4.07.2011

"Kloster-da-man" pt 2

Well, I finished Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs yesterday, but didn’t want to get Post Happy and overwhelm anyone (since I know SO many people read this and all…), so now I will talk about the second half of the book.



The second half involved essays about breakfast cereal mascots, the all too predictable high school sitcom Saved by the Bell, Luke Skywalker – the original Gen Xer, The Dixie Chicks, the media, and music conferences in Seattle. He expounds on the question of “what is reality?”, Jesus, and Serial Killers.

Side note – in a book where he directly talks about cereal – even names the book after a specific kind of cereal, is it coincidence that he put in an essay about SERIAL killers? Lame joke, I know.

Ok, but really. The part of the second half that stuck out the most WAS the part about serial killers. Growing up, I too was morbidly interested in people who seemed to kill for fun, or sexual exploit, or whatever it was that drove them to the act. I read book, after book, after book about different men who had been convicted of killing multiple people... I think my mother may have been a little worried about me. I read them unceasingly – until one hit a little too close to home.
Ted Bundy – a man blamed for the deaths of countless young women, was the last biography of a serial killer that I ever read. In the back of the book was a seemingly endless list of women that Bundy was accused of killing, some of whom have never been found. On the list were girls from my small hometown, and many of the small towns surrounding. It was chilling. That night I had a horrible nightmare that my sister was killed by Bundy. When I went out the front door of my house I saw Bundy’s Volkswagen Bug [removable front seat and all] in my driveway. As I inspected it, my sister was lying in the front seat with a small bullet hole in her forehead. It was awful. So, needless to say, I had to take a break from reading those kinds of books for awhile.
In the essay, Klosterman interviews some of his acquaintances who have come in direct contact with famous serial killers in their lives. It was an intriguing idea to me that Klosterman was so obsessed with these people. The closer it hit to home for him, the more interested he was, whereas my experience was completely the opposite.
Klosterman also talks about Kirk Cameron, the Left Behind books, and his open-mindedness towards born again Christians. He decides to reread the book of Revelations rather than read all eleven Left Behind books. Which makes sense. I’m not sure I could read that many books about Jesus and the second coming. But, this leads me into the fact that I am trying to read The Book. Yes, capitol T, capitol B. As in, the Bible. I want to read it just to a) say that I read it and b) be able to understand all of those little allusions that other books and poems and pamphlets and tv people all make towards it. I mean, the Bible is the backbone to so much in the world – literature and beyond [the Bible is kind of like Buzz Lightyear]. It will only be beneficial to have read it. So, expect to see little tidbits here and there about my journey with this project.
In the end, I think that I really enjoyed this book. It reminds me of a good David Sedaris book, like Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, where you come back to the little essay/story things every so often to remember how funny the author is. I don’t think this is the last time that I will read any of this collection, except for maybe the essay on the media, that one was less entertaining.
On to reading!

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