If Time magazine notes a trend, that must mean it’s common knowledge. In this new joint interview with Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon -- in celebration of what could well be National Geek Day, as Gaiman terms it, on September 30, when Gaiman’s film Mirrormask and Whedon’s film Serenity open -- both have very interesting things to say about geekiness. And by "very interesting" I mean they’re saying what I’ve been saying for a while now:
TIME: Let's talk about your respective fan bases. A lot of them self-identify as kind of on the geeky side.
NG: I think the fan base is literate. You need to be reasonably bright to get the jokes and to really follow what's going on. That, by definition, is going to exclude a lot of people who will then get rather irritated at us for being pretentious and silly and putting in things they didn't quite get. But it's also going to mean that some of the people who do get the stuff will probably be fairly bright.
JW: Especially, I think, living in any fantasy or science fiction world means really understanding what you're seeing and reading really densely on a level that a lot of people don't bother to read. So yes, I think it's kind of the same thing.
But I also think there's a bit of misconception with that. Everybody who labels themselves a nerd isn't some giant person locked in a cubbyhole who's never seen the opposite sex. Especially with the way the Internet is now, I think that definition is getting a little more diffuse.
...
TIME: When I was growing up, only the geeky and socially marginal people were into stuff like Spiderman and JRR Tolkien. But in the last five years they've become the biggest entertainment phenomena around. How did it get so nerds are suddenly driving popular culture?
JW: I do think you can definitely see indications that Hollywood has woken up to the market, to the idea of this community as a way to put out their product. But fantasy movies have always been huge. It's not like Star Wars -- which came out when I was eleven -- was a tiny art house flick. So I'm always sort of curious at the marginalization of the people who adore them.
Of course, Whedon’s name is misspelled in the headline of the piece ("Wedon"?), and the interview is online-only -- it’s not appearing in the venerable print edition. But still: the interviewer has a clue, and the whole thing is worth reading.
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