Help, I'm having an existential crisis or damn you Chuck Klosterman

Jay, my sympathies all around. I, too, feel to this day that same disconnect.

While virtually everyone else from my high school graduating class went to college or work, I was in the military. I was married at 20 to a much older woman. I didn't have a child until I was 31 years old. I missed great swaths of cultural references (1989 through 1994) thanks to military service. My ex-classmates often have children already in their teens. My sister, just four years older than me, has a daughter who's a freshman in college.

I'm a 36-year-old twice-divorced single father who had a complete career shift 2 1/2 years ago. I feel so disconnected it's a wonder I can tolerate anyone, or they me.

I feel ya'. I just don't have an answer.

 

We've gone round and round (and Round and Round [/Ratt]) discussing the cultural relevance of Friends on this board, and I'll state what I often do: It's comfort food. Yes, Seinfeld was smarter and light years better, but that doesn't mean that Friends was total shit. Without fail, the people who crap on it the most are the people who watched very few episodes, and never fail to let you know "but the women were hot." I enjoyed it for what it was: entertainment. It was funny. It represents a time in my life that I think back fondly on. I can remember talking about the first season with cute girls inbetween classes in high school, and I watched the final episode with my wife, thousands of miles away from the town where I grew up. Even though it was pretty mediocore in the middle, it did a decent job of finishing relatively strong. Thanks to syndication and TiVo, I've seen every episode at least twice, and the one where Ross steps up to take Rachel to the prom when here date doesn't show (and then does) still gets to me for stupid reasons.

I always looked at certain aspects of television and literature kind of like music. It's important to give things a try just to understand why they're culturally important or critically revered, especially cultural touchstones. If nothing else, it makes you a well-rounded person. I used to have a real snotty attitude about Harry Potter, because I read tons of serious literature, but I enjoyed it immensely once I put aside my snark and just enjoyed the story.

 

I've not read HP, but everyone else in my family has. I've seen the movies, and I've been to the extremely strange Barnes and Noble midnight release events. So I get most of the cultural references. But I'm not going to read them. Too much other stuff out there that I haven't read and want to.

 

I'm a big Klosterman fan, but that doesn't mean I'm Klosterman.
What I mean is, being out of touch with an element of pop culture that was a hit with much my generation is not a source of concern.
I know what 'Friends' was. I hated it.
I know what the Harry Potter books are. I have no interest in them right now, and they weren't written for my generation anyway.
Of course, Klosterman's not really concerned about it either, but, as Zeke points out, that's not the point.

 

To expand on my ripping of "Killing Yourself To Live":

The alleged premise is, Chuck travels to scenes of rock and roll deaths to see if he can learn anything about those places and the paople who are drawn to them. He goes to Rhode Island to the scene of the Great White nightclub fire, for example, and hangs out with the people who concregate where the bar stood.

Stuff like that is interesting... but it only makes up about 10 percent of the book. The other 90 percent is Chuck thinking maybe he'll be passing through Minneapolis so maybe he should call that girl he went out with for a while before he moved to New York. Or something equally fascinating.

I got the distinct impression he pitched the book as an excuse to drive around the country, and he ended up with enough material for a really good Esquire article. The book, as a whole, is a piece of shit.

 

I'm not sure what that means, actually. You can't really classify them as kids books. Or fantasy books. Or any other type of books, except that they're good books, from what I've heard.

That said, I haven't read a single Potter book, either. Don't plan to, although maybe I will someday. But I have enjoyed the movies immensely, and the stories are very entertaining. That's good enough for me.

 

I tend to treat Mr. Klosterman the way he treats Harry Potter.