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The Literature Page, I Guess
I mentioned Chuck Klosterman about one year ago in the blog.
Today, a reader sent me a link about Klosterman who will be speaking at the Dallas Museum of Art of June 20.
Klosterman is undoubtedly a culture writer who matters, who is read widely, who breaks down the walls of elitism, or at least perceived elitism, that confine many critics. He's a populist intellectual, and that can rub less populist intellectuals the wrong way. In short, he sells books, and he churns them out fast — eight nonfiction collections and two novels since his 2001 debut, Fargo Rock City.
How did he get here? Klosterman grew up on a farm in Wyndmere, N.D. There were 500 people in his hometown, and 80 in his high school; when Klosterman says he was on the basketball, football and track teams, he's quick to qualify the achievement. Competition was scarce. He became a sports fanatic early in life. He's holding a ball of some sort in all of his childhood photos. He had a poster of his hero, Roger Staubach, on his bedroom wall, and he cried when Dwight Clark's touchdown catch lifted the 49ers over the Cowboys in the 1981 NFC Championship Game.
Sports were a welcome antidote to the isolation of small-town farm life. So was music, particularly heavy metal. But Klosterman wasn't just listening to Kiss and Guns N' Roses; he was also thinking about them. If sports competition was scarce, so was fringe music. "To me the most interesting band I experienced growing up was Guns 'N Roses," he says. "There was no counter-culture where I was."
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Bloomsday
Wow, this morning when I noted it was June 16th, it "bugged" me that the date "meant" something, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what.
Then, on a different laptop I happened to be using, a calendar reminder popped up: June 16th is Bloomsday.
Many, many years ago I went through my James Joyce phase but have pretty much moved on. Perhaps some day I will tackle Ulysses again.
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