Ernest Kline isn't actually a nerd, he's just a social outcast who enjoys being seen as a nerd because he can occasionally feel superior to them as opposed to other social groups. He never ever ever demonstrates more than an absolute surface-level understanding of any property he writes into his books, which is why so many of his descriptions are literally ripped directly from Wikipedia. Based on how he spends his free time and what he writes about deeply, he very clearly likes writing, and universally beloved and widely appreciated 80s movies like Sixteen Candles and Karate Kid and such. But when he talks about any property that actually came with some form of social derision when he grew up, he obviously has no clue.
To anyone who plays DnD, making your "nerdy reference" whose obscurity is the secret behind which a billion dollar fortune secret sits the Tomb of Horrors is like if the riddle were about superheroes and the answer was Superman.
Ernest Kline isn't actually a nerd, he's just a social outcast who enjoys being seen as a nerd because he can occasionally feel superior to them as opposed to other social groups. He never ever ever demonstrates more than an absolute surface-level understanding of any property he writes into his books, which is why so many of his descriptions are literally ripped directly from Wikipedia. Based on how he spends his free time and what he writes about deeply, he very clearly likes writing, and universally beloved and widely appreciated 80s movies like Sixteen Candles and Karate Kid and such. But when he talks about any property that actually came with some form of social derision when he grew up, he obviously has no clue.
To anyone who plays DnD, making your "nerdy reference" whose obscurity is the secret behind which a billion dollar fortune secret sits the Tomb of Horrors is like if the riddle were about superheroes and the answer was Superman.