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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
CK’s nascent tour as The Ethicist seems to have come to bear in I Wear the Black Hat, his latest nonfiction, which explores the culture of villainy, and pokes holes in glossed-over hypocrisies about what makes someone laudable versus despicable. Perhaps so many letters seeking guidance on everyday ethics made the topic unavoidable, but where IWTBA differs from Klosterman’s NYT work is in whose ethics it reflects. The column is about what people do (or, in the case of moral negligence, what they don’t do) and how those actions or inactions reflect on their character. I Wear The Black Hat is about what people feel about others‘ actions, and how those feelings/perspectives reflect on our collective character. While I’m a big fan of CK-as-Ethicist (I know not everyone is, but…haters gonna hate) the nuance of IWTBH makes it more interesting.
[FULL REVIEW]
[FULL REVIEW]
I love Chuck Klosterman. His essay collections on music are some of my favorite non-fiction books I've ever read. I also love villains. That's why when I heard Chuck Klosterman had written an essay collection entirely about villains I was immediately here for it. Unfortunately, it just didn't really vibe with me. I still love Klosterman's writing style.
"My personality had calcified and emancipated itself from taste."
This is how he describes being able to now enjoy music (or at least stop hating it) based solely around the personalities of the people performing it. Assholes can make solid music, and good people can make bad music. The way Chuck puts shit just gets me.
That being said, this collection feels a little disjointed and lacking a common thread that would normally tie it all together. I can see the author was reaching for one, but it never quite landed properly for me. Also, this one's just me, but there were a lot of sports personalities addressed and I just don't watch sports. Don't care about them, and don't know who plays what in them. So those sections just tended to lose me entirely.
Although I am a bit disappointed I didn't like this more, this collection did leave me with a great passage that I will also leave you all with that pretty much defines my life.
"I never felt weird about being the main character in the nontransferable, nonexistent movie of my life. That's totally fine. What makes me nervous is a growing suspicion that this movie is fucked up and devoid of meaning. The auteur is a nihilist. What if I'm the main character, but still not the protagonist? What if there is no protagonist? What if there's just an uninteresting person, thinking about himself because there's nothing else to think about?"
Wow. This book was really more of a two star read for me, but extra star for this passage. Bravo.~
"My personality had calcified and emancipated itself from taste."
This is how he describes being able to now enjoy music (or at least stop hating it) based solely around the personalities of the people performing it. Assholes can make solid music, and good people can make bad music. The way Chuck puts shit just gets me.
That being said, this collection feels a little disjointed and lacking a common thread that would normally tie it all together. I can see the author was reaching for one, but it never quite landed properly for me. Also, this one's just me, but there were a lot of sports personalities addressed and I just don't watch sports. Don't care about them, and don't know who plays what in them. So those sections just tended to lose me entirely.
Although I am a bit disappointed I didn't like this more, this collection did leave me with a great passage that I will also leave you all with that pretty much defines my life.
"I never felt weird about being the main character in the nontransferable, nonexistent movie of my life. That's totally fine. What makes me nervous is a growing suspicion that this movie is fucked up and devoid of meaning. The auteur is a nihilist. What if I'm the main character, but still not the protagonist? What if there is no protagonist? What if there's just an uninteresting person, thinking about himself because there's nothing else to think about?"
Wow. This book was really more of a two star read for me, but extra star for this passage. Bravo.~
I don't know what it is about Chuck Klosterman. This isn't really a book that teaches anything or presents a new philosophy. It's just him, pontificating. But, there's something about the way he writes and thinks that I find appealing. Maybe it's because we're the same age, so his cultural and pop references are the same as mine. But, whenever I read his books, I feel like I'm sitting down to get slightly drunk with a good friend who tends to wax philosophical on random topics in a verbose way. It's just fun.
Thoughtful essays on bad people and what makes bad people bad.
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
I enjoyed this book (except that it ended at 76% per my ecopy!!) but was thankful I could skip over the less interesting parts. Highly Americanised so don't bother reading it if you're not agreeable to that culture.
Fun read. I felt like I was drinking a beer with him, or something. One quote that has stayed with me: The one who is evil is the one who "knows the most but cares the least." Interesting musings on fleeting thoughts. Enjoyed it.
challenging
funny
slow-paced