Nerd Ecology

Drawing on a wide range of examples from literature comics film television and digital media <i>Nerd Ecology</i> is the first substantial ecocritical study of nerd culture's engagement with environmental issues. Exploring such works as <i>Star Trek</i> Tolkien's <i>Lord of the Rings</i> <i>The Matrix </i> Joss Whedon's <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> and <i>Firefly</i> the fiction of Thomas Pynchon <i>The Hunger Games </i>and superhero comics such as <i>Green Lantern</i> and <i>X-Men</i> Anthony Lioi maps out the development of nerd culture and its intersections with the most fundamental ecocritical themes. In this way Lioi finds in the narratives of unpopular culture - narratives in which marginalised individuals and communities unite to save the planet - the building blocks of a new environmental politics in tune with the concerns of contemporary ecocritical theory and practice.