{"id":1328,"date":"2008-10-14T11:17:45","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T18:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=1328"},"modified":"2008-10-14T11:17:45","modified_gmt":"2008-10-14T18:17:45","slug":"keeping-one-eye-on-the-geeky-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=1328","title":{"rendered":"Keeping One Eye on the (Geeky) Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s try and start this from a simple, slightly controversial premise: Fandom used to be…well, it used to be BETTER.<\/p>\n

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I recently read bits and pieces of the Twomorrows volume collecting the old Alter Ego issues. Alter Ego was a comics fanzine founded in the early sixties by two adult comics fans, Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas.<\/p>\n

These were guys who loved comics–I mean, REALLY loved comics–and were driven by that love to start a hand-crafted publication devoted to comics.<\/p>\n

Today, we have the internet. Lucky us, right? Anyone who loves comics, or sci-fi, or fantasy, or WHATEVER can hop on that bad boy and just chat or post or blog their little living asses off about…stuff.<\/p>\n

Except the content exists more because of the delivery method than because of the passion behind it. In other words, Roy and Jerry were inspired to create a zine by their love of comics, and we write on the internet because the internet is there to be written upon; we just happen to choose this geeky stuff to spew about.<\/p>\n

There’s not a filter; there’s no handle for the spigot. It takes willful diligence to regulate consumption and creation so that you’re not spinning downward into an endless spiral of emptiness and negativity.<\/p>\n

Or maybe that’s just me.<\/p>\n

This<\/a> is what’s had me wondering about all this; it’s paralyzed my fingers and left me hesitant to get this wrong:<\/p>\n

We all need to raise the bar a little. I do; you do. We all do. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that potboiling pieces of mediocre pap (or worse) won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t still come out. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that we need to stop pretending they matter in any way, shape, or form.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People have read this as a specific rail against mainstream superhero comics. It’s not to my eyes. It’s an indictment against CRAP, and a statement worthy of becoming a manifesto.<\/p>\n

And so it will.<\/p>\n

I want to write well about the things that move me–the stuff I love, the stuff I hate, the thoughts I have both pithy and vacant.<\/p>\n

I want it all to somehow in some small way MATTER. I don’t want to have time anymore to focus on the petty bullshit where I walk out of a comic book store with some free promo comics and suddenly I’m embroiled in snark and bile.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter anymore. Sometimes, realizing that requires a conscious decision, because when that kind of content is just out there everyplace, it’s all too easy to just hitch your wagon to the endless cycle of words that can literally eat hours out of your day. You react, and then you add your words to the pile. Time marches on, and you’ve consumed nothing valuable in the way of ideas or art, and you’ve contributed nothing much valuable either. You’re just part of the endless go-round dodge.<\/p>\n

Isn’t that the point? To talk about what we love, hopefully with some intelligence and humor and understanding, and to discuss what we don’t love while (maybe only occasionally) descending into spite and nastiness?<\/p>\n

I think it’s the point. I want it to be the point. From the advent of all this shit to the current burst culture we exist in, where I sit here and snarf down endless reams of empty nothingness because it’s THERE and it’s EASY, I am going to try and come back around. I am going to focus, and think, and create, and read, and enjoy. And if I’m not, I’m going to walk away.<\/p>\n

Life is too short, and my time is too valuable. Everyone’s time is too valuable. We are here to commune about what we were told for our entire lives was some kind of fringe subcultish activity–that which is GEEK. We should enjoy each other, and hear what we’re saying, and listen to others, and use this amazing instrument of communication for its best possible good.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying I’m perfect, or that I ever could be–I’m sure I’ll dip back into the bullshit snark pool often enough. But hopefully not TOO often.<\/p>\n

I do need to raise the bar. I need to try harder. I want to be better, so I’m gonna do that.<\/p>\n

That’s all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s try and start this from a simple, slightly controversial premise: Fandom used to be…well, it used to be BETTER. I recently read bits and pieces of the Twomorrows volume collecting the old Alter Ego issues. Alter Ego was a comics fanzine founded in the early sixties by two adult comics fans, Jerry Bails and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}