Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs
Chuck Klosterman established himself as a popular culture powerhouse with Fargo Rock City, Killing Yourself To Live and Chuck Klosterman IV. His collection of essays titled Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs deconstructs popular culture and the world we live in by explaining his various theories that relate to movies, music, sports, relationships, celebrities, and of course, sex, drugs and cereal. His essay about how The Real World has turned itself into a parody of itself is brilliant and so eloquently describes why I stopped watching regularly after Las Vegas (the let's-get-drunk-and-have-sex-on-the-first-night cast). That's not to say that I stopped all together though; let's face it, I had to see fellow Wisconsinite Landon once in a while in Philly. Another of my favorite essays documented Klosterman's hatred of soccer and explained why it appeals mostly to young kids. Hatred of soccer is certianly a sentiment with which I completely agree. When I studied abroad in France, my host sister came home from school one day and mentioned how her friend asked what she was doing that night. My host sister replied, "Well, if there's a soccer game on, my dad will watch it while the three girls sit around and read." Her friend said, "That's how it works at my house too." Although that's perhaps more a comment on gender roles, it also speaks volumes about how boring and lame soccer is. All the essays are awesome and make the reader more aware of popular culture and how it impacts their every day life as well as their relationships. Klosterman spends the first essay blaming John Cusack for Kosterman's failure to truly fall in love. My favorite quote from the book appears in the essay about the Left Behind book series in which the day of reckoning arrives and all the good people disappear to heaven, except Kirk Cameron who is apparently left behind to star in Left Behind: The Movie That's Supposed to Revive My Career...Or Not.
From page 230: "...Post-Rapture earth initially seems like a better place to live. Everybody boring would be gone. One could assume that all the infidels who weren't teleported into God's kingdom must be pretty cool: All the guys would be drinkers and all the women would be easy, and you could make jokes about homeless people and teen suicide and crack babies without offending anyone. Quite frankly, my response to the opening pages of Left Behind was 'Sounds good to me.'"
How can you not love a book with a quote like that?
6 comments:
Oh, I love Klosterman. Kind of a kinder, gentler Christopher Hitchens, in my opinion. And I never forgot that quote about John Cusack. John Cusack ruined me for all men (mortals stood no chance after The Sure Thing, and it only got worse after I watched Say Anything until the tape broke), so he's got a point there. Lloyd Dobler forever!
Oh Lloyd Dobler, a man so far ahead of his time. I mean, kick boxing, in the 80s...well done. I'm not sure how I have missed Chuck Klosterman thus far, I'm sure glad I've found him now though.
I'm listening to this on audio, he is one funny dude. I appreciate not the insight into "Real World" and the Pam Anderson/Marilyn debate. I wonder what he would say about her latest marriage.
Katharine
Ooo, smart move Katherine, does he narrate the audio himself? I always enjoy when authors read their own books on audio.
yep, you get to listen to Chuck read his own stuff, very very funny.
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