Book Review: Nerd

From the moment Maya Phillips saw the opening scroll of Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, her childhood changed forever. Her formative years were spent loving not just the Star Wars saga, but superhero cartoons, anime, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, Tolkien, and Doctor Who—to name just a few. As a critic at large at The New York Times, Phillips has written extensively on theater, poetry, and the latest blockbusters—with her love of some of the most popular and nerdy fandoms informing her career. Now, she analyzes the mark these beloved intellectual properties leave on young and adult minds, and what they teach us about race, gender expression, religion, and more—especially as fandom becomes more and more mainstream.

Spanning from the 90s through to today, Nerd: Adventures in Fandom From This Universe to the Multiverse is a collection of cultural criticism essays through the lens of fandom for everyone from the casual Marvel movie watcher to the hardcore Star Wars expanded universe connoisseur. It’s for anyone who’s ever wondered where they fit into the narrative or if they can be seen as a hero—even of their own story.

Nerd comes out on October 11, 2022; Atria Books provided me an early galley to review.

Even though I am old enough to be her father, I could relate very much to the nine essays in Maya's book. That speaks very much to the commonality of the nerd culture, despite which generation we were born into. She talks about things that my friends and I would talk about all the time, especially when we'd get together for Comic-Con in San Diego for a week of nerd-festivities. And her passion is the same kind that we'd exhibit.

I enjoyed her writing style a lot. It is relaxed, welcoming and relatable. She is the kind of person who wants to talk about her favorites yet also comes across as someone who'd listen as you talk about your favorites too. That's the sign of true nerd culture - respecting what others bring to the table too. Unlike other similar essay collections I've read, she chooses to create longer pieces that group various fandom properties together into overall thematic subjects. I think that provides for a more solid reading experience.

As her work illustrates, the culture of nerd fandom has moved over the past few decades from a fringe thing to a multi-million dollar pillar of the entertainment communities. Sci-fi and superheroes are not just for the social misfits of the world; these genres are the backdrops to telling amazing stories of emotion, growth and conflict. They have become staples just in the way that westerns and police/detective shows and movies did in the 1960's. Basically, the rest of the world has come to realize what we nerds have known for most of my lifetime: a good story is a good story.

In the end, I learned about a few things for which I only knew previously by name recognition. That means I have some new (to me) things to check out in the future. Thank you, Maya.