Eating the Dinosaur

Being an unabashed Klosterman fan I loved this book from cover to cover. His essays were consistently humorous and thought provoking and that is a rare combination in this day and age. I strongly recommend this book to everybody and hope they can find as much enjoyment in the book as I have.

On the back of EATING THE DINOSAUR, a question is posed: "Should I read this book?" The answer really does sum up what you will find between these covers: "Probably. Do you see a clear relationship between the Branch Davidian massacre and the recording of Nirvana's In Utero? Does Barack Obama make you want to drink Pepsi? Does ABBA remind you of AC/DC? If so, you probably don't need to read this book. You probably wrote this book." And since I know and you know that you didn't, you might just need to read this book. Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and his fascination with a particular group of women, Garth Brooks and his doppelganger, "Mad Men," football, Ralph Nader --- anything that makes up some semblance of pop culture within the scope of the last decade is viable fodder for Chuck Klosterman's famously erudite take on what makes our commercial world go around. It includes politics, the arts, sports and advertising --- nothing is out of his reach. Like the Gorillaz's song "Clint Eastwood," "the future is coming on," and Klosterman lays out his clean, shiny instruments, ready to dissect whatever comes his way. There's a good chance that you won't read all the essays in one sitting --- like a great magazine article, you will want to savor one at a time, delving into it several times to soak up all the multivarious responses Klosterman has to simple questions such as the ones posed above. Using Aristotelian logic to understand a new Pepsi campaign is fascinating stuff in his hands. Like a Lego master, he takes each little issue apart and really looks at it, ending up with a snarky but intelligent creation, standing on its own as a little bit of pop culture enthusiasm to which we can all refer in 10 years' time when we're trying to remember why something made such a big imprint on all of us (like "Mad Men"). Personally, I most like Klosterman because he gives weight and credence to things that I like to think about but that may not seem like the types of things adults should spend their precious time considering. But advertising campaigns, TV shows and alternative rock albums are so much a part of my daily life, my personal quilt of culture, that I appreciate greatly the import that Klosterman provides. He makes me feel not quite as ridiculous as I can, as the world collapses around me and I spend time reading the Twitter feed of Betty Draper, a character I feel like I know but who doesn't really exist. Am I an idiot? No, just a plugged-in member of the general pop culture, just like the Unabomber and The Foo Fighters and the new coach of the Notre Dame football team. Klosterman may be EATING THE DINOSAUR, but really we're just savoring the fossils of our own time; like Pepsi, it's fun AND delicious. --- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

I've enjoyed all of Chuck Klosterman's books (have yet to read Downtown Owl)and articles in Spin and Esquire. This is no exception. Brought it on vacation and found myself cursing Chuck Klosterman because I read it so fast I had nothing to read on the flight home. Really looking forward to showing my friends who are Michigan State Spartan football fans the chapter on "The Best Response".

On its face, just like the best of his other books, Eating the Dinosaur appears to be a book about the mundane and the fleeting. However, underneath that glossy surface, there are insights into our cultural ethos that are unmatched by other modern works. The essays include: ----------------------- Something Instead of Nothing: Why do people answer questions? For who's sake? What does that say about us? This is far more interesting than it sounds at first and, I think, provides insight into the current human condition. Interviews and answering questions are odder than you would think. Oh, the Guilt: What do David Koresh and Kurt Cobaine have in common? Really interesting look at what makes self-made cultic leaders and culturally-created messianic figures different. Great examination of the Waco disaster as well - definitely want to read more about it after reading the little bit included here. Tomorrow Rarely Knows: An essay about why time travel is impossible. Good, but the information is not very original. I had heard most of this before, but interesting none the less. What We Talk About When We Talk About Ralph Sampson: Society's Reactions to Public Failures. As a lifelong Houston Rockets fan, I was excited to see this essay. Though the premise and the conclusions are valid, this essay on failure and how it is viewed by society ultimately comes up short. The circuitous route that Klosterman takes to get to his point has a few too many curves. Through a Glass, Blindly: Voyeurism. The most interesting part of this essay were the discussions of the Hitchcock movies Vertigo and Rear Window. An understanding look at why we watch other's lives. The conclusion that Klosterman comes up with here is right on. This, along with the first essay in the book, deftly describes an individual's desire to be recognized and validated. The Passion of the Garth: Fictional Reality. I am not a big country music fan and barely remember Garth Brooks' attempt to break into the rock world as Chris Gaines. After three slower essays, this one is great fun. The underlying discussion of created personas and how fiction can be truer than reality takes a back seat to the sheer entertainment value of the piece. The Best Response. This one is just filler really. The one area that fell very short of Klosterman's best work (Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs, IV) are the filler questions. There really was not anything worthwhile in between the chapters, and though this grouping of questions is a little better then the filler in the rest of the book, its not by much. Football: Liberal or Conservative? Great. As an avid football fan, one of my favorites in the book. Not much to say about it besides the fact that if you are a football fan, this one is a must read and almost worth the price of the book. This, along with the soccer essay (S,D, & CP, I think) is the best of his sports essays. ABBA 1, World 0. Not great. Unclear about the point of this one, and I don't p

Klosterman does not go for the easy joke here; although he is consistently and absurdly amusing. Neither is Eating the Dinosaur a mere collection of pop culture references; although Mad Men, Nirvana, ABBA, The Fog of War and other mentions abound. What raises this book to a 5 star rating is the author's ability to weave humor and pop culture into genuinely insightful analyses of issues both important and sublime. He starts with a very funny and equally revealing essay about why people answer questions during interviews. Just as the reader recognizes that this is not nearly as obvious a matter as it seems on first blush, Klosterman enters into a discussion of the nature of truth and of selfhood. Errol Morris contributes this gem: "I think we're always trying to create a consistent narrative for ourselves. I think truth always takes a backseat to narrative." (This would explain why each of my satellite radio news channels tells me about events in seemingly different worlds.) Klosterman is less serious but just as interesting in exploring the challenges inherent in time travel. Even it were possible, he argues, the only reason to do so would be to eat a dinosaur. His dissection of advertising through the medium of Mad Men and Pepsi is subtle and persuasive. He tries to convince us that we understand we are being conned by the ad. However, we reward the message that does the best job of setting the hook because we want to be a part of the process. His best piece finishes the book and rather courageously tries to resurrect the Unabomber's arguments in Industrial Society for the Future without creating any sympathy for Ted Kaczynski. Klosterman shows how 130,000 years of psychological evolution, in which men observed actual images, have been replaced in one century by mediated experience. The media that the author has made a living writing about has created a new and false reality. "We are latently enslaved by our own ingenuity, and we have unknowingly constructed a simulated world, " concludes the author. "As a species, we have never been less human than we are right now." Eating the Dinosaur is a lot to swallow. Whether the reader accepts its conclusions or not, however, consumption is both fun and enlightening.