{"id":2485,"date":"2017-07-26T11:34:55","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T19:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/?p=2485"},"modified":"2017-07-26T11:34:55","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T19:34:55","slug":"otaku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/?p=2485","title":{"rendered":"Otaku"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn modern Japanese slang, the term otaku is mostly equivalent to \u2018geek\u2019 or \u2018nerd\u2019, but in a more derogatory manner than used in the West. However, it can relate to any fan of any particular theme, topic, hobby, or form of entertainment. \u2018When these people are referred to as otaku, they are judged for their behaviors – and people suddenly see an \u201cotaku\u201d as a person unable to relate to reality.\u2019”<\/em><\/p>\n

There have been times I probably met the Wikipedia definition of otaku<\/em> – although it implies a degree of specialization I haven\u2019t often been capable of. Yes, I was nuts for Star Wars<\/em> in 1978, but so was basically every kid in America – and frankly there wasn\u2019t that much to be nuts over. One movie, another tie-in novel, a Marvel comic that I didn\u2019t read – it didn\u2019t even have the depth of canon of Star Trek<\/em> with its three seasons and cartoon and seeming endless supply of novels. Come to think of it, I seem to have a vague recollection of the 70s – and into the 80s – that all sci-fi got lumped together, to the point where one bookstore downtown advertised \u201cStar Trek\/Wars\u201d goods. But anyway.<\/p>\n

I had other nerdish interests after that – there was a run of comics, mostly Marvel, from about 1984-88. There were TSR role-playing games, of course, Dungeons and Dragons from 1981-84 and Star Frontiers from 1984-85 and then Marvel Super Heroes from 1985-87 to the exclusion of everything else\u2026and then all that just blew away around 1988. Probably because the Scholars Bowl team was sucking up all my stray CPU cycles for general-knowledge brainpower that might otherwise have gone for a focus.<\/p>\n

I suppose you could say \u201csports\u201d in the 1990s but I wasn\u2019t any more obsessive than your typical American male, especially as I was catching up and making up for the 1980s. I suppose you could say \u201cpolitics\u201d but grad school proved that wasn\u2019t nearly as much of an interest as I thought, and at root it mainly consisted of just a heightened awareness of my surroundings rather than genuine interest. And my wife will attest that I was something of a phone obsessive for most of the first seven years or so of our relationship, but the arrival of the iPhone put paid to that pretty much for good.<\/p>\n

The thing is, as I cast about looking for hobbies and whatnot, is that the otaku<\/em> mode is sort of the new default in fandom. Even in things I used to follow closely and don\u2019t anymore – not having been raised on Madden, I can\u2019t discuss the merits of defensive patterns and the virtue of four-verts offense, so I\u2019m on the outside of a lot of college football talk. But then, I start looking around at other things\u2026I have an incomplete on the MCU. I still haven\u2019t seen Spider Man: Homecoming or the 2008 Hulk movie, it took six months for me to catch up to Doctor Strange or Thor: The Dark World, I still haven\u2019t seen the Iron Fist series and don\u2019t have any particular urgency for Inhumans or The Defenders. Never mind the thirty years of actual<\/em> comic books I\u2019ve whiffed on. I went out and got myself a Ravenclaw scarf from Platform 9 3\/4, but I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever seen any Harry Potter movie more than once and I couldn\u2019t swear I\u2019ve actually seen all eight. I\u2019ve certainly not tried to sort myself via Pottermore or anything like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the side effects of the Internet is that it\u2019s enabled this degree of otaku<\/em> specialization, and in doing so raised the threshold for fandom – or even for what might be considered more than just general interest. The running gag online is \u201coh name three of their albums\u201d but it\u2019s kidding on the square: casual fandom is almost impossible and there are issues of belonging and authenticity around everything, especially things with a canon of knowledge and any sort of historical depth.<\/p>\n

In other words, it\u2019s hard out here for a polymath. Of which.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn modern Japanese slang, the term otaku is mostly equivalent to \u2018geek\u2019 or \u2018nerd\u2019, but in a more derogatory manner than used in the West. However, it can relate to any fan of any particular theme, topic, hobby, or form of entertainment. \u2018When these people are referred to as otaku, they are judged for their … <\/p>\n

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