[PREV - SMALL_BITES]    [TOP]

DAMAGED_ORBIT

                                             October 21, 2021

An old idea of mine:

   "Though on the other hand, to
   become involved with anything
   remotely intellectual in this     This version was a line
   country there's got to be         posted to the su.etc
   something that prevents you       group, but quoted here:
   from being 'normal'.  Happy,
   healthy, socially adept people          LIBERTY
   become jocks and insurance
   salesmen."                              This insight (if I can call
                                           it that) dates back at least
This is an idea that very much             as far as 1980. I wrote an
reflects the world I grew up in,           extended essay on this in the
1970s Long Island.  Now that               log book of the Stony Brook
we're well into the "Revenge of            Science Fiction Forum.
the Nerds" era (not to mention
"The Fratboys Strike Back") the               I was trying to make the
anti-intellectualism of that era              point that while it's always
has faded away considerably.                  been an idea popular among
                                              science fiction fans that
Further, it probably seems a lot              there was something about us
less original than it did in it's             that made us superior to the
time-- computer geniuses with more            common run of humanity
than a touch of Aspberger's                   ("slans"), you could just as
Syndrome have become a cliche.                easily argue that every one
                                              of us was damaged in some
                                              way.  Yes, we were "more
    FUSED_CORE                                intelligent", but did that
                                              come first, or was it
                                              something we developed later
                                              in our isolation?
                                              A defensive strategy...

                                                 It seemed to me that it was
                                                 striking how often you'd see
                                                 people at SF conventions on
                                                 crutches.

                                                    This thesis was even less
                                                    well-recieved than I
                                                    expected.

                                                    My knack for crowd-pleasing
                                                    is often commented on.





--------
[NEXT - EPIDEMICS]