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.
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Book Description
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
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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 dorkismo@gmail.com.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format: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!
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
Format: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.
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A book I took an interest in, then forgot about, then - most fortunately - received as a GIFT. The author - how you say? - "walks the walk" in terms of .. doing what she talks about, i.e., loving what she loves and presenting her argument in a congenial style that is neither academic, nor bereft of the sort of close/pointed analysis that, ideally, academic writing should provide. The book is bursting with personality and, well, *personalities* .. folks from the era before "Cultural Studies" became an affaire sérieuse: Mailer in the 50's, Sontag in the 60's, Lester Bangs in the 70's. A beautifully *human* book that - like the Fat Albert program of old - is as (secretly) edifying as it is entertaining.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Uh-oh, this could make dorks popular.
A deliciously literate, scholarly treatise, written with such delightful exuberance, familiar chattiness and obvious love for all things dork, you just want to eat it up with a... Read more
Published on September 23, 2009 by Christie Mellor
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, funny, thought-provoking...
I'm a big ol' dork. Have been since childhood. But never really knew what a badge of honor the title was. Read more
Published on August 27, 2009 by Kathleen Fitzpatrick
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wealth of social observations
I was lucky to come across Dorkismo on Authonomy and from the first paragraph I knew it was a book I HAD to buy. Read more
Published on July 5, 2009 by Dee Reads
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Manifesto
Bustillos brings both formidable intellect and rapier wit to the table in examining the cultural zeitgeist of dorkism. Read more
Published on July 3, 2009 by Pete Morin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dork is the New Hip
Dorkismo is not just a collection of brilliant and insightful essays, it's a revolutionary manifesto celebrating true self-expression. Read more
Published on July 2, 2009 by Ishouldbewriting
5.0 out of 5 stars
Your Ticket to Liberation
Like the best American intellectuals (e.g., Tony Kushner or Mark Twain), Bustillos is less impressed by how smart she is (very!) than by how entertaining it is to think and say. Read more
Published on July 2, 2009 by Michael C. Mullen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tape comes off but the laughter never leaves
Sure many years later I have removed the tape from my glasses. Plenty of movies finally tuned me into it being a fashion faux pas, if only I'd had this book when I learned of my... Read more
Published on July 2, 2009 by Bradley W
5.0 out of 5 stars
She's right about EVERYTHING except Benny Hill
Myself, I enjoy watching television programmes about the Royal Family, so I am clearly a dork.
But I'd never realized that dorks are a Good Thing till I read this book. Read more
But I'd never realized that dorks are a Good Thing till I read this book. Read more
Published on July 2, 2009 by Lexi
5.0 out of 5 stars
An affectionate celebration of the inner dork
This is delightful. Thoughtful and scholarly, while still being an awful lot of fun to read.
I was reminded of Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories" while reading the first... Read more
I was reminded of Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories" while reading the first... Read more
Published on July 1, 2009 by S. L. Parkinson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Embrace the Dorkismo!
Hysterical.
Oh, how I know the feeling of being "desperate to become an intellectual!" Once on Authonomy, I commented on a thread knowing that my play on words was a... Read more
Oh, how I know the feeling of being "desperate to become an intellectual!" Once on Authonomy, I commented on a thread knowing that my play on words was a... Read more
Published on June 24, 2009 by Melissa Conway
Listmania!
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