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Nerd: an extended definition or the value of fantasy
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Monday, Sept. 15, 11:57 p.m.:
As I rounded the corner and the mall’s parking lot came into view, I saw the neon-blue beams of multiple lightsabers slashing though the air. My initial thought was not how bizarre this was, but that the blades were the wrong shade – far too dark a hue. You would be hard-pressed to find such a crystal on the planet Ilum (snorting laughter). I had now entered familiar territory and quickly reverted to nerd-dom, but as I stood in line, waiting for my copy of the newest installment in the Star Wars universe, I became aware of just how my passion for the films, books, video games, etc., feigned in comparison to that of those around me. My level of fanaticism did not belong in the ring with these giants of sci-fi zeal.
So what caused the flame of my fixation to slowly die down? Adulthood. Like the lost boys of “Peter Pan,” I was sure it would never happen to me. I was home-schooled for a good chunk of my early years, which helped to delay the inevitable, but if you’re not ever-vigilant against this thief of naivety and innocence, it will find you out.
One day you will realize that those things that really made you happy, that transported you to a different world and helped you deal with the reality of expectations and the strangeness of growing up are replaced by a desire to fit in. You betrayed the younger you and he lit out alone for the territory you once traversed together. Now you can only dream of the adventures you might have had.
Since I cast off this better version of myself and “grew up,” I have referred to myself as a nerd, but in truth, that spirit left me when I gave up honesty for comfort and a fruitless quest for popularity.
The true meaning of the word has been lost and a bastardized version has taken over. Today, it is used to define the hipsters in Rivers Cuomo dark-rimmed spectacles (he is admittedly the reason I made the change from wire frames), when it should be reserved for the impassioned few who slayed the great beasts of responsibility and social norms, (through years of strenuous training in the Force no doubt) and who stayed true to themselves.
Nerd is not synonymous with loser. It does not mean pocket protectors and suspenders. It is embodied in many different ways and has been perverted by our culture to be something trivial.
We see a person as successful when they have money or a career, but what of passion? We consider a person mature when they have a firm grasp on reality, but is that not often the same quality that leads to monotony and jaded ideals?
As master of nonsense and fantasy, Dr. Seuss—a true nerd himself, and coiner of the term—once said, “Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope … that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”
The Oxford English Dictionary defines nerd as, “an insignificant, foolish, or socially inept person; a person who is boringly conventional or studious.”
This definition is dated and, by our current understanding, mostly untrue. A nerd in contemporary society would not often be considered foolish and certainly not “boringly conventional.”
Nerds may or may not be studious, though we often imagine them to be so. The serious issue here is the phrase “socially inept.” The problem lies in a common misconception that there is such a thing as a single society that people must conform to. In the society in which a nerd interacts, he or she is not at all inept, and who is to say that the football and reality television watching society is any more credible than the Tolkien reading, Dungeons and Dragons playing society?
The OED is redeemed in its second and more contemporary definition of the word: “a person who pursues an unfashionable or highly technical interest with obsessive or exclusive dedication.”
If I were arrogant enough to call myself a nerd after Monday night’s self-realization, I would be proud to accept this definition, but I, like most people, have lost that ardor for the atypical and must work to regain it in fear of falling into the old understanding of the word and becoming truly boringly conventional.
JOSH HALE
Arbiter Journalist
