SWA11

When reading Oswalt’s article, it quickly becomes clear that he was, by popular definition, a geek in the 1980’s. Reading further, however, it becomes even more glaringly obvious that he is not ready to let go of that status. Whether it is intentional or not, his misuse of the term “otaku” is one indicator of this. At first, he uses the term as it is meant to be used- talking about people with very strong interests in video games or anime. When he brings it into modern times, however, he completely corrupts it. Although “otaku” can technically be applied to any borderline obsessive interest, in the modern world it is almost universally applied only to those who are into anime, manga, or video games. When Oswalt starts complaining that “all America is otaku”, it becomes clear that he is bitter about some of his old interests falling into the mainstream. What he fails to point out is that being familiar with something does not make a person an otaku. Someone who saw a movie such as Green Lantern is not automatically an otaku in the field of comic books, they just happened to see the movie. There is a large difference between familiarity and extensive knowledge, but Oswalt never makes reference to this. If anything, he should be glad that more and more people are being exposed to things that made his childhood enjoyable, but instead he frowns upon the idea like a music snob angry that a favorite band has suddenly become mainstream.