Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman

Chuck Klosterman seems to be a pretty polarizing figure in the pop culture world. After very much enjoying Killing Yourself to Live, I thought I would pick up his seminal work Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, and see what all the hubbub is about. People seem to either love him or hate him, and those in between are mostly just trying to figure out which camp they belong to. I think I love him but with some caveats I'll introduce later. If you want to see the perfect (and amusing) example of Klosterman hate check out this article, in which the author starts it off by pretty much calling Klosterman a 'buttface'. If anything, Klosterman is interesting solely as such a polarizing character and deserves to be part of any discussion of pop culture as a whole.

Cocoa Puffs isn't so much a 'manifesto' as it's subtitle suggests, but more of a collection of his thoughts about specific subjects within popular culture. Now Klosterman may have chosen these particular subjects in order to paint a mostly complete picture of current pop culture and its influence on our society, but it feels more like a collection of things that he has interesting thoughts on. The subject matter varies wildly from chapter to chapter and covers such subjects as Saved by the Bell, porn, country music, Larry Bird v. Magic Johnson, evangelical Christians, newspapers and media, serial killers, reality TV, love, Bill Joel, and the titular breakfast cereal. His strong points tend to be the chapters that discuss music or sports, seeing that these are his main interests, but because of the nature of the book almost every chapter is interesting and well thought out.

He usually comes up with an interesting idea about a subject in pop culture, and it's hardly ever what you would expect. If Klosterman has a 'schtick' at all, it's being overly earnest and sincere about almost any subject. If irony ever becomes passe, and the 'new sincerity' is ushered in, expect Chuck to be on the front lines leading the march. In this book he expounds his love for Billy Joel, the superiority of 'regular' country music over the trendy 'alt-country' (think some Bright Eyes, Neko Case, Lucinda Williams, etc), and why he envies evangelical Christians (not the typical 'I envy their naivety' discussion). If these opinions came from anyone else, I would be skeptical that the author was just trying to be ironic. What could be more ironic than a rock critic espousing the importance of Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks? But luckily Klosterman is from rural North Dakota, and tries to constantly clarify that he's not being ironic or insincere. A small part of me dreads finding out that all of his writing has been an elaborate hipster joke, but I'm pretty confident that he is who he says he is.

It's that last statement that I find to be the most interesting. Who is Chuck Klosterman really? Is he just some snarky, occasionally smarmy, Midwesterner who is overplaying the sincerity card? It sometimes feels like he might just be defending the opinions he does just because he knows they might be controversial and rub the current 'cool kids' the wrong way. Does he really spend his whole road trip in Killing Yourself just going to chain restaurants like The Olive Garden and Shoneys, or does he just focus on those things to try to seem more proletarian and contrary? There's little doubt that he believes the things he writes about, but how much of this is the whole truth, and how much is a 'persona' that he is trying to paint of himself?

Personally, I think that Klosterman does often agree with what's cool or in, but chooses not to discuss these opinions because he doesn't find discussing widely held beliefs to be very interesting. As previously stated, he does have pretty questionable taste in music, but also occasionally brings up his love of Radiohead. Sometimes I'd rather read a little more from the Radiohead loving Klosterman than the one who dismisses alt-country as insincere.

I would really recommend reading Cocoa Puffs not only for those who are interested in pop culture, but also for those who want an entertaining read. The two books of his that I have read have been very entertaining, and quick reads. And as far as Klosterman's place in popular culture, I think he really has the chance to be something special. He's not there yet mostly because of the sporadic nature of his books, his tendency to bring up his personal life, and the annoying tick start paragraphs after being sidetracked with the lazy phrase 'But ANYWAY', but if he puts his mind to good use he can go places. He's an incredibly intelligent man, and I would love to see something a little more cohesive from him. If Klosterman ever puts everything together I really think he could be a defining voice for our generation.