Product Description

Now in paperback after six hardback printings, the "damn funny...wild collection of bracingly intelligent essays about topics that aren't quite as intelligent as Chuck Klosterman" (Esquire). Following the success of Fargo Rock City, Klosterman, a senior writer at Spin magazine, is back with a hilarious and savvy manifesto for a youth gone wild on pop culture and media, taking on everything from Guns n' Roses tribute bands to Christian fundamentalism to internet porn. "Maddeningly smart and funny" - Washington Post

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #268482 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Customer Reviews

Frequently Hilarious Essays on Pop Culture
In the footsteps of Klosterman's Midwestern memoir/history of hair metal (Fargo Rock City) comes this collection of eighteen essays bearing the asterixed subtitle "A Low Culture Manifesto". The subtitle itself speaks volumes about the author's general style:a hyper-ironically witty phrase that displays a certain level of erudition along with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge. Klosterman is almost exactly my age, which means that our broad exposure pop culture exposure has been nearly identical, and while I greatly enjoyed the majority of the essays, there's a tension in his writing between wanting to make fun of low culture, and wanting to treat it seriously. It's the same tension (and flaw) of Fargo Rock City—he's writing about his guilty pleasures, but can't quite commit to the guilt or the pleasure. All that aside, I've probably recommended this book to more friends of mine than any other in recent months.

If you browse it in the store be aware that the first essay (about how John Cusak, and emo songsmiths like Coldplay have made the concept of love very tricky for Gen Xers—or at least middle-class white ones), is far and away the best in the book. Which is not to say there isn't a lot of other great stuff. The second essay, about the computer game The Sims, is hugely funny (if only slightly insightful) and the fifth (which first ran in The New York Times Magazine) is an engaging account of a weekend spent on the road with a Guns N' Roses cover band. The sixth is also quite strong, being a comparison of Pamela Anderson with Marilyn Monroe that seeks to explain how the role of celebrity has changed over the half-century between them. His essay on internet porn is brief, funny, and moderately thoughtful. Essay ten, on children's breakfast cereals is almost entirely tongue in cheek, and is hilarious. His thirteenth essay wins the prize for best title ("The Awe-Inspired Beauty of Tom Cruise's Shattered, Troll-like Face"), and is a mostly enjoyable muddle of thoughts about contemporary film. After this is a rather wandering (but good) piece on the popularity of country music. Essays sixteen and seventeen are all about the media. The first is a sort of general purpose "here's the truth about the media from an insider" piece, and the second is a very keen report on music critic's conference. Closing things out is a critique of the wildly popular "Left Behind" series. I would recommend all of these to various of my friends.

However, a third of the book isn't so good.. The third essay is about MTV's The Real World series, and fails to make any original points about the reality genre. The fourth is a tortured attempt to explain why Billy Joel is cool, and fails on all levels. The seventh entry is a really weak anti-soccer piece that is a total failure except for a portion where he details his job as a youth baseball coach and subsequent firing. The next essay, about the Lakers/Celtics rivalry of the '80s is equally muddled, and incoherent (probably way more so to those who weren't paying attention to the NBA in the '80s). Essay eleven is about the seminal TV show Saved By the Bell, which I've never watched, so that one went right over my head. This is followed by a rather weak essay attempting to tie Gen X malaise to The Empire Strikes Back.

Klosterman's writing style is kind of love it or hate it (I love it). He's too clever and sarcastic by half, and doesn't mind showing it off, which can be kind of refreshing. He's also one of the best writers I've encountered when it comes to profanity—he uses it a lot and quite naturally, which helps to draw you into his bizarre little world. He's also a hilarious footnoter, for example, his essay on Internet porn starts: "When exactly did every housewife in America become a whore?" with the footnote reading "Except of course, my mom." He's also a very prolific digressor, which may infuriate those who want writers to adhere to their one main point, but I rather enjoy the little side trips. I found the 2/3 of the essays that I liked so engaging that I'm willing to let the other 1/3 slide—this time.

Insightful!
Although he covers wildly varied topics, Chuck Klosterman's lively, stylish collection of essays speaks for and largely to one generation: Gen X. The author focuses not just on pop culture, but instead on pop culture's detritus. He doesn't discuss the best pop culture products. Rather, he covers the random bits and pieces that interest him. Some of these subjects merit his attention, such as popular television shows like The Real World, which have shaped later genres. Some of the other topics to which Klosterman turns his intelligence, ready wit (and occasionally profane tongue) are less obviously relevant - such as the meaning of breakfast cereal ads. He would argue that it doesn't matter, that everything in a society is connected and every part of popular culture tells us something about the way of life that produced it. Even so, you could still debate just what these specific items communicate - and while Klosterman's conclusions are always entertaining, many of them are highly debatable. In the areas such as music and celebrity journalism, where he is deeply experienced, his conclusions are more convincing and his ideas are most interesting. In other areas where he seems to spin positions from a more limited perspective, he is intriguing, but much less convincing. Despite this mixed menu and mixed perspective, we recommend this clever manuscript to pleasure readers who want a fun ride through pop land and to serious readers who are trying to understand the Gen X mindset.

Do I have to be American to get this?
Maybe it's because I wasn't brought up on the arid reverence of Rolling Stone, but this takes interesting topics and converts them into juvenile waffle. With personality-led writing you need to like or at least be entertained by the person whom you are reading, so I may come to concede that it's not Chuck, it's me. Yet there's something really quite depressing about reading a thirty year old man telling you about the 'chicks' he's bedded, something rather boring about an essay on The Real World - irrelevant over here and already makes the book seem dated - and the whole thing is awfully affected. Charlie Brooker may be more acerbic and less analytical, but his take on pop culture is far, far more entertaining, and there are many wonderful bloggers out there doing this stuff better and with greater relevance and wit - I couldn't bring myself to finish this, and I speak as someone who reads both Popjustice and essays on the sexual semiotics of Hello Kitty. This book should have been right up my street. What a disappointment.