American Nerd

American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was drawn to read this after having read Good Kids and really liking it. It’s basically a scholarly treatise over the story of the nerd, as a fixture in modern culture, where the nerd came from, what makes someone a nerd, etc. It’s a bright and breezy romp through its subject matter.

When interviewing Paul Feig, the creator of the short lived cult favorite Freaks and Geeks, on why jocks hate nerds: “Guys like that just seem to hate guys like us, and I honestly see the battle between Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, as the exact same dynamic…there’s a group of people in this world that don’t like conflict and care about what other people are going through, and then there’s this other group of people in the world who hate that. ‘Suck it up, man, we’re not coddling you, take care of yourself, what’s your problem?’ It’s jocks versus geeks, and I’ve always referred to life as perpetual high school because it never stops.” (page 70-71). Which seems like a pretty good analysis of the political situation, especially in light of the upcoming election.

It kind of sails over my head at times, but overall a fun book.





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