Who's on your geek Mount Rushmore?

[payn]

My RPG list would be;
Dave Arneson, Marc Miller, Monte Cook, and James Jacobs.

 

[Clint_L]

Tolkien, Lee, Lucas, and Gygax

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insert arguments about Lee and Kirby
insert arguments about Gygax and Arneson!

Dammit.

 

[Cadence]

Dammit.

If we pretend part of being Rushmore is taking the obvious popular choice, then we can skip the arguments, right? (Even though this is on the internet and ENWorld in particular?)

 

[Tonguez]

...are awesome, but geek culture? They're too cool.

Like, above, someone cited Bowie. He would be top of my list of personal icons, cultural icons, and music icons, Mt. Rushmore for all three, but geek Rushmore?

which does raise the point of - just what is and isnt geek culture, and does it differ between differing communities?

Black Geek culture in particular is relevant here as the likes of Biz Markie, Fresh Prince Will Smith, De la Soul and more recently Childish Gambino made the stand of reclaiming intellectualism, humour and niche eccentricity into Hip-Hop rather than the gangsta stereotypes. Even going back to the Funkadelic groove of Parliament and Afrikka Bambatta you have the whole Afrofuturist aesthetic being both geek and cool

 

[BookTenTiger]

This is a really fun idea! I'm going to just do heroes of mine who are not longer with us.

Jim Henson
Ursula K LeGuin
Italo Calvino
Jack Kirby

 

[Muad'dib Pendragon]

Personal character aside:

Tolkien
Lucas: Remember Industrial Light & Magic (special effects)?
Lee
Gygax

 

[Clint_L]

If we pretend part of being Rushmore is taking the obvious popular choice, then we can skip the arguments, right? (Even though this is on the internet and ENWorld in particular?)

Yeah, but now I have to reassess my choice. Again. How culd I have left off Stan Lee?

 

[The Firebird]

For me, Lucas, Tolkien, and Gygax are so important as to demand a place. But I can see a lot of debate for the 4th slot. George Miller is a fun choice but I don't think my personal love for his work reflects his influence. Howard is worth it but little of his direct work has persisted. Lovecraft is in the same sphere but people are more familiar with his mythos than specific stories. And he might derail the thread.

Two proposals I like: looking back, Jules Verne was both extremely influential and still read reasonably widely; there is a new movie for 20,000 leagues coming out. And maybe a more personal choice, Michael Crichton combined the sci Fi of Verne and Wells with the adventure stories of Howard and was my entry point into the genre.

Might also consider Suzanne Collins or Rick Riordan for a more modern twist.

 

[GM Lent]

Weis & Hickman
James Gunn
James Cameron
Wolfgang Baur

All white, almost all men . If Weis & Hickman have to count as two (which would be fair), I'd drop James Gunn.

 

[môrgondír]

Michael Collins, Michael Palin, Mike Oldfield, & Michael J. Nelson