Nerds Do It Better: Why Nerd Culture Cultivates a Better Understanding of Story

What does the phrase “great storytelling” mean to you?

For many, it evokes names like Hemingway, Austen, Steinbeck and Joyce.  What probably doesn’t come to mind are titles like Star Wars, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Sherlock or The Dark Knight.  Literary classics, these titles are not, but I’m here to reveal a dirty little secret about all the stuff your mom and your teachers told you was ‘trash’.

Deep within their nerdy exteriors, these video games, movies and TV titles contain brilliant storytelling.  Nerds around the world, rejoice!  But before we go any further, some quick definitions.

Trash: media you want to read/watch/experience.

Classics: media you’re supposed to want to read/watch/experience.

Now, at first glance, this post might seem to be nothing more than an unsolicited advocacy for nerd culture.  After all, nerds sit around playing video games and watching movies all day.  What could they really be learning about story structure?  Wouldn’t story be better learned by studying the classics?

Well, the fact is, we nerds do one better than study stories.  We are constantly immersed in them.

Photo Courtesy of Fat Les (bellaphon) from London, UK

I’m a writer.  I wasn’t an English Major, and I never liked diagramming sentences.  All I ever really knew was that I liked stories.  All those years of watching Star Wars: A New Hope, I had no idea I was secretly learning the classic Hero’s Journey.  And as for video games, playing Mass Effect is a lesson in character development if ever there was one, and I dare you to play Final Fantasy X without developing deep, personal connections with every one of the characters– not to mention learning a thing or two about foreshadowing.  Three episodes of the BBC series Sherlock, and you’ll never look at the concept of suspense the same way again.  And don’t even get me started on The Dark Knight.  That movie will teach aspiring storytellers everything they need to know about pacing, and the use of the archetypical Shadow Character is nothing short of eloquent.

I’ll be the first to admit: there are plenty of nerd-centric titles out there whose merits have everything to do with fun and little to do with story.  (So maybe your mom wasn’t wrong about everything…)  But my point is, when it comes to experiencing great creative material, reading the “right books” is overrated.

I can’t tell you how upset it makes me to see miserable kids in Junior High forced to read classics– and don’t get me wrong!  The classics are great.  The works of Steinbeck and Hemingway rank among some of my very favorite books.  They’re just not for everybody.

Here’s the take-away: If you like something, odds are, you like it for a reason.  Being a nerd is all about finding what you like and being passionate about it, whatever that may be.  I write the kind of stories I like, and I hope you like them too.

Stay passionate, planet Earth.

- CB