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Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
: This book did not let me down. Chuck is a talented, entertaining writer. I have bought this book for several friends to read also.
was spent speeding through this incredibly hilarious book- I found myself involuntarily laughing loudly at regular junctions at the neighborhood B+N to the nearby readers' chagrin. This book cleverly dissects pop culture with a razor eye and slices up everything that's hip, serving it back to us in a slightly recognizable form. From the first page on, I was hooked, hooked to the 26 questions that actually sent me reeling in deep contemplation, to the segue on the similarities between apples and oranges, to the existential dilemmas of The Sims characters, to the Real World, to Pamela Anderson. I could recognize these cultural landmarks, but in the author's skillful hands, they were transformed into brilliance. From on, I know I'll know never to look at pop culture in the same way. And just for kicks, I bought a used copy of Vanilla Sky on my way home.
What a brilliantly clever book . the essay on "The Real World " is worth the cover price alone . if you're dithering just buy it !
I couldn't help picking up Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (Now With A Middle). I first became acquainted with the writing of Klosterman in his columns for Esquire magazine-he is always funny and interesting in his digressions of pop culture. He tackles everything from cereal, porn, video games (Simms City), sports (the Boston Celtics/LA Lakers rivalry as a means of self determination-why soccer is lame), music (the non-ironic virtues of Billy Joel, the travails of a Guns& Roses Tribute band, why country music will outlast other types of music), TV (extensive analysis of Saved By The Bell and The Real World), celebrities (why Pamela Anderson tells us who we are), generational analysis (Gen X and its relation to Star Wars, the unrealistic model of maleness in Lloyd Dobler-a character from the movie Say Anything), pop fascination with serial killers, the misconception of a biased media, the unusual world of rock critics, and religion (on the popularity of the Left Behind series of Christian novels. Most of this is quite entertaining, especially if you were born in between 1965-1975. I found myself laughing out loud a lot, but sometimes I was wondered if he really believes all of his cockamamie theories-because it sounds funny or ridiculous. However, several of the essays contain a certain logic. So in some ways the essays can be quite thought provoking. Here's a tidbit about how mass media affects relationships:
" Pundits are always blaming TV for making people stupid, movies for desensitizing the world to violence, and rock music for making kids take drugs and kill themselves. These things should be the least of our worries. The Main problem with mass media is that it makes it impossible to fall in love with any acumen of normalcy. There is no "normal," because everybody is being twisted by the same sources simultaneously. You can't compare your relationship with the playful couple who lives next, because they're probably modeling themselves after Chandler Bing and Monica Geller. Real People are actively trying to live like fake people, so real people are no les fake. Every comparison becomes impractical. This is why impractical has become totally acceptable; impracticality almost seems cool. The best relationship I ever had was with a journalist who was as crazy as me, and some of our coworkers like to compare us to Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungeon. At the time, I used to think, "Yeah, that's completely valid: We fight all the time, our love is self-destructive, and-if she was mysteriously killed-I'm sure I'd be wrongly arrested for second-degree murder before dying from an overdose in her parents' basement." We even watched Sid & Nancy in her parents' basement and giggled the whole time. "That's us," we said gleefully. And that was the best relationship I ever had. And I suspect it was the best one she ever had, too."
At any rate, a fun, easy and entertaining read.
 Yeah, that title pretty must covers it. Klosterman's essays are chock full (and I hate to use this term) of Gen-X references to everything we've grown up loving. Now, these aren't essays ON Saved by the Bell and Pamela Anderson, but rather, he uses cultural icons as a jumping off point for rambling, funny and (uh-oh) thought provoking discussions. Klosterman is the kind of guy that you would want to hang out with at a party. Look. You're either going to love this book or you're not. You're either to find the tangential, rambling essays endearing and interesting, or simply tangential and rambling. So what kinds of subjects are you in for? How about the Tori Paradox in which Klosterman deconstructs the idea of Tori on Saved by the Bell? One season, after Tiffany Amber Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley had left for more naked pastures, Tori shows up. And then, just before a graduation special that was to air on NBC, Tori was gone. And Kelly and Jessie were back. Klosterman argues that Saved by the Bell is a lot like life. First people are there, and then they're not - gone. Only to be forgotten and at the most, vaguely remember. Of course, Klosterman explains much better than me. Just the pure assault of pop-cultural references was enough for me. It's not uncommon for Klosterman to reference such diverse items as the music of Radiohead, Who's the Boss and Trix cereal all in one essay. And I wouldn't be exalting his references if he was just throwing them out. They actually mean something to the people that grew up in the post-Boomer era...
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