Do The Sci-Fi Jive!

It seems like Sci-Fi has long been the realm of the Geeks: well, move over Geeks, 'cuz the Nerds are movin' in on your AstroStarTurf.* Only the Geeks have given such a bad name to the genre (here I am invoking images of skinny, pimple-headed boys lusting after purple alien mutants with big tits) that the Nerds refuse to acknowledge that they are even in the same hemisphere. This article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ** notes the rising popularity of once-marginalized "Science" Fiction--cheesy TV, movies, and books are now Television classics, Films, and Literature--then asking if this signals The End of Sci-Fi as the Geeks know it. From the new Battlestar Galactica to Serenity to Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days, Nerds are elevating the geeky discourse, transforming cardboard characters into real friends and foes, refusing to let a strange or otherworldly setting take the place of an actual story. Now, if You're like me (and I know You are, my loverly Blatherscopians!), You are wondering, "Would it be such a bad thing if it were The End?" I, for one, would never wish an End to the wonderfully awkward community of Imaginators creating new realms with their minds--it's the awkward part I would like to see made graceful. Gracefulness comes from comfort--comfort with one's self, one's mental capacities, and one's society. This requires the courage to examine one's self and current world in the hope to understand it, and possibly change it. Science ain't nothin' without Heart.

*Geeks have a vast depth of knowledge in a subject or area, usually related to the possibilities of science/mathematics/computers/military history/other inane, highly specific areas of history; this often borders on psychotic obsession. Geeks are marked by a lack of knowledge of current social convention (although many are fluent in Klingon dining habits or Arthurian jousting rules), including fashion, slang, and nominal conversational skills. Nerds are very similar to Geeks in interests, but have the general command of social skills and better hygiene. Also, due to this increased social awareness, Nerds will also champion the more artistic aspects of applied science, math, history, etc. in the form of the Arts/Lit/Poetry/Drama/Music/Dance, etc. Geeks might be among us, but Nerds ARE us.
**Does that seem like a horrible name for a paper to anyone else? As in, "the intelligence in Seattle is finished, done, kaput"?