Nerd anger
One of the things that is simultaneously hilarious and frustrating about having nerdy pastimes is dealing with nerd anger. Sometimes it makes you want to laugh, and sometimes it makes you want to punch someone in the face. Worry not, I do not fail to see the irony in that statement. The funny thing about it, of course, is that nerds are always sitting, waiting for mainstream acceptance of their hobbies, but the nerd anger makes it that much harder for people to accept them.
I would posit this comes from some compulsive beast inside the nerd. It’s that which takes ownership of the hobby, compelling us to read and interact with everything related to our chosen hobbies. I know that I am not immune. I’m proud of myself when I choose not to read one or two comics a week because I dislike them, but at the same time, if I am in some way convinced that it might be important to know about later, I will continue to read things that I actively loathe. Case in point number one, right now, would of course be Countdown. Why did I read every issue of a shamefully bad series? I was promised importance, so I was compelled to read it for myself instead of just getting spoilers somewhere.
Oh, but it doesn’t stop there, I’m also compelled to read series that I’ve followed for ages, even if they have devolved into mediocrity. Just this week, for example, Countdown wasn’t even the worst book released. That would have to be this week’s issue of New Exiles. I haven’t loved Exiles since Judd Winick left, and that was almost five years ago. and now the series is downright terrible, but I still read it. Self-loathing is one of the clear characteristics of the nerd hobbyist.
Anyway, I started off on this rant on nerd anger because Tom Brevoort shared his own dark past as an angry nerd, complete with savaging the motivations of the creators. It’s a fun look at how the arguments kind of stay the same even as the specifics change.
April 26th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
[...] Countdown #1 - I already trashed this. [...]