Category Archives: geek cultures

PBS Documentary: Four Days at Dragon*Con

March 26th, 2011 | Posted in conventions, Dragon*Con, fan cultures, fantasy, geek cultures, science fiction

Thanks to the email list for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts I learned about a documentary that will be broadcast courtesy of American Public Television. The documentary is titled Four Days at Dragon*Con. From The APT website: Every Labor Day weekend, tens of thousands descend upon Atlanta for the largest convention […]

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My Best Friend is a Wookie: One Boy’s Journey to Find His Place in the Galaxy

November 14th, 2010 | Posted in fan cultures, fantasy, geek cultures, Star Wars

Being a person on a lifelong journey with the fantastic I am always interested in the similar journeys of others. One day while following the book promotion of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks by Ethan Gilsdorf I was pleased to hear of another writer who chronicled a similar journey. Tony Pacitti describes his story in […]

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James Cameron Interview: Avatar Canon, Pandora Depression, and “Geek Cred”

September 14th, 2010 | Posted in Avatar, fan cultures, geek cultures, James Cameron, religion

There was an interview with James Cameron in August in Entertainment Weekly that just came to my attention. I found three items in the piece of interest. First, an interesting question is asked about what may be referred to as the “cinematic canon.” The interviewer, Benjamin Svetkey, asked about the new version of Avatar with […]

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Christopher Knowles: Gods and Geeks in American Pop Culture

August 29th, 2010 | Posted in comics, fan cultures, geek cultures, myths, Paganism, pop culture, superheroes

Patheos is a website that presents information on a variety of religious traditions. Over the course of the summer months the site has been looking at what the future holds for these religions, and in a recent focus on Paganism an essay was included that dovetails with the focus of TheoFantastique. Christopher Knowles wrote a […]

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WIRED: Is Being a Geek a Personality Trait or a Way of Life?

August 9th, 2010 | Posted in fan cultures, fantasy, geek cultures, science fiction

There is an interesting post that came to my attention today while checking my daily Google searches for topics related to the fantastic. The source for the post is in the WIRED blog “GeekDad.” The article is by Curtis Silver is titled “Is Being a Geek a Personality Trait or a Way of Life?”. In […]

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Review and Commentary: Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

March 7th, 2010 | Posted in Dungeons & Dragons, fan cultures, fantasy, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, fantasy role playing games, geek cultures

Not long ago while I was reflecting on the layers of significance underlying Avatar and its connection to fantasy, I first became aware, through Cinefantastique Online, of an article by Ethan Gilsdorf touching on these topics which he had written for Psychology Today. I was intrigued by the insights that Gilsdorf brought to the subject […]

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Avatar’s Pandora Depresses Some Viewers: Utopia, Escape and the Realized Ideal

January 13th, 2010 | Posted in Avatar, fan cultures, fantasy, geek cultures, habitus, science fiction, utopia

A recent article at CNN Entertainment presents some disturbing viewer reactions to James Cameron’s Avatar. In a piece titled “Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues,” Jo Piazza reports that some audience members have become seriously depressed and even suicidal after watching the film when contrasting the real-world situation of Earth with the beauty of the science fiction/fantasy […]

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And the Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, or at Least Lead Pop Culture

April 29th, 2009 | Posted in fan cultures, geek cultures, science fiction, Star Trek

When I grew up in the 1970s I had to work hard to nurture my love for the fantastic, my ever-present “inner geek,” if you will. In those days I was too young early on to be able to see the few films of the fantastic in the theaters, and like everyone else my family only had […]

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Darkon: Documentary on Fantasy Role Playing Game

July 3rd, 2007 | Posted in Darkon, fan cultures, fantasy, fantasy role playing games, geek cultures

At the recent Cornerstone Festival I had the opportunity to facilitate a film discussion in the Flickerings area surrounding a documentary Darkon that is based upon the fantasy role playing (FRP) game of the same name. It wasn’t until I viewed this film that I realized that FRP gaming goes beyond board games and the […]

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Star Trek Conventions as Sacred Pilgrimage

January 31st, 2007 | Posted in fan cultures, geek cultures, pilgrimage, Star Trek

I have been doing some reading on anthroplogy of pilgrimage. One particularly helpful book has been Intersecting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism, Ellen Badone and Sharon R. Roseman, eds. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004). One of the more interesting chapters in the book is “Pilgrimage and the IDIC Ethic: Exploring […]

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