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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 goodness—but
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 don’t we see Bernhard Goetz the same way we
see Batman? Who is more worthy of our vitriol—Bill Clinton
or Don Henley? What was O. J. Simpson’s 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 that’s instantly accessible and really,
really funny. Klosterman continues to be the only writer
doing whatever it is he’s doing.
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