Country: USA
Genre: Non-Fiction/Essays
Pages: 246
Chuck Klosterman is an aging hipster. He's also way too smart to bow down to the dogmas of irony worshipper. That makes for an interesting intellectal dynamic. Originally from North Dakota, he emigrated to the city in his twenties and was quickly hired by major publications like The New York Times Magazine, Spin and The Washington Post. Chuck Klosterman writes essays. He's also passionate by the American pop culture he bathes in. Therefore, he's interesting to me.
Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs tackles subjects as diverse as love, The Sims, MTV's The Real World, Billy Joel and Tom Cruise. Klosterman is one of those honest people that measures the influence of mass media and entertainment on our everyday lives. "This Is Emo", the first essay in this collection notes the difficulties that Hollywood's representation of love cause with real relationships. It's a touching and accurate portrait. It's also one of the best essays of the whole book. What Klosterman does best is to draw meaning from common, daily experiences and from our exposition to mass media entertainment. Too bad he's not doing it all the time.
Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs suffers from a low middle. His essays about Kelloggs and Star Wars compare concepts that have nothing to do with each other, but maybe mark the beginning and the end of an era. Sometimes, Klosterman stretches his ideas so far, that he over simplifies points and even commits blatant reasoning mistakes. Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back and Wynona Rider in Reality Bites don't make a similar choice and don't embody Generation X, except maybe for highlighting its beginning and its end.
Most essays go from vaguely interesting to extremely smart. There are maybe two or three essays that doesn't make any sense, but throughout most of the anthology, he keeps his little nagging, judgmental, hipster tone where he looks at pop culture from a pedestal he never really justifies. It's a zesting read, maybe not as good as the works of David Foster Wallace, but the aim is different and the provocative tone of Klosterman will spark much needed debates. Interesting character, interesting thinking, when he doesn't give into easy-hip comparisons.
