Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2013-09-16 06:28 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2013-09-16 06:28 pm
[ SECRET POST #2449 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2449 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 041 secrets from Secret Submission Post #350.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-16 10:54 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-09-16 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-09-16 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)The majority of my science experience before my advanced degree was from high school. The school was shit, and two of my three science teachers thought that screaming at students and insulting them was good teaching methodology.
It's hard to get into something when it feels like your teachers hate your ass.
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-16 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-09-16 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)Oh, I mean I totally understand where you're coming from. I think partly his unorthodox representation sort of worked for me, though. While I'm using scientific method and all with my work, I'm sure I'd get laughed at by some more traditional scientists.
But seeing him be creative and unusual, but still indispensable to the cause, sort of made it click for me in my head. My work and my training is still needed, even if the more cliquish groups in academia would turn their noses up at me.
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-17 01:37 am (UTC)(link)you shouldn't talk yourself down either. In my experience, academia isn't cliquish at all. The most brilliant profs I've met are more impressed by good ideas and original thinking than any amount of pedigree. And I'm applied science - the pure scientists are generally cooler. Excitement is what it's all about!
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-17 04:42 am (UTC)(link)Hahaha oh god thank you, this made me laugh and feel good. I kind of know what you mean, but I'm also sort of there with Newt and Hermann and their appalling lack of resources. While my projects deal with analyzing crises and making recommendations to the gov entities, there's less than a dozen people altogether working on these projects.
Dude, fist bump for applied science! That's where I'm at, as I'm sort of the human interface for the pure science guys. And so far they haven't been at all dismissive of my skills, and very receptive of me, so I'm pretty encouraged.
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-16 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)Thank you! I hope I will.
(Not that I wasn't motivated before, the focus of the work is pretty interesting and important, so that was enough for me. I think just seeing someone as unlikely as Newt being a good scientist sort of gave me an access point. You don't have to be a certain "type" to do science.)
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-16 11:18 pm (UTC)(link)Thank you!
Secret 10 - Pacific Rim
I've recently begun work as a researcher for several government projects.
Our disciplines are really nowhere near the same, but he inspires me to be interested and motivated about my work. His enthusiasm is infectious, and I hope I can be as creative and valuable as he is in figuring stuff out and making headway for humanity.
Secret because: I never really thought science-anything would be fun/exciting, but for some reason this fictional scientist opened that up for me.
I ♥ Newt.
Re: I ♥ Newt.
(Anonymous) 2013-09-17 12:11 am (UTC)(link)That's an interesting way to look at it, comparing old and new conventions around science and scientists. I had taken it more as a theoretical vs. applied sciences kind of dichotomy, but I definitely agree that a social, chronological interpretation works well too.
(To be entirely fair, before this job came up, I had very little exposure to actualfax people as scientists; most of my crowd of people tended to be among the soldiering types. So the majority of my exposure, maybe wrongly, was through media portrayals, from movies to newscasts.)
I think probably the more inclusive, energized, creative image of Newt helped broaden my perception of "scientist". Where not everyone has to be like Hermann to be a scientist, or to have valuable contributions to a field.
Re: I ♥ Newt.
And definitely, if you look at portrayals of scientists - especially the brilliant ones - prior to the last decades or two, they fall into two distinct categories: 1.) characters of the movie's genre in a labcoat (i.e. action star in a labcoat, comedy star in a labcoat, etc) or 2.) a lot like Herman - anti-social/under-socialized, disabled somehow, so smart they don't seem to function in the real world, typically old or at least acts old, etc. That, or so eccentric they are just flat out crazy (think Doc Brown from Back to the Future). The idea that a scientist can be like Newt - random/average citizen, cool, young, energetic, etc is a new thing, and still on the uptake.
Often times, even when you do get a "cool" scientist, it ends up not being being the focus of their characters (i.e. MCU scientsts Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Jane Foster fall into this new trope of being cool or energetic, but for all of them being a scientist isn't their defining role/characteristic in the story as it is for Newt, but merely a supplement to the main roles of superheroes and love interests). With the advent of people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs entering into public consciousness - nerds, drop-outs, etc who go on to be rich and successful - we are starting to see the sciences and nerd culture become dominant and mainstream, and the perception of being a scientist is slowly but steadily following suit.
/media ramble
Re: I ♥ Newt.
(Anonymous) 2013-09-17 04:48 am (UTC)(link)Thank you for the ramble, it was very informative, an you fleshed out pretty much all of the inchoate ideas I had about media portrayals of scientists.
I especially like the point you made about the cool scientists whose focus isn't science; almost like a backlash against the earlier representation of scientists who are consumed by their work.
It was pretty amazing to have a guy in a popular movie that people could like and identify with, who loved his job, which happened to be science, and who had good points and bad points as a person.
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-17 01:38 am (UTC)(link)I'm kinda similar only - I love science but reluctantly work for the government. Newt and Hermann both make me feel a teeny tiny bit better about doing government science XD
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-17 04:28 am (UTC)(link)If I can ask, what is your focus of study?