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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133324
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| Posted: 15 March 2015 at 9:42am | IP Logged | 1
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Yes, I found the Merriam-Webster link on my own. I note that they provide no source, but merely a statement. I'd like to see context.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12715
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| Posted: 15 March 2015 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | 2
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Hold on now... "fanboy" was LITERALLY a boy who worked a fan in the days of yore.
Nothing at all to do with the modern word.
Edited by Michael Penn on 15 March 2015 at 4:03pm
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12715
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| Posted: 15 March 2015 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | 3
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It was an industry term in coal mining, I should have made clear.
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Tim O Neill
Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 10937
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| Posted: 17 March 2015 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | 4
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Michael R: "But we aren't heroes. We are comic book readers and fans. This reeks too much of armchair sports nerds who get into arguments over their team and make it sound as if they were on the field or on the court handling the ball and not actually on their couch watching the game on T"
*****
I understand that you don't agree, but I think this is a bit harsh. Maybe it's the huge font, or maybe it's that I tend to respect your comments on the Forum that makes this sting.
I am not saying that I call myself a hero - that's a high threshold that I do not meet, and it is certainly misused in our society. It would be presumptuous to call myself that, but I can strive for it. I just think that calling oneself a nerd, geek, or fanboy is unnecessarily negative, and if we are going to go to extremes, it might be helpful to think of oneself on the other end of the spectrum. And at the same time, it;s a way to reconnect with what we experienced as kids. I get that feeling watching some of the Marvel movies.
Heroic literature made me a better kid -- they gave me a framework to do the right thing. As an adult, I don't think it would hurt to think of oneself as a hero. Rather than focusing on comic conventions and what's cool, why not focus on selfless actions that help others and help yourself to improve. It's a good mindset. You might want to give it a whirl, Michael - maybe you won't shoot down a fellow "nerds" admittedly corny idea fourteen minutes after its posted.
Also, I really never understood the term "sports nerd". Sports is hardly nerdy. Sports brings together the cool kids, and it always has.
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Michael Roberts
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 14857
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| Posted: 17 March 2015 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | 5
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My apologies on the huge font. I primarily post on my phone these days, and copy and paste can get a bit wonky. And I apologize if my post came off as unnecessarily harsh.
As someone not that into sports looking from the outside, I see a distinction between the athletes who actually play the sports and the fans who may or may not. The former are the cool kids. The latter not necessarily so. To me, the armchair quarterback who can rattle off a bunch of sports statistics, wears goofy team hats, and argues which team is better is just as "nerdy" as the comic fan who can rattle off issue numbers, wears comic book shirts, and argues which character is better.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 35945
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| Posted: 17 March 2015 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | 6
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I can see both your points. Fantasy "gurus" are, at their core, geeks. They're commonly referred to as "stat nerds", people who only care about how many yards, points, RBI, home runs, goals, blocked shots, baskets or sacks a particular player gets. They're fans, but they've taken it to the extreme in much the same way as Comic Book Guy can quote issue and page number. Sports fans also show up to games in garb in much the same way as cosplayers show up to Comic-Con. I also can't tell you the number of times I've been in a Chicago bar arguing the merits of the Vikings over the Bears. So, yeah, speaking as a sports fiend, I'm a nerd in that realm as well.
But I also get what Tim is saying. I may not agree with it, but I get that the terms for people like us who love comic books may have such a negative connotation that some feel it best to not use them at all. Co-opting them is not an option. Again, I disagree as I have absolutely no problem calling myself a nerd or a geek. It's actually something I'm proud of because, as I said a page back, it's something I feel I've earned. But I'm not going to force it on someone just as I'm not going to correct someone or feel offended if someone calls me something I already think is cool. Words only have the meaning that we give them. To me, the best way to diffuse them is to turn a negative into a positive, to embrace what people have often told us is weird, odd, ugly or wrong because, at the end of the day, we know it's not.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12715
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| Posted: 18 March 2015 at 12:50am | IP Logged | 7
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133324
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| Posted: 18 March 2015 at 5:52am | IP Logged | 8
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So, a question. If we "embrace" and "own" "fanboy" as a term to describe all*, what term IS to be used to describe those who are over-the-top, out at the fringe, and an embarrassment to the rest?-------- * As a tangent creating the gender ghetto of "fangirl," something which is not needed with "fan."
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Stephen Robinson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5835
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| Posted: 18 March 2015 at 7:36am | IP Logged | 9
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It's questionable if you can "embrace" and "own" a
pejorative. There was some public official who'd been
caught referring to Obama as a "nigger." His defense was
one I'd heard a lot growing up: "Well, there are good
blacks and niggers." Hard to imagine how the president
of the United States -- regardless of your opinion of
his politics -- would qualify as the latter even in this
guy's view.
I'd mentioned before how I was at a gala for a local
theater where a speaker mocked comic books. This wasn't
some moron running off at the mouth. This was someone
who thought this comment would appeal to his audience --
there was no way the theatre-loving, literature-obsessed
among us would also include... "Fanboys" or "comic book
nerds."
JB and I love Shakespeare. What do they call us? Geeks?
I can find no evidence of that. I used to see
Shakespeare in the Park in NYC every year and every
production. I also go to Shakespeare productions in
Ashland Oregon regularly. If I went to comic book
conventions as regularly, I'm a "fanboy" but there is no
term for an almost *similar* degree of interest in a
"respected" area.
I've seen the term "bibliophile" used for book lovers.
Isn't NEXT MEN or GENERATIONS or X-MEN books worthy of
inclusion in that category? Is JB *that* different from
J.K. Rowling that if you appreciate the former's work
you have to be a "fanboy."
I don't think so.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 18 March 2015 at 8:09am | IP Logged | 10
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I've seen the term "bibliophile" used for book lovers. Isn't NEXT MEN or GENERATIONS or X-MEN books worthy of inclusion in that category? Is JB *that* different from J.K. Rowling that if you appreciate the former's work you have to be a "fanboy."•• I knew a fan up in Canada who insisted he was a "panelologist." Sheesh! Can't we all just be FANS? Is the very fact that we seek to describe ourselves in some other way an indication that we are ASHAMED to be thought of as fans?
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Stephen Robinson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5835
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| Posted: 18 March 2015 at 9:28am | IP Logged | 11
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I consider myself a fan. My point was that the terms used
to apply to people with interests outside of comics are
rarely pejoratives. The people who dress up like Emma
Woodhouse and go to Jane Austen weekends are considered
"Austen enthusiasts" and not "geeks" or "fanboys." I've
only ever seen those pejoratives applied to comics/sci-fi.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 35945
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| Posted: 18 March 2015 at 9:56am | IP Logged | 12
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I think your definition is a tad narrow. In high school I was called a theatre geek and theatre nerd. The terms "nerd" and "geek" don't only apply to comics and sci-fi. Like I said upthread, there are stat nerds in sports. That's a pejorative. To the point about pejoratives only applied to our particular interests, a bookworm (lover of reading) is/was a pejorative as an example outside of our realm.
I think the thing here is that these names, good and bad, come in large part from kids. You're not going to have a child/teen attend an Austen weekend or make time to see every single production of Shakespeare that comes through their town. That's why there's really no common, widely accepted pejorative for them outside of "weird". That said, kids do fall in love with reading that's more than the average, enjoy science through classes, discover Star Trek at an early age and find that they associate with Spider-Man as a role model. Some things, like a devotion to sports, are lauded while others are not (the ones I mention are but a small number) and kids will create pejoratives to belittle and ostracize. Those carry over into adulthood, but you rarely find adults creating new pejoratives for special interests that people discover as they get older.
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