMES FROM. I JUST LOVE THE STUFF I LOVE!”

-Patton Oswalt, 2007, “Werewolves & Lollipops“

This is three years ago. The net still wasn’t so organized. Facebook was big, but we thought it was going to stop there. No one thought about things like wikileaks. We were still so innocent. And, at that time, Oswalt is concerned about what? The stuff he loves. When love is involved, all of a sudden it makes sense. No one wants to see their love change, become foreign. What, at first glance, looks like a hipster snubbing a culture for thinking geek culture is now pop culture, is now a teary eyed man who just wants it to be years ago when his nerd-ness felt homespun and innocent. Before it became a city gal. I feel for him. You can take the girl out of the city, but…

4. The definition of nerd: Who gives a shit! I’ve read so many responses to Oswalt’s article about how it stands for the opressed, a counterculture, the passionate, the acne ridden fat people. But, in all honesty, what difference does it make? Why close yourself in an absolute. I’ve got news for you, the revolutionaries of today do not look, sound, or act like the ones in the 1800′s. Why should anything? Why should any culture, especially one as loving as the nerd’s, choose to shut itself into one certain mold? The nerds are changing. Do I hate the lists and mashups? Kind of. Actually, a lot. But I think these are growing pains. Not the end. This is like the creators we love emulating what they loved. This is the seeding of a new generation of creators. And hopefully a new nerd.

- There’s more. But hey, I need  to pack, this blog is free, and i’d love to hear some angry nerd respond about my sweaty Moore writing coitus metaphor. Plus, the comic is starting back up this week. Gotta get things back and running….

More Oswalt Article Response:  Chronicles of the Nerds Aint it Cool News Get The Big Picture It’s All Geek To Me Youtube Response