Klosterman over-analyzes pop culture and the question of “what is reality?” in Eating the Dinosaur, arguably Klosterman’s best piece of work since Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, his most famous book of essays to date.
No (published) writers have managed to philosophize about Kurt Cobain, time travel, the effects watching football has on the brain, ABBA, the idiocy of laugh tracks and how technology has made everyone less human in one book of essays. If these ideas seem completely unrelated, it’s because they are. As scattered as the topics appear, however, Klosterman handles them with an open (and cynical) mind and probably more analysis than necessary.
Take laugh tracks for example. Klosterman spends 15 pages concluding that laugh tracks are to blame for why people laugh out of obligation. (How many times do you catch people adding “LOL” to their text messages despite the fact that they were not even remotely funny?) He calls exclamation points the written equivalent of obligatory laughter. Now that is something everyone is aware of, but that does not stop them from guffawing for no reason or sprinkling exclamation points throughout their written sentiments. He ends this essay with a brilliant suggestion: if a laugh track exists, why not a track that instructs audiences when to cry? “That’s what we need,” Klosterman writes. “We need more crying.”
Despite going a little overboard with the detail at times (especially with football, although Klosterman clearly does his research), Eating the Dinosaur succeeds in instilling a little more self-awareness into its readers. Whether or not that is a good thing remains unknown, but Klosterman will probably write about it.
Eating the Dinosaur is published by Scribner, is 256 pages, and usually costs around $25.
Contact the reporter at pdevitt@asu.edu.
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I love Klosterman, I’ll definitely have to check this one out.