A Low Culture Manifesto

I recently finished reading a book ( I know, I know, really me? reading? yeah, i’m working on it.)entitled Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto written by one of the more astute minds in pop culture Chuck Klosterman, now I won’t bore you with my favorite quotes from the book, or a long winded description of who Chuck Klosterman is as a person, an author, or what his career has looked like. Rather I will point out the fact that I tremendously respect and almost envy (if that’s an appropriate use of the word) his writing style. Klosterman has an uncanny ability to take seemingly obscure pop culture information, or phenomena and turn them into very thought provoking essays. Whether it was the discussion of how Pam Anderson is not our generation’s Marilyn Monroe, Or how Saved by the Bell shaped and help to define popular culture for the generation that grew up watching it in syndication, or even how the MTV hit show The Real World destroyed the social norms of functioning relationships among twenty and thrity-somethings, Klosterman no doubt is far more brilliant in the way he writes about culture and art and tells stories.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the BEST book ever written, that is obviously reserved for Perks of Being a Wallflower, that is not true, it’s a lie. However, it does take a non traditional approach to looking at culture as a functioning system. How the stuff we consume as a culture regurgitates itself into shaping culture. This is akin to the idea of how a girl can read a magazine with an article about a supermodel (consumption) and then all of the sudden think she is fat, and worthless as a result (regurgitation).

I wouldn’t say you NEED to buy the book, but if you want to click here, but i would suggest picking up a copy from a friend or from the local library, and possibly a couple other Klosterman classics, like IV another collection of essays which all center around one of three categories, Things that may be true, things that may be false, and things that are made up.

Next on my bookshelf that I hope to read soon (I am currently unable to read for pleasure for a while, as I work frantically compiling a senior paper on Third Party Contributory, and Vicarious Copyright Infringement as it relates to music piracy and Peer to Peer networks… thrilling I know, don’t worry, i’ll post a link to it here when it’s completed, pray I get a good grade, or I could fail this class, it’s that big of an assignment) is Dispatches from the Edge, the memoirs of Anderson Cooper, CNN corespondant, my friend Alisa Yetter assures me it will be a good read.

Until then, be kind to strangers, donate some money to a homeless person, or buy them some food, afterall we’re all struggling in this economy, so share the common ground we have.

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