[Wittrs] Some Geek Philosophy (circa 2011 / 4709)
- From: kirby urner <kirby.urner@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:55:50 -0700
Something Sean wrote recently got me back to "those with
superpowers" and "those that are freaks". Where they meet
and shake hands (handshaking = establishing a protocol for
mutual exchange) is in philosophy, or so I would welcome,
so I try to get the anthropology fine tuned.
I just handed off some hard won copies of Nabil Shaban's
work in videography, though one of the best ones wasn't
able to fit. This was in the context of our study circle
on 50th and SE Belmont, a public space, a coffee shop,
hosted by a neighborhood church, same place as Terri's
birthday party.[1]
My friend and associate Trevor Blake, aka William Black
as Gadgetto, and valued speaker at Esozone, also
Portland Center Stage, made it known to me, over cider and
cigars at Greater Trumps, that he'd been led by the
documentary 'Skin Horse' to find Nabil and correspond.
Nabil, you might recall, plays the Martian in 'Wittgenstein',
the movie.
Nabil makes clear allusion to the alien nature of his own
body in 'The Alien Who Lived in the Sheds', including by
lying on a gurney in some kind of Area 51 operating room,
the iconic body recovered from the UFO.[2] He makes it
kinda scary, yet he's obviously a fun guy, more like ET.
He warns us on his Facebook page that he might even
be Communist (I brag that he's my "Face Borg" friend).
Another movie that comes to mind is 'Incredibles'. This
is about a time when superheros have to keep it under
wraps, males and females both (but lets remember, some
are heroic for their cross these lines with wild abandon).
A pseudo-super, a geek who contrives his "miracles" through
mere technology, is on the loose and remaining authentic
differently-abled are being tempted to this Island, where
they meet their doom (a giant robot) and get preserved as
Bodies, perhaps using that new rubberizing process.
Even children of superfolk are slated for such holocaust
treatment. It could be a ghoulish film, but it's done in cartoon
and is actually quite light hearted.
Alex, with whom I was sharing this burned CD, looks
somewhat like his grandfather, whom people likened to
Yul Brynner. Ah Yul, here was another kind of freak, or
superhero, a movie star. I saw him recently in
'Magic Christian', in drag, on a simulated cruise ship,
singing a love song in a bar, flirting with the guys. All the
funnier if you know the roles he usually plays -- reminds
me of Tim Curry's appearance in 'Kinsey', playing a
prudish don.
Ringo Starr co-stars in this 'Magic Christian' movie, as
the protege of Peter Sellers, with Monty Python just
beginning its career. Raquel Welch also makes an
appearance, shades of her role in 'Bedazzled' (the first
one) as 'Lust', opposite Dudley Moore.
Alex's mom one a Nobel Prize, while his dad was a top
rung scholar of Himalayan forms of Buddhism (e.g.
Tantric) and was a tutor for the current King of Bhutan's
grandfather. My dad was an employee of the latter's son,
or actually his way was being paid by Helvetas (Swiss
agency), through a grant (not a loan), and the Royal Kingdom
of Bhutan had him on staff in their Education Ministry, but
didn't have to pay his salary.[3]
He'd earlier served on staff with the Ministry of Planning in
Cairo, Egypt (where I was visiting when I started
corresponding with Bucky Fuller re general systems theory).
Even earlier in his career, he'd worked through a planning
firm in Nebraska for the Libyan government, doing zoning
and such. Our car in Italy had Nebraska plates, endlessly
confusing to Europeans ("what's a cornhusker?").
I only got to Nebraska later, on invitation of Alex's mom's
9th grade teacher (although I didn't know that at the time).
I was addressing a physics colloquium on First Person
Physics. Dr. Bob Fuller was my gracious mentor and
host.[4]
Having the young boy Wittgenstein, not shy and retreating,
play opposite Nabil, was pretty interesting. Kids have their
internalized imaginary friends, and it would make sense
that Wittgenstein's would be an alien, completely clueless
and inappropriate regarding a lot of things Earthling, but
more to the point, seemingly off about logic. Needing to
explain logic to someone that clueless might be a full
time job, and Wittgenstein grew up to be a muscle bound
logician. The movie never abandons the young boy for the
grownup however. The puer and senex remain, as
permanent fixtures, the former with his Martian colleague.
Part of the freak show, the penny alley, the pay per view,
was the boygirl, the XXY or whatever. In some genres, the
actual genitalia have to get mixed up or go through some
surgical alteration, but when it comes to being culturally
pioneering, you'll find that gender bending is just another
term for mutating more generally, at the memetic level,
where it happens faster. People may not change genetically
at any but a geological rate, genetic research notwithstanding,
but memetically they're able to "freak out" and establish new
beachheads, extending the turf of what's sustainable / viable.
The female airplane pilot, why not?
Some males seem preprogrammed to welcome the tomboy
image, whereas some females seem on the lookout for
boygirls of a different kind. There's a constant exchange
of memetic material, through style, through fashion. When
the Italians get involved, watch out, as it amps up to a next
level, whatever it may be.
In geek world, which I frequent, there might be some of this
insecurity facing the pseudo-super in 'Incredibles': he's
"on a par" with his competition only be means of prosthetics.
On the other hand, and the movie explores this, superheros
seem enormously tied to their costumes, including sometimes
that Achilles Heel: the cape. So is it really fair to say only
the pseudo-geek needs "prosthetics", in the sense of "props"...
but I digress.
What's happening in my world is both a perceived gender
imbalance, which suggests and impending shift, many new
kinds of geek (or freak), and a stratification in terms of nerds
versus geeks, the former being the more larval form of the latter.
True geeks actually tend to have excellent communications
skills and could double for diplomats in many circumstances.
The stereotype that they bathe infrequently and have approximately
zero social graces (owing to only using computers) is kept alive
for grooming / mentoring purposes (here's what not to be), but in
point of fact, the geeks are proving adept at organizing
self-government and (street) theater (these two go together).
So the pseudo-geeks or geek wannabes or geeks-to-be are
becoming the new (gnu) nerds (herds), whereas the geeks
are investing in nomadic chic again, carrying around their
devices, their iStuff, staying in touch, whether from Egypt or
Sebastopol (Sonoma County).
Geek women are morphing into more ninja types, ala Yoko Ono
and Burning Man festivals. Angelina Jolie had something to do
with it, as well as 007. Hong Kong will likely prove trend setting
and help keep the Pacific Rim economy in good shape,
fashion-wise. Portland has many stores pandering to bat women,
though the clothes tend to be fuzzier and warmer, and not
politically incorrect leathers or skins. Larry Walls made fun
of all this in one of his OSCON keynotes (a State of The Onion
speech).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3460764037/in/photostream/
James Jameson, mildly pioneering in the surgical direction,
more of a frontiersman in other directions, helped Lindsey
Walker set the tone, before leaving for bigger venues than
Portland's (like Nirel, he moved to LA). Lindsey is the resident
scholar doing some pioneering in the music department (Portland
known for that). It's through her work with Food Not Bombs that
I met Cera Monial and Satya, the latter our Buddhist monk (early
40s, from Manhattan originally, I think it was), and through them
Alex, the former more nun-like (in her 20s). Satya spent some
time in Ladakh and was eager for us all to see 'The Economics
of Happiness' when it came from (wherein Ladakh is a focus).
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2011/01/economics-of-happiness-movie-review.html
In the meantime, I've helped myself to the James Jameson memeplex
in pioneering Coffee Shops Network, a kind of Anglo-Dutch consortium
these days, a 4D Syndicate (per Fuller) with offices in Havana (S3
cartoons), patterned on Unilever in that regard (Ben & Jerry's), though
with more going on in the science fiction dimension, a trademark blend
of philosophies.
[ Coffee shops and philosophy go back, to where you can even make
jokes about Pythagoreans and bean worship. We have a similar pun in
Quakers in that a lot of us out here in the Pacific Northwest are known
as Beanites. Romany "Queen of Greenwich Village" Marie is an
inspiration, and gets credit for helping to spark the life-long
Fuller-Noguchi collaboration:
http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2009/03/serving-buzz.html
]
Art by James Jameson:
http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2009/09/coffee-shop-show.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindseywalkermusic/
More of his story:
http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2009/10/gender-bender.html
Kirby
[1] "same place as Terri's birthday party"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4964436948/in/set-72157624771920091/
(fireplace where we meet)
[2] Nabil as an Alien ('The Alien Who Lived in the Sheds') -- about
a retired barrister with some eating disorder and the students who'd
invaded his privacy, Nabil among them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/5644266218/in/photostream/
[3] http://www.grunch.net/4dsolutions/jackbio.html
[4] Dr. Bob Fuller, University of Nebraska / Lincoln,
emeritus, physics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4558979871/in/set-72157624429358659
More background anthropology:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/09/great-geek-debates-pirates-vs-ninja/
http://homer13technology.wordpress.com/
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/mediageek/news/?a=22312
http://youtu.be/2pPCkhYMQgY (ethnography of the Internet, early days)
compare with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g&feature=related
Other related posts:
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