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I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)by Chuck Klosterman
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Chuck Klosterman has walked into the darkness. As a boy, he related to the cultural figures who represented goodness — but as an adult, he found himself unconsciously aligning with their enemies. This was not because he necessarily liked what they were doing; it was because they were doing it on purpose (and they were doing it better). They wanted to be evil. And what, exactly, was that supposed to mean? When we classify someone as a bad person, what are we really saying (and why are we so obsessed with saying it)? How does the culture of deliberate malevolence operate?
In I Wear the Black Hat, Klosterman questions the modern understanding of villainy. What was so Machiavellian about Machiavelli? Why don't we see Bernhard Goetz the same way we see Batman? Who is more worthy of our vitriol — Bill Clinton or Don Henley? What was O.J. Simpson's second-worst decision? And why is Klosterman still haunted by some kid he knew for one week in 1985?
Masterfully blending cultural analysis with self-interrogation and imaginative hypotheticals, I Wear the Black Hat delivers perceptive observations on the complexity of the antihero (seemingly the only kind of hero America still creates). I Wear the Black Hat is a rare example of serious criticism that's instantly accessible and really, really funny. Klosterman continues to be the only writer doing whatever it is he's doing. Review:"Intellectually vigorous and entertaining." Publishers Weekly
Review:"That most of his subjects are from the pop-culture realm, whether Andrew Dice Clay or Chevy Chase or the Eagles, does not diminish the underlying sophistication of Klosterman's guiding questions....A fine return to form for Klosterman, blending Big Ideas with heavy metal, The Wire, Batman and much more." Kirkus
Review:"Very much a product of his generation and as plugged into the popular culture as Mencken was antagonistic to it, Klosterman is in that same direct line of cultural critics as Bierce, Mencken, and more recently, P. J. O'Rourke, and his posture is similarly arch and iconoclastic....[I Wear the Black Hat] will amuse and/or outrage but, either way, it should enlarge his audience." Booklist
Review:"Astute and funny." USA Today
Review:"Highly entertaining...a beach classic." New York Times
Review:"Klosterman offers up great facts, interesting cultural insights, and thought-provoking moral calculations in this look at our love affair with the anti-hero." New York Magazine
About the AuthorChuck Klosterman is the New York Times bestselling author of seven previous books, including Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; Eating the Dinosaur; Killing Yourself to Live; and The Visible Man. His debut book, Fargo Rock City, was the winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He has written for GQ, Esquire, Spin, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Believer, and The Onion A.V. Club. He currently serves as "The Ethicist" for the New York Times Magazine and writes about sports and popular culture for ESPN.
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