What do the books of Terry Pratchett, the film Iron Man 3 and the video game Grand Theft Auto V have in common? The answer is that they are all regarded as “geek” pursuits, and therefore not part of the cultural mainstream. That is bizarre: Mr Pratchett has sold more than 70m copies of his Discworld series of novels. Iron Man 3 , based on a character from Marvel Comics, has the best box-office receipts of any movie this year. And Grand Theft Auto V, released yesterday by Rockstar of Edinburgh, is expected to take more than $1bn in sales.
泰瑞•普莱契(Terry Pratchett)写的书、电影《钢铁侠3》(Iron Man 3)与电子游戏《侠盗猎车手5》(Grand Theft Auto V)有什么共同点？答案是，它们都被当作“极客”的消遣，因而进入不了主流文化的范畴。这很奇怪：普莱契的《碟形世界》(Discworld)系列小说卖出了7000万本。根据漫威漫画(Marvel Comics)作品中人物改编的《钢铁侠3》，其票房收入超过了今年所有的电影。昨日由爱丁堡的Rockstar推出的《侠盗猎车手5》预计销售额将高于10亿美元。