h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, he's been gone for over an hour. Has somebody checked his nearest A&E?

B

*retiurns with broken nose and cauliflower ear*

After a heated debate, it seems it has more to do with the man in the street's attitude towards being told *he* is queer rather than his attitude towards queers per se...

Right. Now you need to pop back out and call him a geek for the purposes of comparison.

B

Hiya Hussie!

I do like the entry, with the possible exception of the whole, lame-ish sort of start with the question thingy.

I'm afraid that I'm gaining a reputation for perhaps over-zealously defending of the English language, so I'll get it out of the way and say that 'geek' already had a definition. So, unless you are biting the heads off small animals, you do not qualify as a geek.

But dorks and nerds are created words and, as such, need definitions and sorting out!

Among the dorks, don't forget the Sports Dorks (sometimes referred to as Jocks), and the Sports Nerds (those who are merely spectators) and those who memorize dates, scores, and stats (Stat-Boys).

Then there's the Digi-Guys (computer nerds), and a host of other splinter groups.

Finally, the over-40 types who lust after teen pop-stars ( I think they're called pedophiles).

"a host of other splinter groups."

I thought geeks were scared of splinters?

**translation for Americans: splinter=sliver**

B

Parts of this entry are like a mirror...

I do, however, have one major problem to note: the confusion of 'fansubs' and 'fandubs'. As is implicit in the words, one involves subtitles and the other involves redubbing spoken dialogue.

A couple of typos: 'a lo of people' -> 'a lot of people' and 'result of this is hat more' -> 'result of this is that more'.

This isn't a criticism as such, more my personal musing on the word 'otaku'. As far as I am aware it's a general-purpose polite greeting in its literal sense, not limited to any particular group, although the shy/reserved people otaku (not just video game otaku) tend to be are the sort of people likely to use such formal distancing. It doesn't always just mean 'dork'; it can carry connotations of obsession, especially since having been used in the Japanese media to refer to a killer of some description (I think he was a serial killer, but I don't have the sources to hand) who happened to be an otaku as well. The debate about whether it is or is not correct to use it in a sense different from Japanese usage (not that it's entirly clear exactly what correct Japanese usage is) seems unlikely to end in the foreseeable future, and this (sometimes very vitriolic) argument may be worth mentioning. I've seen some (bizarre) assertions that the word is used self-referentially by mainstreamers with an interest in anime, and never by 'true' anime fans. (I suspect that these assertions have very little to do with observed usage and a great deal to do with opinions of who the 'true' fans are.)Have a look at the following if you have a thick skin and patience with the self-annointed guardians of correct usage of borrowed words:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=otaku&f=1

(My own contribution is probably still there. It shouldn't be hard to spot; my written style tends to stand out, especially when I make sure it does.)

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the entry, even if it did seem to generalise at times. I'd have liked more about bookish tendencies, though; those can really be looked down on by the mainstream.

Wow, this entry really does help to identify dorks.

B

With specific categories, moreover.

I'm really more bookish person than otaku, though. Obsessed with detail, etc. As you can see.

You're well at home in PR.

B

Great Entry!

I am just wondering if the title is OK... You might have the impression I am wandering about PR just checking the titles... Anyways, this Entry is not just about Dorks, right? I can't think of a more suitable title, however. So, that's it. Cool Entry.

HELL

BTW Alabaster rules!

HELL

One point I forgot about before: DM (Dungeon Master) may be a more familiar term to some readers (such as this one) than GM. Oh, and there's not even a mention of the term 'anorak'. You may already know about it, but just in case, here's the 'geek vs. nerd' conversation: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F19585?thread=390393 I looked up 'otaku' in three Japanese dictionaries. One gave 'your house' as the primary meaning and 'you' as the secondary meaning. The second gave 'your house; your home; you', referring to this as a polite definition, and 'geek; nerd; enthusiast', referring to this as colloqiuial; both were described as in popular usage. The third gave the same definitions but referred only to the second of the above definitions as popular, and put it first. The following is from Giles Poitras's 'Anime Essentials': 'The Japanese word, written as a combination of the Chinese character for "house" and the honorific prefix o-, can be translated as "your honorable* house". It is an exceedingly polite way of saying "you" when addressing another person in conversation. For many of the shy and socially inept young males who are anime and manga fans in Japan, such a distancing and formal way of speaking to others became a common affectation. The writer Akio Nakamori** proposed in a column that the name be aplied to the fans themselves. The usage stuck, and "otaku" is now used by the media to describe anyone who is highly obsessed with a particular subject, not just anime. These daya fans all over the world are calling themselves otaku with pride. But there are also discussions (I mean arguments) among non-Japanese on Usenet newsgroups over the _exact_*** meaning of the term, since the Japanese media sometimes use it to denote extreme -- and dangerous -- fixation.' *As spelt in the book, Poitras being American. **Westernised word order. ***This was originally in italics, which of course I can't replicate. In both of the dictionaries that showed the word written in kanji and kana, only the 'your house/you' meaning was written as Poitras describes it; the 'dork' meaning was written entirely in katakana. The following, from Susan J. Napier's 'Anime From Akira To Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation' may be useful: Referring to a study of anime fans at the University of Texas: 'The answers to questions about their hobbies and interests outside anime also revealed a more complex figure than the stereotypically technologically obsessed "geek". While it is perhaps not surprising that 46.6 percent went to anime conventions, 20 percent of them enjoyed martial arts (although only 12 percent played other sports), or that 65.5 percent played video games, the most popular hobbies of all were reading (81 percent) and going to films (69 percent). Belaying the image of anime fans as social outcasts who sit in their rooms all day, "attending plays, concerts, and other live events" was listed by 48.3 percent as their most popular hobby.' Napier continues: 'The fact that a majority of respondents (46.4 percent versus 39.3 percent) preferred watching anime at an outside venue such as an anime club rather than at home also suggests that anime fans are quite socially inclined.' She's failed to qualify 'socially inclined', and so her conclusion is more general than the evidence warrants; but this is consistent with your analysis of the different ways of socialising. The evidence implies that, in the US at least, otaku are something of a subgroup within anime fandom. From the same study: 'The answers regarding the definition of _otaku_* were somewhat surprising. In Japan, the word is used derisively to describe anime fans, but in the West it has, to some extent, been adapted as a badge of honor** among fans. Despite this, a full 30 percent among those surveyed had no idea what it meant (although there were some imaginative guesses, such as "shrimp dish"). This finding is intriguing because it would seem that such an exclusive term would appeal to the fan subculture by sugg

I should note that the Grassmuck article, being heavily interpretative, really can't be taken at face value. (Neither can Napier, come to that, although the stats are useful even if the interpretative writing is ignored.)

Something else I forgot about: the attitudes of gamers aren't as clear-cut as the Entry implies. The Xbox is, I'm given to understand, seen in Japan as an otaku item alongside the PC, and the software available for it in Japan reflects that to some extent. The PSX also hasn't been universally seen purely as a mainstream product, even though that was how it was marketed.

I'd hunt down some supporting information, but I'm afraid I haven't time now. Deadlines, etc.

Bold attempt Hussassan -

I also dislike the opening 2 paragraphs, and think changing the title to - say - Teenage cub-cultures related to electronic arts - would lead to this having a greater chance of being edited.

That aside I think this is a good entry - you underestimate the age of participants however, I used buy Steve Jackson games and Flying Buffalo products 30 years ago - and still have some of them. I also used to do postal gaming and RPGs so remember some of us farts saw the start of this genre, and now we're hanging with our droogs on h2g2. (Just drebbing)

They're not teen-exclusive (I'll hit twenty this year, and that won't stop me loving anime), and they're not all related to 'electronic arts'; table-top RPGs are by definition not electronic, in contradistinction to those RPGs which are. So the 'sub-cultures' bit is the only part I can agree with.

Oh, it is 'sub-cultures', is it? I wondered why dorks would be interested in baby bears.

B

Whew... That's a lot of info... It'll take me a while to work all this in, but thankfully, I have all day tommorrow off school.

I wouldn't worry too much about providing a complete historical and etymological guide to the word 'otaku'; although hopefully the information is there if you want to have a go. I'm not sure how much of this information is really _necessary_, but hopefully a reasonable amount will be suitable for inclusion.

Just so long as the fansub/fandub issue gets sorted out...