If you’re fan of the insanity of pop culture like I am.
Chuck Klosterman will hit you with cultural autopsy of epic proportions…
Chuck is someone who understands that the stupid shit we obsess over reveals more about humanity than any sociology textbook ever could.
He dissects why we care about celebrity relationships, examines the cultural significance of breakfast cereal, and explains how our relationship with fictional characters shapes our real world expectations. (Which is hilarious but sad or sadly hilarious depending on how you look at it)
He treats pop culture like archaeology, digging through the debris of American obsessions to find actual meaning buried underneath and as we all know, what happens in America, filters down to the rest of the world.
I think what makes this book genius is that he never talks down to pop culture or dismisses it as meaningless shit.
He recognises that the movies we watch, the music we love, and the TV shows we binge are the mythology of our time. They matter because we make them matter and it has such a wild effect on how we form our world view.
He writes about how “The Real World” changed how we perform ourselves, why we project our relationship fantasies onto celebrities we’ll never meet, and what our taste in music says about who we pretend to be.
It’s smart without being pretentious and it’s funny without being shallow. A pretty cool cocktail of social sludge if you ask me.
If you’re up for thinking a little differently. The book will make you think hard about everything you consume, from cereal commercials to romantic comedies.
If you could take philosophy and make it more culturally appropriate this ticks all the boxes.
Plus, it’s genuinely hilarious.
Stephen Walker.