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But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past Hardcover – June 7, 2016

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Chuck Klosterman (Author)
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Chuck Klosterman (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars 77 customer reviews
#1 Best Sellerin Epistemology Philosophy
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  • But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past
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  • HYPERtheticals: 50 Questions for Insane Conversations
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  • I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Blue Rider Press; 1 edition (June 7, 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0399184120
  • ISBN-13: 978-0399184123
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 starsThe First Klosterman Book I Didn't Enjoy
By S. Gorman on June 8, 2016
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Klosterman said that the Metallica/Lou Reed collaboration, LuLu, was, “Bold, Uncompromising, and totally unlistenable.” I would say that this book is bold, uncompromising, and (mostly) unreadable. Stylistically, this is vastly different from anything Klosterman has ever written. While there is a swear and a joke here and there, the prose is mostly dry and pedantic. I kept waiting for his witty, conversational tone to appear, but it never really did. This is pretty much a philosophy book about time, epistemology, and metaphysics, which is fine, but far from what any Chuck Klosterman fan would be expecting. All of Klosterman’s nonfiction goes off into tangents, but it always comes right back to the main point. The tangents in this book often go off and never come back. He makes big ideas, small (as opposed to his other books which make small ideas, big), but there are just too many big ideas in this book and they can’t really be expounded upon in only 272 pages. Malcolm Gladwell’s influence can definitely be felt here and I think what was so disappointing was that most of this book is comprised of Chuck just presenting other people’s complicated theories in a more simplistic manner. Also, the thesis of the book is pretty self-evident: the perception of everything changes over time. Again, all of Klosterman’s other books have been great, but who knows? Maybe in a hundred years this will be considered his masterpiece. What if I’m wrong?
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5.0 out of 5 starsI LOVE THIS BOOK !!!
By Robert Steven Thomas TOP 500 REVIEWER on June 7, 2016
Format: Hardcover
This author has written an excellent and astonishing new book that will give each of its readers (like me) a fresh-new perspective on daily life in this ... our "modern" era. Juxtaposing society's current set of 'mores' - 'political correctness' - 'values' and 'commonly accepted wisdom' - from the potential view-point of our Earth's inhabitants that will exist hundreds of years in the future, provides the essential backdrop for this interesting social commentary. The book is well-written, acerbically funny, extremely clever, introspective and gives us a lot to consider about our current trends, beliefs and "fads." I could go on-and-on, but 'Bottom Line' ... I am confident that this book and its contents will appeal to many, and a 'very-wide-range' of readers.
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2.0 out of 5 starsWhat if I was wrong?
By Neal Rosenblat on June 21, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I've read every Chuck Klosterman book, and have always considered him one of my favorite authors. After reading his latest book, "What if We Were Wrong?", I have to ask myself the same question. I feel like this book is the equivalent of a band's final album of a contract -- is this book full of B-Sides, or worse, is this a live album?

The title of the book suggests Chuck is going to actually pose relevant questions, which the first two chapters annoying do, and I was happy to get through them as fast as I could. Not only could I care less about the subject matter, but he seems to be trying to impress someone with his new thesaurus. Luckily my Kindle has a dictionary so I could understand the random and unnecessary words being used. I felt like I was being assigned required reading for a graduate English class, not reading for entertainment.

After making it though the painful first two chapters, the book moves on to random thoughts that mostly have nothing to do with the book's original concept. He said in the past he finds writing while high helpful, and I wonder what drugs he was on for this one. Most likely something uninspiring and uncreative like Adderall. He talks in the middle of the book about "bar conversations" and I couldn't help but think how horrible it would be to have a conversation with him at a bar if this is the kind of conversations he leads.

I'd previously purchased his "Hypertheticals" card set, which is supposed to be a party type of game with "what if" scenario questions, and this book is very similar to them -- long and rambling text that lets you easily forget what you were even reading about in the first place.

I was expecting something else -- something relatable, humorous, or even something I could comprehend. I hope his next one is more like his earlier work.
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3.0 out of 5 starsAn Excellent Concept With Some Flaws
By Matthew S on June 12, 2016
Format: Hardcover
"But What If We're Wrong?" is an excellent concept with some critical flaws. This seems to be the case with a lot of Klosterman books. Don't get me wrong: I am a Klosterman fan, and I admire his ability to think critically about pop culture subjects. All of his writing is engaging. But this book falls short in its exposition, is often dry and plodding, and seems occasionally to miss obvious explanations for topics which he frames as undiscovered.

His early thoughts on gravity, for example, make an interesting argument for science as a form of religion. In other words, that our understanding of science in five hundred years will likely be vastly different from now, and thus the things which we reflexively accept as unquestionable truths today will likely be understood differently far into the future. We believe most of science because we are told to believe it. But his argument for this -- with gravity as the example -- is wanting. Klosterman reasons that because our understanding of science has included beliefs held longer than we have understood gravity and have now been proven false or changed, that our understanding of gravity is thus destined to change as well. But this dismisses ancillary advances in our ability to understand the value of replication in science, and it also dismisses the changing value of time in understanding the pace of cultural evolution. In other words, technological and scientific advancement occurs now over a smaller time frame than it did a thousand years ago, and will in a thousand years occur more rapidly than now. It is not an A-to-B comparison. For example, it took nearly the entire history of human knowledge to build our first understandings of computers, but less than a century to advance computer technology beyond a human's innate ability.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 starsThoughts and more thoughts

Chuck Klosterman has a lot of thoughts about everything, so many that most pages require footnotes to track down some of the tangents he goes off on. Read more

Published 6 hours ago by Alex Scorpio
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Klosterman swings for the fences and connects.

Published 3 days ago by tconn
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

pretty good

Published 3 days ago by Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 starsInteresting premise; weak development

There is little to take away from the author's bold undertaking. Each chapter sets out big questions, but provides little substance. Read more

Published 3 days ago by steve c.
2.0 out of 5 starsthat like in history

A frustrating read. Klosterman is articulate and brings up big ideas, but his primary concept, that like in history, what we knows will change dramatically over time - even for... Read more

Published 9 days ago by Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 starsChuck found a thesaurus

He usually is good for an entertaining read. This book however was very repetitive with some 50 cent words sprinkled in.. Read more

Published 9 days ago by kevin newcomer
2.0 out of 5 starsTwo Stars

I have no idea what point he is trying to make.

Published 10 days ago by Harry Jones
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book, penetrating ideas and argument

Saw author on The Daily Show and was intrigued by his thesis, that because we always modify our understanding of so many subjects as the ages pass, how the hell to we really... Read more

Published 12 days ago by Glider Bee
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Another amazing cultural and historical analysis from Klosterman.

Published 12 days ago by Shaian Mohammadi
3.0 out of 5 starsand had expected this to be a bit better than it was

I saw an interview with the author, and had expected this to be a bit better than it was, so I bought it rather than waiting for the 70 holds at the library. yenh. Read more

Published 13 days ago by ddm

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