Warning! This article is written by a dork (found under the teenage phylum, Dorkus Malorkus). Be aware that this nerd specimen enjoys computer games (five hours a day/minimum), jazz records of a scratchy nature and even dreams of having a bumper sticker, “I’d rather be in Dungeons and Dragons,” if it existed. This geek sidesteps the corporate trappings of a Starbucks, and even goes into convulsions (reminiscent of a sun struck vampire) if forced into a strip mall. To understand this pasty creature, one would have to appreciate cynical art. The best outline for this skepticism can be located in the movie, “Ghost World,” a coming of age movie that makes fun of ... coming of age.

The movie centers around Enid (Thora Birch from “American Beauty”) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson from the “The Man Who Wasn’t There”), two recent high school grads whose big brains made them fringe dwellers in adolescent cliques. They spend their time lamenting a bygone culture homogenized by neon corporate hell and shooting whispered barbs at the “underlings” that give praise to the mundane. The crass duo likes ‘50s diners, records from the ‘30s, and anyone who might be classified as a loser. They also loathe political correctness.

At high school graduation, they listen to a speech from a classmate in a wheelchair, and Enid whispers, “I liked her so much better when she was an alcoholic and drug addict. She gets in one stupid car crash and suddenly she’s Little Miss Perfect.”

Ahh, Enid, you make this dork’s heart trip over its own beat.

Enid is the true anti-hero of the movie. Rebecca is biting, but she’s succumbed to the material by taking a job among the throngs of the fastfood nation. To graduate, Enid must take a summer art class with Roberta (Ileana Douglas), an ex-hippie who praises symbolism (a couple of scribbled lines) over substance (detailed portraits). Enid is in the latter category, and it’s obvious that she’s too smart for her own good. The teacher doesn’t understand our loutish hero, and Enid’s cerebral quips are taken as indifferent slurs.

Bored by their surroundings, the girls take to looking in personal ads. Devilish in intent, the pair decides to call one of the ads, acting like they’re responding to a romantic headline. The sucker is Seymour (Steve Buscemi), a skinny 30-something who collects old 78s to substitute for active sex. The girls tell Seymour to meet them at a malt shop. When he shows up, Enid and Rebecca act as voyeurs, watching Seymour wait for someone who never shows.

The joke is malicious and even Enid’s black heart begins to pump red. After watching Seymour leave the diner with slumped shoulders, she begins to feel sorry for the sap. Following him home, the girls discover Seymour’s record collecting hobby, and Enid even strikes up a conversation with him by buying one of his dusty collectibles. She begins to go over to Seymour’s house, discovering that she has more in common with him than she anticipated. Both have a skewed view of life and neither have faith in humankind. Seymour is attractive to Enid because he’s intelligent and never wavers in his sense of being a loser.

She even tries to set him up with women, only to discover that his social skills are only adept when talking about old 78s. Enid develops a crush and the romantic entanglement that ensues (a third party is involved, but I’ll let that be a surprise) is the antithesis of Hollywood scripts.

Of course, anything involving a sexual romp with an 18-year-old and an over-30 weirdo is box office suicide, but the attraction of “Ghost World” is its authenticity. There is never a moment in this film that screams compromise, and the script dialogue is befitting of any teenager who knows that his or her society can hold more fakery than a polyester blend. It’s also very funny. The girls are insanely cruel, but it’s like looking in the mirror and realizing that almost everyone’s adolescence was full of grimaces and indifferent postures (unless, of course, you hid your wings underneath your polo shirt in high school).

“Ghost World” also registers the highest denominator on the dork meter. This goes back to writer, Daniel Clowes, who created the comic book, “Ghost World,” in reflection of his battling personalities. The main character, Enid Coleslaw, is an anagram of Daniel Clowes, and is described by the author (to the Village Voice’s Simon Reynolds) as “my id, the dissatisfied, whiny child.” Rebecca is the opposite, “my superego — she’s trying to fit in more, lead a normal life, make the best of the situation,” Clowes told Reynolds. “They are both very much an equal part of me. In fact, Rebecca is what I would have been called if I’d been a girl.”

Defying the normal confines of a comic book, “Ghost World” is free of chesty superheroes and villains who slake their thirst on destruction. “I was living in a really bad area in Chicago, and every day I walked past this graffiti-covered garage door, on which someone had written ‘Ghost World’ in perfect cursive handwriting, not graffiti wildstyle,” Clowes told Reynolds. “It had this really evocative quality, like someone trying to communicate from some other plane.”

The words were like a portent to Clowes. He identified with the scrawls in the sense that it applied to contemporary culture. Clowes believes modern culture to loathe anything that registers over a couple of decades. Malls are built on top of malls, and chain stores are built in the same attire everywhere. This is supposed to make people comfortable wherever they are, but to Clowes he felt a sense of alienation, a void from reality. Enid is his flesh in this unreal world of bigger popcorn and spontaneous charge cards, and her revulsion is both comedic and reflective.

The perfect match for Clowe’s contempt (with kid gloves) was Terry Zwigoff, who earlier made two documentaries, “Crumb” (1995), about the comic artist R. Crumb (the creator of Fritz the Cat), and “Louie Bluie,” about the old-timey Chicago string band Martin, Bogan and the Armstrongs.

Zwigoff first became aware of Clowes after close friend R. Crumb left a copy of the comic behind. Terry’s wife pushed the issue further, realizing that her husband had a lot in common with the artist (both loathe the intrusion of corporate America) and the cynical comic characters. Clowes and Zwigoff hit it off immediately and Zwigoff soon found himself directing his first fictional movie. The movie was met with some of the highest critical acclaim of the year, and even got higher marks than Zwigoff’s masterpiece, “Crumb.”

“Ghost World” is a universe of nerds, and as the picture proves, most of us fit into this horn-rimmed persona. “When I was pitching the idea of Ghost World as a movie, I kept saying, ‘It’s like a teen movie that is actually real,’ Daniel Clowes told Reynolds. ‘And people will be so shocked by seeing something with even a remote semblance to reality, it could really catch on.’”

Forget the explosions, romantic subplots, cheesy slashers, and plots interwoven among No Doubt lyrics. Tread into the land of the cynical and plaid socks. Toss away the cool factor and put on some Coke bottle lens glasses for total geek immersion. Enid will give you a well-deserved scowl.