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Aug
29
The Weekend Review: American Nerd by Benjamin Nugent
2009 at 10am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Weekends are busy, right? So I’m trying this new format for weekend reviews, more of a quick hit approach. Tell me what you think!
Now available in paperback from Scribner (a division of Simon and Schuster)
The Quick & Dirty
Former nerd Benjamin Nugent sets out to “take a serious approach to a subject usually treated lightly, which is a nerdy thing to do.” American Nerd is a sociological exploration of the history, subcultures, rules, and rituals of nerdiness in which Nugent examines media depictions of nerdiness and their impact on how we conceptualize nerds and nerd culture(s).
The Big Ideas
“Nerdiness isn’t really a matter of intellectualism and social awkardness.” Instead, Nugent contends that there are two types of nerds: a mostly male group who are intellectual in a way that is perceived as machinelike—capable of thinking but not feeling—and that cripples their ability to socialize and a group comprised equally of males and females who are made nerds “by sheer force of social exclusion.”
Many groups of nerds are united by a desire to remove the ambiguity from human interactions and spoken language. This contributes to their appearance of being machinelike and to the idea that many nerds prefer computers over people. It also contributes to nerds’ preferences for games like Dungeons & Dragons and for “rule-bound, rational communication.” But there are things going on beneath the surface that compel individuals to seek out these types of groups and interactions. Nugent recounts knowing several nerds whose homelives were so unstable that the appeal of fantasy games and “a heavily rule-bound universe” become easily understandable. So, nerdiness is not necessarily inborn; it can be a product of nurture just as much as it is of nature.
Society’s distinctions between thinking and feeling “making people who are good at reasoning…appear as if they’re not entitled to a normal emotional life.” Nerds know that other people accept this dualism, and when they accept it themselves and become concerned with how others perceive them, they become self-loathing. Enter the self-fulfilling prophecy through which nerds come to believe they are incapable of social interaction, through which they buy into society’s denial of their sexuality and interpersonal needs. This is a problem.
But nerds need love too! And high school debate competitions are evidence of this. Why? Because debate is fun, but it “is also something nerds do in order to meet other nerds they can hit on.” The second part of American Nerd, titled “Among the Nerds,” is more memoir than sociological study, and Nugent’s account of a debate competition is quite humorous.
Though often arbitrary, some definitions and depictions of nerdiness serve social and political functions. Nugent explores the history of the word nerd and its association with various racial and ethnic groups, showing that nerdiness is a stop along the road to prosperity. When new groups first come to America, they often work jobs that consist mostly of unthinking activity—menial tasks and manual labor. Then they study hard and swing to the other end of the spectrum by becoming nerdy before finally reaching the destination of WASPy well-roundedness. Of course, not all groups follow this trajectory, but it’s an interesting idea. Groups in power have sought to depict other groups as nerdy as a way to make them less of a threat.
Other Fun Stuff
- Nugent credits Saturday Night Live with being most influential in defining modern representations of nerds, and he gives the TV series Freaks and Geeks credit for showing that nerds are people, too. It “took a network audience accustomed to hot people solving problems and instead asked them to find beauty in unhot people learning to deal with the insolubility of problems.”
- Hipster culture seeks to employ “the cultural capital of quirk” by co-opting “nerdiness as an aesthetic.” Put simply, hipster cliches like big glasses, high jeans, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and purist obsessions
Connote sophistication and cosmopolitanism by screaming “We are not cosmopolitan! We are not culturall sophisticated!
- Nugent briefly explores the “ideological component” of the increased diagnosis of Asperger’s and autism spectrum disorders and how they are related to social definitions of nerdiness, masculininity, and the importance of empathy. I found these ideas very interesting and wanted Nugent to expound on them further.
- Depictions of nerds in literature extend back several hundred years. Nugent explores some from Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and P.G. Wodehouse, among others, and I loved it!
The Bottom Line
American Nerd is a fun read that is part sociological exploration and part memoir. Though a bit dry at times, it is generally enjoyable, always interesting, and rather creative. Recommended for readers who enjoy a modern take on niche cultural anthropology and for anyone who has ever felt nerdy. Isn’t that all of us?
No related posts.
I’m going to recommend a pairing with this book: THE TRIUMPH OF THE NERDS: THE RISE OF ACCIDENTAL EMPIRES. It’s a documentary that aired on PBS in 1996. There’s still a companion web-site up (http://www.pbs.org/nerds/ ) and a book as well.
The documentary is about the men behind the Personal Computer revolution. It’s really interesting to see how today’s stereotypes of the nerd are fully actualized with these men. They are all brilliant, wealthy and, for the most part still alone. Some of it has to do not only with their innate talents and their environment growing up, but the culture of R&D which isolated these men during their prime. With only having read your review of AMERICAN NERD, it sounds like THE TRIUMPH OF THE NERDS would be a great follow-up.
I love the new format!
Great review – love the format. This book sound so intersting. Definitely adding it to my list. Every now and then I love getting lost in a book like this where I learn so many interesting things.
I loved the review, except I have one question. What about the dorks?
I like this format and the book sounds nerdy!!
Nugent basically says that the whole nerd vs. geek vs. dork distinction is an arbitrary idea that grew out of Silicon Valley communities. They’re all just nerds!
I like the new format, too. Just right for the weekend ;o). Sounds like an interesting book, too. I love the subtitle “The Story of My People” – LOL!
I, too, like the new format.
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