Mapping the Human Geek-ome

Nu, the infographic Diagram of Geek Culture has been floating around the interwebs for some time. It is not the only one; keen-eyed readers will have noted that the background of this blog is Version 2.0 of the Geek Hierarchy by Lore Sjoberg from Brunching Shuttlecocks. But this is a nice one with pretty colors and I thought I would use it to log my own geekology:

(clicking should embiggen)

I have outlined in red the bubbles that I think apply to me: things that I spend time on, care about, or know more about than perhaps I otherwise might. One thing jumped out at me right away: unsurprisingly, there's very little technology stuff circled, either of the computer nerd or gamer geek variety. I've never been a take-it-apart guy with anything more complicated than the water pump assembly on 1969 Dodge Dart or a toilet with a Martian Manhunter action figure stuck in it (and both of those instances arose from necessity, not interest), and I was born too early to have the 21st-century mutant eye-hand coordination that video games require these days. But there were some other odd discrepancies.

Blogger is a red island in the middle of the IT sea. I think this more a function of the creator's categories than it is an indicator about me: blogging is really more of a literary enterprise than a technological one anymore.

You'll see that I am a Torchwood fan but not a Dr. Who fan. Wonder Wife and I loved the Torchwood series (she especially for the rampant sexuality or the hetero-, homo- and bi- varieties) but neither of us ever got into Dr. Who. We tried with The Ninth Doctor, but something about the sensibility of the series wasn't engaging. Someday, if I am ever in traction for months like a skier in a New Yorker cartoon, I'll try jumping on with the 1960s kinescopes and getting a running start at the current incarnation.

My science fiction preferences are also spotty. I consider myself neither a Trekkie nor a Star Wars fan, but the The Fifth Element is one of my favorite films. Isaac Asimov gets a nod for sure; if the chart had had Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, I could have had two more circles. I believe, as Peter Graham said, that the golden age of science fiction is twelve, and that's who I was reading then.

D&D and Figurines are too probably too far apart to indicate that for me at least those are the same hobby.

So, what's the ensign on your geek flag? Find a copy if the chart and make your own circles. Even better, buy a print of the chart from the artist, Julianna Brion, and mark that up. Then you can really wave your geek flag high.