Saturday, June 28, 2014

Nerd-i-Gras

Things that have cult following, and rabid fanatic fan base always has pratfalls.  Take cult literature, sci-fi, graphic novels or movies for instance.  The genre ones that were deemed good, seem to keep getting better and better in retrospect, especially on a comparative basis, but even as standalone. 

But to become panned and be rated among the worst over time, you need not be just bad.  you could be average, fair, decent or even fairly good.  But that just will not cut it.  Over a period of time, that one mildly weak link, or decent attempt at entertainment could well end up becoming the worst thing to happen to geeks/nerds/fans across the world, the pox on an otherwise worshiped franchise etc. etc.

Here is my theory:  Average common, non-obsessed, sane, non-dysfunctional people with no developmental disorders, real jobs, who aren't on major medication view, review and give their opinion of what is a normal source of temporary entertainment, and their view of that particular form (book, movie, comic) as such: something to pass the time, a few hours with.

This is then built upon by obsessed fans whose world centres around that and that thing alone.  They will dissect the offering, then put the individual components under an electron microscope, before sending the resultant anomalies for further testing at STAR labs.  And of course, as geek technology advances, more and more anomalies come to light.  And something decent becomes hated over time.  Case in point: Star Wars prequels, the last Indiana Jones movie (don't believe me, check out their original Metacritic and RT ratings).

My point is - never have too many specialists.  Specialists are obsessive.  And they take the fun out of things.

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