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Pardon me, but your nerd is showing.
Of course, in this era of geek chic—in which thick glasses are cool and nerd-centric books such as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao win the Pulitzer—showing off one’s inner Poindexter isn’t such a bad thing. In fact, the young adult authors behind Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd revel in it, compiling a short story collection that celebrates all that’s fabulously uncool.
Inspired by a conversation between editors Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci at the 2007 San Diego ComicCon, the book dives headfirst into the heart of geekdom with their story “Once You’re a Jedi, You’re a Jedi All the Way.” A delightful comedy of a hardcore female Klingon cosplayer who wakes up in the hotel room of an unfamiliar boy cosplaying as a Jedi Knight, the tale sets the tone and the nerd quotient for the rest of the book.
Role-playing games, The Lord of the Rings, comic books, and academia are all nitpicked and idolized in these charming odes to nerding out. Oftentimes, the authors play into their own geeky strengths. Scott Westerfeld, for example, utilizes his background in video games and Dungeons & Dragons to write a story about the different types of good and evil exercised in RPGs. As with the other successful authors in this book, Westerfeld lets his characters geek out openly, making no apologies for their obsessive discussion about the philosophical side of gaming. In one scene, the narrator argues that Robin Hood was a neutral good guy rather than one interested in doing good by inciting chaos:
The Merry Men weren’t a bunch of fuckwits—they’re an organized group with a strict internal code. And when King Richard, the lawful frickin’ leader, comes back from the Crusades, Robin Hood restates his loyalty for the crown! He’s for the greater social good, whether achieved lawfully or chaotically. That’s definitely neutrality.
His seamless use of geek speak—or Nerdish, as Junot Díaz calls it—submerges readers in his characters’ subculture. Understanding it even superficially is like having the Konami code into these characters’ lives: helpful but enjoyable enough regardless.
While every story is unabashedly geeky, the most effective authors focus more on telling compelling stories than waving their freak flags high. After all, a story about a geeky teenager growing up is still essentially about a teenager growing up. The book’s best selections use the characters’ geeky qualities as catalysts for conflict rather than definitive traits. David Levithan’s “Quiz Bowl Antichrist,” for example, uses academic trivia competitions to explore narrator Alec’s budding sexuality and false sense of superiority. Meanwhile, in “It’s Just a Jump to the Left,” Libba Bray uses The Rocky Horror Picture Show as the one constant in main character Leta’s depressing life, only to show readers how little the fourteen-year-old understands about life and love. Both stories are lovely in their realism and are refreshing changes of pace from the often sci-fi/fantasy-heavy other stories in the collection.
Geektastic is not without its blunders, though. The collection often hits the same pop cultural notes, and the proliferation of Buffy references seems inconsistent with the book’s target audience (most teens were still in elementary school when the show was cancelled). Meanwhile, Tracy Lynn obsesses over her nerd cred by name-dropping everything from Battlestar Galactica to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac in her story “One of Us.” Instead of crafting an original, decently written story, she subjects readers to a paint-by-numbers Pygmalion (right down to the “by George, I think she’s got it”) about a stereotypical cheerleader being mentored by her school’s AV club on all things geek in order to impress her football jock boyfriend, who likes genre films and anything with boobies. Readers don’t need to know George Bernard Shaw from George Lucas to see the story’s trite ending by the end of page one.
While Lynn’s story is harmless, Barry Lyga’s “The Truth About Dino Girl” is a meek-inheriting-the-earth vengeance fantasy of questionable taste. Future paleontologist Katya is a sympathetic character at first, but her logic and sanity are frightfully displaced. When cookie-cutter mean girl Andi delivers her a humiliating but private reality check, Katya retaliates with a calculated and cruel act that slanderously violates and publicly objectifies Andi’s body. This is not a charming, bittersweet, or optimistic tale like the rest of Geektastic; instead, Katya seems one step away from going Columbine. To condone or excuse her actions would be akin to celebrating rape.
Luckily, the more familiar authors in the collection—including John Green, Garth Nix, and Kelly Link—all contribute fantastic pieces which eclipse the few authors who overindulged in the book’s theme. An overall sweet and charming collection, Geektastic is young adult fiction at the zenith of fun.
(January 2010)
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