false 1576816 0743288017 9780743288019 447 165 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1576816.American_Nerd_The_Story_of_My_People 194824 Benjamin Nugent 681 204 2 12 false Tue Aug 05 10:34:50 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 11:51:15 -0700 2008 Male American Nerd. Female nerds (or geeks or dorks or what have you—but let’s stick with Nugent’s terminology) are glossed over when they’re mentioned at all. Aside from a little bit about Saturday Night Live’s Lisa Loopner and four paragraphs—count ’em, four!—about yaoi, nerdy women are only really referenced in the context of “there were a couple of women there, but it was mostly all men.” The far more present female figures are some of Nugent’s childhood friends’ horrible, abusive mothers.

I simply don’t believe that there are as few examples of female nerdiness as Nugent depicts. He focuses a lot on gaming—Halo and D&D—which may be a limiting factor; it’s possible that most female nerds gravitate to things like TV and movie and book fandoms (although I do know plenty of female gamers). More likely, I think, he just isn’t that interested in female nerds—no one seems to be. We’re invisible. Like ninjas.

Anyway, even aside from this complaint, I just wasn’t particularly enchanted by this book. There were some interesting, well-researched sections—the chapter on how perceptions of race relate to perceptions of nerdiness was thought-provoking—but I was never sure what Nugent’s thesis actually was. Furthermore, the scope seemed needlessly narrow (Star Wars and Star Trek are barely mentioned—instead we’re treated to the umpteenth chapter on D&D; the internet’s barely a factor, either, aside from an acknowledgement that Halo can be played via it) and the tone throughout was dour. “I will take a serious approach to a subject usually treated lightly, which is a nerdy thing to do,” Nugent says early on—and that’s actually one of the funniest lines in the book. But I don’t think a book about nerdiness can really be complete without some discussion of or reference to nerdy joy—we’re not all in this just for the social ostracism and atomic wedgies, after all. Nugent, however, seems for the most part only interested in nerdy sorrow, coupled with a heaping helping of ex-nerdy guilt.

I’m still waiting for a well-rounded book on this subject. This wasn’t it.]]>