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== == Here are opinions and answers from FAQ Farmers: * Science fiction has been treated as a "nerdy" pursuit since long before Lucas wrote Star Wars. Self-serving answers would be easy, but I think it's mainly because sci-fi (and fantasy) involve lots of imagination and made-up worlds, more than your standard western or romance novel. These were often seen as inherently childish pursuits... and the added complexity of technical knowledge or a detailed world (a la Lord of the Rings) simply turned it into an unseemly obsessive pursuit, in many people's eyes. And the fact that so many fans are teenage males reinforced the "nerd" perception. Naturally, no one bats an eye at the obsessive sports nut who can quote baseball statistics back to 1940, or the car lover who rhapsodizes about early T-bird engine specs. Those are "real" interests, regarded as both proper and manly. * I think it is because only a "nerd" would camp out outside a movie theater weeks (maybe more) before the movie comes dressed as their favorite character. Not only is that a nerd, but it is also extremely sad. * Because when the average person thinks about Star Wars, they think about a movie(s) they may or may not have liked, then they think about the freaks who live their lives within the confines of a fantasy world. Thus, that same person tends to equate all Star Wars fans with the middle-age man who lives in his parents' basement only emerging dressed as Darth Vader with a cape and lightsaber. And as the first poster hit on, our culture tends to label science fiction/fantasy genres as childish and a waste of time after a certain age. Things like this can all change as generations progress though. Fifteen years ago, you were a nerd if you even knew something called the 'Internet' existed, let alone how to acess it. And if you talked with other people on it, you were a whole other level of nerd. Now everyone and their dog 'surfs the web' and what was previously nerdy is now readily accepted as part of our culture. * Because Star Wars has all kinds of crazy stuff in it like different languages and such. But what makes it different from Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter? [I don't care much for either] but I love Star Wars. I guess it is when people start dressing like them and people make their own 'jedi' religion.

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13y ago

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