Chuck Klosterman was one of the first
authors I really started getting into as a whole. I started reading him when I
graduated high school (2009) and was lucky that he had a lot of material
already out. I’ve only ever had to wait for The Visible Man (2011), I
Wear the Black Hat (2013), and his newest book, But What If We're
Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past (2016). Honestly,
while I usually pick up anything new Klosterman writes the day it is released,
I had some reservations about this book after reading a brief plot synopsis.
The book is entirely theoretical. It basically aims to explore whether or not
we will be right about the things we hold as absolutes today in the
“not-so-distant future.”
Honestly, while I usually pick up
anything new Klosterman writes the day it is released, I had some reservations
about this book after reading a brief plot synopsis. The book is entirely
theoretical. It basically aims to explore whether or not we will be right about
the things we hold as absolutes today in the “not-so-distant future.”The book
is sort of what you would expect from Klosterman. It’s a non-fiction,
essay-structured piece that deals with a lot of ideas most people would think
up while stoned (e.g. what television shows will really be remembered,
will we stop playing football altogether). I think what this book lacks is
anything overtly personal - which is what I love most about Klosterman’s
writing. The only piece of information I was able to take away about his
personal life in 288 pages was that his father passed away. This might seem
like a bizarre criticism, but my favourite Klosterman book is Killing
Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, which is DEEPLY personal. So you can
see why I was a little bummed.
I’m also kind of embarrassed to admit
that some of the essays were over my head. A LOT of this book deals with
physics… He interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson and Brian Greene quite a bit, both
who are pretty famous for making science accessible to regular people, but
still…
The standout essay for me was definitely
“A quaint and curious volume of (destined-to-be) forgotten lore,” where
Klosterman wonders which author we will give the Moby Dick goldstar
(shameless plug: stay tuned for our Moby Dick book club in November!!!)
in the future. He starts the essay by creating this pyramid of “the greatest
authors of our time” where Philip Roth is at the very top because of his
massive career-long success (i.e. Pultizer winner), and then further down we
have Jonathan Franzen and David Foster Wallace as widely-known “great” authors,
and down even further is Dave Eggers, classified as a “soon to be recognized as
all-time great.”
I pretty much loved that chapter for the
simple reason that it involved a lot of pop-culture name droppings - a staple
of Klosterman’s past books - and it made me feel smart… Overall, probably
my least favourite of his books. But again, only because it isn't very personal
and I didn't like the subject matter to begin with.
