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Book Review:
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman
From the kid who brought you Fargo Rock City -- the first book in history to garner the praise of Stephen King, David Byrne, Donna Gaines, Sebastian Bach, Jonathan Lethem, and Rivers Cuomo -- comes Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs -- the first book in history to examine breakfast cereal, reality television, tribute bands, Internet porn, serial killers, and the Dixie Chicks.
SEX, DRUGS, AND...
Format: Hardcover / Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Scribner
Publishing Date: August 26, 2003
Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman - with an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and a seemingly effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter. Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry of the 1980s, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once.
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about movies, sports, television, music, books, video games, and kittens...but, really, it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'"
Most pop culture writers are jaded, hardened people who can praise the post-modern media machine and then turn around and denounce it with a slight of their satirical pen, all in the same breath. Chuck Klosterman is no exception, but he does it with such cunning wit and astute observation that it doesn't sink in until the very last page.
What first convinced me to read Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs was its initial chapter, a searing and frank look at the author's failed romantic relationships, which leads him to believe that who all women are really looking for is John Cusack. More specifically, it's Cusack's wrong-side-of-the-tracks Lloyd Dobler from Say Anything, who possibly offers us the most romantic boom box serenade ever to be captured on video. What follows next is an in-depth analysis of media-constructed love, and from Coldplay to Woody Allen to Harry Met Sally, no one is spared.
Okay, John Cusack, I can deal with that.
Klosterman is obviously a very talented and involved writer - working for Rolling Stone and Spin Magazine is no small feat - sometimes sweetly deprecating, but always aware. He's the media-savvy roommate you got high with in college (you know, the one that knows all the words to Bob Dylan's repertoire), blabbering on for hours about nothing that eventually becomes about something. He's Seinfeld without the kookiness of Kraimer. He's just a guy who tells hilarious stories about famous people. And by the time you've reached the index, you'll swear that you did go to college with him.
Klosterman's wit knows no bounds. The book is cleverly divided into a pseudo-album jacket, with each chapter listed as a song title of sorts, accompanied by a short interlude in between. The interludes are perhaps the most telling and interesting, for their stream-of-consciousness snippets rarely make sense in the context of the book but hit a marked idealism nonetheless. The aptly titled "hypothetical interlude" (which precedes a chapter titled "Being Zack Morris") is simply a list of questions Klosterman asks anyone he meets in order to decide if he really loves them. And after reading these silly but loaded questions, I think a part of me fell in love with Klosterman. An excerpt from this list: "At long last, someone invents the 'dream VCR.' This machine allows you to tape an entire evening's worth of your won dreams, which you can then watch at your leisure. However, the inventor of the dream VCR will only allow you to use this device if you agree to a strange caveat: when you watch your dreams, you must do so with your family and closest friends in the same room. They get to watch your dreams along with you. And if you don't agree to this, you can't use the dream VCR. Would you still do this?" See what I mean?
Admittedly, it was somewhat of a chore to get through the chapters concerning sports and sports figures I have never heard of but are probably very legendary, but Klosterman's sharpness and biting tongue make things a little easier to handle. His litters of anecdotes, interpretations, and unlikely hypotheses (Pamela Anderson is the 21st century version of Marilyn Monroe?) might be controversial and distasteful, but one cannot deny that Klosterman is smart, and he knows it quite well without coming across as condescending (okay, maybe once or twice) or preachy.
It's towards the end that things start to get bizarre. The last few chapters deal with quite heavy subjects, a stark juxtaposition from the light and breezy beginning of John Cusack, The Sims, and "The Real World." "This Is Zodiac Speaking" is dedicated to the culture of serial killer celebrity, and it's a lot to swallow in one chapter. I won't deny that there's a certain fascination with serial killers, or that they live in infamy along with other celebrity types, but when Klosterman admits that he wants to meet one, it's a chilling omission from the deep recesses of the human psyche. In "How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found," he tackles religion, again with heavy-footed frankness. These sections didn't detract from the appeal of the book, but in terms of cohesiveness, seemed like last-minute fillers in an otherwise great album. C.Ho.
SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS:
