Journal article
Conquering the meatspace: the lonely nerd in David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010) and Baran bo Odar’s Who Am I (2014)
- Abstract:
- This article analyses how Baran bo Odar’s film Who Am I: Kein System ist sicher (2014) productively engages with its US predecessor The Social Network (2010), directed by David Fincher, to undermine the notion of the lonely nerd. Both films revolve around the distinction between social connections in real and virtual life: on the one hand, this separation allows them to examine the validity of an online community as a remedy for loneliness and a potential catalyst for relationships in embodied meatspace; on the other hand, this enables them to self-reflexively discuss the workings of film narratives. The article will demonstrate how Fincher’s film challenges the notion of the lonely nerd by highlighting its constructedness, while presenting a nerdy protagonist who is not able to overcome his real-life isolation. Who Am I, in contrast, takes on the lonely nerd as a transnationally recognisable archetype mediated through Hollywood’s cinematic hegemony, moulds it into a specifically German context, and establishes firm social bonds for the nerd in meatspace.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 471.1KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.31273/eirj.v9i3.866
Authors
- Publisher:
- University of Warwick
- Journal:
- Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal More from this journal
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 3
- Pages:
- 11-29
- Publication date:
- 2022-08-03
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-07-01
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2053-9665
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1490547
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1490547
- Deposit date:
-
2023-07-06
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Schaper
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © 2022 Benjamin Schaper. This article is issued under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use and redistribution of the work provided that the original author and source are credited. You must give appropriate credit (author attribution), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record