Chuck Klosterman

Yesterday on Salon, Sarah Hepola profiled writer Chuck Klosterman for the release of his first novel, Downtown Owl.

After hashing out Mr. Klosterman's rise from obscurity to admired and derided cultural critic, Ms. Hepola writes:

But Chuck Klosterman seems to be getting a little sick of Chuck Klosterman. Even his most distinguishing quality—his ability to ramble endlessly, but meaningfully, about the ephemera of American culture—is wearing on him these days. In his September 2008 column for Esquire, he writes, 'I find myself growing more and more depressed about all the things I used to love ... It's not difficult to be the cop in the car watching the meth lab, but you will drive yourself sad. You'll find yourself thinking, Maybe the meth lab will blow up ... But it doesn't blow up. It just sits there, falling apart and declining in value, while the people inside lose their teeth and get crazy high.'

He's no longer going to be writing his Esquire column, by the way.

Will readers really have to live without Mr. Klosterman's observations on everything from Snakes on a Plane to different lighting schemes used by television networks?  read more »

Looks like Esquire has finally forgiven Dave Eggers.

In 2001, writing in The New York Times 'Style' section, Anna Holmes offered a rundown of words and phrases banned by various publications. Among the offerings:

David Granger, the editor in chief of Esquire, forbids ''Dubya,'' ''at risk'' and ''Eggers,'' the last because he had a falling-out with the novelist David Eggers, who worked at Esquire before he was famous.

In its mammoth 75th Anniversary issue, the magazine lists Mr. Eggers as one of its "75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century." According to the text accompanying his photo, Mr. Eggers was selected "Because he's inspiring a generation of readers and writers."  read more »

Magazine-style magazine writer Chuck Klosterman weighs in on the much-discussed topic of Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas in the upcoming issue of New York Times sports magazine Play. Klosterman's exposure to the usually outgoing and voluble Arenas seems to have consisted of watching one game, holding a one-question interview in person, and fielding a four-minute phone call--but that's no barrier to a dedicated culture-analyst! Here are three paragraphs of Klosterman's profile, each reproduced in full: 1.

I don't know.

2.

I don't know.

3.

I don't know.

In today's New York Post, Michael Kane writes about a religious movement even stranger than Scientology: The Cult of The Klosterman.

Like this summer's other much covered alternative religion, The Cult of The Klosterman has a writer and self-styled expert on everything at its core: SPIN editor and Esquire columnist Chuck Klosterman, whose new book, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story was released in late June.

Kane scans a reading Klosterman gave at a Barnes & Noble and identifies his people:

These are the Klostermaniacs, the ever-growing Cult of Chuck that includes bookworms, bloggers and even uber-goober Seth Cohen on "The O.C.," who hailed Chuck's geek wisdom on an episode last season.

Like L. Ron Hubbard, this godhead has vocal detractors as well: In 2003, The New York Press' Mark Ames called Klosterman the a "metaphor for everything vile in [his] generation."

A close reading of Kane's Post article reveals that Klosterman is clearly a metaphor for everything nerdy in his generation. A tally of vocabulary used in the thousand-or-so word article:

Nerd or its variants (e.g. 'nerdy') : 7

Hipster: 8

Geek or its variants (e.g. 'geeky'): 4

Dweeb or its variants (e.g. 'dweebiac') : 2

Glasses, as in "Buddy Holly glasses": 3

iPod: 2

Goober: 1  read more »

—Matt Haber