#nerd lessons

We love our fandoms. For those on the outside looking in, it may be their impulse to discount our devotion as superficial or childish. That’s because they don’t understand or see how nerdom has effected us. At BNP, we know that comics and movies and anime and cosplay does so much more than entertain us, it shapes us; we learn what kind of people we want to be—and who exactly we are fighting against becoming. We sent out that bat signal, we sent out notice for an open call for submissions on what nerd lessons you learned and y’all answered the call.

The Author of This Piece and Teacher for This Nerd Lesson : Fadhili Samba, @FadhiliTheOne

January 5th 2017. Walking through the bookstore with a friend before (finally) watching Moana, my footsteps take me once again to the manga section, first bookshelf, bottom left. There it is: the entire Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series in all its glory. My fingers instantly grab book twelve and I flip through the pages directly to the last picture.

‘’Are you going to buy it?’’ my friend asks. In an instant my head flashes 365 days in the past.

FLASHBACK

I was 18 years old and in my first year of post-secondary education when I first got into cosplaying. Looking back at my high school days, I can say that although my high school was quite diverse, the special arts program it offered (and that I was part of) was composed primarily of Caucasian students. And my community college program was divided into two distinct groups of students: middle-aged immigrant mothers who came to Canada to get a better life or young Caucasians from deep suburban areas who think it’s okay to ask a Black person if “they speak ghetto at home.” In other words: not the ideal situation to discover oneself, especially when you’re a Black young woman. But that was almost four years ago.

2016 eventually came around. I was twenty turning twenty-one. I was now a University student. I now had access to all these different clubs and events that catered directly to my need for self-discovery. For the first time I was allowed to explore every facet of myself without restrictions. I used that opportunity to explore my Blackness in all the possible ways it could manifest itself. I performed my first spoken words at a campus event, got familiar with using traditional fabrics to make clothes, and started reading and following important Black figures of entertainment, media, and politics. But I still didn’t have a way to tackle my inner nerd.

That same year, I borrowed a book at my local library entitled Transformers Exodus by Alex Irvine. The book explains how the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons started. I was reading the speech that Orion Pax gives to the high council – the speech that would turn him into Optimus Prime – and something he said clicked instantly in my mind: “If castes and Guilds fight change, they fight our own nature – and the nature of Cybertron itself. The absence of change is not stability. It is entropy. Only dead things stay the same.”

ENTROPY. THE STATE BETWEEN ORDER AND DISORDER.

That’s what I had become: I was slowly but gradually making my way into a mental chaos caused by a lack of access to proper representation. I wanted to be seen outside the stereotypes so badly that I was going insane. But hopefully for me, things were changing. I could see the shift happening in front of me and within me. Somehow, I landed on a Twitter trend that changed everything: #28daysofblackcosplay. 28 days that, along with Orion Pax’s speech, changed my perception of the nerd community and of myself.

From My first cosplaying efforts: (Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy Oh Haruhi Suzumiya, [Photo Credit: Droo Photography]

We love our fandoms. For those on the outside looking in, it may be their impulse to discount our devotion as superficial or childish. That’s because they don’t understand or see how nerdom has effected us. At BNP, we know that comics and movies and anime and cosplay does so much more than entertain us, it shapes us; we learn what kind of people we want to be—and who exactly we are fighting against becoming. We sent out that bat signal in the form of an open call for submissions. We asked what nerd lessons you’ve learned and y’all answered the call.

The Author of This Piece and Teacher for This Nerd Lesson: Brittany Maddox, @AtariGems

More than I care to admit, I have to assert myself each and everyday I step into the world. There are moments like being the only black person or the only feminist in the class where I have to defend my humanity. Often times, in my field of study, I find myself fighting. Loneliness is something I know too well; it’s something that grips me as an adult female blerd. Struggling to find my voice in spaces that often are androcentric or too white, I have to push on. With doom days upon, I clutch closely to spaces that affirm my identity. I have to assert that I matter and what I have to offer the world matters despite the odds.

Times like this I recall on the lessons I learned from Ghibli Heroines.

Their stories didn’t begin or end with ivory towers; no pixie dust, glass slippers, or fairy godmothers for them to find. While Disney films were vastly centered around medieval Europe, the worlds of Studio Ghibli often juxtaposed Japanese mythology and fairytales with backdrops of magical realism. No obnoxious singalongs or unbearable villains to be found, just ordinary girls faced with extraordinary problems. They were often alone, with the help of very few friends, but most of their battles, whether spiritual or literal, always had the girls triumph on their own terms.

The girls of Ghibli were often employed, working in shops and gardens, and also pursuing science as teenage girls, but never sacrificing their personal autonomy. The quirky, brave, and independent girls of Ghibli are often forgotten. The heroines crafted by Hayao Miyazaki held a space in my heart and often shaped how I viewed the world.

We love our fandoms. For those on the outside looking in, it may be their impulse to discount our devotion as superficial or childish. That’s because they don’t understand or see how nerdom has effected us. At BNP, we know that comics and movies and anime and cosplay does so much more than entertain us, it shapes us; we learn what kind of people we want to be—and who exactly we are fighting against becoming. We sent out that bat signal, we sent out notice for an open call for submissions on what nerd lessons you learned and y’all answered the call.

The Author of This Piece and Teacher for This Nerd Lesson : Aurelius Raines II @aureliusraines2

When I was in elementary school, I had to get a new jacket every spring. It was usually a nylon windbreaker. Just enough to keep the chill out. So whenever we went shopping for my jacket, I tried to make sure that the jacket I got was some shade of red. This was important. My mom didn’t know why. She knew I was artistically inclined but I was never overly particular about the color of my clothes.

What my mother did not know was that, when I got to school, and the recess bell rang, I would grab my jacket and run behind the fieldhouse at Hiram Belding Elementary school. And when no one was looking, I would take off the jacket, tie the sleeves around my neck, and become Superman! With my arms in front of me, I would fly around the playground. Landing on benches. Saving everybody from everything. Standing on the merry-go-round, my arms akimbo.

For a while, it’s been popular to imagine Superman as a narcissist in a cape, a man slightly corrupted by his immense power, and an icon of white male privilege. The virtuous Superman of the mid-twentieth century has been derided as unrealistic and socially irrelevant. But I liked Superman, when I was a kid. It seemed after Superman’s death, he was resurrected and there was a constant need to keep reinventing him in an effort to make him relevant. New powers, long hair, and, eventually, a mild smugness in his power.

I have to say, a Superman who is not afraid to abuse his power… just a little… has always scared me. Even his new costume seems to make him look a little more like a dictator in his dress uniform. All it needs is epaulets. He is a frightening tension between id and superego. And the more they tried to make Superman relevant, the less interested I became in him.

We all know what we would be like if we were given his powers. Given the power of mass communication via Internet, we have become a people who give little thought before publicly humiliating someone who disagrees with us.

We all know what we would be like if we were given his powers…

We are so secure in our assertions that we are “right” that we don’t take time to consider if the power that we bring to bear is justified by the transgression. We are hostile to the suggestion that we might be over-reacting or not being fair-minded.

What would the world be like if we had heat vision? That is what Superman is becoming.

A regular guy with heat vision.

Terrifying.

We love our fandoms. For those on the outside looking in, it may be their impulse to discount our devotion as superficial or childish. That’s because they don’t understand or see how nerdom has effected us. At BNP, we know that comics and movies and anime and cosplay does so much more than entertain us, it shapes us; we learn what kind of people we want to be—and who exactly we are fighting against becoming. We sent out that bat signal, we sent out notice for an open call for submissions on what nerd lessons you learned and y’all answered the call.

The Author of This Piece and Teacher for This Nerd Lesson : Drew Fletcher

My name is Drew Fletcher and I am a geek, nerd, blerd, bleek (copyright if sounding cool) or whatever sounds good with bl attached to it. Without knowing it, I’m sure my geekdom like others started with Toonami. Toonami was the gate way drug that people don’t realize they were taking. There was no better beginning to my geekdom: Tenchi Muyo, Gundam Wing, Dragonball Z, Salior Moon, Outlaw Star, the list keeps going. Anime has been there for me as long as I could remember. So many lessons and so many fillers. Before going into my awesome morals that I certainly have, I must address the yang part of my geekdom: video games. That started with the slim Red Gameboy. I went from playing Tetris in black and white by myself to now playing Overwatch with trolls. The lessons I learned from my hobbies/ passions are simple but solid.

One lesson I learned is that heroes are made not born (most times). I mean look at my favorite heroes, Mario and Sonic. Mario is a plumber my friends, snaking one pipe at a time. A hero is born when his main squeeze Peach is taken. When it comes to Sonic, all he wants to do is run and eat. That’s it, but a cranky old man keeps wanting to conquer the world. Then somehow with all that going on they do the Olympics. True heroes, to me at least, but what about us normal folk? It’s as simple as being there for your friends when they are sad or turning Super Saiyan when they get blown up.

Unlike my last example being a hero doesn’t need to be grand. I remember I went to an old person’s home in high school for community service. They had a party for the senior citizens and I was asked to dance. I danced literally in circles with this lady for about what seemed like forever. But I looked at her and she just seemed so happy. When I saw her smile, it made the whole trip worth it. My years of two stepping in a circle finally had meaning.

Another lesson I learned from one sage known as Miyamoto is to try, try, try again.

Another lesson I learned from one sage known as Miyamoto is to try, try, try again. The whole Mario series is based upon this and the inability to pay for castle security insurance. Mario jumps through different worlds constantly saving Peach and all for what….a cheek kiss?! That aside gamers, no matter how many times they get fire balled or run into Grombas keep trying. The will to keep going even after failing is powerful. Life has no reset and not many second chances. I have experienced loss, defeat and powerlessness. Whether I contribute the will to continue to my family, friends or my secret Super Mushroom I nibble on from time to time, I keep going.

Happy New Year, y’all.

I type that knowing that it might not be that happy, that many of us are scared and angry and gearing up for the political fight that we know is coming – the fight that is already here.

It also means that we are just getting past the annual faux-religious based outrage about which good natured greeting you use with strangers.

It means that because we cannot stop or reverse time, we might be making with New Year’s resolutions, thinking about the kind of person we want to be. Resolutions are part wishful thinking, part personal ambition, and partly a way to reveal who we see ourselves to be.

And that makes me wonder who you want to be and why. At BNP, we’re curious about how your nerdom helps you decide what kind of person you want to be. Our contributor Keith realized, as he examined his relationship with religion and his personal nerdom, he could get “moral direction” from comics, from anime, from his binge-watching habit.

So we want to know what character, show, book, or universe has influenced your personal philosophy or code and how. Is there a particular lesson that you’ve learned and applied in your life?

We’ll be accepting submissions today through midnight on January 31st at [email protected]. We want to know how nerdom has impacted your moral compass. If you give us 1000 – 1,500 words, and make it interesting, we may publish it on the site. We can’t promise to publish everything we receive, but we will pick as many as we can.