Fictional archaeologists
Jan. 22nd, 2008 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackThis came up at the emergency party at the weekend (although I can't remember why now, I think we were talking about why we like Indiana Jones). Casey and Andy comic [1] had one strip where they rated how nerdy various answers to questions was, one being "Name a fictional archaeologist". It was a good concept, although I (and I think others) disagreed with the answers somewhat.
Fortunately we realised the *real* nerd response was to immediately critique the test and start listing fictional archaeologists in order of how nerdy they are to think of first.
1. Indiana Jones. This was given as the normal response, least nerdy. After all, Indiana Jones is a mainstream classic. However, most of the geeks I know agree with that.
2. Lara Croft. This was given as a geekier response, which is probably true. Although most geeks I know think Lara Croft is a bit passe :)
3. Daniel Jackson from stargate. More obscure, and he actually is geeky himself.
4. Henry Jones, Sr. Slightly more specific than Indian.
5. Henry Jones, Jr. Strictly more geeky than "Indiana", as it requires a detailed knowledge of the series.
6. Someone from a good space-opera I hadn't read.
7. The senior Dalrymple, Earl of Scarborough, from Pippa's work in progress, it being even geekier to *write* about a momentous discovery of linguistics/archaeology.
8. Some other fictionalised *actual* archaeologist.
9. Pham Nuwen, from Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky, a software archaeologist. I was very proud of this one, I thought it wins.
But does anyone have a 10?
[1] although this strip on a similar theme is a lot more epic.
Fortunately we realised the *real* nerd response was to immediately critique the test and start listing fictional archaeologists in order of how nerdy they are to think of first.
1. Indiana Jones. This was given as the normal response, least nerdy. After all, Indiana Jones is a mainstream classic. However, most of the geeks I know agree with that.
2. Lara Croft. This was given as a geekier response, which is probably true. Although most geeks I know think Lara Croft is a bit passe :)
3. Daniel Jackson from stargate. More obscure, and he actually is geeky himself.
4. Henry Jones, Sr. Slightly more specific than Indian.
5. Henry Jones, Jr. Strictly more geeky than "Indiana", as it requires a detailed knowledge of the series.
6. Someone from a good space-opera I hadn't read.
7. The senior Dalrymple, Earl of Scarborough, from Pippa's work in progress, it being even geekier to *write* about a momentous discovery of linguistics/archaeology.
8. Some other fictionalised *actual* archaeologist.
9. Pham Nuwen, from Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky, a software archaeologist. I was very proud of this one, I thought it wins.
But does anyone have a 10?
[1] although this strip on a similar theme is a lot more epic.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-23 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-24 12:23 am (UTC)[1] Which might be slight retcon, but I don't dig too deeply into what might have happened. There must have been an original plan for the arc of the whole series, but it would have evolved over time, so the new canon is probably more valid than the old one was. And I'm interested in what could have been -- sometimes something non-canon can still hold true for characters or background if not events -- but not consumingly.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-24 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-24 02:33 pm (UTC)And she had previous been hired a few times by a big company that later turned out to be suspicious, but I can't remember what the company was.