Acephalous

Has neoliberalism made geeks of us all?

 

Original image by Paul Hadsall

In “On Geek Culture,” Ian Williams collapses geek and sport cultures into each other by claiming both are tribal manifestations of brand loyalty:

 

In my beloved roleplaying game circles, doxing and threats of violence over the internet occur regularly over which edition of Dungeons and Dragons people prefer. Go to any video game forum and one can see pages of arguments about which console is the “right” one to enjoy. On and on it goes, across intellectual properties and hobbies, right down to nearly breaking out in actual physical violence.

This is remarkably similar to diehard sports fan culture. It’s not merely that a disagreement exists over which consumed product is superior; it’s that the fan of the other team is an Other. This, again, blurs the lines between what we think of as geek fandom and non-geek.

On its face, the idea that geek-love for a particular franchise is the psychological equivalent of devotion to a particular athletic team makes sense: both are characterized by an over-identification with the central figures in an ongoing drama, be it the trials of a fictional protagonist or the tribulations of a team seemingly committed to never cracking .500. And in both cases, these figures are representatives of corporate media, such that it doesn’t matter to the BBC who plays the Doctor, so long as the show itself is successful, anymore than it matters to the NFL who wins the Super Bowl, so long as the game itself is an obscene encomium to American capitalism.

For Williams, the corporate nature of the objects of fandom overrides the differences between how those objects are related to. “Neoliberalism,” he claims, “has made geeks of us all: jocks, nerds, and dweebs alike,” and so he suggests that we make “a concerted effort to free the media being consumed from the corporate realm.” As sentiments go, that’s a lovely one; but as statements about reality go, it indicates that Williams isn’t remotely familiar with geek culture. That should’ve been apparent when he linked to a fight at a Star Wars club and claimed “[t]his is remarkably similar to diehard sports fan culture.”

His entire argument relies on that analogy, but his diction betrays that he lacks confidence in it. Depending on how remarkable you prefer your similarities, a honey badger is “remarkably similar” to the least chipmunk. They share a kingdom, phylum, and class, which any 19th Century naturalist will tell you means that they’re more similar than not. Ask the same 19th Century naturalist which one he’d rather be locked in a small box with, however, and you’d quickly learn that the differences between them are more significant than their similarities are remarkable. (Only one, for example, is a vainglorious carnivore.) Point being, the rare instance of verbal arguments leading to physical altercations in geek culture shouldn’t be the basis of an analogy to a sport culture in which such an escalation is common.

So, Williams’s argument on the corporate nature of geek culture relies on an analogy that only works from a logical remove so distant as to be useless. Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a corporate component to geek culture, as there certainly is, but that component operates in a vastly different way than its correlate in sport culture. If you’re a Mets fan, you watch them play on SNY or at Citifield and you purchase uniforms and gear from officially licensed MLB manufacturers. With a few notable exceptions—homemade posters or creepy homespun Mr. Met costumes—your participation in the team culture is mediated through corporate entities. You don’t often witness the melting visage of a paper-mache Mr. Met roaming the stands of Citifield, but you can’t attend a comic conference without seeing twenty Wolverines sporting alarmingly sharp-looking claws. That’s because the participatory nature of geek culture is expansive—the object originates in a corporate entity but isn’t limited to it—whereas the more you participate in sport culture, the more money you deposit in the pockets of the corporations that own it.

This is a basic fact of geek culture: while a person can participate it by buying a Batman costume officially licensed by DC Comics, he or she can also—and for the most part does—participate in it by purchasing ceramic plates and blackout drapes and transforming them into something resembling a Batsuit. I understand the desire to vilify corporations for their pernicious effect on contemporary culture, but I don’t think such condemnations require us to minimize the differences between subcultures in what, to my eyes, seems like an attempt to create a monolithic subculture. I’m not sure what good a united front of geeks and sport fans would have on American society at large, especially if the bond between them is a weak analogy based on violent tribalist tendencies.

A parable

It's fourth down and seven with two outs in the bottom of the ninth of the Super Bowl of Sport. COACH ROMNEY calls a timeout.

COACH ROMNEY: Brees, I'm going to have to take you out.

DREW BREES: Why Coach? I'm just about throw a strike-out on the winning drive!

COACH ROMNEY: I know you throw your throws at the appropriate height, but this is just too important. We need to be winning this sport.

DREW BREES: But I am winning it!

COACH ROMNEY: I mean we need to be winning it. (Sends BREES to the bench and signals to the bullpen. Enter TIM TEBOW.) I trust you know what to do with this.

TIM TEBOW: Run it to left outfield for a touchdown!

COACH ROMNEY: Exactly. Let's go win this sport!

TIM TEBOW: Jesus Christ!

JESUS CHRIST: I want no part in this.

COACH ROMNEY: Of course you do. You're our new power forward!

JESUS CHRIST: Jesus Christ.

TIM TEBOW: Jesus Christ!

How will the World Series of Sport end? I don't know either. But I guarantee it'll be entertaining.

Take my wife—please.

The party of family values seems to having problems valuing the family sport:

It’s a big, exciting experience for my wife. I have to tell you, this is Ann’s sport. I’m not even sure which day the sport goes on. She will get the chance to see it, I will not be watching the event. I hope her horse does well.

Of all the many problems with this statement, the least of them is Romney’s use of a definitive article before the word “sport.” Not that suggesting you say things like “Darling, I’ll be out performing the sport this morning” doesn’t make you sound like a caricature of a half-blind aristocrat using a mallet at crutch as he bumbles toward some wickets, mind you. Because that’s a problem. But the real problem is that it demonstrates that Romney’s willing to disavow anyone who might impede his candidacy. That he’s not sure “which day the sport goes on” isn’t an indictment of him as a candidate—it’s an indictment of him as a husband. Admittedly, I only have one wife, so I’m sure if I had—what I mean is that as someone who also only has one wife, I can’t imagine a situation in which I’d be blasé about her representing America in the Olympics, especially when I was campaigning to become the President of America.

I can only assume he’s courting the calloused husband vote here, because I can’t think of who else he’d be trying to impress with this brilliant bit of campaign rhetoric.  (Which assumes this statement is intentional, being that this is part of his charm offensive and all—but of course it isn’t. This is just garden-variety faux-machismo that Romney’s using to pander to conservatives who’d never heard the word “dressage” before but immediately associated it with vaginas.)

Today in Casual Sexism

According to one local announcer for the Houston Rockets, playing the Miami Heat is difficult because that

There are just too many holes in too many dikes and not nearly enough fingers.

His partner’s response?

You’ve got to be a real man to force your finger in a dike.

My response?

GO HEAT.

NOTE: Today was actually “last night,” and I may’ve have incorrectly transcribed “dyke” as “dike” in that second quotation there. I considered “dyke,” but since the announcer’s “hilarious” rape pun was clearly a pun, I left it as is.

They hate soccer and are racist.

Jonah Goldberg wrote something stupid. It feels like I never left. So what was it this time?

I am willing to concede that some conservatives get carried away in their anti-soccer tirades, usually just for fun, but I’d very much like to see a few more liberals admit that at least some of the soccer-mania here in the states is driven by a faddish desire to seem hip and worldly.

He’s clearly only talking about white people—and not white people like me, as I’m so attached to my Sambas I once wrote a paean to them. Now, I live in a predominantly Hispanic community—largely first and second-generation Mexican immigrants—and during the South Africa-Mexico match, I noted that I

considered it odd that everyone on Facebook is rooting for South Africa, because me and everyone else in my apartment complex are clearly rooting for Mexico. If I didn’t have to grade while half-watching, I’d be in the rec room with the rest of the complex, by which I mean: my neighbors, the gardeners, the pool guys, the cleaning women, and the office staff.

Of course, every single one of those people is clearly an illegal immigrant in Goldberg’s mind, but that’s a failure of imagination on his part. He’s unable—or, more likely, unwilling—to accept that the demographic shift in the United States is against him. When he writes:

But being told that all the smart and decent people love something is a sure way to get the Irish up in a lot of Americans.

He does so because he’s incapable of imagining an American who lacks any Irish to get up.

Moreover, he mistakenly believes that the article that started him on his anti-soccer tirade argues that “Racists Hate Soccer,” when it does nothing of the sort. (Though there is an incidental connection, as noted in my title.) He even quotes the very paragraph in which the author, Dave Zirin, argues conservative soccer-hatred is not about racism, but losing:

But maybe this isn’t just sports as avatar for their racism and imperial arrogance. Maybe their hysteria lies in something far more shallow. Maybe the real reason they lose their collective minds is simply because the USA tends to get their asses handed to them each and every World Cup.

I can imagine no better support for this argument than the fact that every four years conservatives are tremendously excited about sports infinitely more boring than they think soccer is, e.g. competitive swimming. Because so long as there is a chance for them to flex their patriotic muscles by proxy, conservatives will embrace a sport. As Zirin notes, the existence of countries like Brazil and players like Messi prohibit them from doing so.

But, to circle back to where this post started, Zirin’s article itself is a response to Glenn Beck’s comment that

It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us, it doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn’t matter how many bars open early, it doesn’t matter how many beer commercials they run, we don’t want the World Cup, we don’t like the World Cup, we don’t like soccer, we want nothing to do with it.

If Goldberg really wants people not to consider him in league with racists, he needs to explain how Beck’s “we” is inclusive enough to accommodate my soccer-mad neighbors. If he can’t—and he can’t—then he has to admit, to paraphrase what David Cross said of Irvine Spectrum when he performed there, that his imagination contains all the colors of the rainbow from white … to white.

(x-posted.)

IT'S LIKE KATRINA NEVER HAPPENED!

(Noted because celebration is not vindication, no matter what narrative the media chooses to chase down.)

The Entire Eastern Seaboard Is The New Black

I can't think of any other reason Bill Schroeder and Brian Anderson of FSN Wisconsin spent ten minutes discussing how articulate Chesapeake, Virgina native David Wright is.  As in:

"What surprises you when he talks is how articulate this young man is.  You just don't expect it."

"You're telling me this kid skipped college?  I know college graduates who aren't half as well-spoken."

"The thing you have to love about Wright is that he's always smiling that big smile of his.  He's always happy to doing his job."

Does everyone looks black when you come from Wisconsin?  I'm reminded of a passage from Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition (1901):

In order to give the visitors, ere they left Wellington New York, a pleasing impression of Southern Eastern customs, and particularly of the joyous, happy-go-lucky disposition of the Southern Eastern darky and his entire contentment with existing conditions, it was decided by the hotel management to treat them, on the last night of their visit, to a little diversion, in the shape of a genuine negro cakewalk baseball game.

Pessimism Unbounded

The 2007 New York Mets : Pennant :: Scott : Completed Dissertation

This post brought to you by the good folks here [.mp3] ... all of whom are screaming.

The 2007 National Tragedy Bowl (According to the Announcers*)

As we near the end of the first quarter, the grief-stricken LSU Tigers—"still reeling from the devastation inflicted on the great state of Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina"—are trouncing the grief-stricken Virginia Tech Hokies—"still haunted by the tragic events of last April"—by the score of fourteen to nothing. 

VT quarterback Sean Glennon is having problems concentrating in the huddle ... not because of the 90,000 rabid LSU fans screaming at him, and not because he's facing the best defense in the nation, but because he can never rid himself of the memories of that tragic day.  He prays to God someday he will, but that day is not today, as he looks completely out-thought and over-matched by this LSU defense.

Meanwhile, God—paying very close attention to this game—has decided that the 1,800 people killed by his hurricane need mourning far more than the mere thirty-two people Seung-Hui Cho murdered before taking his own life. 

Of course, it's only the end of the first quarter, and He may change His mind.

UPDATE: The Lord can count, apparently, and He feels worse about Katrina.  LSU up twenty-four to nothing.  Geaux Tigers.

UPDATE II: Three LSU linemen weighing a collective 900 lbs. stitched the Virginia Tech players a memorial quilt.  We all know how God feels about blankets.  Geaux Tigers.

*Lest the hate-mail stream in: I'm not mocking anyone except the announcers here.  They've obviously been told to be "reverent" and are trying their best ... but their best entails turning a football game into a theological disquisition on the God's will delivered with all the complexity of freshmen who've hit more bongs than books.

CFP: "Racing Thomas Jefferson"

August 4^th is "Racing Thomas Jefferson Night" at RFK Stadium.*  The Washington Nationals will face the St. Louis Cardinals, and no doubt the painful irony will be lost on most.

*How many times have I seen that very phrase follow the colon of a "CFP"?  Being English folk, I can't count that high ... but it's more than I have fingers, I assure you that. 

The First Ever Acephalous Podcast: The Eight Meme

What did you expect?   Perfection the first time around?

ESPN Coverage of Academia

Q: So you placed that article in an important journal?  How'd that happen?

A: You know, I don't know.  I mean, I worked hard, put my faith in God, and am thankful He blessed me with enough talent to understand the disembodiment of (h)empty subjectivity in '60s utopian fiction.

Q: I'm sure people ask this all the time, but how does the magic happen?  Do you sit down and let it flow?

A: Lot of people think that, but I mean, what happens is that I put in 110% effort eight days a week and send it off.  Then later someone writes some notes on it and then I take it to the next level.  I just thank God though for giving me the gift of having the ability to do that.

I Want Our Boys in the Van

Life would be so much easier if I had them.  Imagine my job talk:

Q: So what do you think the implications of this are for a Deleuzian discourse which rejects anagenetic in favor of a more rhizomatic cladogenetic theory of the dissemination of ideas in the body social?

A: Off the top of my head, I'm not sure.  I'll have our boys in the van look into it and get back to you on that one.  To get back to topic of my talk, I think [many brilliant things about the impact of evolutionary theory on turn-of-the-last-century American culture, and I relate them for approximately five minutes] ... could the gentlemen who asked the question about Deleuze please stand up?  So, one of the boys in the van is telling me that he wouldn't be so quick to align Deleuzian thought with cladogenetic accounts.  He's saying cladogenetic and anagenetic accounts are often complementary, inasmuch as the changes of the frequency of traits within a population (anagenesis) is what eventually causes speciation (cladogenesis).  He's also informed me that the word "cladogenesis" means "the origins of branches."

Tim McCarver: I did not know that.  I would have said "trees," but that would have to be seeds, which you plant in the ground.  Amazing what boys can dig up in the van these days.

Briefly Noted

• Leon!  (He's my favorite, too.)
• More blog triumphalism, courtesy of Ray. 
• The new JSTOR?  I'm a fan.
• Loosely translated: "Just because he can do it, doesn't mean you can."
• It's refreshing to have Sean back.
• I could imagine someone I live with wanting to see this.
• Reading a week's worth of unread feeds leaves me feeling scattered.

Aliis Si Licet, Tibi Non Licet

While searching for some way to explain CR's comment to Adam, I stumbled across this picture, which I feel compelled to share:

What, exactly, is that Famous Chicken up to? 

Is a professional sporting event really the best place for memento mori? 

Is the San Diego Chicken really an appropriate Reaper? 

Am I the only one baffled by this image?

Live Super Bowl XLI Blogging

Welcome to the show.  Weeks of anticipation have led to this.  Hearts will be broken.  Dreams crushed.  This will be one for the ages, folks.  It looks like we're underway. 

Fair catch called for.  We'll be right back. 

They want to pass.  Man in the slot.  The defense will have to tighten up.  They bring pressure from the corners.  He has all day back there.  What poise.  He scrambles.  Has a man open.  Launches a frozen rope.  That'll move the chains.  Here's the snap.  He feels pressure on his left.  He telegraphed that one.  There's a flag.  Some extracurricular activity after the whistle.  Choice words were exchanged.  The zebras try to sort it out.  We'll be right back.

That'll cost them.  First and a mile.  Hike.  They need to look deep.  A man is open.  He has a step.  Right in the numbers.  That is pocket presence.  Here's the snap.  Mishandled the exchange.  No fun on the bottom of the pile.  He's up with it.  Differential is so important now.  Their ratio is good.  They strip with the arms.  We'll be right back.

They want to establish the ground game.  He's had a great year.  Here's the snap.  He tries to turn the corner.  He hits the hole.  Great blocking at the point of attack.  He was overdue.  Now they want to pound it on the ground.  They won't have much success if they play one-dimensional.  Pump fake.  Looks like he's short.  Three and out.  He sends out the kicking team.

Fair catch is called for.  We'll be right back.

It is all about controlling the tempo.  They want smash-mouth.  Look how he grinds it out.  Great second effort.  He runs downhill.  They need to dominate the line.  There is some confusion in the secondary.  Safety calls time.  We'll be right back.

Here's the snap.  Cuts back against the grain.  Punches through.  You could have driven a truck though it.  I like the way he hits the hole.  This thing will be won or lost in the trenches.  There's 1,000 lbs. of beef down there.  They want to pound it on the ground.  Big things happen when you keep your legs moving.  The front four have to tighten up.  They need to make a stand here.  They show blitz.  Audible.  They're going to air it out.  Looks to his left.  Great coverage.  He hears footsteps.  Tries to run.  Has daylight.  Wow!  They put the lumber on him.  Really rang his bell.  He's slow getting up.  I hate to speculate but . . . we'll be right back.

For the Record:

This is how we should settle our philosophical differences.

(I tip my hat to a sometimes professor, recently retired.)

Under The Knife

2006 Vintage UTK

By Will Carroll

I’ll be honest. It’s been a good, long weekend and I have nothing for the intro. Powered by a 1994 Glenrothes Vintage, on to the injuries:

• Kerry Wood struck out everyone—including the peanut vendor and the visiting radio announcer—when he was in Peoria. "Unhittable," one scout told me. That same scout saw Mark Prior pitch on Monday night and struggled to find words. He sighed and groaned before finally saying something I can’t print here. "There was nothing right with him. No velocity (a max of 90). No command. No movement. No missed bats. No consistency—his stride was never the same and his arm was slow. If he wasn’t Mark Prior, I’d say he was at the right level. I have no idea what happened to him." Prior only went two innings before hitting his pitch count and now we’ll have to wait to see how he recovers. Not only did he show only a bit more velocity, but the absent control might be even more worrisome. Prior will have one more rehab start at Peoria, but at this stage, it might be time to think about slowing this down. One observer reminded me of another pitcher who lost it—Roy Halladay. It will be interesting to see if the Cubs can be as forward-looking as the Blue Jays once were.

• Looks like Acephalous got lucky.  Scott Eric Kaufman's injuries are severe but not career-threatening, and he could be back in six weeks.  Other bloggers have recovered from serious injuries more quickly, but no one will mistake Kaufman for a quick healer.  One doctor I spoke to compared his injuries to those a football player might suffer if they had Kaufman's frame and were tackled by a 790 lbs. linebacker.  "We see the same injuries, albeit not quite so severe, in young running backs who don't know how to take a tackle properly."  Kaufman's been diagnosed with a hip pointer (a deep bone bruise of the pelvis caused by compressive forces), a left oblique strain (a tearing of the of the internal oblique muscles from the undersurface of his lower ribs), and a lower lumbar sprain (a detaching of ligaments in the lower back).  He will return to the UCI Medical Center next week for another MRI and his first session with the physical trainer.  Although rest is the only real cure for these types of injuries, I think Kaufman may be back sooner than anyone expects.  UCI's doctors live on the bleeding edge of modern medicine.  "They told me to sit on a ball," Kaufman told me.

• The big blow for the Phillies on Monday wasn’t another Ryan Howard bomb, it was losing Jon Lieber to the DL. Lieber pulled up covering first—and yes, there has been a major uptick in this type of injury this season—and left an inning later. The groin strain isn’t serious, but it's certainly enough to necessitate the DL move. With a history of elbow and back problems, the Phils are right to be cautious with him, meaning they’re hoping that Cole Hamels comes back quickly.

• The Cards made the expected move, placing Chris Carpenter on the DL with a retro move. Carpenter hasn’t had any setbacks with the inflamed bursa sac in his pitching shoulder, but the roster move was necessary to keep Anthony Reyes around. This isn’t a misuse of the DL as I often rail against. In fact, this is precisely the proper use, waiting until the last minute, having the options in place, and never penalizing yourself more than necessary. There are reasons that the Cardinals have been at the top of the division for so long. They get it, on so many levels. As for Carpenter, he should be back shortly after the minimum.

• When’s the last time a game involving the Tigers was called a "playoff preview"? In this one, Derek Jeter left the game early with what the team called a "jammed hand." Jeter’s left index finger stuffed back into his hand, leading to some pain and inflammation, though he is expected to start on Tuesday. The Yankees are being very conservative with their stars, pulling both Jeter and Jason Giambi despite only slight problems in hopes of keeping them slight. As for Randy Johnson, he looked great. I’m going to take a closer look at the video once it's available and see if I can find a change I missed on the original viewing.

Special thanks and all credit non-Scott material go to Will Carroll's actual "Under the Knife" column, a must-read for all obsessive baseball fans.

Hernandez Comment Up-Ends a Century of Feminist Progress

SAN DIEGO — Mets color commentator Keith Hernandez rolled back a century of feminist progress during the second inning of Saturday's victory over the San Diego Padres. 

"I won't say women belong in the kitchen," Hernandez said, "but they don't belong in the dugout." 

The words had hardly left his mouth before professional women across the country suddenly found themselves in the kitchen preparing steamed vegetables for Mike and Little Suzy.  "Dinner's ready!" said Rose Serels, former vice president of global securities services for Chase Manhattan Bank. 

Myrna Friedman, a former partner in the soon-to-be-renamed Arlington law firm Sargeant & Friedman, agreed.  "If you don't finish your string beans," said the former litigator for the US Navy Office of General Counsel, "you won't get any desset." 

Former Chief Information Officer for Bristol-Myers Squibb, Susan O'Day, declined our request for an interview on account that it was almost bathtime.   

The woman in the dugout, former Padres' massage therapist Kelly Calabrese, was digusted and would have said something if it was her place to. 

"If God had intended me to be heard," said the spitting image of Jennifer Aniston, "He wouldn't have made me so pretty.  Now what do you think of my new eyeliner?  Do you think Jim will like it?" 

But there are some women happy with the change.  Pulitzer Prize-winner and former Times columnist Maureen Dowd noted how it would be easier to find a suitable husband now that she was a suitable wife.  "Who could love someone who didn't spend at least three hours a week cutting the crust off peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches?" 

"All those years, I spent reading books and writing columns failed to land me a Prince Charming.  A few hours a day on my knees will change that."  She added, "Scrubbing toilets.  On my knees scrubbing toilets."

Others are not sure.  "Who does that guy think he is?" asked an irate former law professor who asked not to be identified for fear her husband would retaliate for her speaking when not spoken to.  "He was as graceful around the bag as any first baseman ever to play to sport.  I give him that.  But to turn back the clock on women's issues with a single sentence?  What right does he have to do that?"

He has every right, according to legal expert Tim Dwight.  "Women these days feel a real but entirely undeserved sense of entitlement."  He then asked "Did you hear the one about the woman and the computer?  No?  So what's the difference between a woman and a computer?  You only have to punch information into a computer once."

When reached for comment, Padres manager Bruce Bochy shrugged his shoulders and said "I didn't think gender was even an issue anymore." 

And now, thanks to Keith Hernandez, it isn't.   

Best Departmental Softball Team Names

I'm on the Derridevils this year.  Here is an unapproved logo I whipped up:

Were I around when the team was named, I probably would've forwarded this suggestion:

I'm sure somewhere there's a compilation of the best departmental softball team names, but alas, I can't find it.  Further suggestions for names and/or logos are welcome.