THE NINETIES - CHUCK KLOSTERMAN

Truly insane that Klosterman has not written this book already. The man’s whole oeuvre, from his celebrity interview work to his debut about taking hair metal more seriously, is so deeply soaked in Gen X perspective and considerations that it seems impossible that he hasn’t directly confronted this topic. Well, he finally did it, and I saw it at the library so I picked it up to see what a writer I like can do on their favorite subject. The book, for better or worse, does exactly what it promises, it gives a pretty total overview of the 90’s in America from the mainstream perspective. And by mainstream, of course, he means YT and male. Part of the story of the 90’s was the destruction of the hegemony of the monoculture, as I’ve argued elsewhere on this site, the X-ers were the last all YT generation. Jay-Z and Kurt Cobain were born less than 2 years apart. Cobain is seen as completely totemic of Gen X, the ur X-er while Jay-Z typically isn’t thought of as Gen X at all. However, sitting in 2024 it is beyond obvious that Jay is a much more influential and important artist. The whole children of the 60’s radicals growing up around mass incarceration, gangs and crack, the broad-brush story for many gen X black folks, is skipped over. In fact, the golden era hip-hop of the 90’s is perhaps the biggest 90’s phenomena not discussed at all in the book. Which is maybe for the best, do I want Klosterman writing about Liquid Swords? Probably not. Gotta give the man credit for knowing his lane, I suppose. And his lane is ample. As always, there is sports stuff that I read with slightly more interest than I expect. This book includes some interesting political writing which is a bit new for Chuck. He lays out a strong (and I think indisputable) case that the US engaged in some pretty heavy manipulation of the 1996 Russian presidential election; he claims that there are now major conspiracies about the OKC bombing (to which I’d simply tell him to look into Wendy Painting) so he is at least taking big swings even when I don’t agree. Where does Klosterman go from here? This decade and the prevailing world-view and ethos of the time is so deeply enshrined in Chuck this feels like a pretty total statement.