I don’t know if I’m simply ranting or not, but I think that it’s better to simply be one’s self. I don’t know much of the guys I talk to online, much less know who they really are as people, but I guess this idealized view of them from their words alone makes me much more contented with them that with the hypocrites I see everyday in real life.
I think I’m smart at the very least, and my grades when I’m a little bit serious reflect that, as well as people telling me from different walks of life that I really am smart (and no, I don’t pay them anything, they just pay compliments). I’m happy when people say that to me, because I personally think it’s true, but it always helps when people affirm what you believe in. Being lazy and being contented with being called smart may not be the ‘best’ way to live life (according to the ‘elders’), but it sure beats hypocrisy. I have, for example, an acquaintance who studies perhaps every day it is possible for him to study, and he’s arrogant, because he believes he is ’smart.’ I don’t think intelligence can be quantified with diligence or persistence: simply put, it is inherent – it is talent, and if you are one without talent, you’re nothing more than a social climber: you are nothing more than a hypocrite. Incidentally, no one tells him that he’s smart, and despite the perseverance he has given to studying the previous semester, we ended up with the same grades. (It perhaps has been a crushing blow to his ego. No matter how much he’d top me for the next years we’re in university, I can always say that though I didn’t exert as much of an effort as he had, we still got the same marks. I love silencing hypocrites.)
What, then, does this have anything to do with anime?
In real life, I admit, I am a hypocrite. Admitting that will exonerate you from the guilt of hypocrisy because you know you are and you know you have had been one. With this, I can propel myself forward by being true to myself, and that is what I find missing among anime enthusiasts. In the school, to be entirely honest, every single one of my classmates know that I love anime and despite the fact that it sometimes irks them when I keep on trying to let them watch episodes of Tsukihime or Honey and Clover perhaps, I don’t stop with my plodding, and I don’t stop being proud as an otaku. It’s because people misinterpret what anime and otaku-dom is all about. Simply to be a beacon in the darkness, an engulfing, beguiling, maddening darkness, is enough for me – despite society’s castigation and intense questioning on why I like anime even as an adult. I always reply that it’s simple. Most anime aren’t even for children.
So whenever people ask if you’re otaku, and you are, say yes! Ask them how they define otaku, however, and correct them whenever possible. Because despite otaku having negative connotations in almost every country in the world, education always helps. We shouldn’t be trying hard to disguise what we are not. That would be the greatest sin.
July 28, 2006 at 11:04 pm
You sound really unhealthy actually. Sure, you win with the formula of “Result/Effort” but in the end, so what if you worked less? Does that make you superior? Maybe. But when you don’t get superior grades, it’s just sour grapes when you apply that formula.
“if you are one without talent, you’re nothing more than a social climber: you are nothing more than a hypocrite.” You sure you phrased this correct? Basically, you said, “If you aren’t smart, you are a faker.” In other words, give up on life and cos if you didn’t have good genes, you aren’t real? Reminds me of Gattacca. Hope you saw that.
Seriously, being smart naturally is an advantage but it’s not everything.
But as Hung said, off topic posts are to be marked with the off topic marker lol.
July 28, 2006 at 11:19 pm
I’ve already mentioned that proudly revealing yourself to be otaku is one of the stupidest things you’ll ever do. That, and consuming a cup full of chocolate. But chocolate is delicious, public opinions aren’t.
It’s not that I want to, but I’m forced to. You know it, good enough. Don’t make others look at you with weird eyes.
Also, you want to silence a hypocrite, you smile at him and do nothing else. Eventually he’ll be shocked at this response. I prefer silencing critics with anything that’s handy, but there are times when you apply nonviolent yet cruel tactics to do the job. Not only is it far safer, but also renewable.
July 29, 2006 at 12:09 am
I think as a person advances through the stages of outrage at other humans beings, they tend to go one of two ways. They either continue to care about the opinion of the people around them and keep themselves at their currently level by playing to the insecurity of being alone, or whatever you want to call it, or they just stop caring. The latter is the path I tend to walk. If someone doesn’t like me, chances are I don’t afford them much more respect than I would a pile of errant leavings. If someone does like me, that’s likely also the case, but living amicably with the people around me is important, sure.
Pointing to grades is probably my first issue with the post in general. Grades no more determine intelligence than the number of books you’ve read and can run off at the mouth about. It’s a farcical way for the self-proclaimed intelligencia to establish themselves as a mental authority of some kind (vis-a-vis their decrees of what is and isn’t an intellectual undertaking, for example) and, more’s the case, verbally masturbate themselves through the due course of back-patting and agreeing of what constitutes a smart person. That being said, my grades in school were atrocious. I wouldn’t apply myself for sake of an arbitrary number when I could slack off. But then, calling it an arbitrary number makes me sound like a pompous ass, so I tend to avoid that sort of thing.
Ah, crap. Now I’m bored with writing this. Oh well, back to work then…
July 29, 2006 at 1:05 am
Nice reflective piece of writing. Its good to analyse your own thinking once in a while. It puts things into perspective, and also lets you realise how society has changed you.
Don’t let the nuances of life get to you. When life points a third finger at you, point both of yours back at it.
July 29, 2006 at 8:22 am
Luckily (or perhaps not) over here in Malaysia the anime world has pretty much intrude most of college students’ lives, so there are instances when some people would burst into my room (I live in a dorm) & saw that I’m watching a series on my computer. Either they will laugh and tease me about it, to which I laugh back since I know they don’t really view it as a wrong thing. Or they’ll pull up a chair and sit next to me & watch the series with me.
July 29, 2006 at 10:59 am
animeotaku i can definitely relate.
you think you have it bad? heck, i’m a 31 year old lawyer who absolutely loves anime.
when so called mature “adults” inevitably ask why i’m so crazy about anime, i babble stuff about anime being an artform, akin to the works of famous artists like van gogh blah blah and then they look at me funny.
i’m kinda frustrated though that people seem stuck on the idea that anime=cartoons=kid’s stuff.
ah well, live and let live ^ ^
July 29, 2006 at 9:21 pm
Mmmm… that’s so true. Everyone’s a hypocrite in some way or another.
And I can also relate to the feeling of the only person in my whole class (wait, scratch that, whole university) that knows of what Shakugan no Shana is, or what is the real name of Saber in Fsn. Most people don’t even care anyway.
But for me, it’s a tad depressing too. Being a sole otaku in my area’s not that fun.
*in Tagalog*
Me: Oi pre, kilala mo si Shana? Yung cute tsaka malufet na bida nung isang show dati-rati lang sa Japan?
Classmate: Huh? Sino yon?
Me: … Sige, sige, Naruto na nga lang ang pagusapan natin. (Sheesh, hirap pag puro dubbed anime lang ang alam ng friends ko. T_T)
August 21, 2006 at 1:01 am
Yeah, cebukitty, even though I’m a fan of anime, I probably would be surprised that you’d compare anime to art such as Van Gogh. (Especially since you’re a lawyer.) O_o But maybe it’s because I don’t watch anime that’s that type usually.
I’m not entirely sure of what was being covered in the original post regarding being an otaku and being a hypocrite.
Only covering the part of being an “otaku” in the closet, why do we necessarily have to tell everyone around us that we like anime? If we live in an Asian country such as China or Japan (instead of the USA) where anime is popular and mainstream, it might be on the same level as liking a sport like baseball.
But I think “otaku” are not really the extrovert type and so they tend to not loudly declare that they like/love anime to other people. I think the problem is more than a person who won’t come out and say that he comes out and says he likes anime, or even denies it when it’s seen that he does. Oh well, the human condition. It won’t be fixed in one day.
December 18, 2006 at 10:51 pm
[...] I’ve had my share of mindless rants (and a lot of them at that), but I cannot help but go back to that post of mine I made about a third of a year ago. Frankly, I wrote that post with a burst of hot passion, and it died simply as a burst. I’d like to reevaluate myself once more, this time trying to grasp and grapple ideas with cooler and more taciturn thinking. [...]
January 6, 2007 at 6:06 pm
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