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Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)
Scribner
July 2013
On Sale: July 9, 2013
224 pages
ISBN: 1439184496
EAN: 9781439184493
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
Chuck Klosterman has walked into the darkness. As a boy, he related to the cultural figures who represented goodnessβbut as an adult, he found himself unconsciously aligning with their enemies. This was not because he necessarily liked what they were doing; it was because they were doing it on purpose (and they were doing it better). They wanted to be evil. And what, exactly, was that supposed to mean? When we classify someone as a bad person, what are we really saying (and why are we so obsessed with saying it)? How does the culture of deliberate malevolence operate? In I Wear the Black Hat, Klosterman questions the modern understanding of villainy. What was so Machiavellian about Machiavelli? Why donβt we see Bernhard Goetz the same way we see Batman? Who is more worthy of our vitriolβBill Clinton or Don Henley? What was O. J. Simpsonβs second-worst decision? And why is Klosterman still haunted by some kid he knew for one week in 1985? Masterfully blending cultural analysis with self-interrogation and imaginative hypotheticals, I Wear the Black Hat delivers perceptive observations on the complexity of the antihero (seemingly the only kind of hero America still creates). I Wear the Black Hat is a rare example of serious criticism thatβs instantly accessible and really, really funny. Klosterman continues to be the only writer doing whatever it is heβs doing.
 Media BuzzAll Things Considered - July 9, 2013
CBS This Morning - July 6, 2013
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