Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork [Paperback]

Maria Bustillos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2009

The dorks are saving the nation, and this book proves it. Maria Bustillos takes the reader on a thrill ride featuring $3 million Patek Philippe watches, the late David Foster Wallace, Woody Allen, Star Wars, Akihabara Electric Town, and much more. These serio-comic essays bear a message, lightly veiled, of freedom for all. Experience the dork victory that is within everyone's reach with this sharp, fun and stylish book: Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In her book, Dorkismo: The Macho of the Dork, cultural critic Maria Bustillos compares the important people in a variety of fields and has come up with the following conclusion: They were all dorks. By dork, Bustillos means people who have the capacity to be themselves no matter what anyone thinks and do so with pride and self-confidence. If a corporate lawyer adores the cutesy Hello Kitty and is OK with that, he's a dork and maybe even wears Hello Kitty cuff-links. Dorkismo is Stephen Colbert taking out his 12-sided die on The Colbert Report, and David Foster Wallace admitting he bawled like a baby over The Bridges of Madison County. It's also fans writing about their love of Natalie Portman and people on message boards rhapsodizing about Pepperidge Farm Goldfish jingles.

Bustillos marries high-brow and low-brow in this cross-disciplinary text, and her delightfully breezy and intelligent writing will make readers want to shed their armor of irony and embrace their dorkiness. --hipsterbookclub.com, August 9, 2009

"I must mention that [this] book, Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork, is pure gold. Don't just grab it for the [David Foster Wallace] chapter (good as it is) but for the celebration of everything that is dork." --Nick Maniatis --The Howling Fantods, September 7, 2009

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Accidental Books (August 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615256171
• ISBN-13: 978-0615256177
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,161,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Maria Bustillos is the author of "Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork" and "Act Like a Gentleman, Think Like a Woman." She lives in Los Angeles, and can be contacted at [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars damn the torpedoes, July 9, 2009

By 

Katherine Kasserman "Kate Kasserman" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork (Paperback)

Beyond saying "yuppers!" to previous reviewers' comments (I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of Dorkismo), I'd like to add a few thoughts about what makes this such an excellent, and necessary, book. Okay, on a fundamental level, the act of saying, "I like this/I do not like this" has a meaningful social component: it situates you (generally) with similarly minded souls. And that's not a bad thing -- but it can become one, easily, and all too often does, when the "I don't like this so we don't like this" element takes over, and what started out as a cheerful group of enthusiasts degenerates into a fascism of turning up one's nose at...well, just about everything. We find ourselves trapped in a simultaneous tyranny of the majority *and* the minority, where nothing is acceptable and everything we actively LIKE puts us at risk. So why like anything?

Not liking anything is about the worst thing that can happen to anyone.

So in charges Dorkismo on a white horse! YES, it is okay to like things, from iceberg lettuce to Ulysses, and in any combination. The importance lies in -- and the focus should be on -- what we GENUINELY value, not what we think other people are going to think about what we think (and so on ad infinity of reflections and counter-reflections). By saying what really matters to YOU (be it ever so klutzy, weird, or rarefied), and taking a live-and-let-live approach to people who get all tingly over their own fascinations, you get to be HAPPY...and you help make it easier for other people to be happy too. Sure, saying "no" to things has an important place in the landscape -- but "yes" is in serious danger of being extirpated, one snotty little slice at a time, and that's something we can't live with, and can't afford.

The breadth of topics covered in this short, fast-reading book suggests that the author is quite happy to say yes to a lot herself. You probably won't be immediately familiar with every topic she brings up, but that's part of the fun; and every mini-essay has plenty of detail to bring you into the loop quickly. It's both smart and accessible. And very, very funny. The writing is sharper than the point on my head. Make of that what you will -- and enjoy!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dorkismo is your ticket to freedom!, July 12, 2009

By 

C. J. Savel "eclectic reader" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork (Paperback)

This is an entertaining, funny, and accessible read - but do not be deceived! Dorkismo touches on several important subjects.
What does it mean to really, truly, follow your own inner path to happiness? What does it really mean to not follow the herd - even when the herd itself is not following the larger herd? Well if you read and embrace the power of Dorkismo it means freedom, happiness, and release from the stultifying strictures of pop-culture, high culture, and the "cool kids," whether it is in school, at the office or anywhere. It means really being comfortable in your own skin, even if you are not the flashiest dresser, or even if you listen to "uncool" music, or have "uncool" hobbies.

Trainspotter? Yeah, so what?

As I said in the first line. This book packs a punch but it isn't a dry and boring read. You will read this both because it is good for you, but because it is good, and fun. As soon as I was finished i started it again. I tell my dork friends about it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new star among the cultural critics, July 3, 2009

By 

O. Corlett - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork (Paperback)

You would think from reading some of the reviews here that this is a book about Star Wars and the kind of Dorks who are, sometimes, its fanatic followers. Don't be deceived. You can like this book without having any close involvement with Star Wars, for or against. Much of it is written in a deceptively casual style which occasionally (ok, more than occasionally) verges on Valley-Girl. Again, don't be deceived: there's nothing superficial about it; it's full of interesting observations about a wide variety of subjects, mostly pop-cultural. The Star Wars section, for instance, isn't really about Star Wars at all. It's about the symbolic battle in the real world between George Lucas, avant-gardist turned moralist, and the Young Turks of 1970s Hollywood, like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorcese, Robert Altman, William Freidkin, Hal Ashby, Paul Schrader and Roman Polanski. ("[George Lucas] was basically pelted with gold bricks" [for embracing John Gardner's imperative on Moral Fiction]). It's a gripping story about a fascinating subject. You may or may not agree with the author's conclusions, but the debates are certainly interesting; and, because of the style, they are also funny, unpretentious and accessible. The whole book is rather like that - storming the ivory tower and defenestrating the Susan Sontags who thought they lived there. The common thread running through all the various essays (which range from comments on David Foster Wallace's view on irony to the snarkery of gawker, the joys of the Air Guitar, Diana Vreeland's Vogue, Lester Bangs on rock and roll, and Gilbert & Sullivan's very modern views on opulent consumption) is a simple plea (quoting the title of the first chapter here): To Thine Own Self Be Cool. If there's any justice, this is a book that will be much talked about.