Geek in Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Geek

For this week's Geek In Review, I wrote an essay about how D&D contributed to my evolution as a geek:

Papers scattered across my bed appeared to be homework to the casual observer, but to me they were people. A thief, a couple of wizards, some fighters; a party of adventurers who desperately wanted to storm The Keep on the Borderlands, but without anyone to guide them, they sat alone, trapped in the purgatory of my bedroom, straining behind college-ruled blue lines to come to life.

I tried to recruit my younger brother to play with me, but he was 7, and more interested in Monchichi. The kids in my neighborhood were more interested in football and riding bikes, so I was left to read through module B2 by myself, wandering the Caves of Chaos and dodging Lizardmen alone.

[. . .]

I sat down near this kid Simon Teele, who, thanks to the wonders of alphabetization, ended up with me and Harry Yan (the school's lone Asian kid) on field trips and fire drills, and in chapel. Simon was taller than all of us, wore his hair down into his face, and really kept to himself. He was reading an oversized book that sort of looked like a text book, filled with charts and tables.

We weren't officially friends, but I knew him well enough to make polite conversation.

"Hey," I said, "why don't you have to play dodgeball?"

"Asthma." He said.

"Lucky." I said. "I hate dodgeball."

"Everyone hates dodgeball," he said, "except Jimmie Just."

"Yeah," I said, relieved to hear someone else say out loud what I'd been thinking since fourth grade.

"Hey," I said, "what are you reading?"

He held up the book, and I saw its cover: a giant statue, illuminated by torches, sat behind an archway. Two guys were on its head, prying loose one of its jeweled eyes, as a group of people stood at the base. One was clearly a wizard, another was obviously a knight.

"Player's Handbook," he said. "Do you play D&D?"

I gasped. According to our ultra-religious school, D&D was Satanic. I looked up for teachers, but none were close to us. 100 feet away on the playground, another game of dodgeball was underway. I involuntarily flinched when I heard the hollow pang! of the ball as it skipped off the ground.

This one is really different from the other ones I've written so far. It's not an authoritative commentary, or a list of geeky things; this one is just about being a geek.

As of this writing (12:30 PST on Wednesday) the newswire is again Safe for Work, so you can check it out for the articles without any worry.

Wil Wheaton's Geek in Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Geek.