Religiosity of Childhood at the Convention Center
While walking through the Seattle Convention Center for the Emerald City Comic Convention -or Eccleston for short- I had a distinct feeling. The mobs of people seemed to move in the same direction, and slowly circle around various geeky things, it felt almost religious. My mind continued to go to pilgrimages people would go on in the Middle Ages, or even today to modern Mecca. It was such a strong sensation, I decided it would best to write an essay on it.
The feeling was sort of an awkward one, since this was about things like videogames, comic books, and TV shows. After talking to a few people at the convention, I realized it was a mutually felt childhood experience. There were Oracles, great teachers, and even deities at the event. This was all surrounding the reality that people were going there to create a magical experience, and thus pushed forward a religiosity for it.
At one point as I was being pushed on, I thought about the movements around the Kabbah. This made me feel awful for even thinking about it. On one hand, we have a convention about comic books, videogames, and TV shows and the other is an incredibly holy pilgrimage. The awkward thoughts continued to kick in as I saw people look at various things, or comment about it. It was a geek gathering, not a religious moment. Yet, there were lines of people going everywhere to meet artists, or tv stars.
Using the idea of religion for a non religious thing is pretty common. If it is to promote your state, it is called nationalism. In fact, nationalism for videogames has been going on for decades. The best example is how Nintendo promoted Mario. There are also National Myths in gaming, both for those who are into the product, and those out. In fact, we can see how that applies to geekery in general.
It’s a website dedicated to promoting the idea of geek culture. Really its a bunch of people who like stuff, but the shop promotes the idea that a true geek would want something like this. Before you start stabbing me with your eyes, I totally want an 8-bit tie. There are pictures of people happily using the products.
Enjoying Game of Thrones, or Star Wars is not making a culture, or religion. Having it be a shown part of your life does. If you have to constantly prove you love Doctor Who, you may have entered in religious views.
People who are older are starting to make stories about being a geek, and how it was tougher back in the day. Thus making national myths of geek life. On that same website, there is the idea that some people are not true geeks, or that the word has no meaning now. Remember, this is about liking a TV show, a comic book, or videogame. People are openly rejecting other members of their own fandom.
I didn’t see that last part at the convention, only heard stories. In fact it is rare, but gets talked about a lot. Heck, I think I might have done some of it on accident when I first started studying gaming. I made up a dumb game of asking people about how to do stuff in common games. My attempt was to start a conversation, but I had one guy get openly hostile with me.
So, why are people doing this? Why did it almost feel like I was speaking to newly converted members of a new religion? The answer, came from a conversation while I was at my booth.
The other guys running the booth started talking about artists, and writers for comic books. One of them had just bought an inking from his favorite artists. He mentioned how this artist was drawing his own childhood. The picture was a symbol of meeting someone who touched a very personal childhood memory.
Let’s go back to the massive crowds moving through the convention center. They were all talking about things they loved, but not with the guards we usually place. I watched fully grown men stop what they were doing, and play Galaga, because that was what they played as a child. It was them recreating their childhood.
Those amazing costumes are made as a way to recreate dressing up as a child. The people taking their kids wanted to build those same memories into their own children. It worked, I saw kids hanging out with Ewoks, and Disney Princesses.
It was all a giant game of pretend, and letting the guard down to childhood wonder. No wonder people were willing to buy household items that allowed them to Geek better.
Within that same movement, we have religious figures at the convention for the wandering pilgrim. They are connected to the comic book, or TV shows directly. This can be as actors, or writers for the show. As was said earlier, the artists of a comic book -in this case Spiderman- drew someone’s childhood. He is an oracle or prophet of the grand understanding of that comic book.
While I was there a long line was made for just the actors for Whose Lines is It Anyway.
The people dressing up sometimes take on the personage of their own deity. And it was awesome.
This all created a desire to be as Geek as possible when at the convention. Thus it became a religious movement, with all of the fanfare that could be mustered for the various holy scripts -comic books- or stories. The amount of people there was staggering, and though it was about things that shouldn’t even be compared with religion, it was still there. We were all trying to relive childhood, or be childlike.
One of the common things between a Pilgrimage or Hajj and a Comic Convention is the amount of people involved. There have been more, and more rules changed to allow more people to move. Some people can’t even get to the spot they want because of the massive movements of folks in the area. Outside of the pilgrimage site is a city, with normal people living their lives, and not even noticing what is going on in a small part of town.
