Drawing on a wide range of examples from literature, comics, film, television and digital media,
Nerd Ecology
is the first substantial ecocritical study of nerd culture's engagement with environmental issues. Exploring such works as
Star Trek
, Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings
,
The Matrix,
Joss Whedon's
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
and
Firefly
, the fiction of Thomas Pynchon,
The Hunger Games,
and superhero comics such as
Green Lantern
X-Men
, 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.