[pillowkusis]

Ludwig is memorable to me because he stands out as the essential Nerd long, long before it was OK to be a nerd.

Ludwig’s life was tragic largely because he was so far from society’s norms and expectations. Gay, uninterested in his family’s court, definitely not neurotypical (his brother was likely schizophrenic) and unquestionably nerdy; in the early 1800s, he defied basically every expectation society had of him and paid the price by being deeply unhappy, getting overthrown, and dying in his 30s. He’s a patron saint and martyr of Nerd-dom, almost, although of course the history is more nuanced than that.

His story serves as a reminder of how good us nerds (and anyone outside the “norm”) have it now. Being obsessed with art, opera, science, or computers just makes you a super-fan — there’s a website, subreddit, and convention just for people like you. Computers and the Internet made nerds like Bill Gates cool, and enabled all of us outside of societal norms to find and accept each other. I’m sorry Ludwig never got to post at wagner-fan-forums.com. He would have liked it there.