Eating the Dinosaur (Hardcover)

~ Chuck Klosterman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his new essay collection, author and cultural commentator Klosterman (Chuck Klosterman IV) parallels Kurt Cobain with David Koresh, Weezer with Warner Herzog and Ralph Nader, and posits a future in which Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's manifesto is viewed as "the most prescient work of the 1990s." In short, there is something to excite and/or enrage any reader engaged with popular culture in the last 20 years. One of few cultural essayists to enjoy a wide readership, Klosterman's Lester Bangs-lite approach is frequently engaging, if scattershot; too often, he engages in fleeting pop-culture references that evoke the laziest kind of critical cred-grubbing (a typical throwaway jab at indie band TV on the Radio leaves readers with no idea what criticism, if any, Klosterman is leveling). Klosterman even neglects to engage some of his subjects on their artistic merits, such as Nirvana's final album, In Utero: after making much of the disc's pre-release hype, he all but refuses to discuss his reaction as a listener. Even with the inclusion of an article on football (which he admits will turn off "40 percent" of his readers), Klosterman never ventures outside of his comfort zone; though he thrives on challenging his readers, he fails to challenge himself.
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Product Description

A Book of All-New Pop Culture Pieces by Chuck Klosterman

Chuck Klosterman has chronicled rock music, film, and sports for almost fifteen years. He's covered extreme metal, extreme nostalgia, disposable art, disposable heroes, life on the road, life through the television, urban uncertainty and small-town weirdness. Through a variety of mediums and with a multitude of motives, he's written about everything he can think of (and a lot that he's forgotten). The world keeps accelerating, but the pop ideas keep coming.

In Eating the Dinosaur, Klosterman is more entertaining and incisive than ever. Whether he's dissecting the boredom of voyeurism, the reason why music fan's inevitably hate their favorite band's latest album, or why we love watching can't-miss superstars fail spectacularly, Klosterman remains obsessed with the relationship between expectation, reality, and living history. It's amateur anthropology for the present tense, and sometimes it's incredibly funny.

Q: What is this book about?

A: Well, that's difficult to say. I haven't read it yet - I've just clicked on it and casually glanced at this webpage. There clearly isn't a plot. I've heard there's a lot of stuff about time travel in this book, and quite a bit about violence and Garth Brooks and why Germans don't laugh when they're inside grocery stores. Ralph Nader and Ralph Sampson play significant roles. I think there are several pages about Rear Window and football and Mad Men and why Rivers Cuomo prefers having sex with Asian women. Supposedly there's a chapter outlining all the things the Unabomber was right about, but perhaps I'm misinformed.

Q: Is there a larger theme?

A: Oh, something about reality. "What is reality," maybe? No, that's not it. Not exactly. I get the sense that most of the core questions dwell on the way media perception constructs a fake reality that ends up becoming more meaningful than whatever actually happened.

Q: Should I read this book?

A: Probably. Do you see a clear relationship between the Branch Davidian disaster 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. But I suspect everybody else will totally love it, except for the ones who absolutely hate it.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416544208
• ISBN-13: 978-1416544203
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,445 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Satisfying Meal, October 21, 2009

By	The Ginger Man - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

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.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pop Culture Philosphy, October 27, 2009

By	Bradley Bevers "LucidBooks.net" (Brenham, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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:

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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 particularly care for ABBA's music.

"Ha, Ha," he said. "Ha, Ha." Canned Laughter. Very good. I always hated canned laughter, but now I know why. Your perception of canned laughter, both on television and in everyday conversations, will change after reading this.

It Will Shock You How Much It Never Happened. Advertising. As a Mad Men fan, this one was good. Though confused about the direction he was headed at times, the conclusion results in a great question about the nature of advertising in today's society.

T is For True: Irony and Its Pervasiveness. A look at the lack of literalism in today's society and what that means for us in the future. This one is a must read and will change the way you think about irony and its effects. One of the best in the book.

FAIL: Technology, Good or Bad. Worth reading for a couple of good points, but one of the weakest chapters in the book. Hard to take even one philosophical insight from the Unabomber and point out its value, but Klosterman succeeds (barely.)
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Chuck Klosterman has a unique talent to turn discussions about Nirvana, David Koresh, and Mad Men into philosophical treatises worth reading. Even if you disagree with many, or even all, of his conclusions you cannot ignore Klosterman's insight into pop culture and society. He is the best writer of the "educational & entertaining non-fiction" genre, and Eating the Dinosaur is one of his best.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A more self aware Klosterman, October 19, 2009

By	M. stevenson (KC, MO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Chuck seems more aware of his own celebrity and status as a writer in this book than his previous ones. This comes, alongside the welcome addition of an index, making it all the easier to look up his culturally mundane references for a second time, if need be. The following is a sampling of the first 10 things referenced in the index (in alphabetical order, of course): Abba (pgs. 147-158), ABC, Abdul (Paula), AC/DC, Ace of Base, Across the Sea (Weezer), advertising, A-11 offense, Aerosmith, Aero-Zepplin, Against the Machine, and the Akron Beacon Journal.

If you're a fan of his previous works, and particularly Sex Drugs Cocoa Puffs, you should check this out. But if you're reading this, you probably already knew that.

*P.S. the page count here says 255 pages, but in actuality, it is 229 pages, plus the index from p. 233 to p.245... so it's shorter than has been listed. I ripped through it yesterday afternoon, and will probably read it a second time come Holiday break.