There used to be a thing known as the ‘nerd’. Going to a predominantly Irish Roman Catholic school as a kid meant that playtime was even tougher for me. I wasn’t Irish and I wasn’t Roman Catholic. I was also ginger.
Any difference whatsoever was seized upon ravenously by the cool kids who so desperately wanted to conform. They didn’t know what they wanted to conform to. They just knew they wanted to conform. I was and am still, a huge science fiction aficionado. That was like waving a red flag to a bull at my school. But childhood trauma aside, I’ve grown up mostly happy and content to be a science fiction enthusiast. So imagine my surprise when I bump into people who regularly mock science fiction and fantasy, only to find them raving about the latest episodes of Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead and praising the recent update of Battlestar Galactica as drama at its best.
What’s going on?
Sci-Fi is being Redefined
The same people who scoff and laugh at my knowledge about Game of Thrones or Battlestar Galactica, are the same people cheering these shows on. What’s even stranger is that they often do both things in the same sentence. In their heads, they don’t see their fandom of these shows as anything remotely related to being a fan of science fiction and fantasy. They have managed to separate the two. It’s almost like they’ve disengaged the two hemispheres of their brain completely.
It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but when I did the answer was glaringly obvious.
The people that laugh do not see the shows they watch or the books they read as science fiction or fantasy. They call them ‘Genre Shows’ or ‘Literary Fiction’. They are the same books and TV shows I enjoy. I like to call a spade a spade. Others call it a ‘scoop’.
Does it Matter?
The mature answer should always be ‘no it doesn’t’. As long as people are enjoying sci-fi and fantasy, why should any of us care how we define or label it? However, all over the world there are beaten and trodden down inner children raging against these modern redefinitions of a genre that doesn’t need a badge of cool. It’s already cool. It’s already hip. It’s been cool and hip before any of these people who just discovered they like it but can’t bring themselves to admit it.
When you look back in recent years you can see examples of people redefining books and television. Many people refused to watch The Simpsons when it was first broadcast because they took one look at the animation and simply branded it ‘cartoon’. Of course only a few years later these same people were championing the show as one of the funniest and smartest comedy shows ever. A similar thing has occurred with both Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and to a lesser (but no less significant) extent Battlestar Galactica. Even Star Trek, which consistently suffered abuse and ridicule for years, has picked up admirers from this group of ‘Not-Really-Sci-Fi’ fans.
Is everyone a nerd?
Two years ago Esquire ran a piece asking if we are all nerds now. The answer was yes, but I think that was incorrect. Anyone who likes science fiction and fantasy is not automatically a nerd. They never were.
We don’t need to re-label or re-define good stories and characters that have always been interesting, engaging and entertaining. We never have and we never should. Anyone so embarrassed to liking a sci-fi or fantasy story that they must call it something else, should take a long hard look in the mirror and ask “Who really has the problem here?”
J W ALLEN
SHORT BIO
John is a fiction writer, blogger and author living and working in London. He’s been making stuff up for years but started charging for it in 2011. In addition to the day-to-day, John is also finishing up two novels. The Empress is a political fantasy whodunit. The Spy Who Didn’t Love Me is a comedy thriller.
You can find out more about John at his website www.iwriteyouread.co.uk
You can also follow him on Twitter @TheOnlyJohnnyA and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mrjohnnya
I missed this article when it first came out.
And I absolutely agree! During the 10 years I participated in a book club, if I ever mentioned I read sci-fi/fantasy, it was the kiss of mockery. I was laughed out of our host’s living room, regulated to a small corner of the kitchen hoping everyone would forget I mentioned it.
So, yeah, it bugs me that folks are cherry-picking the genre. Even so, maybe young nerds aren’t getting so many wedgies anymore. (We can hope!)