I may be misreading the article and comments I’m about to respond to, but it still makes for a good title, right?
So last night I responded to a fairly recent article by author JW Cowan declaring that geek culture wasn’t just “dead” but was never really a thing. I had my disagreements as someone who is surrounded by “geek culture”, “genre media”, or whatever term you want to call it. It’s like saying there’s no sports culture, no theater culture, no novel culture. Geek culture is simply made up of various subcultures that intersect with each other and other genres. One of the things I like about science fiction is that it can imitate other genres while still being science fiction. Murder mystery on a space colony. Romance between two alien races. Comedy adventure about a group of smugglers often in over their head but in space. (Did I mention Runners is doing the next chapter of it’s current story arc? Go read after this.) The thing about geek culture and geek entertainment is that it’s more a spin on other pop cultures than one on its own. I mentioned that remembering sports stats or fashion icons is a bit geeky when you think about it.
This all started after seeing a repost of an article by Brian Niemeier on Bleeding Fool, but we’ll be using his own blog. The post in question was a response to a previous article he wrote entitled “The Riddle Of The Pop Cult” and the comments he garnered. This will be the bulk of my response as if I read this correctly it poses an odd theory: that the death of geek culture has to do with the removal of Christianity from those media tied to geek culture. Don’t get me wrong, as a non-denominational raised Catholic (not a strict religious home but we’re believers here) and someone who is a part of geek society (I’ve always referred to myself as a demi-geek) I have noticed the stripping of faith, as the California state of mind seems to be ditching Christian values and treating them as “evil”, and guess where Hollywood and the gaming industry in the US mostly hang out.
Warner Brothers brought DC Comics to their area and out of New York, and Marvel might as well have followed when Disney bought them. I’ve seen religious views looked down upon, but does that mean pop culture is anti Christian these days?
Niemeir starts by bring up a picture from Cowan’s article.
click to open full-size in another tab
He then lists some of the things in the picture.
The Zelda canon of the day established that Link was Catholic. At least according to A Link to the Past‘s official concept art.
Maybe-ish. Hyrule has its own mythology surrounding the Triforce, three goddesses, and a cycle that always involves a Link, a Zelda, and a Ganon/Ganondorf. Zelda, and the Castlevania series someone in the comments mentions are both made in Japan, hardly the hotbed of “Jesus freaks”. (Shoutout to dc Talk.) In the case of the Castlevania games, Christian symbolism is used because that’s how vampire stories out of Europe go, not because they love the Lord. You can look at how symbols are used in Neon Genesis Evangelion or how they celebrate Christmas and see what I mean. Link having a cross on his shield and praying may well just come from the European folklore that the game based Hyrule on. While the Triforce lore could be considered a retcon they weren’t so much making Link Catholic or any other Christian denomination but were using the symbolism of European fantasy as they saw it, lacking the proper context. Again, look at Christmas in Japan.
So was RoboCop.
Donald Johnson: “Our one success was a cop”
Dr. Juliette Faxx: “Well, yes, Mr. Johnson. Alex Murphy. Top of his class, devout Irish Catholic, family man. Everything in his profile indicates a fierce sense of duty. It’s probably what kept him alive.
That scene is after the latest attempt to turn a living cop into a second RoboCop, and what leads Faxx to do something stupid and put a megalomaniac drug dealer into the next robot. I don’t remember if Murphy’s faith was brought up in the remake but I don’t remember it in the sequels, various TV shows, or even the original movie beyond this. It’s only listed as one of the reasons he was able to accept his new life. The main point I see here is the “fierce sense of duty”. Murphy’s a cop. It’s all he knows, and the live-action series even shows that even though his son and widow keep getting drawn back to him his first duty is to be a cop, also believing that he can’t be a good husband when only a few organs and his face are the only thing still “human”.
Niemier also brings up Doc Brown mentioning possibly seeing Jesus in Back To The Future and Ray in Ghostbusters bringing up a Bible quote from Revelations. Again, context questions this read. Doc Brown could believe Jesus was real but not that he’s the Son Of God. The only time travel stories that I’ve seen where His Divinity is acknowledged are Christian shows like Superbook and The Flying House. As for Ray, considering all the occult material he reads he probably treats the Bible as another piece of paranormal history along the lines of the infamous Tobin’s Spirit Guide used in the movie and referenced heavily in the cartoon. I’m not saying that such references need to preach the Gospel, but it’s not an acknowledgement of God. It’s just not an outright reject like we get these days.
Now ask yourself if you would find such prominent references to Christianity in Current Year Marvel and Disney corporate death phase product.
The 80s & 90s were the last IP explosion phase fueled by Christian culture. And Cultural Ground Zero is nothing more or less than the exhaustion of that fuel.
I was already surprised when Static Shock showed Static and his family attending church in a Saturday morning show. That was 2000.
The mistake was seeing CGZ itself as the cultural crisis. Those last works of Christendom had been inviting Gen Y to look deeper for the Truth & Beauty that inspired those media. So the real crisis was Gen Y missing that invitation.
Instead of illumination, Gen Y were benighted with geekdom. Instead of entering into the true Mysteries of which their beloved pastimes were shadows, they fell into the Pop Cult.
Now, like abusive exes, the Pop Cult high priests don’t want their aging supplicants anymore.
Modern writers are certainly pushing Faith out the window of a high rise but I don’t think corporations even cared. Roma Downey getting Bible adaptations on cable channels is almost a miracle on its own. The Prince Of Egypt wasn’t designed to spread Judaism. If they can bypass the activists who hate any religion getting in their way and they can’t defame by just calling it a “culture” (once you start worshiping entities, it’s a religion) and show it will make a profit to the studios (who will be talked into forcing diversity in to get an award or because said higher-up is an “ally”), you’ll get it made. The problem is the “high priests” aren’t believers or friendly to believers. The new crop are taught to hate religion, and since religious creators have either abandoned the entertainment industry or allowed themselves to be gatekept out (let’s use their words against them when they’re guilty) it shouldn’t be a surprise.
A recent comment by Matt Walsh about how video games as a whole should die because the extremist side of the left has taken it over has met with pushback by gamers of a more right-leaning persuasion. Companies like Sweet Baby Inc have convinced these people to hate their fans and customers for not following “the message”, and other “consultants” in other media have done the same. They hate religion because Christians tend to question LGBTQ+ operations, or at least the current “champions” of coded stereotyping falsely treated as proper representation (ignoring an actual member of that community getting upset at some creators thinking “queering up everything” is a good reflection on homosexual or transexual people), tell them not to sleep around and party, and to believe in something more than themselves or almighty government. Walsh is getting treated as another Frederic Wertham or Jack Thompson, trying to kill an entire form of media because they personally don’t like it. Only replace violent or corrupting kids to commit crime with irrational social viewpoints.
Geekdom is dead.
It’s been dead for years; it just wasn’t broke yet.
The media megacorps behind Pop Cult IPs have known the ship was sinking since the middle of the last decade.
They just wanted to squeeze the last few drops of milk from the cattle before bringing in your replacements and leaving you to rot.
Reality is giving you a wake up call.
What gets me is that, like Cowan in his article, it’s not until the end that Niemier shows the flaw in this whole statement.
But the postwar artificial bottleneck has been circumvented.
Newpub and indie film and gaming have made end runs around the old gatekeepers.
And many are drawing inspiration from the pre-1980 classics that retained healthy Christian themes.
I for one have been producing that kind of morally grounded but not preachy; action-packed but not gratuitously brutal entertainment for years.
That’s the point “my people” have been making. It’s the IP that has taken a hit and dying off. DisneyFilm has ruined Star Wars, but not science fiction. People have been looking at what made the original trilogy work and trying to make something along those lines but uniquely theirs. As long as Zack Snyder’s not making it (I hear so many bad things about Rebel Moon) it has a chance. Niemier is making the type of stories he feels are missing. I started doing Captain Yuletide because I missed the specials and Christmas episodes where the heroes had to save Christmas and that was considered a good thing. Now we’re lucky if any new special calls itself a Christmas episode instead of a “holiday episode”.
Speaking of Cowan, he found Niemier’s article and made a comment of his own.
That’s just it, isn’t it. Nothing is made for younger generations anymore. The average age of Cartoon Network viewers is 29. Disney World is filled with single wine aunts and their friends. Comic Books are made for urban bugmen that live off dehumanization of the other. Video games are glorified movies for people who can’t watch films (or play games) made before 1995. Even YouTube is filled with modern junk criticism of pop entertainment that these middle-aged folks grew up with. And that’s without even getting to the endless dead IP rehash of the past decade+ we’ve been trapped in.
Not only have we been selfishly worshiping at the altar of something that shouldn’t be worshiped, we can’t even let the younger ones have anything to themselves. We like to call Baby Boomers locusts and rave about the day of the pillow, but we’re just as bad at hogging resources. As Rich Evans said, say what you want about Boomers, but they aren’t standing in line and raving about the new Howdy Doody reboot. They could let things end and move on.
The only thing I wonder is how Zoomers (and younger) who grew up without any shared culture at all are going to think when they look back at their own youth in the future. What exactly are they going to remember fondly? Because I’m sure it won’t be us.
Things I’ve been discussing. Right now preschool and elementary school kids are the only ones getting superhero shows, older kids having been written off as being obsessed with their games instead. That’s bull. Too many of these companies want to make stories for adults and treat kids stories poorly because they think kids are stupid. Comics for kids slowly died after the Comics Code Authority, which had been growing increasingly useless, dissolved and took the Comics Code with it as comics left anyplace besides a comic or book store. Video game makers see more money in making M rated games while movie makers want to make R movies for the status. And sadly there are fans all for it. Transformers for kids is limited to EarthSpark and I even question that (I found the first few episodes boring even before one of the robots declared non-binary status and the little girl had to school Optimus on what that means), while the comics haven’t been for years. I still remember when I mentioned how the Bay films weren’t for kids and some guy said “good, kids have too many things anyway”. Not so much today.
“How dare you win the costume contest!”
The lack of a shared culture in a world where segregation is being considered a good thing by the descendants of those who risked literal death to end it isn’t surprising, either. They like to compartmentalize us because it makes it easier to control and market to, whether it’s a story or a worldview. The current diversity and equity movement is less and less inclusive every day. There is also a lack of understanding as to what is for kids. I see too many people on both sides of the culture war (something else certain parties are trying to tell us doesn’t exist…I just tend to avoid it on this site unless it’s the reason the story failed) treat comics, animation, and video games as immediately for kids just by the nature of its existence, as if underground comics, Felix The Cat, and the Mortal Kombat franchise was made for a sixth grader just because it exists. That’s also a load of bull and limits what those media can be. I did a whole article series on that, “The Art Of Storytelling”, about what each form of media does better than the others, and it shouldn’t be limited to kids because it doesn’t star humans. Check out Watership Down and try to insist it was made for a third grader in either book or animated forms. If you can…you scare me and shouldn’t be allowed to choose what a kid reads or watches.
In the response article, Niemier stated the following:
To differ somewhat with JD – really Rich Evans – Boomers may not be lining up for a hypothetical Howdy Doody reboot, but they are shelling out their share of the ticket and streaming subscription money for the latest Disney slop.
He’s dead right that Gen Y are far worse in regard to disordered nostalgia and form the core of the Pop Cult.
I don’t see anything wrong with nostalgia. Speaking of Bible quotes, this one keeps popping up from 1 Corinthians 13: 11-12
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
I do not believe the context is that we put away what we enjoy ino ur maturity. I can watch Batwheels just as easily as I watch Batman: The Animated Series and still get the same enjoyment and lessons from both. A good story is where you find it. Collecting action figures isn’t the same as worshiping an idol or we wouldn’t have any statues or paintings. I have a stuffed elephant from when I was in the convalescent home, part of a get well gift from my cousin. I don’t worship it but it does bring me a sense of peace because it’s a reminder that I have family members who care about me. It’s also very cuddly for an elephant. I have a Superman figure because it reminds me of all the good things Superman stands for and why I like the character, but it isn’t as important as Jesus. I also have a glow-in-the-dark Jesus on my computer desk. You may have seen it in pictures of my desk on The Clutter Reports. It’s not Jesus and I don’t worship it, I worship the Being it represents. I don’t worship Superman but I’m reminded that with all his power he still is humble and only works for the good of people, not to dominate them. I try not to act childish (sadly I have…issues) but I do not give up seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Book of Matthew, chapter 19:
13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.
14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.
We come to Jesus like a child. We shouldn’t lose that sense of wonder about the world around us, something the Lord made. Jesus worked through stories, because that’s what parables are. Toys are not necessarily childish, though I’ve seen toy collector act like children, like the dude in Toy Story 2 (which I need to see in its entirety). Things does not make one childish. Nostalgia reminds us of a time we may want to recreate, but filtered through what we know now as an adult. Anything can be unhealthy but also be a good thing. The “Seven Deadly Sins” speak to overindulgence. We need to eat and sleep, we should be lustful for our spouse and for life in general, you don’t want to spoil the birthday surprise, you do what you need to in protecting your family from an attacker, and so on. Jesus’s first recorded miracle is turning water into wine but drunkenness is not the same as having a beer. Liberals are even starting to push back against their own extremists in the same way conservatives did eventually to Joseph McCarthy.
Geek culture isn’t childish and it isn’t dead. If we can’t reclaim the IP we can at least make sure what we loved about it lives on in the multiverse of fiction, and maybe someday we can reclaim the IP through public domain or by beating the left at their own game and slowly taking back the things we love. Geekdom isn’t anti-God. Just ask all the God followers who are part of it. Superman isn’t as important as Jesus and I balk when they try to make the case simply because Superman can juggle planets. I enjoy the adventures of the dude who juggles planets but I worship the One who made those planets.
BW Media Spotlight 
I may be misreading the article and comments I’m about to respond to, but it still makes for a good title, right?
So last night I responded to a fairly recent article by author JW Cowan declaring that geek culture wasn’t just “dead” but was never really a thing. I had my disagreements as someone who is surrounded by “geek culture”, “genre media”, or whatever term you want to call it. It’s like saying there’s no sports culture, no theater culture, no novel culture. Geek culture is simply made up of various subcultures that intersect with each other and other genres. One of the things I like about science fiction is that it can imitate other genres while still being science fiction. Murder mystery on a space colony. Romance between two alien races. Comedy adventure about a group of smugglers often in over their head but in space. (Did I mention Runners is doing the next chapter of it’s current story arc? Go read after this.) The thing about geek culture and geek entertainment is that it’s more a spin on other pop cultures than one on its own. I mentioned that remembering sports stats or fashion icons is a bit geeky when you think about it.
This all started after seeing a repost of an article by Brian Niemeier on Bleeding Fool, but we’ll be using his own blog. The post in question was a response to a previous article he wrote entitled “The Riddle Of The Pop Cult” and the comments he garnered. This will be the bulk of my response as if I read this correctly it poses an odd theory: that the death of geek culture has to do with the removal of Christianity from those media tied to geek culture. Don’t get me wrong, as a non-denominational raised Catholic (not a strict religious home but we’re believers here) and someone who is a part of geek society (I’ve always referred to myself as a demi-geek) I have noticed the stripping of faith, as the California state of mind seems to be ditching Christian values and treating them as “evil”, and guess where Hollywood and the gaming industry in the US mostly hang out.
Warner Brothers brought DC Comics to their area and out of New York, and Marvel might as well have followed when Disney bought them. I’ve seen religious views looked down upon, but does that mean pop culture is anti Christian these days?
Niemeir starts by bring up a picture from Cowan’s article.
click to open full-size in another tab
He then lists some of the things in the picture.
Maybe-ish. Hyrule has its own mythology surrounding the Triforce, three goddesses, and a cycle that always involves a Link, a Zelda, and a Ganon/Ganondorf. Zelda, and the Castlevania series someone in the comments mentions are both made in Japan, hardly the hotbed of “Jesus freaks”. (Shoutout to dc Talk.) In the case of the Castlevania games, Christian symbolism is used because that’s how vampire stories out of Europe go, not because they love the Lord. You can look at how symbols are used in Neon Genesis Evangelion or how they celebrate Christmas and see what I mean. Link having a cross on his shield and praying may well just come from the European folklore that the game based Hyrule on. While the Triforce lore could be considered a retcon they weren’t so much making Link Catholic or any other Christian denomination but were using the symbolism of European fantasy as they saw it, lacking the proper context. Again, look at Christmas in Japan.
That scene is after the latest attempt to turn a living cop into a second RoboCop, and what leads Faxx to do something stupid and put a megalomaniac drug dealer into the next robot. I don’t remember if Murphy’s faith was brought up in the remake but I don’t remember it in the sequels, various TV shows, or even the original movie beyond this. It’s only listed as one of the reasons he was able to accept his new life. The main point I see here is the “fierce sense of duty”. Murphy’s a cop. It’s all he knows, and the live-action series even shows that even though his son and widow keep getting drawn back to him his first duty is to be a cop, also believing that he can’t be a good husband when only a few organs and his face are the only thing still “human”.
Niemier also brings up Doc Brown mentioning possibly seeing Jesus in Back To The Future and Ray in Ghostbusters bringing up a Bible quote from Revelations. Again, context questions this read. Doc Brown could believe Jesus was real but not that he’s the Son Of God. The only time travel stories that I’ve seen where His Divinity is acknowledged are Christian shows like Superbook and The Flying House. As for Ray, considering all the occult material he reads he probably treats the Bible as another piece of paranormal history along the lines of the infamous Tobin’s Spirit Guide used in the movie and referenced heavily in the cartoon. I’m not saying that such references need to preach the Gospel, but it’s not an acknowledgement of God. It’s just not an outright reject like we get these days.
I was already surprised when Static Shock showed Static and his family attending church in a Saturday morning show. That was 2000.
A recent comment by Matt Walsh about how video games as a whole should die because the extremist side of the left has taken it over has met with pushback by gamers of a more right-leaning persuasion. Companies like Sweet Baby Inc have convinced these people to hate their fans and customers for not following “the message”, and other “consultants” in other media have done the same. They hate religion because Christians tend to question LGBTQ+ operations, or at least the current “champions” of coded stereotyping falsely treated as proper representation (ignoring an actual member of that community getting upset at some creators thinking “queering up everything” is a good reflection on homosexual or transexual people), tell them not to sleep around and party, and to believe in something more than themselves or almighty government. Walsh is getting treated as another Frederic Wertham or Jack Thompson, trying to kill an entire form of media because they personally don’t like it. Only replace violent or corrupting kids to commit crime with irrational social viewpoints.
What gets me is that, like Cowan in his article, it’s not until the end that Niemier shows the flaw in this whole statement.
That’s the point “my people” have been making. It’s the IP that has taken a hit and dying off. DisneyFilm has ruined Star Wars, but not science fiction. People have been looking at what made the original trilogy work and trying to make something along those lines but uniquely theirs. As long as Zack Snyder’s not making it (I hear so many bad things about Rebel Moon) it has a chance. Niemier is making the type of stories he feels are missing. I started doing Captain Yuletide because I missed the specials and Christmas episodes where the heroes had to save Christmas and that was considered a good thing. Now we’re lucky if any new special calls itself a Christmas episode instead of a “holiday episode”.
Speaking of Cowan, he found Niemier’s article and made a comment of his own.
Things I’ve been discussing. Right now preschool and elementary school kids are the only ones getting superhero shows, older kids having been written off as being obsessed with their games instead. That’s bull. Too many of these companies want to make stories for adults and treat kids stories poorly because they think kids are stupid. Comics for kids slowly died after the Comics Code Authority, which had been growing increasingly useless, dissolved and took the Comics Code with it as comics left anyplace besides a comic or book store. Video game makers see more money in making M rated games while movie makers want to make R movies for the status. And sadly there are fans all for it. Transformers for kids is limited to EarthSpark and I even question that (I found the first few episodes boring even before one of the robots declared non-binary status and the little girl had to school Optimus on what that means), while the comics haven’t been for years. I still remember when I mentioned how the Bay films weren’t for kids and some guy said “good, kids have too many things anyway”. Not so much today.
“How dare you win the costume contest!”
The lack of a shared culture in a world where segregation is being considered a good thing by the descendants of those who risked literal death to end it isn’t surprising, either. They like to compartmentalize us because it makes it easier to control and market to, whether it’s a story or a worldview. The current diversity and equity movement is less and less inclusive every day. There is also a lack of understanding as to what is for kids. I see too many people on both sides of the culture war (something else certain parties are trying to tell us doesn’t exist…I just tend to avoid it on this site unless it’s the reason the story failed) treat comics, animation, and video games as immediately for kids just by the nature of its existence, as if underground comics, Felix The Cat, and the Mortal Kombat franchise was made for a sixth grader just because it exists. That’s also a load of bull and limits what those media can be. I did a whole article series on that, “The Art Of Storytelling”, about what each form of media does better than the others, and it shouldn’t be limited to kids because it doesn’t star humans. Check out Watership Down and try to insist it was made for a third grader in either book or animated forms. If you can…you scare me and shouldn’t be allowed to choose what a kid reads or watches.
In the response article, Niemier stated the following:
I don’t see anything wrong with nostalgia. Speaking of Bible quotes, this one keeps popping up from 1 Corinthians 13: 11-12
I do not believe the context is that we put away what we enjoy ino ur maturity. I can watch Batwheels just as easily as I watch Batman: The Animated Series and still get the same enjoyment and lessons from both. A good story is where you find it. Collecting action figures isn’t the same as worshiping an idol or we wouldn’t have any statues or paintings. I have a stuffed elephant from when I was in the convalescent home, part of a get well gift from my cousin. I don’t worship it but it does bring me a sense of peace because it’s a reminder that I have family members who care about me. It’s also very cuddly for an elephant. I have a Superman figure because it reminds me of all the good things Superman stands for and why I like the character, but it isn’t as important as Jesus. I also have a glow-in-the-dark Jesus on my computer desk. You may have seen it in pictures of my desk on The Clutter Reports. It’s not Jesus and I don’t worship it, I worship the Being it represents. I don’t worship Superman but I’m reminded that with all his power he still is humble and only works for the good of people, not to dominate them. I try not to act childish (sadly I have…issues) but I do not give up seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Book of Matthew, chapter 19:
We come to Jesus like a child. We shouldn’t lose that sense of wonder about the world around us, something the Lord made. Jesus worked through stories, because that’s what parables are. Toys are not necessarily childish, though I’ve seen toy collector act like children, like the dude in Toy Story 2 (which I need to see in its entirety). Things does not make one childish. Nostalgia reminds us of a time we may want to recreate, but filtered through what we know now as an adult. Anything can be unhealthy but also be a good thing. The “Seven Deadly Sins” speak to overindulgence. We need to eat and sleep, we should be lustful for our spouse and for life in general, you don’t want to spoil the birthday surprise, you do what you need to in protecting your family from an attacker, and so on. Jesus’s first recorded miracle is turning water into wine but drunkenness is not the same as having a beer. Liberals are even starting to push back against their own extremists in the same way conservatives did eventually to Joseph McCarthy.
Geek culture isn’t childish and it isn’t dead. If we can’t reclaim the IP we can at least make sure what we loved about it lives on in the multiverse of fiction, and maybe someday we can reclaim the IP through public domain or by beating the left at their own game and slowly taking back the things we love. Geekdom isn’t anti-God. Just ask all the God followers who are part of it. Superman isn’t as important as Jesus and I balk when they try to make the case simply because Superman can juggle planets. I enjoy the adventures of the dude who juggles planets but I worship the One who made those planets.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on March 27, 2024 in Uncategorized and tagged Christianity, commentary, geek culture.
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About ShadowWing Tronix
A would be comic writer looking to organize his living space as well as his thoughts. So I have a blog for each goal. :)