Nerds-R-Us

The 2008 book AMERICAN NERD: THE STORY OF MY PEOPLE, by Benjamin Nugent, was recommended to me during a session on fan fiction at the recent International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. The following paragraph is the mini-review of it from my April newsletter:

Part 1, "The History of the Nerd," contains a definition of the term and an exploration of its historical background; Mary Bennet in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and Victor Frankenstein are among the prototypes of the stereotype. I was especially intrigued by the chapter on the rise of formal physical education and the "jock" as the standard against which the "nerd" evolved as less desirable. At the same time, ethnic stereotypes became entangled with the distinction between the two types: Anglos and Nordics—manly and therefore good; Jews and Asians—effete intellectuals and therefore not so good. The discussion of the link between nerdism and Asperger's syndrome also interested me. Nugent uses an overarching metaphor of nerds perceived by others as machine-like. Before the nineteenth century, human beings were defined by their rationality, as opposed to animals; since the Romantic movement, human beings are more likely to be defined by their emotion and intuition, as opposed to machines. Statements and implications in the chapters on nerd subcultures, however, impressed me less positively. Although Nugent claims adolescent absorption in video games, science fiction, and role-playing games, his knowledge of those fields appears shallow—or, more charitably, what he got out of those pursuits is extremely different from what I and the people I know get out of them. He writes of these and other "nerd" activities in what comes across as a condescending tone toward a phase he eventually grew out of. And the book's final chapter, "My Credentials," reveals that to be precisely the case. Moreover, his implication that teenage nerds need to be saved from a terrible fate of lifelong social and sexual isolation is not only insulting but inaccurate. High school is not the world. For a corrective, read the long, complex essay "Why Nerds Are Unpopular," easily found by googling the title; its premise is that nerds don't fit into the dominant high school culture (which has "no function for its form to follow") because they're already absorbed in real-world interests such as learning substantive material and making things work Not only that, many of us manage to find our own kind and mate, reproduce, and lead productive lives without giving up our specialized interests. Nugent's book contains lots of solid information and provocative ideas, but read it as deeply colored by the author's personal history. When he claims “self-loathing” as a typical nerdish trait, he’s apparently speaking for his own younger self.

In this review I didn’t mention my autobiographical experience, that at the age of sixteen I first noticed my future husband because he was the only person my age (actually, the only person, period) I’d met who, like me, read and wrote speculative fiction. We’ve been married for over forty years, and we still read and write SF and fantasy. Not only that, we took up D&D in First Edition and introduced all four of our sons to it as soon as they grew literate enough. We’ve also had a “normal” life that’s successful by middle-class American standards. Navy Captains and their wives can be nerds, too! The label hadn’t yet become widespread in my teen years, but I clearly recognize myself in the profile.

Although Nugent mentions at least one positive portrayal of the stereotype, REVENGE OF THE NERDS (which I confess I haven’t watched), I wish he had discussed others. Lisa on the SIMPSONS is one of the few approximately non-dysfunctional characters in the series. Willow in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER helps to save the world several times (in addition to almost destroying it once), as does Hermione in the Harry Potter series. Gunther in the “Luann” comic strip has revealed himself to be creative and compassionate as well as intelligent and awkward.

Nugent brings up his youthful conviction that nerds are superior to jocks (okay, a bit of compensatory defensiveness, maybe, but the point has some validity). He backs off from that topic, though, leaving the fundamental question unexamined: Why should an obsessive preoccupation with and exhaustive knowledge of football, basketball, or reality TV be more socially acceptable and valued than a similar interaction with role-playing games, speculative fiction, or Japanese culture? The difference seems to be that the latter interests are embraced by statistical minorities (probably of higher than average intelligence, I still maintain—look at the educational demographics of LOCUS subscribers or, for that matter, members of the Romance Writers of America). In my youth I felt like an alien, as if I were the “only one of my kind.” Today, thanks to the Internet, aliens among us can find each other. That’s mostly a Good Thing.

Margaret L. Carter (www.margaretlcarter.com)