Stephen H. Segal

Stephen H. Segal has gathered a collection of quotes from a wide variety of sources that don't have much in common except that they can all be described as "things enjoyed by geeks." So we've got Yoda and Kurt Vonnegut, Inigo Montoya and Nikola Tesla, Rod Serling and Carl Sagan and Monty Python and two different characters named Morpheus. For each, there's a little page of commentary on the quote or the character or the source material, relating it to some aspect of life, the universe, and show more everything. (And yes, of course, Douglas Adams is in here, too.)

As someone who deeply loves the stuff of "nerd culture" and who is infinitely more likely to ask herself "What would Mr. Spock do?" than "What would Jesus do?", this seemed right up my alley. But I'll admit I was a little trepidatious going into it. There are so many ways something like this can go wrong. It could be another insipid attempt at "inspirational writing." It could be painfully over-earnest or embarrassingly self-mocking, or even just a cynical attempt to cash in on an audience that tends to be enthusiastic to the point of obsession. I've seen stuff like that before. I don't remember All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek very well -- which may be for the best -- but I do remember thinking it was terribly lame.

So I'm delighted to be able to report that this book avoids every one of those pitfalls. It really is genuinely thoughtful, sometimes even surprisingly insightful, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, either. In fact, it's got a terrific sense of humor; I repeatedly found myself laughing out loud. And the contributors are plugged into geek culture in a way that's impossible to fake. I can tell they love this stuff just as much as I do, and that alone is enough to make this entertaining in much the same way as those long-ago dorm room conversations in which my friends and I would sit around analyzing Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes.

And who knows? Maybe the next time I'm feeling in need of a little nugget of geeky wisdom, I'll pull it back down off the shelf, flip it open, and see if Gandalf or Galileo or has something worthwhile to say. show less

In Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture, Stephen H. Segal et al. argues that, "if geek culture can offer fresh, new, alternative paths to all the eternal truths that religion and philosophy have managed to discover over the past few thousand years - paths that welcome those who've been turned away from the more traditional routes - then I say, let there be geekery" (p. 11). If geekdom is a new religion, then Geek Wisdom is its Book of Hadith, but whereas the Hadith draws from show more the sayings of Muhammad, Segal casts a wide net, quoting film, television, books, video games, cartoons, comic books, scientists, philosophers, and more.
Segal and company dare to draw comparisons between Yoda and George Washington Carver, Optimus Prime and Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rod Serling and Thomas Jefferson, all while using his selected quotes to speak to issues of truth, beauty, perseverance, and the struggles of being an outsider, whether due to one's interests or as a result of sex, race, or gender identity. He exhorts his readers to enjoy their passions without resorting to attacking or alienating their fellow geeks.
Segal and his co-authors open familiar texts to new interpretations, showing how these media are not simply cheap entertainment to be scoffed at. More to the point, as geek culture grows ever more mainstream and becomes an indelible part of our collective cultural mythology, Segal and company offer a way to interpret the texts of geekdom so that all may benefit from their wisdom and gain a greater enjoyment by pondering on the entertainment they consume. show less

Heheh, what a fun little book. In the introduction to Geek Wisdom, Segal glibly states that as a child, his religion was science fiction ( full disclosure, so was mine). He and his co-writers have done their best to sum up the most important lessons in life through the medium of the geeky bon mot. Movie quotes, internet memes, quirky tee-shirts, it's all here. Each quote gets its own page, which expounds upon what we've learned of human nature, good and evil, ourselves, and the universe, show more through the media we consume. Some are quite funny, some serious, and some a bit far fetched, but all of them are loving and hold special places in the geek's (or at least my) lexicon. There are points where Geek Wisdom can't decide if it's being written for an audience of categorical media-consumers or the average mundane, but it takes itself with enough humor that one can vest in it as much or as little weight as one chooses. show less

I became a geek at an early age, when I started putting library-card style checkout cards in the back of my books. I wore my nerdiness indelicately for the first 20 years or so. Then I embraced it with both arms.
This book in an homage to the geeks who came of age in the 70s, 80s, and 90s—before nerdy could possibly be cool. It understands the difference between wearing glasses to looks trendy and actually needing glasses because every waking moment is spent reading fantasy or trying out a show more new line of code. Not only does it give a geek a chance to revel in his own geekiness by remembering the quotes and how often he has gleefully recited the speeches from the Knights who Say Ni (quotes which are amazingly absent from this book), it points out the depth that these quotes often hide. The editors capture much of the lessons we’ve taken from our popular culture touch stones. This book covers a myriad of important lessons about our role in society, our responsibilities to each other, and what the future holds for humanity.
Most of my fellow geeks certainly picked up this book with full intention of pointing out what was missing from this handy little guide, possibly ready to guffaw at the immense number of quotes from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the paucity of quotes from Monty Python. This is admittedly what I did during my first read through. Then I started reading the comments, which I expected to be about how the quote fit into the movie. The comments made the book. The authors took insight out of pop culture and cult classics. They showed the wisdom in everything from “Snozzberrys. Who’s every heard of a snozzberry?” to “Good, bad? I’m the guy with the gun.”
This book is enjoyable, insightful, and funny. Because a book is almost always the perfect gift for a nerd and because we are ridiculously hard to shop for, I suspect this will be given to many geeks as gift. Whether you are a geek, know a geek, or are trying to coax a geek into embracing his geekiness, this is a great book to share. show less