Geeks and Cabbage

Oswalt defines the term nerd as someone who is an outcast of society, is alone with no friends, and therefore has makes up a culture that is different from the nerd next to him or her. He then defines otaku as a person who lives in their own tight knit separate world who has changing interest that are radically different from the rest of society. Then Oswalt defines geek as someone who is an American otaku and who has certain interests that helps them identify with certain people. The reason for him to define these terms were to identify the difference between a nerd and a geek, so he could argue his reason that in order for geek culture to have real substance and to survive, as it once was, is to break away from popular culture and to destroy current geek culture all together. The main reason for Mr. Oswalt having a problem with popular culture adopting parts of geek culture is because popular culture is that it is exploiting the things that feel scared to him and he does not want to accept that other people could like the same things that he does. I do not agree with Mr. Oswalt’s argument about geek culture being taken over by popular culture because geek culture is evolving and growing too fast for popular culture to catch up to it. Also, it will take a long time for popular culture to find and try to exploit geek culture, and geeks will vote with their wallets if they believe that something they feel scared is being taken in the wrong direction by popular culture. In conclusion it may to easier to pose as a geek, but with the infinite space of the internet it will be even harder for geekiness to be normal.

Supermarket Pastoral is when supermarkets use advertisements to promote organic produce and animal products by saying that these products came from fresh and open fields and farms. Pollan is talking about it because he finds it strange that supermarkets need to advertise their products this way instead of letting the best tasting food to be the decider of what people will buy. He is also trying to expose how the culture organic agriculture only exists because the super markets tend to find that is what the customer wants. This says about the culture of organic agriculture is mostly filled with sell outs who are only trying to make the customer feel like they are getting a good product that has been grown or raised in the best possible conditions. Instead of promoting the practice of creating a real way for food to be produced and raised in a way that is a true natural process.