Chuck Klosterman Visits UAS
The event was titled "Life through the Prism of Pop Culture," which is a name that Klosterman admits his agent had come up with and left him unsure of what to talk about.
By: Randi Spray
Klosterman, a journalist and writer from North Dakota, has published three books on a variety of cultural topics, as well as a novel and another book slotted for release in October.
The event was titled "Life through the Prism of Pop Culture," which is a name that Klosterman admits his agent had come up with and left him unsure of what to talk about. After speaking in Juneau, Klosterman went on to speak in Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Klosterman opened with funny anecdotes about differences between states and previous experiences giving lectures, "knowing" celebrities, and visiting Austin, Texas.
He continued with describing his involvement in journalism since college and his decision to write his first book, "Fargo Rich City," which is about growing up in middle America and listening to heavy metal.
The book was published in 2001, and Klosterman was the opening act of a reading in New York City on Sept. 24 of the same year. He spoke about how freaked out people were at the time and the catharsis caused by the reading, which he described as one of the first chances people had to laugh in the days since 9/11.
In 2003, he published his second and most popular book "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs". He called it an attempt to describe why things like "The Real World" and the Lakers/Celtics rivalry are important and how people use culture.
His third book, "Killing Yourself to Live," published in 2007, came about from visiting the sites of famous rock deaths and simultaneously dealing with relationships with three girls. While the book has been called "narcissistic," Klosterman says it's his favorite.
His novel called "Downtown Owl," released in 2008, is about a small town in North Dakota. His book to be released this fall, "Eating the Dinosaur," is a collection of essays he wrote while teaching in Germany.
Only in the questions and answers part of the program did Klosterman get into active cultural criticism. He discussed the second-life phenomenon on the internet where you can "have your life and create a second one" and "change conditions to the way you imagine it." He also discussed how culturally unifying factors like the Beatles are disappearing and suggested that perhaps the only unifying part of present culture is trashing celebrities.
Klosterman also talked about his feelings about the future of traditional journalism and newspaper publishing. "I'm not very optimistic about the future of the media," Klosterman said.
Klosterman also talked about the impact of technology and the cultural trends towards user generated content such as blogs and twitter and how it changes the nature of news. "It doesn't make much sense to teach newspaper journalism in colleges," Klosterman stated, and he believes that maybe the New York Times, The Washington Post and, perhaps, The L.A. Times with survive in print.
