I am not ashamed

June 17th, 2006 - 13:10 | 10 comments

Somebody called Mark left this comment on the below post about Doctor Who:

You are of course free to post about Doctor Who on your own blog.
However, my concern as with lots of otherposts on blogs listed on “bloggers for Labour” is the impression this gives to passing possible Labour voters and how it makes us look to our opponents.
At present it makes us look like sad geeks, our opponents must be pissing themselves.

I was unaware that passing possible Labour voters, as well as opponents, still think in moronic playground cliché.

When I was seven or so, somebody bought me The Ali Bongo Book of Magic. It was full of easy magic tricks using everyday objects. I loved it. Magic became my main interest. I’d practice card tricks and card sleights until I had them perfect. I discovered Davenports magic shop in London, and spent most of my spare money picking up wonderful little illusions. In hindsight, I wasn’t bad. I performed annual shows at my secondary school. I won awards at the borough talent show. I was on stage at the Midlands Arts Centre. I won the British Magical Society’s Young Magician of the Year award (not as prestigious as it sounds, but not bad), and performed for the BMS senior section. I really enjoyed being on stage and delighted in entertaining. Then, I hit puberty.

There’d always been people who made fun. That’s what happens at school. For a good number of years it didn’t bother me, but once puberty kicked in I began to care what people thought. I realised that people weren’t poking good natured fun, they were genuinely being spiteful. For anybody who said they liked the magic, there’d be two popular jocks who’d hurl insults as all their friends laughed. I began to take it to heart. It didn’t matter what anybody else said - these were the people everybody liked, the cool crowd, and they hated me.

It happened very slowly, such that I didn’t really notice it, but I began to associate the magic with being ’sad’, or ‘pathetic’. I stopped caring about it so much. I think my parents realised what was going on, but peer pressure is almost impossible to fight. My school magic shows in years 7 and 8 (when I was 13 and 14) were, in hindsight, pretty good. But years 9 and 10 were dodgy. I hadn’t put in the practice. On the final day of school I cut my least favourite teacher’s head off with a guillotine, and I entirely relied upon the illusion - the surrounding act wasn’t up to much. I remember hearing the abuse as I carried the guillotine across the playground after the show, and thinking that it just wasn’t worth it. After secondary school I dropped out of my fortnightly magic club, and never really took it up again.

It was odd. All through school I wanted to keep doing the magic, as I enjoyed it, but I became ashamed of myself for doing so. Even now when I pick up a pack of cards there’s a behind-sense of shame, that people will justifiably laugh at me, that I’m a bad example of how to be.

Sad geeks? For liking Doctor Who? Screw you. It’s seven years since I left school and I can see this attitude for what it is. The implication is that normal, intelligent people do not like Doctor Who, nor anything else that may be ‘geeky’. I should rid myself of my likes and dislikes and conform to some dreary grey gob of nothingness. But it’s not normal, intelligent people who think this. It’s people too brainless to see beyond their own perspective, or who are so afraid they might be missing something that they resort to I’m-more-popular-than-you insults. I let people rip the joy from being a magician, but now I’m older, wiser and stronger. I’m not going to pander to this miserable short-sighted crap, whether it’s from passing Labour voters, opposition readers, or Guardian columnists - and I strongly suspect that most of these people do not, in fact, think in the way suggested. You think my liking Doctor Who gives the Labour party a bad name? I think it’s that kind of attitude that belittles politics in general.

I like Superman, Star Trek, Doctor Who and Firefly. I like sci-fi novels, comics and fantasy. I like toys. I like cartoons and superheroics. I like computers, technology and science. If you think these are unworthy and something that should be mocked, the problem lies with you. Anybody who uses ‘geek’ as a term of abuse demonstrates their lack of thought. I revel in my geekery, and good-natured ribbing is fun, but cross the line and you reveal your own ignorance. To call such an attitude childish is an insult to children. It’s just stupid.

Perhaps Mark was genuinely trying to offer advice, but the last sentence sounds spiteful, to me. You want to criticise me for my political opinions? Go ahead. Want to argue religion? Fine. But attacking me for taking pleasure in that which I enjoy is pathetic.

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10 Responses to “I am not ashamed”

1 R sturgeon Jun 17th, 2006 at 1:57 pm

Bravo, magic man……fugga buncha Marks…..
2 Neil Harding Jun 17th, 2006 at 4:42 pm

It is people like Mark who are the problem in the Labour Party, not people like you Andrew. Keep up the good work. Anyway, Doctor Who probably says more about politics than the average cabinet minister nowadays and it’s a good programme so who gives a @?*@ what Mark thinks. (I am thinking of the anti-war messages etc.) This guy is talking out of his **se.

Your interest in magic is a good example. This magic experience probably taught you a lot about scepticism and how to analyse, which is probably why you recognise religious charlatans so easily. Every subject has merit, think of those who play with pure maths or cosmology (even art) with no real direction of what is it ‘useful’ for, only to discover the greatest inventions that help humanity. Think of Leonardo Da Vinci, who made no distinction between art and science, it is an artificial divide that has limited our children’s learning. It is the geeks who are the real wealth creators and useful people in this country, and they are usually not politicians or ‘businessmen’!
3 Lauren Jun 17th, 2006 at 7:59 pm

w00t.
4 Jo Jun 17th, 2006 at 10:15 pm

Someone called Mike left a vry similar comment on my blog. If there’s one thing I hare more than Labour bloggers who blog about Doctor Who, it’s people who leave the same comment on many blogs…
5 Skuds Jun 17th, 2006 at 11:06 pm

How terrible that ‘passing possible Labour voters’ might see that Labour supporters have interests outside politics, that they actually have a life, of which an interest in politics is just one aspect rather than a total obsession.

I know you are not a politician and have no intention to be, but in politicians’ blogs I would rather see that they are rounded human beings with the same interests as their constituents. One of the problems with many of our politicians is that they are political anoraks isolated from the real world. When they are on the news doing something ordinary like riding a bike or kicking a football everyone gets terribly impressed that they are able to do it.
6 Gregg Jun 18th, 2006 at 12:31 am

Yes, it’s obviously very damaging to the Labour Party for its members to be seen to be enjoying the most popular non-soap, non-footbal TV programme in the country, a Bafta award-winning and tabloid headline-grabbing show, the Christmas special of which was watched by around 1 in every 6 Britons, and the title of which was something like the seventieth most popular google search in the world last year. We’d all appear much less geeky if you posted a thorough analysis of the “And” theory of Conservatism or the Lib Dem’s latest tax proposals.
7 Tyler Jun 18th, 2006 at 1:17 am

Well said.
8 Ed Jun 18th, 2006 at 10:36 pm

I was on a train back from paintballing yesterday and one guy in the group was talking about one of his colleagues…. “he did these amazing card tricks… all the galls were like [insert expression of staring, mesmerised]… it’s a sure way to pick up girls! It’d be like:
girl: how did you go that?
bloke: buy me a drink and I’ll tell you”
(slightly edited for the web )

So uhm… I’d say jealousy.

ANyway back to the point… I guess politics is kinda like that though… if an MP is seen as a black sheep, then MP’s do get ousted. But hey… perhaps MP’s should try being honest, real people who are interested in different hobbies other than going to the gym, taking expensive holidays, occasionally attending pariliament, and walking their dogs. But yeah, I agree.
9 Ed Jun 18th, 2006 at 10:39 pm

Uhm, that last sentence or so didn’t come out right…
ANyway back to the point… I guess politics is kinda like that though… if an MP is seen as a black sheep, then that MP can & do get ousted. But hey… perhaps MP’s should try being honest, real people who are interested in different hobbies. Take the “normal posed photo’s” that show them doing “normal stuff”… perhaps they should do something else other than going to the gym, taking expensive holidays, occasionally attending pariliament, and walking their dogs.
But yeah, I agree with your point Andy.

1 B4L, and personal posts (at wongaBlog) Pingback on Jun 29th, 2006 at 11:38 am

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