Introduction Are you a Geek? 1. Am I a Geek? This is a relevant question as we explore whether we have lives with essentially the same meaning as celebrities who we must assume are not geeks. Yes, we have such lives. In drawing this conclusion I have necessarily utilized a definition of geek. The American Heritage Dictionary (Second College Edition) defines a geek as "a carnival performer whose act usually consists of biting the head off a live chicken or snake." It also mentions the word "fool" as previously discussed. The definition I am using involves neither a chicken nor a snake. When I think geek I focus on the alleged overutilization of books or computers or a combination thereof. Also, we are actually exploring here whether I once was a geek or am presently a geek or both. Life is complex. In addition, we will explore together whether a geek is necessarily a wimp as well. In the minds of many, wimpness has to do with the lack of developed musculature. Madison, Wisconsin has over two dozen bookstores and I visit many of them on a regular basis making a purchase the vast majority of the time. This is strong evidence of current geekness. However, a state of geeknes does not necessarily mean badness in the same sense that we are assuming that not all celebrities are good. I have not always been so interested in books. This could be related to the fact that I was poor and raised in Iowa. Yes, it is true. While traveling throughout the country as a young person I was repeatedly informed of the meaninglessness of my Iowa life or existence. Then something very strange happened. A rock band composed primarily of celebrities had the misfortune of their vehicle breaking down in Iowa. This was reported by the news media as a significant or meaningful event. I have a vague recollection that even a song may have been written about the lowa breakdown but then marketing difficulties set in. Anyway, my admittedly extremely boring life was classified as without meaning at the same moment in time of the classification of the Iowa celebrity car breakdown as some kind of cosmic occurrence. Did this all mean I was a geek? Unfortunately, I probably was a geek at this Iowa point in my life, but my Iowa existence in juxtaposition to the cosmic breakdown probably did not cause my geek status. My geek status was more a function of my untouchable status in an Indian sense (India as in Asia) at the high school where I placed my body in a chair on a somewhat regular basis. I didn't have any money at that time and knew neither Billy, Ronny nor Bobby (Robert Dole). This was the 1960's but the core of the social revolution had not taken root. In short, if you had no money you could consider yourself dirt with or without roots. A word of caution is needed at this point. You probably won't like this book if you enjoyed high school. I consider my high school experience as probably the low point of an otherwise fairly pleasant existence. It has now been a few pages since we heard from an expert or expert publication. I once learned from Psychology Today that the people who attend high school reunions are not necessarily doctors and lawyers and such. Those who attend are those who wish to relive their glory days even if he, she, or it, currently work in North Little Rock as a clerk in a pawn shop. On a more relevant note, Psychology Today once published an article on what I call celebrity worship and even featured this article on the cover. I did not read the entire article because I did not know at the time that I would be writing this book. However, I did read the conclusion section that contained the observation that neither celebrities nor the worshippers benefit from the celebrity worship ritual. I think it is probably best that I did not read the article because I'm now totally at liberty to draw my own conclusions without the taint of the experts and without fear of copyright infringement. This all leads us back to geekness and we move on to chapter 2 where I discuss the question of whether you are a geek. Introduction Are you a Geek? |