{"id":130200,"date":"2025-03-13T07:30:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T07:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-march-13-2025-spring-breaking-at-the-movies-revenge-of-the-nerds-ii-nerds-in-paradise\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T07:30:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T07:30:27","slug":"americanstudies-march-13-2025-spring-breaking-at-the-movies-revenge-of-the-nerds-ii-nerds-in-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=130200","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: March 13, 2025: Spring Breaking at the Movies: Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[With one
\nson in college and another about to be, Spring Break is a lot more than just a
\nconcept or a professional reality for this AmericanStudier. So this week I\u2019ll
\nAmericanStudy a handful of cinematic portrayals of Spring Break, leading up to some
\nweekend reflections on being a college Dad!]<\/p>\n

On
\nAmerican anti-intellectualism, and the worse and better ways to challenge it. <\/span><\/p>\n

As I noted
\nin <\/span>this post<\/span><\/a> on my
\nfriend Aaron Lecklider\u2019s great book <\/span>Inventing the Egghead: The Battle over
\nBrainpower in American Culture<\/span><\/i><\/a> (2013), published exactly 50 years
\nafter Richard Hofstadter\u2019s influential <\/span>Anti-Intellectualism in American Life<\/span><\/i><\/a> (1963),
\nthe precise origins of anti-intellectual attitudes and narratives in American
\nsociety are a bit unclear and contested. But whether those national narratives
\nare foundational (as Hofstadter argues) or more the product of Cold War
\nanxieties (as Lecklider does), I would say that there can be no argument at all
\nthat by the end of the 20th<\/sup> and beginning of the 21st<\/sup>
\ncentury these anti-intellectual threads have become dominant ones in our
\ncultural pattern. And, more exactly and crucially, that the development and
\ndeepening of those narratives throughout the 50 years or so between
\nHofstadter\u2019s book and the 2016 election helped <\/span>bring us
\nto the presidency of Donald Trump<\/span><\/a>, a culmination of these <\/span>anti-intellectual
\ntrends<\/span><\/a> as of so many of the worst and most divisive impulses of American
\npolitics and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which
\nbrings us, obviously, to the <\/span>Revenge of the Nerds <\/span><\/i>film<\/span><\/a> series. Beginning
\nwith the 1984 original film, and featuring three sequels over the next decade
\n(including 1987\u2019s Spring Break-set <\/span>Revenge
\nof the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise<\/span><\/i><\/a>, the ostensible focus of this post
\nbut, like yesterday\u2019s subject From Justin
\nto Kelly<\/i>, not a film that needs an entire blog post on its own terms I
\nassure you), the nerdy protagonists of this series challenged the Reagan era\u2019s
\ndeepening anti-intellectual sentiments, triumphing time and again over their
\npopular jock adversaries. The first film has in recent years received a good
\ndeal of justified criticism for the fact that its triumphant sex scene would
\nactually have <\/span>to be
\nclassified as a rape scene<\/span><\/a> (nerdy hero Lewis has sex with his crush
\nwhile pretending to be her boyfriend), among quite a few other <\/span>problematic
\nmoments<\/span><\/a>. And in truth, those specific problems illustrate a more
\nfundamental issue with all the Revenge<\/i>
\nfilms: their mostly unlikable heroes don\u2019t triumph through meaningful use of
\ntheir intelligence, but rather through things like sexual deception and
\nviolence (in Nerds in Paradise<\/i> the
\nclimactic victory involves a tank and a punch). The message seems generally to
\nbe that nerds can be just as awful as the rest of society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately,
\nthe Revenge of the Nerds<\/i> films were
\nnot the only 1980s cinematic challenge to anti-intellectualism. The heroes of
\n1985\u2019s <\/span>cult
\nclassic film Real Genius<\/i><\/span><\/a> are also
\nnerds, brilliant and eccentric students at the fictional Pacific Technical
\nUniversity [SPOILERS in what follows, although the <\/span>undeniable pleasures of Real Genius<\/i><\/span><\/a> aren\u2019t in
\nits plot surprises]. These nerds likewise find themselves pitted against Reagan
\nera tropes, this time Cold War militarization and the use of science and
\ntechnology for dastardly and destructive ends (aided and abetted by their
\nvillainous <\/span>Professor
\nJerry Hathaway<\/span><\/a>, William Atherton\u2019s second <\/span>deliciously
\nevil character in two years<\/span><\/a>). But in this case the heroes\u2019 climactic
\ntriumph is entirely due to their intellectual prowess, which they use to outwit
\nHathaway and his military allies and to turn weapons of mass destruction into,
\nwell, <\/span>popcorn<\/span><\/a>. Score
\none for a more thoughtful and inspiring American intellectualism!<\/span><\/p>\n

Last
\nSpring Break film tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Responses to this film or other Spring Break texts you\u2019d share? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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