HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

American Nerd: The Story of My People by…
Loading...

American Nerd: The Story of My People (edition 2008)

by Benjamin Nugent

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4492555,024 (3.24)21
An engaging study of the nerd in American popular culture and throughout history discussed in such contexts as the rise of online gaming, the science fiction club, ethnicity, Asperger's syndrome, autism, and high school and college debating.
Member:Magus_Manders
Title:American Nerd: The Story of My People
Authors:Benjamin Nugent
Info:Scribner (2008), Hardcover, 240 pages
Collections:Read, Library Books, Read but unowned (inactive)
Rating:***1/2
Tags:American, 21st Century, Documentary, History, Culture, Nerd, Memoir, Stereotypes, Subculture

Work Information

American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent (Author)

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 21 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 25 (next | show all)
Since I use Pride and Prejudice as a foil for my novel, I loved his section on the book. Nugent makes the case that Mary Bennet, Elizabeth's younger sister, is a nerd. As he describes, in Chapter 5 she cooly gives one of the foundations for the book's title and theme, that "pride... is a very common failing." Indeed, she sounds Asberger-y, reflecting on human nature much as a high functioning autistic person (one category of nerd) might. Mary is also plain, bookish, "the smart one," pedantic and conceited. Mary is "comfortable with the technical but not the intuitive" and uses the language of scientific detachment. This kind of "fractured" take on a familiar classic mirrors what I am attempting in fiction, using the novel to get a radically different, surprising and pretty offensive view of society. ( )
  MaximusStripus | Jul 7, 2020 |
I would have appreciated fewer childhood anecdotes and a more coherent and cohesive structure. (If you must include personal anecdotes and self-confession in an accounting of a sub-culture, just make the entire thing a memoir. The weird transition from the mostly non-personal beginning to the "please-forgive-me" latter half of the book is what makes this so irritating. Consistency is a good thing.) ( )
  treehorse | Nov 7, 2019 |
2 stars: An "okay" book, possibly draggy or too light, not my thing--

-----------From the back cover:

What makes Dr. Frankenstein an archetypal nerd? Where did the modern jock come from? When and how did being a self described nerd become trendy? As the nerd emerged, vaguely formed, in the nineteenth century and popped up again and again in college humor journals and sketches, our culture obsessed over the designation.

Mixing research with autobiography... Nugent embarks on a fact finding mission of the most engaging variety. He seeks the best definition of nerd and illuminates the common ground between nerd subcultures that might seem related; high school debate team kids and ham radio enthusiasts, medieval reenactors and pro-circuit Halo players. How are those people similar? How does the history of the nerd intersect with the history of ethnic stereotypes? This clever, enlightening history of the concept of nerdiness and the activities we consider nerdy will appeal to the nerd and antinerd that lives in all of us.

---------------

I suppose the best way I can describe this book is so meh it was forgettable. In that, about 4-5 months after I finished it, as I sit down to write this review, I can remember virtually nothing about it. The description above is correct. There is a bit of memoir and a bit of history. It wasn't terrible but it was also utterly forgttable. ( )
  PokPok | Jan 2, 2017 |
"The first parts of their bodies to touch is their voices." -William Deresiewicz, "Community and Cognition in Pride and Prejudice" (footnote, p. 19)

"Preference for code over spoken communication reflected a desire to rationalize language." -Kristen Haring (footnote, p. 43)

"...the machine age, especially the computer, has caused modern educated humans to define what is human as 'emotional,' in contrast to thinking machines, instead of just defining what is human as 'rational,' in contrast to other animals." (74)

"My mind is a dagger pressed against your throat." (104)

"You'd best get the views of others on my role in this partly good and partly unfortunate development; I'm not sure my own recollections would be the most objective available," [Laurence] Tribe wrote me (this is how all lawyers talk to journalists). (104)

"a...choice on the part of the privileged to identify with the outsider." (123)

"You pay the price [physical or social deformity] and you're given the power." -Ron Eglash, RPI (139)

"This [LASFS] is a social club for people who for the most part have no social skills." (170)

"...a coronation is a temporary relief from the paranoia of a deceptive everyday life." (182)

"The original American dream, for the pilgrims, for the immigrant hordes, was to construct a new country that gave them the respect and possibility the old one couldn't." (186)

"It occurs to me that many people who have withstood arbitrary punishment from life are not tough, in any conventional sense of the word." (230) ( )
  JennyArch | Apr 3, 2013 |
Here's where I wish there were half stars.
The book was sort of interesting, but...well, not nerdy enough?
It didn't give me that "oh, this is awesome" that I was looking for.

I kind of felt like he was all excited about writing a book about the history of nerds, but he couldn't find enough material so he filled in with stuff about his own nerd years.
Or possibly he wanted to write a memoir and filled in with historical information.

Either way, it felt a little bit lacking somewhere. I did enjoy the historical portion, at least. Personally, I'm not much of a memoir fan. ( )
  JenneB | Apr 2, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 25 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Nugent, BenjaminAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Chong, Suet Y.Designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

An engaging study of the nerd in American popular culture and throughout history discussed in such contexts as the rise of online gaming, the science fiction club, ethnicity, Asperger's syndrome, autism, and high school and college debating.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.24)
0.5
1 5
1.5 2
2 14
2.5 1
3 39
3.5 13
4 27
4.5 2
5 9

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,188,266 books! | Top bar: Always visible