Narratives, Nerdfighters, and New Media by Jennifer Burek Pierce

Abstract

Reviewed by: Narratives, Nerdfighters, and New Media by Jennifer Burek Pierce Gretchen Papazian (bio) Jennifer Burek Pierce. Narratives, Nerdfighters, and New Media. U of Iowa P, 2020. Narratives, Nerdfighters, and New Media is an important book. It explores the emergence, growth, and undertakings of the vast, cross-media reading community (estimated membership is in the millions) known as the Nerdfighters that formed around the efforts of John and Hank Green in 2007 through YouTube and then extended into online forums, charitable events, a podcast, and other multimedia ventures with the dual purposes of trying to do awesome things and fighting against "world suck." More significantly, it grapples with ways to think about and discuss the phenomenon of online reader collectives, drawing attention to a significant, we-are-living-through-it shift in the history of reading. The challenges inherent in the formidable task that Pierce sets for her work are not always met well, but her efforts to [End Page 252] figure out how to talk about a kind of reading community that is both novel and constantly transforming makes for a very worthwhile read for graduate students, seasoned scholars, and even those with a more general interest in the topics and communities it discusses. On the whole, while NNNM1 notes its interest in the larger topics of readers, the history of reading practices, contemporary online reading communities, and reading habits in the twenty-first century, it is primarily concerned with discussing the Nerdfighter community: its formation, its demographics, its figurations and refigurations, its activities, its philosophies, its locations, its workings, etc. In other words, if one is looking for a book that might try to explain or explore reading and readers—especially young adult and/or newly adult readers—in relation to new media habits, this book might disappoint. However, if one reads the work as a case study of a particular online, storycentered community, the book has much to offer. The introduction lays out its theory of why a group of readers has amassed around John and Frank Green's various kinds of social media. Arguing that "Nerdfighteria" is not merely a fan phenomenon but rather a way of being and knowing, Pierce draws attention to the group as a community that has a particular identity and set of practices, as well as existing in particular spaces and kinds of spaces. Extrapolating from narratologist Gerard Genette's discussion of epitextual materials and their influence on reading experiences, as well as drawing from fan studies and scholarship on readers and how to study them, Pierce suggests that the Nerdfighter community offers an exceptional but also perhaps representative snapshot of contemporary reading as a vibrant and lively activity. The remainder of the book develops these claims in relation to various aspects. Chapter 1 attempts to define the nature and parameters of the Nerdfighter community, arguing that the Green brothers' collective of readers is not simply a frivolous fan group but is in fact a serious community that engages in discussion of books and, more extensively even, the topics raised by young adult books, including but not limited to important questions about morality. Chapter 2 looks more at the demographics of the community, while also discussing the range of the Green brothers' social media (the YouTube Vlogbrothers videos, their more recent Dear Hank & John podcast, and their more explicitly educational endeavors, SciShow and Crash Course) to highlight the of diffusion of spaces the Nerdfighteria manifests around. Chapter 3 examines the commercial media environment within which Nerdfighteria itself is situated, and how both the Green brothers and the Nerdfighter community negotiate its complexities. Importantly, for example, Pierce lays out concerns about potential fan exploitation in relation to online platforms, while showing how the brothers and the Nerdfighter community nullify the [End Page 253] potential issues through fiscal practices oriented toward community service and philanthropy. Chapter 4 turns attention to what Nerdfighters read and how they read, clarifying that, while many Nerdfighters were brought to this community through John Green's young adult novels, quite a few were not. Here, Pierce wants to show that the Nerdfighteria is a genuine community of readers with broad interests and tastes—not merely a group...