Don’s Ego

Shelf Indulgence with Chuck Klosterman | Borders Media.

I recently became obsessed with Chuck Klosterman. I love pop-culture, and he writes about pop-culture, and he writes about it in a random, free-flowing, train-of-thought type of way, which is exactly how I like to consume text, music, movies, or TV – anything really.

Klosterman will be telling a story about how Tommy Lee used to drink alot, and why rock stars drink alot, but then he’ll tangent into a story about himself, where he gets drunk alone in his apartment. He’ll talk about drinking alone and how, at some earlier point in his career, he played the role of a drunk, creating a character in himself who would write his columns for some college newspaper.

Then he’ll jump back to Tommy Lee and glam, hair, heavy, and speed metal and use Tommy Lee, his own story, and the liner notes in Megadeth’s third CD to then make a point. Or he won’t make a point at all. And for me? That’s totally OK. Because there was a good chance, while reading whatever he wrote, I was daydreaming about Pamela Anderson, college hockey, and my cousin’s old apartment in Cedar Village up at Michigan State.

I had some great times in my cousins apartment.

I also really like Chuck Klosterman’s books. I want to meet him, and because we’re both more comfortable writing, we’ll awkwardly talk about his books, which will be a new conversation for me, but an old – very old, like he’s had it 10,000 times – conversation for him.

Which, then, makes Chuck exactly like any rock star who ever sat at a table at a backstage meet and greet, which Chuck talks about in Fargo Rock City (I just finished reading it a second time through, and might very well read it a third time), and some sort of circle-of-life will be complete.

I’ll bet that’s odd. Rock stars and movie stars have back-stages and dressing rooms where fans can wait to get autographs. And being a rock star or movie star makes these people recognizable, so they have to have a buffer. But an accomplished author and columnist has no back-stage or dressing room. The more accomplished authors might get a table at a bookstore, or might get Oprah’s couch, but mostly I think their fans need to first recognize them, and then simply approach them. And I think that must be odd – to be treated and recognized a bit like a rock star, while at the same time not given much more real estate at a bookstore than, say, the local Girl Scout troop selling cookies in February.

And I wonder if anyone has ever asked Chuck Klosterman if they could get 3 boxes of Tag-A-Longs and some Thin Mints. Probably not, but I’ll bet, at one point in time, someone asked him where the Historical Fiction section was located and I’m guessing, if he had time, he politely showed them.

And, finally, watch the video linked at the top of this entry.