Nerd Culture in the 1920's and 30's

[psionite]

Thanks for the links, really interesting.

 

[kps]

Google books has scans of both Popular Mechanics, back to 1905, and Popular Science, back to 1872, free to browse in their entirety.

 

[Sir Jacket]

It's a fascinating topic. The interesting thing would be to what extent, if at all, they considered themselves nerds (or the contemporary equivalent), outsiders, even contrarians and so on. The self-consciousness of the nerd and geek –*the sci-fi fan, the computer games player, etc –*in modern times is very recent; I would say it was something that arose only in the past two decades.

Sir J

 

[Fletch]

The s-f crowd of the 30s were definite outsiders - they didn't even cohere well with one another. Rifts and fractiousness were the order of the day, altho it would be an interesting question how much of that was peculiar to s-f and how much was inherited from the socio-political background of early fans.

 

[Doc Smith]

If you're interested in getting a view of First Fandom from one of the original Futurians, you can read Fred Pohl's blog at http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/. It's full of reminiscences about old friends (Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, H. Beam Piper, E.E. Smith etc.) and colleagues (like John W. Campbell and L. Ron Hubbard).

Like everybody else, fans in the 20s through 50s dressed a bit better than we do now.

 

[zaika]

sir jacket - that was something that i wondered, whether or not sci fi fans were really aware of their nerdiness, or just caught up in it...

thanks to everyone else who've contributed to this thread, it's really given me some GREAT directions to go in for my research!

if there's more to contribute...please do.

 

[Viola]

The s-f crowd of the 30s were definite outsiders - they didn't even cohere well with one another. Rifts and fractiousness were the order of the day, altho it would be an interesting question how much of that was peculiar to s-f and how much was inherited from the socio-political background of early fans.

Which socio-political background are we attributing it to? Just curious. I had my own idea on this but its as ethnic/cultural as anything.

 

[Sir Jacket]

My question was really whether these proto-nerds, so to speak, were aware of their nerdiness, of their outsider status, and whether they were, or became, proud of their marginality -- as modern-day nerds have become. Indeed (I am not the only one to make this observation) nerds are coming to rule the world. Witness the ascendancy of Bill Gates and co. To my mind, however, these are the wrong kinds of nerds.

Sir J