Chuck Klosterman City

The Fake Hipster says that she's obsessed with Chuck Klosterman (although her use of "bandwagon" implies that there somehow is one). I have to admit, I have been enjoying Klosterman's work of late too. I've been reading all of his books the last couple of months and am currently finishing up Killing Yourself to Live, which I'm really enjoying. This may also be in part because I strongly identify with the idea of growing up in a desolate area of the Midwest listening to classic rock radio.

I do not, however, believe that Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is Klosterman's strongest work. Reading it recently, it just seems ... well, dated. There's a long essay about how not that many people he knows actually use the Internet, which is weird because the book was published in 2004. I'm pretty sure people were aware in 2004 that most people would be using the Internet to do all kinds of things that didn't include porn.

Interestingly enough, there's a forthcoming film adaptation of Fargo Rock City, the book that I would argue is still Klosterman's best work, although I might put Killing Yourself to Live as a close second. So, with that, here's my list of Klosterman's work in my totally arbitrary order of preference:

1. Fargo Rock City (2002)
2. Killing Yourself to Live (2006)
3. Chuck Klosterman IV (a 2007 collection of his previously published Spin and Esquire essays)
4. Downtown Owl (his 2009 novel)
5. Eating the Dinosaur (2009)
6. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (2004)
   

Though Klosterman certainly has his flaws -- in one book he confessed he "used to be" anti-abortion but now "doesn't really care" about this issue and his female characters in his novel are somewhat flat -- but it's refreshing to see someone who's so honest about his perspective. He admits openly in Live that he's actually not much of a reader and this is why intellectuals won't ever take him seriously. He also is willing to acknowledge that he was wrong in the past about his opinions. He almost sounds like a blogger -- even though I'm pretty sure Klosterman despises blogs.

Reviewing Eating the Dinosaur

BOOK
Eating the Dinosaur
Scribner
Published: Oct. 20, 2009

Chuck Klosterman, depending on your opinion, is either a brilliant and hilarious cultural critic or a self-indulgent and trivial asshole. His latest book, Eating the Dinosaur, will only seek to magnify the opinion you hold of him.

I happen to be one of those people that thinks Klosterman is the former. But this is probably because after reading Fargo Rock City, I’ve come to believe he and I had roughly identical childhood experiences. And if Klosterman and I are so similar, I could never admit that he’s an asshole. It’s true that he tended to gloss over the sexism of metal when writing, City, his fanboy manifesto on the genre, but I’m willing to forgive it since Mötley Crüe played a similarly important role in my teenage years.

Dinosaur incidentally doesn’t actually contain anything about dinosaurs and is Klosterman at the peak of what he does best: writing rambling yet pointedly funny essays on pop culture and news events. The topics in Dinosaur range from Mad Men to NBA giant¹ Ralph Sampson to ABBA to the siege at Waco, Texas to Garth Brooks to the Unabomber to a meta analysis of the concept of the interview. There definitely isn’t a plot, a unifying theme, or even a question that Klosterman sets himself up to answer. But he does carry the reader on a rather entertaining and thought-provoking journey through some of the key components of culture today. Some are enlightening, others are silly, but they are all entertaining.

In short, reading this book is roughly what I believe sitting with Klosterman for several hours at the bar would be like. Klosterman, if you’re reading this, I’ll buy the next round.

8 out of 10 bets that Klosterman drinks Budwiser non-ironically

1. In this case, the word "giant" should be applied to Sampson in the literal sense. His NBA performance was ultimately disappointing thanks to his injuries, but the man was 7-foot-4.

Part of Campus Progress' weekly Under Review roundup.