Geek canon

The Geek canon is a canon of books, art, films, television series, games, electronic gadgets, internet sites, or other miscellanea, which have been influential in the shaping of geek culture. They are similar to the more general Western canon in that they help shape the form of thought, conversation, and new creations. A passing knowledge of these works can greatly enrich the experience of those conversing with members of the culture and appreciating new works.

It should be noted that by its very nature, the selection of canon is an imprecise endeavor, and varies significantly between communities and subcultures. However, there are a number of works—particularly within books—which can confidently be said to be geek canon.

Overview

The current geek canon is a composite moving target. As generations shift, some works that seemed classics before fade into irrelevance, while others maintain their popularity years after publication. Of the older canon, there are many works which are highly influential, but which might not be very beneficial for new readers to pursue. Usually this is because the ideas of that work have been adapted into most other works. E. E. Smith's Lensman series is a debatable example of this. Smith's work has been highly influential within the science fiction genre. For literature fans, it can be entertaining to see where this comes from, and the relatively quaint and customarily sexist 1930s-styled language and attitudes Smith's characters adopt. However, at this point it is largely a literary interest, and Smith's notable concepts have been so widely adopted over the last fifty years that much of their uniqueness has been lost. Still, there have also been some notable, published attempts at chronicling specific sections of what might be considered geek canon. Science fiction, notably, has had a few encyclopedias compiled, covering the scope of science fiction through time and its influences.

Geek canon can contain "current" items as well. Television shows, as they can run for years, become part of the culture while still being in production. Items like this usually become part of the cultural dialog, where sometimes the show itself is a two-way participate. Star Trek has usually been such a show, with Voyager and Enterprise being strong exceptions. Other examples include the action-packed cerebral fantasy drama Farscape, Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the quickly-canceled Firefly.

Geek canon includes relatively few particular pieces of art, and leans instead towards general art styles or artists. Stan Lee is one artist often recognized in geek canon, for those geeks immersed in comic books. Another artist familiar to fantasy fans is Alan Lee, whose skilled illustrations can be found in several editions of The Lord of the Rings and who was hired as a conceptual designer on Peter Jackson's film rendition of those books.

Being a relatively modern culture, geek canon tends to be more inclusive than the tradtional Western canon of modern art styles such as movies and electronic gaming. Books and art still form a strong base, but the stereotypical prejudice in academia against such modern forms as art is very rarely seen within geek culture.

Works which are commonly included in the canon include works of fiction such as poetry (including epic poetry), music, drama, literature from many different Western (and more recently non-Western) cultures, and novels. Many non-fiction works are also listed, primarily from the areas of religion, science, philosophy, economics, politics, and history.

More recently, many people have styled themselves as geeks based solely on their absorption in geek canon, even if they do not fit the traditional geek profiles of above average intelligence, social awkwardness, or leanings toward science and technical subjects. Because most of geek canon is entertainment oriented, it is a matter of debate as to whether such geeks are authentic by the original definition. Historically, however, scientists, engineers, and others in similar professions or fields have always been loyal to certain, if not all facets of geek canon (i.e, many NASA employees are Trekkies or fans of hard science fiction). This may be attributed to the tendency of many elements of geek canon to have traditionally appealed to those who are (or consider themselves) more intelligent than the general public as well as to those who eschew conformity or experience difficulty fitting into mainstream social niches. These points are especially significant due to the history of the geek term as a pejorative label associated with social alienation. Interest in geek canon has provided fellowship as well as fictional role models they can relate to. It also frequently provides paradigms that many seek to emulate or adopt as personal philosophies.

Books

Science fiction settings and topics are generally well-respected among geeks. Some of the most famous include cyberpunk novels such as Neuromancer by William Gibson and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and books about futuristic topics like space exploration and expansion, such as the Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov, Ringworld by Larry Niven and the Dune series by Frank Herbert. A common theme throughout geek canon literature is the use of knowledge and intelligence to overcome obstacles and make the world a better, or at least more interesting, place to live.

Fantasy literature is also often popular among geeks, the primary example being The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The reason for this popularity is that Tolkien asserts a new way of thinking world-creation in the concept known as sub-creation.

Humorous works popular among geeks include the science-fiction based The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Terry Pratchett's fantasy parody, the Discworld series.

The non-fiction book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy is unusual in that it is both a part of the canon and a work which describes geek culture and other elements of the canon. Twenty years after being first published, it is still in print.

The book The Hacker's Dictionary was the book of hacker slang printed by a publisher. It was the compilation of several hackers dictionaries from MIT, Stanford, and DECUS. The current incarnation is the Jargon File.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter, is a book on the philosophy of incompleteness, a grand tour of ideas difficult to categorise which is also a work of the canon.

Art

M.C. Escher's paradoxical art is very popular among geeks. H. R. Giger's style of art has also been influential.

Music

Some of the well known artist in geek rock include They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton, Weezer and Liam Lynch

Film

Canon films include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Logan's Run, Sneakers, Office Space, the Star Wars and Matrix series, Tron, Blade Runner, Hackers and WarGames.

Television

Geek canon television shows include the television series Star Trek (particularly the original series), Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Farscape, and Doctor Who.

American animated shows not directed at all age groups such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Futurama could all possibly be considered geek canon, although these are fairly popular in general. More recently, Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network has made some notable original productions that have garnered the attention of some geeks.

Anime became popular among geeks starting in the 1980s with seminal titles such as Star Blazers and Robotech. Other, more recent titles such as Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion can also be considered geek canon.

Role-playing games

Interest in pen & paper roleplaying games has long been a subculture within geeks. Dungeons and Dragons is considered the classic template for such games, with other contenders such as Shadowrun and White Wolf's World of Darkness vying for attention.

Internet Sites

By its very nature, the world wide web attracts geeks in general. To be a part of the Geek Canon, though, a site needs to be of a specialized nature. For example most of the now famous sites such as Google, Flickr, YouTube (now a Google subsidiary), Google Earth (once known as Keyhole) and MySpace were the exclusive territory of geeks. It is ironic that most geeks would not be caught spending much time on such sites now as they have become so popular. To be a part of the Geek Canon a site must be new, and very 'niche' or specialized. Perhaps this could be summed up with the following explanation: A candidate for the Geek Canon would be a site like Klingonsearch.com (no link as this is only as an example) - a dedicated Klingon Search engine, of interest mainlly to geek fans of Star Trek. A mainstream Star Trek site, that is contributed to by hundreds, if not thousands of fans could never be part of the true Geek Canon; i.e. it has to be small and specialized.

Computer games

Computer games usually qualify by being the first of a genre, early in a phase of computing history, or by being the seeds of a community of players. Games which meet this classification include Civilization, Elite, Netrek, NetHack, Zork, Ultima, Final Fantasy, Bard's Tale II, Myst, and the Space Quest series.

First-person shooters

First-person shooter (FPS) computer games that meet this classification include Half-Life, Doom, Quake, and Halo. The replayability of many of these games was quite high, as each sprouted very large mod communities devoted to customizing and extending the games.

John Romero's Daikatana is a peculiar consideration for geek canon. The game is sometimes referred to as the worst FPS of all time. It was developed amid a thriving game community, rather than having a community erupt around it. It received considerable recognition due to the creation of Ion Storm (later ION Storm, Dallas) by John Romero, which was theoretically made to allow him a free hand in creating games. After daring advertisements, public bravado, perhaps the most dramatic development history of any game to that point, and a great deal of hype, the game received underwhelming critical reviews and a pointed backlash. A recent competitor for the most-infamous title is Duke Nukem Forever, the butt of perpetual vaporware jokes.