Dictionary.com defines a geek as:
- a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)
- a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
The term has a lot of negative connotations. But it doesn’t have to. For instance, in the first definition “A term of pride as self-reference”. I think there’s a lot of potential in those few words.
At least, I hope there is, because as far as I’m concerned, I write romance for geeks (I’d call it geek-mance, but Mike Underwood already wrote Geekomancy
– and it’s a fantastic book I’d never want to compete with.Anyway, I call it that because I’m a geek, and I write the kind of stuff I’d like to read. I’ve worked with computers professionally for almost two decades, I will throw a fit (not publicly, never publicly) if I think you’ve used the term ‘hacked’ wrong (think a grammar enthusiast who sees someone use the wrong version of ‘your’), and I can swap obscure Star Trek references with the guys at work in casual conversation.
I think geek and I don’t think of the theoretical physicist who exhibits a strict adherence to routine, a total lack of social skills, a tenuous understanding of irony, sarcasm, and humor, and a general lack of humility or empathy. I think of the person who knows their stuff, who loves their job. The person who, if you engaged them in conversation about ‘the game over the weekend’ and meant football, would come back with a narrative about the dungeon they ran and their seventeenth level paladin who eventually became a demigod and GM’s started to use him as an NPC instead. But until then, you’d never know them from the business analyst down the hall.
It takes an intense level of passion to dive into something like that so completely. Even if it’s not a D&D obsession. Even if it’s an MMO, an obscure sci-fi series from the UK, or the new NAS they picked up over the weekend.
And yeah, I think that kind of passion is sexy. An intelligent, witty, well-spoken geek (socially awkward or not) just has an allure about them…And if they spun that knowledge into their own gaming company, the ability (they never use nefariously, of course) to breach security networks, or their own comic shop…even better.
Who’s your favorite geek, real or fictional?
My favourite geeks are my husband and daughter 🙂 Each is geeky in their own way, but both are amazing.
~ Rhonda Parrish
My partner is my favorite geek. He’s a sound engineer and can rattle on for hours about wave forms and Pro-Tools interfaces and the virtues of ribbon mics. But he can also tell you exactly why a song works, why it’s catchy and why you find it stuck in your head every time you hear it.
Yay for geeks, and nerds too! Woot!
My sister used to make fun of me for being a geek cause I would do things like carry a book on particle physics in my purse or try to find a good math book to read at Barnes and Noble. lol 😉
Geek has definitely transformed in the past decade since the dot com boom (which I guess was even longer than a decade ago–whoa). While it still might sting a bit to be geeky in grade school, most people who are tech savvy aren’t exactly outcasts these days. Although the type of media and geekery people consume definitely set them apart. Watching Star Wars doesn’t qualify as geeky anymore, but you mentioned D&D, and anybody still playing tabletop D&D these days definitely qualifies. We love those geeks!