What Does It Mean to Be a Geek?何謂極客？

朱瑞旻/譯

geek

極客

Noun. Slang. A person whose interests ALWAYS take precedence over popularity or conformity. A person who displays the willingness to bear the public shame of liking some weird thing and not caring who knows it.

—GeekDad1 Jim MacQuarrie

名詞（俚語(yǔ)），做事總是憑興趣、而不是趕時(shí)髦或隨大流的人。有個(gè)與眾不同的喜好、不怕別人知道且看起來(lái)甘愿為此受到大家指指點(diǎn)點(diǎn)的人。

——“極客好父親”撰稿人吉姆·麥夸里

Back in a previous life， when I was studying for an A.M. in social sciences at the University of Chicago， I did some thinking about group formation. This was right at the end of the Balkans War2. One of the things which becomes apparent if you study history is that it is much easier to build a group identity around who is not part of the group， than it is to actually describe why people are included in a group. So for instance， Serbians found it easier after the breakup of Yugoslavia to define what it meant to be Serbian by saying they were not like Bosnians and Croats than they did to define exactly what it meant to be Serbian. This led to conflict， even though these three ethnic groups had lived peaceably in Yugoslavia for nearly fifty years. In the same way， during the period from about 1880 to 1945 one influential way Germans understood what it meant to be a good German was by describing it as everything that wasnt Jewish.

當(dāng)初我在芝加哥大學(xué)攻讀社會(huì)科學(xué)碩士學(xué)位時(shí)，對(duì)群體的形成有所思考。那時(shí)，巴爾干半島的戰(zhàn)火剛剛平息。你如果研究歷史，就會(huì)明白一點(diǎn)，基于非群體成員的特征來(lái)確定某一群體身份，要比具體描述群體成員共有的特征容易得多。例如，南斯拉夫解體之后，塞爾維亞人發(fā)現(xiàn)，基于與波斯尼亞人和克羅地亞人的不同來(lái)界定自身，比界定究竟何謂塞爾維亞人更容易。這就導(dǎo)致了沖突，盡管這三個(gè)族群曾在南斯拉夫和平相處了近50年。同樣，對(duì)于何謂正宗的德國(guó)人，在約1880年至1945年間德國(guó)人有一種理解方式影響甚廣，即具備猶太人沒(méi)有的一切品質(zhì)。

Before any of us starts feeling smug， we ought to remember this kind of identity formation for groups takes place all the time in small and large ways， whether that is in social groups， in business， or academia. When building a coherent group out of a disparate bunch of people it is much easier to say things like “that activity isnt geeky” or “you arent a geek” than to say “this is what it means to be a geek.”

在開(kāi)始自鳴得意之前，我們應(yīng)該記住，群體的這種身份形成一直在或大或小的范圍內(nèi)持續(xù)，無(wú)論社會(huì)群體、工商界還是學(xué)術(shù)界都是如此。把各色人等組建為一個(gè)和諧的群體時(shí)，說(shuō)“那個(gè)不算極客活動(dòng)”或“你不是極客”之類的話，要比說(shuō)“這樣的人謂之極客”容易得多。

I dont believe that any activity or sport can be said to be Geeky in itself. As fellow GeekDad contributor Jim MacQuarrie said in a recent email， “[a person] can be a sports geek， a Barbie geek， or a philately geek.” The quality of geekiness resides in the person， not in the activity itself.

我認(rèn)為，沒(méi)有任何一項(xiàng)活動(dòng)或運(yùn)動(dòng)本身就可以稱為極客活動(dòng)或極客運(yùn)動(dòng)。正如同為“極客爸爸”撰稿人的吉姆·麥夸里最近在一封電子郵件中所說(shuō)：“（一個(gè)人）可以是體育極客、芭比娃娃極客或集郵極客?！本邆錁O客特質(zhì)的是人，而不是活動(dòng)本身。

One of the great reasons to identify with the word “geek” is that it gives you permission to like what you like no matter what it is. Many of us self-identify as geeks because we have been put down， excluded， and hurt by others due to our interest in “uncool3” things like comic books， or board games， or computer programming.

“極客”一詞受到認(rèn)同的一大重要原因在于，它能夠讓人名正言順地愛(ài)自己的所愛(ài)，無(wú)論那是什么。我們?cè)S多人自我認(rèn)同為極客，因?yàn)槲覀冊(cè)驅(qū)β?huà)書(shū)、棋類游戲或計(jì)算機(jī)編程等“不酷”的事物感興趣而遭他人貶低、排斥和傷害。

However， as geek culture becomes more mainstream and popular， geeks are beginning to want to try to define what activities are necessary to be a true geek. As soon as we as a geek community start down that road we end up doing the same kind of cultural bullying which caused us to self-identify as geeks in the first place. When we exclude others because they lack “geek cred4” we prove we havent really learned anything from our life experiences. We are as messed up as those who looked down on us and used the term “geek” as an insult.

然而，隨著極客文化日益成為主流文化和大眾文化，極客們開(kāi)始想嘗試界定，當(dāng)個(gè)真正的極客需要從事哪些活動(dòng)。一旦我們極客社群開(kāi)始這樣去做，我們最終搞出的是文化霸凌，而最初正是這種文化霸凌使我們自我認(rèn)同為極客。因?yàn)閯e人缺乏“極客聲望”而排斥他們，意味著我們沒(méi)有真正從自己的人生經(jīng)歷中吸取任何教訓(xùn)。我們和那些曾經(jīng)看不起我們、用“極客”這個(gè)詞來(lái)侮辱我們的人一樣糟糕。

As a geek， I am really tired of the culture wars， and I hope to avoid taking part in them even if others try to drag me in. That is harder than it may sound. MacQuarrie has posted a little article on a recent controversy in the archery community. Denise Parker， the CEO of USA Archery， was quoted as saying， “archery is kind of a geek sport.” Apparently some in the archery world didnt like this label and took umbrage5 and Parker was forced to issue an apology.

作為一個(gè)極客，我真的厭倦了文化戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)，即使別人試圖把我拖入其中，我也希望避免參戰(zhàn)。這聽(tīng)起來(lái)容易，做起來(lái)難。麥夸里發(fā)布了一篇針對(duì)射箭界最近爭(zhēng)議事件的短文。文章引述了美國(guó)射箭協(xié)會(huì)首席執(zhí)行官丹尼絲·帕克的話：“可以說(shuō)，射箭是一項(xiàng)極客運(yùn)動(dòng)?！鄙浼绲囊恍┤孙@然不喜歡這個(gè)標(biāo)簽，并大為光火，于是帕克被迫發(fā)表道歉聲明。

My instant reaction is to get irritated when someone from the archery world gets angry when it is called a geek sport. Is this a bad thing？ I want to go fight for the label I embrace. But if I were to enter the fray6， I would have already lost the battle， because that whole conversation is trying to decide what content fits under the word geek. Archery isnt a geek sport any more than curling and basketball are geek sports， but there are such things as archery， curling， and basketball geeks.

當(dāng)射箭界有人因射箭被稱為極客運(yùn)動(dòng)而感到憤怒時(shí)，我的第一反應(yīng)是惱火。這是件壞事嗎？我想為我所悅納的標(biāo)簽而戰(zhàn)。但假如我參加這場(chǎng)論戰(zhàn)，我應(yīng)該已經(jīng)輸?shù)袅?，因?yàn)檎麍?chǎng)論戰(zhàn)都是在試圖確定，什么事物符合極客這個(gè)詞的含義。射箭并不是極客運(yùn)動(dòng)，正如冰壺和籃球不是極客運(yùn)動(dòng)，但是存在射箭極客、冰壺極客和籃球極客這樣的人。

The genius of Jim MacQuarries definition of the word geek is that it clearly defines what it means to be a geek without excluding anyone. It tells people to be who they want to be no matter what others say. It simply says be who you are， no matter what it costs you. And that is a definition of a geek that I can support.

吉姆·麥夸里對(duì)極客一詞的定義，其獨(dú)特之處在于既清楚地界定了何謂極客，又沒(méi)有排斥任何人。它告訴人們，成為自己想成為的人，不管別人怎么說(shuō)。說(shuō)白了，成為你自己，不管付出什么代價(jià)。而這，是我會(huì)贊同的對(duì)極客的定義。

（譯者為“《英語(yǔ)世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)撸?/p>