Scribner, May 2008
Full disclosure: I was a nerd. Through elementary and middle school, I wore chunky nerd glasses and ill-chosen clothing; I was a Star Trek and a J.R.R. Tolkien devotee; I spent an entire summer learning how to program a Radio Shack TRS-80 in BASIC. I'm still a nerd in many ways - the chunky glasses, the entirely too many daily hours logged on to a computer. My clothing choices are better, but that's only because my wife has better fashion sense than my mom.
In American Nerd: The Story of My People, Benjamin Nugent divides nerds into two categories - the first being those born into the caste, with innately machinelike mannerisms, stilted and pedantic speech, and a devotion to an obscure interest (Klingon, anyone?) that goes beyond passionate. The second category are those like me, who by social exclusion, have nerd-dom thrust upon them. In American Nerd, Nugent casts a critical sociological eye upon both types of nerds, bestowing what amounts to academic attention on a subject that up until now has been treated more lightly.
Full disclosure: I was a nerd. Through elementary and middle school, I wore chunky nerd glasses and ill-chosen clothing; I was a Star Trek and a J.R.R. Tolkien devotee; I spent an entire summer learning how to program a Radio Shack TRS-80 in BASIC. I'm still a nerd in many ways - the chunky glasses, the entirely too many daily hours logged on to a computer. My clothing choices are better, but that's only because my wife has better fashion sense than my mom.
In American Nerd: The Story of My People, Benjamin Nugent divides nerds into two categories - the first being those born into the caste, with innately machinelike mannerisms, stilted and pedantic speech, and a devotion to an obscure interest (Klingon, anyone?) that goes beyond passionate. The second category are those like me, who by social exclusion, have nerd-dom thrust upon them. In American Nerd, Nugent casts a critical sociological eye upon both types of nerds, bestowing what amounts to academic attention on a subject that up until now has been treated more lightly.
Dr. Seuss coined the word "nerd," Nugent tells us, in If I Ran the Zoo (1950): "I'll sail to Ka-Troo, and bring back an IT-KUTCH, a PREEP, and a PROO, a NERKLE, a NERD, and a SEERSUCKER, too!"
Long before the name however, the nerd existed in person, and Nugent sketches a nerd history that begins with examples from Pride and Prejudice and Howard's End and eventually lands in present day Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. Along the way he visits such iconic sub-cultural landmarks as Saturday Night Live's Todd DilaMuca and Lisa Loopner (aka Bill Murray and Gilda Radner) and Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. More pointedly, he sketches the marginalization of the present-day nerd in social forces such as early twentieth century fear of office worker domesticity and the rise of the sportsman.
Long before the name however, the nerd existed in person, and Nugent sketches a nerd history that begins with examples from Pride and Prejudice and Howard's End and eventually lands in present day Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. Along the way he visits such iconic sub-cultural landmarks as Saturday Night Live's Todd DilaMuca and Lisa Loopner (aka Bill Murray and Gilda Radner) and Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. More pointedly, he sketches the marginalization of the present-day nerd in social forces such as early twentieth century fear of office worker domesticity and the rise of the sportsman.
In the book's second half, the more academic study of nerd-dom gives way to actual case studies - nerds who Nugent knew either in childhood or spent time with while doing research for American Nerd. Various sub-castes are represented here: debate nerds, anime nerds, World of Warcraft nerds, nerd hipsters, and my personal favorite, Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) nerds, a group of more than 30,000 adults worldwide who cooperatively dedicate themselves to reproducing historical crafts, trades, clothing, speech, and even wars from AD 600-1600.
Nugent walks a fine line between the personal and the academic. The sociological portions are well researched and interesting, but some of the best portions of the book are Nugent's memories of his childhood, during which he and his friends spent hours at Dungeons and Dragons, or facing-off with PVC-pipe swords in an Amherst, Massachusetts meadow. American Nerd is a quick and fascinating read for anyone with a more than passing interest in the subculture and the individuals who embody it.
