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Scott Timberg on Creative Destruction

Nerds, Autism and So On

February 2, 2012 by Scott Timberg

THE writer Ben Nugent just had a funny and serious op-ed on the New York Times about being falsely diagnosed, as a kid, with the form of autism often associated with musical and mathematical genius. (“FOR a brief, heady period in the history of autism spectrum diagnosis, in the late ’90s,” the piece begins, “I had Asperger syndrome.”) Turns out he was just an awkward, artsy teenager who had not found his tribe. It’s really worth reading, whether you know anything about the condition or not. 

A few years back I spoke to Nugent, who I knew from his Elliott Smith bio and a story I’d written on songcraft, about his book American Nerd: The Story of My People. The book is a serious look at a despised and misunderstood figure — one Nugent has long identified with. Here is my conversation with him. 

Filed Under: indie, literary

Scott Timberg

I'm a longtime culture writer and editor based in Los Angeles; my book "CULTURE CRASH: The Killing of the Creative Class" came out in 2015. My stories have appeared in The New York Times, Salon and Los Angeles magazine, and I was an LA Times staff writer for six years. I'm also an enthusiastic if middling jazz and indie-rock guitarist. (Photo by Sara Scribner) Read More…

Culture Crash, the Book

My book came out in 2015, and won the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. The New Yorker called it "a quietly radical rethinking of the very nature of art in modern life"

I urge you to buy it at your favorite independent bookstore or order it from Portland's Powell's.

Culture Crash

Here is some information on my book, which Yale University Press published in 2015. (Buy it from Powell's, here.) Some advance praise: With coolness and equanimity, Scott Timberg tells what in less-skilled hands could have been an overwrought horror story: the end of culture as we have known … [Read More...]

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