Customer Reviews

Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork

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4 star:		(1)
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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!

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.

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.

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.

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 spoon. "Dorkismo" celebrates the dorks among us, and the dork in all of us; and if you've never been a dork, you will so wish to be one, after reading this charming book. Maria Bustillos welcomes everyone under the vast and open-hearted dork umbrella.

Christie Mellor
Author of The Three-Martini Playdate

I'm a big ol' dork. Have been since childhood. But never really knew what a badge of honor the title was. Maria Bustillos's brilliant Dorkismo has convinced me once and for all to stop hiding my dork light under a bushel. The book is by turns serious and hysterical, and all the while engagingly written and with an important point to make: the beauty of the dork is her ability to be herself even in the face of what everyone else thinks -- and if we had a little more of that in the world, we'd all be better off. Two dork thumbs, way up.

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. Maria Bustillos argues convincingly that the free world needs dorks. Reading 1984 when young, I wondered whether Christians would provide effective opposition to Big Brother. But now I see it was dorks that were wanted.

Thought-provoking, interesting, well written, and entertaining.

Read it and recognize the dork within you!

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. Dorkismo is an intelligent, passionate and witty celebration of open-hearted goofiness (what Henry Fielding might call "benevolence"). There's a lot about "Star Wars", but also a lot about David Foster Wallace, and Bustillos knows how to follow the thread through such disparate topics. In Bustillos' world view, the nemesis of "dorkismo" is crippling self-consciousness of the hip variety. If you've ever experienced such a thing (I could name my own name), then this book is your ticket to liberation, that is to say, self-acceptance. She wants us to love the things we love, without embarrassment, and get our kicks in joy instead of judgment. I say: Read it!

I was lucky to come across Dorkismo on Authonomy and from the first paragraph I knew it was a book I HAD to buy. The depth of Maria's observations but also her humor and ability to make the reader connect with the character traits she describes are nothing short of amazing.

In addition to that, what hit a chord with me is Maria's ability to deliver her insights so clearly and tap into the "Dork" psyche. I work in Marketing and a few years ago we had a budget to run targeted communication activities with selected audiences. We met with a number of agencies, trying to find one with enough insight to deliver such a project. Unfortunately not one of that convinced us they could do it. Now, had they read a book like Dorkismo I know we would have delivered a killer campaign. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this book is not only a great personal read but I see its potential as a sociological resource. I can see it being recommended by corporations to their employees and to students in social studies.

Bustillos brings both formidable intellect and rapier wit to the table in examining the cultural zeitgeist of dorkism. Once relegated to being stuffed in the gym locker or pantzed at the pep rally, the dork has earned unparalleled credentials in contemporary times. The new rock stars are not playing with Fenders, they're playing with code. They're not chasing women, they're chasing formulae - and now women are chasing them. If only they knew what to do.

This is the best fifteen bucks I've ever spent. And that includes a litre of Aguardente in the Algarve. I predict Bustillos is back at us in short order with another barrage of pointy-headed thoughts.