This book is a collection of essays, most are based on his experiences in life and his ideas for why pop culture is the way it is. I think this book was written for people who are at least ten to twenty years older than I am. He relates almost everything he says to bands, T.V. shows, and movies that my generation is completely oblivious to. If this book was written for younger generations I could relate to perhaps I would have liked it better. For example he states that "a program like The Man Show is legitimately negative for society, but not because it is misogynistic; The Man Show is socially negative because it actively tried to prove an inaccurate hypothesis that too many woman believe: The premise of The Man Show is that all men think exactly the same way." Unfortunately, I have never seen or heard of The Man Show, and most of the other things he uses as references in his book. And sense he never says what The Man Show is about, or most of the other things he refers to in the book, I am completely lost.
Chuck Klosterman is a smart man, with many, many, many, many, many opinions. He is so opinionated that is almost makes me sick. His entire book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is entirely made up of opinions. Sometimes he may throw a fact or two into the mix, but never something that can be proven with numbers and actually mean anything significantly.
One example he uses in the book is Sims. Sims is the video game creating a virtual reality. He basically says that the reason why Sims is so popular, or was, was because it gave people the chance to create what they have always wanted in life. He expressed frustration with his own Sim when he had to constantly buy it new toys to make it happy. He says that this represents the way the real world is now. For example, according to Klosterman Sims is "a game about experiencing life, and experiencing it in the most mundane fashion possible."Basically Klosterman can create an opinion about literally nothing. For instance he stated that "nothingness still has a weight and a mass and a conflict."
I never usually dislike a book completely, but this book was not good at all in my opinion. I still give Chuck Klosterman credit for taking the time to write down his opinions on everything and make it into a book, but this book was not for me. Although it was well written, I was not a fan of the context. I give this book a three out of five Sims Diamonds.
