Geeks I Have Known

But first a disclaimer: even I, with my conflict allergies, can see that there is real benefit to the scalpel-like thrust of sarcasm. It can cut away some serious spiritual cancers. Even the Bible backs this one up: think of the story of Elijah with the prophets of Baal, or some of God’s dialogue with wayward Israel through the prophets. It must be admitted that, as much as they fumed, Barbara Buncle’s neighbors actually benefitted from her well-sharpened pencil. However, what doctor rushes to surgery straight off, or uses only his scalpel?

Be unstintingly realistic, but (in keeping with the Golden Rule) show a gleam of who God created your character to be. Show him as redeemable, for the sake of the reader who recognizes his own tendencies in that grotesque portrait. In other words, “be kind to your web-footed friends,” because someone in your audience may have duck feet too.

The above principle is actually sound literary practice. Ever heard of a “flat” character? It’s one who is either so unrelievedly good that he’s nauseating, or else is so melodramatically bad that he’s a downright caricature.

Of course, in real life, people do take such a dislike to other people that they can see no good in them. Thus the fact that Anne of Green Gables separates the people she knows into “kindred spirits” and those who “know not Joseph” is perfectly believable fiction. Still, I suspect that the best way to deal with geeks, nerds, dweebs, twits, boors, and bullies – whether real or imagined – is the following:

Remember C.S. Lewis’ tragic man in The Great Divorce and address the real man, not the puppet he is trying to pass off as himself. No matter how tiny the real guy is, notice him into greater and greater and greater size!