Loud Reading
KILLING YOURSELF TO LIVE: 85% OF A TRUE STORY
SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS (A LOW CULTURE MANIFESTO)
(Scribner)
According to the online reference Wikipedia, solipsism is "commonly understood to encompass the metaphysical belief that only one's self exists, and that "existence" just means being a part of one's own mental states—all objects, people, etc., that one experiences are merely parts of one's own mind." It's not much of a leap from this to the idea that only things that affect one's self matter, and that seems to be the driving principle behind Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story. Ostensibly a book about the sites of various rock & roll deaths, it's really about Klosterman's inner struggle over his feelings for three different women. And when I say his feelings, I mean his—he makes token attempts at seeing things from their perspectives, but really, it's all about him. He filters some of his observations through the lens of pop culture, particularly rock music, but ultimately it all comes back to his own inner thought processes. This is self-absorption on a truly grand scale.
That makes Killing Yourself to Live sound like an excruciating read. Remarkably, it's not. First of all, Klosterman is an often witty, stupendously readable prose stylist. His words practically flow off the page and into your brain, making each chapter a pleasure to read, even if the subject matter makes you want to smack him. Secondly, Klosterman is perfectly aware of his own limited worldview; his self-deprecation borders on arrogance. If he describes a situation—say, 9/11, which he does indeed examine—he still relates to how he personally feels about it. In that way he's being more honest than commentators and historians who try to tell us how we should think. He only mentions how he feels, and leaves us to accept or reject it on our own. Gotta give him credit for that. [buy it]
That principle rules Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (A Low Culture Manifesto), which has been released in paperback to coincide with the new book. Klosterman muses on breakfast cereal marketing plans, internet porn, the Sims game, Christian lit, The Real World, a Guns 'N Roses tribute band and more. His obsession with sports leaves me cold—as a non-sports fan, I can't empathize with his loathing of soccer, and even after a couple of reads, his chapter on the racial politics of basketball still baffles me. But when he gives us his perspective on various pop culture wingdings, it makes for an extremely entertaining and, yes, even (occasionally) insightful read. And while neither of these tomes matches his first book, the brilliant Fargo Rock City, both are well worth your time. Michael Toland [buy it]
