Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs - and a confession of love.

Please forgive my super sweet photo of the book. I borrowed this from my brother-in-law quite some time ago, and somewhere down the road he had misplaced the cover sleeve. So, book binding photo it is.

Ah, Chuck Klosterman. Where do I even start with you?

You have made me laugh, good sir. You have also made me use that organ inside my head called a brain. Both of which I thank you for.

So far I am half way through Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, and I am enjoying myself thoroughly. This man, although much more eloquent and with a much higher vocabulary than myself, is quite possibly the male version of me. Well, ok, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am as cool as Mr. Klosterman, but I’m just saying that we would “get each other” if we were to ever meet. It doesn’t hurt that he is extremely reminiscent of my 80’s crush, Corey Feldman. Yes, I will unabashedly confess my love of Feldman on the internet for all to see. Who wouldn’t love Mouth from The Goonies? I mean c’mon!

Anyway, lets get crackin’ about the book. This book is essentially a collection of essays that Klosterman admits to have written before he falls asleep at night (quite possibly under the influence of what the kids these days are calling “Pot”). Chuck talks about literally anything and everything that has come to symbolize the spectrum of postmodern America – and not only that, but he finds a way to write about it so that I am interested, and I find it funny, and quite frankly, I don’t want to put the book down.

So far I have traveled on tour with a Guns N’ Roses tribute band, I’ve been told that Marilyn Monroe and Pamela Anderson are more or less one in the same, I’ve had the world of The Sims explained as a glorification of consumerism. I’ve read about how uncool Billy Joel is – and how, ultimately, that makes him really cool. I’ve read a lot of stuff about sports that, well, I just don’t plain understand and/or care about. I read an entire chapter/essay on internet porn. And I’ve liked it all – even if it feels like you’re trying to talk to an extremely stoned friend.

Although I do not always understand all of Klosterman’s allusions that he makes within this book (and trust me, there are A LOT), I really enjoy reading it none the less. He may throw out random 80’s hair band references, or a baseball player’s name that I just am not familiar with, but I still get the jist of what he is saying, and it is still interesting to read.

I may not agree 100% with some of the conclusions he has drawn in the book thus far, but he sure tries to back them up with some intriguing evidence. And, half the time, he even admits that what he is saying sounds a little crazy. Like calling Marilyn Monroe and Pamela Anderson the same person, just from different eras. He admits that at first, when someone told him this idea, he was offended, but as he walks you through the idea of them both being sex symbols from different periods in time, you sort of scratch your head and nod along. Whether you decide to believe what he tells you is up to you.

I was laughing out loud in The Sims essay though. If you’ve ever played the game, which you should if you haven’t - it’s really pretty fun, you will understand literally everything he says, and probably find it very funny. Reading about his plights in the Simian world is a flashback into my own memory of playing the game for hours on end. And all you do is tell a little figure you’ve created to sleep, wake up, eat, use the bathroom, shower. Then he draws some interesting conclusions from the game about us as a society and as the human race. I think it was a great essay.

I’ve got just about half of the book to finish. I’ve ironically stopped right where my brother-in-law seems to have given up on the book. Hmmm. Maybe it’s not for everyone. Maybe I only like it because, if I wrote a nonfiction book, I’d want it to be something very much like this. Or maybe it’s because he had something in life that jumped out and took the place of reading… whereas in my life, reading jumps out and takes the place of my life [haha].

Anyway, on to reading!