In his latest collection of essays, I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined) (Scribner, $16), the inimitable free-thinker Chuck Klosterman delivers an unconventional commentary on culturally relativist assumptions that define our lives. The book is about celebrity, adulation, abstraction, guilt, mockery, demonization, and how society’s worst impulses are safely played out in our villains (and heroes). His wide-ranging subjects include: NWA and Lars von Trier; O.J. Simpson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Charles Bronson and Bernhard Goetz; and, of course, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-tung – and David Bowie. Don’t take things for granted! Think about what you believe! Grapple with Mr. Klosterman’s intellect and see if your opinions hold up.
