Nerds are Cool!

This seems to be what the Pulitzer Committee is telling me. First, in 2001, a novel about comic book writers, among other things, and now, a novel about a Dominican nerd.

Now obviously, the first of those two should still have largely universal appeal. Unless you have trouble with the existence of comic books, are the depiction of homosexuals as normal people. The second though, has stunned me. I'm not done with it yet, but the references delve pretty far into the depths of nerdliness.

Junot Diaz may be the only Pulitzer Prize winner to be familiar with Champions. I have some serious nerd credentials and I had to recall conversations with people far nerdier than I in order to get all of his references. This has left me surprised that this book has achieved so much positive critical and monetary attention. Don't all of these dorky references alienate his audience?

I know that books about outsiders don't. Everyone feels alienated at some point in their lives, so we can all identify with alienated characters, but Oscar Wao isn't just alienated. He's a clear member of the nerdiest of nerds, I can picture him because I've met him, I've met dozens of him. People may like the alienated, but these same people had the things they mocked. A kid who ponders Dejah Thoris, plays Champions, and sulks in his room painting his D&D miniatures, hardly seems like someone most people can identify with.

I'm glad I'm wrong. Of course, readers of literature, even (or 'especially', depending on how you look at it) PULITZER PRIZE winning literature, are not most people, so it just means a larger small subset of humanity.

Anyway, everyone clearly has to go out there and read Edgar Rice Burroughs, play D&D, and watch Star Trek, because apparently it can win you a Pulitzer. Junot Diaz, thank you for showing that nerds can be cool!