The World Needs More Brainiacs
Brainiac by Ken Jennings
Who knew? Amongst Ken Jennings' mastery of trivia and all things Jeopardy!, the man can also write-and is as skilled at that as he is at buzzing in on answers.
This month saw the release of the 74-game Jeopardy! champion's book, Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, a look at his Jeopardy! experience and at the subculture of trivia. It's a fascinating book that clues us into just why we're so taken with trivia-whether it's in the form of game shows, Trivial Pursuit board games, quiz bowl, or pub trivia.
Ken Jennings is the man who took Jeopardy! by storm soon after the show lifted its 5-game win limit. He had a hot streak that lasted until game 75, when he lost on a question about H&R Block after racking up winnings of $2.5 million.
Brainiac opens with a bit of trivia that sets the stage for the drive that he and his college buddy, Earl Cahill, are making through the rock country of southern Utah to audition for Jeopardy! Jennings is setting up a deal that he's certain he'll be the beneficiary of: He and Earl will split the costs of the trip unless one of them makes it onto the show. Then that person will have to pick up all trip costs. He's fairly certain that Earl is more likely to make it on the show than he is.
Throughout the rest of the book, he intersperses tales of his Jeopardy! experience as a way of introducing his journey into the culture and subcultures of trivia. He tells us of a childhood fascination with pieces of knowledge and the rapid absorption of a child who collects information the way another child might collect marbles.
But one of the reasons Brainiac is such an interesting, fascinating book is because it isn't one man's story of himself. Yes, he tells us about his life and his experience, but he does so with a self-effacing mannerism that always seems eager to launch into the love other people have for trivia. He uses himself as an introduction to his topic, telling his story with a humility and intense sense of gratitude.
This is the type of book annoys those around you when you're reading as it sparks you to constantly laugh out loud and then insist that any innocent bystander listen to you as you read one particularly funny or unusual passage or the other. Of course, the book becomes even more read-out-loud by the fact that Jennings also intersperses trivia questions throughout the book with answers given at the end of the chapter. (My favorite: Who coined the word nerd?)
Reading this book, it's hard to understand why Ken Jennings inspired such dislike from some during his Jeopardy! run. Perhaps it is the competitive nature of trivia, which this book explores in depth. Jennings certainly comes across as a genuinely nice, everyday guy with a wicked sense of humor. And mind, with the wealth of knowledge this man has, his satire can get pretty wicked. He has a gift for snark that stops far short of being mean.
While he encourages people who don't know him personally to skip over the acknowledgments because there's nothing to see, it is worth reading if only for the end where he talks to his young son. Even here he displays his humility, closing an extremely well-written and entertaining book with a note to his son promising him that he won't suffer in adolescence for the stories his father told about him because, "I've cleverly made sure this book is so lightweight and mediocre that it'll be long out of print by the time you're of school age."
Each of the 16 chapters is titled with a question in the form of a Jeopardy! response (e.g., What is ERUDITION? or What is Tradition?). Jennings starts out by giving us the history of Jeopardy! and the history and etymology of trivia itself. He even explores types of trivia questions and what the attractions are to the different types.
It is then that the true research begins, research that extends far beyond an evening with Google or an afternoon in the library. Jennings travels to trivia events around the country. He visits icons and authors who changed the way people looked at and experienced trivia. He shares with us the stories of these people and lets us peek into their collections.
He introduces us to high school and college quiz bowl and the lofty levels of knowledge obtained by those who excel in it. He visits a Disneyland Millionaire game attraction before his first taping of Jeopardy! He goes to an annual 52-hour trivia radio contest and participates in NTN trivia contests in restaurants.
He doesn't merely present a chronology of facts (though he does include a timeline of trivia in the appendix). He narrates an entertaining, engaging story, appealing even to people who aren't fans of trivia.
Why does the book have such appeal? For me, part of the answer was found on p. 141 of the book. Jennings has already admitted that there are some insufferable know-it-alls in the world of trivia. In fact, it is because of people's reactions to know-it-alls that Jennings himself hid in a trivia closet for many years, denying the passion he had for the pastime. He had no desire to be boorish.
But trivia, he says on page 141 can serve a greater purpose:
The thing that always worried me most about trivia expertise was that it seemed like something that divided people, the swaggering know-it-alls from the proud know-nothings. Sure, there are always going to be people who see trivia as a dueling sword, a means to intellectual show-offery or one-upmanship. But trivia can bring people together too. It sounds Coke-jingle naive, but maybe if we shared more of the same general knowledge, the way we used to, then we wouldn't have so many of the communication breakdowns we see today-between individuals, between nations, between races or religious. If more of us enjoyed "trivia"-that is, knowing a little bit about everything-we would know more about one another, and therefore might all get along better.
It is this idealistic statement tucked away in the middle of the book that shines out as a thesis for the entire book. It's trivia as a way for us to connect with each other and to understand each other a little better.
