Today is the 143rd birthday of H. G. Wells, the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau and dozens of other lesser known works. Though he’s responsible for inventing many of the most-known tropes of the genre, Wells thought of himself not as a genre writer but as a social commentator. This National Geographic article, for instance, quotes a telescope maker as saying “One of the jobs of science fiction writers is not so much to predict the future as to prevent the future. In that regard, Wells did a very good job.”

Apparently, and mind-bogglingly, H. G. Wells is also the man responsible not only for modern science fiction but also for table-top wargaming, which eventually led to the creation of things like Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer 40K and World of Warcraft. No sh*t!

Let us salute one of the fathers of all nerddom!

No, the above picture is not a Cosplayer, Ren Faire-attendee, 4-Chaner, LARPer or furry. That’s an Alpine villager dressed as a Perchten, an attendant of the Slovenian goddess Frau Perchta or Pehta Baba. The costume is part of a midwinter ceremony in which villagers dressed as Perchten tromp through town to scare away evil spirits and stray dead souls.

Wikipedia says:

Originally, the word Perchten (plural of Perchta) referred to the female masks representing the entourage of Frau Perchta or Pehta Baba as is known in Slovenia, an ancient goddess (some claim a connection to the Nordic goddess Freyja, though this is uncertain). Traditionally, the masks were displayed in processions (Perchtenlauf) during the last week of December and first week of January, and particularly on 6 January. The costume consists of a brown wooden mask and brown or white sheep’s skin… The Roman Catholic Church attempted to prohibit the sometimes rampant practise in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but later condoned it, resulting in a revival.

Which is evidence to me that being born 800 years before the release of World of Warcraft is no reason not to start playing.

I often suspect that nerd culture, a large majority of which looks to pagan Europe for inspiration?