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> [W]e're all otaku now. Are we? Perhaps this is true for the people that write New Yorker articles, and a big chunk of those who read them, but from what I ca
by majos 8y ago
> [W]e're all otaku now.
Are we? Perhaps this is true for the people that write New Yorker articles, and a big chunk of those who read them, but from what I can tell most average Americans use Facebook, play basic app games, watch popular movies, and occasionally read a best-selling book. I don't see or hear about much cultivation of deep, obsessive, specific cultural interests.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- wrinkl3 8y agoAren't the American otaku basically just nerds? Their "deep, obsessive, specific cultural interests" would be things like DnD, MtG, science fiction and comic books, and their stereotype probably predates the otaku by a few decades.
- fireattack 8y agoThe original meaning of Otaku is almost identical to "nerd" IMO.
- rangibaby 8y agoOtaku (lit. “home”) The word comes from otaku spending more time at home on their hobby than hanging out with their friends, which encompasses things that would be called enthusiast or freak in English too.
- GolDDranks 8y agoThat's not true. The word otaku, while it originally means "your home", is used as a polite second person pronoun; "you". When used by men in their 20s it can be considered as too polite, to the effect that it sounds something that a socially awkward people would use. There's some other forms of "otaku speak": using the honorfic "shi" (氏) instead of the commonplace "san". This, too, sounds too formal, and thus awkward. The word "otaku" to refer nerds was coined by the writer Akio Nakamori in his essays, who used the word to refer to nerdy young males who used awkward language like that.