Chuck Klosterman Likes Writers Who Aren’t Self-Absorbed Sociopaths

Rudy Rucker. How about that? Haven’t thought about Sta-Hi and merge in a long time. The man who put the cyber in cyberpunk.

The dinner party answer was the best yet. He made it easy to visualize Poe sitting at the table in awe-struck amazement as the air conditioner flowed, and he would have a million questions about the car that drove him there, the gigantic buildings he saw along the way, the weird metal birds he might have seen soaring way up in the sky, the smoothly paved streets, the (to his eye) scantily-clad women, the fact that nobody was wearing a hat, and so many other things about the modern world that would be blowing him away. It certainly wouldn't be a literary dinner because literature and the craft of writing would be the last thing on Poe's mind.

Flip and self-serving but thoughtful and humorous in spots. Like a student bored with his grade placement he needs to show off somewhere else. If his answer can stop the dinner party question from the NYT can we get him to stop Alan Alda from asking his seven trite questions and the terrible quizzes on Way with Words? (Both bring down otherwise excellent podcasts)

I'll join the slightly huffy chorus of librarians (today is Saturday, so I have free time). Does he think we have all that free time because he doesn't see us rearranging and dusting bookshelves? I work in the medical discipline. I am tracking down, ordering, and delivering obscure articles; I am rifling databases for data on new drugs, or on using old drugs in tiny premature babies; I am proofreading manuscripts being prepared for publication; and I also manage the electronic database of the hospital's policies, procedures. and forms. I do it because the physicians and researchers I work with are seeing patients, conducting their own studies, and writing reports - that's what they do, and this is what I do with and for them. I'm a pro, and this *is my work*. I know Mr. Klosterman was trying to be funny (trying being the operative word), but man, sometimes we get a little tired of being the butt of flippant comments, even when intended as a compliment of sorts.

Boom. I guess the NYT might as well never ask the ‘literary dinner party’ question again.

Please, get rid of that dinner party question. Every week some snarky answer, and this one was a very long-winded snarky answer.

He likes Lez Zeppelin. No further comment necessary.

This was by far the best interview ever!!!!!! I love this interview. So fun and honest.

One of the best "By the Book" interviews I've read recently. Especially loved Klosterman's response to the literary dinner party question.

Best dinner party answer. Ever.

Errr...Mr. Klosterman: library budgets (academic and public) are being mercilessly slashed (because hey, why finance the library when the football team needs zillion dollar facilities?). Most librarians are doing the jobs of two, sometimes three people. We have zero free time, There is no reading on the job, and any books we’re recommending we’ve usually read at home, because some—not all—of us still do love to read. We do scan book reviews, but actually spending time at work with the books we purchase for our collections? Forget about it. That golden age ended in the 1980s. That said: best answer ever to the “your ideal dinner guests” question. Choosing honesty over highlighting one’s sophisticated estoteric-ness? Nice.

This guy certainly loves to hear himself talk while never saying anything of interest or value. I gather from the other responses here that many people enjoy this kind of empty blather. I don't. I've seen his books in stores and wondered what they were like. I now know that they will not be my cup of tea. Thank for saving me time.

Bill Simmons had Klosterman on his sports podcast. Wonderful conversation.

I'm not a famous writer. Only one book, "Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey (U Mass Press, 1984) & a few boring academic articles. But I love the dinner party Q. My favs: Faulkner Gabriel Garcia-Marquez Walt Whitman

After reading this, there went 5 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Aren’t there more I interesting people than this guy?

Fascinating interview and food for thought. As a woman, however, it would terrify me to read anything written by, or about, Howard Stern.

"WHOM would you want to write your life story?" Shouldn't that rather be "Who"? Yes, the correct use of the dative "whom" is declining, but this case is goes the wrong way, at least for this teacher.

Thanks for the book suggestions, Mr. Klosterman!

He sounds really high maintenance. Long talker.

I am a research librarian at a large academic library. I am humbled every week when I read this column by the amount of reading these authors accomplish - I am lucky if I have read two or three of the books mentioned each time. While I REALLY appreciate the shout-out to us, for many of my colleagues and myself, our helpfulness tends to be more along the line of “I don’t know, but here are 10 options that I would try to find that information.” Book recommendations? You’re better off going to the worker behind the counter at the Harvard Book Store (those people really are amazing).

What makes him think that research librarians have plenty of free time?!

I don't care for the new titles in this series, the new title format is lame, go back to the old titling. This is a great series but wish they'd get rid of that, same for having authors promote their own books in their answers, aren't they getting enough publicity? Q: What book would you have the president read next, if he could read? A: "Why, my latest novel 'X Y Z', of course; he'd love it!". Q: What book last made you cry? A: "It was my previous novel 'W X Y', in tears every time". Q: What three famous authors would you invite for a dinner party? A: "I'd invite V and W and X and we'd all discuss my first novel 'U V W'. Please stop!

I'd never heard of Chuck Klosterman, but now I'm a fan (embryonically), if only because of his response to the lame dinner party question, which usually provokes self-flattering pretentiousness. (I also like the hats-off to Padgett Powell, a true original.) I've been around a fair number of literary luminaries and have generally found them to be considerably less appealing in person than on the page. Often writ large in their social behavior are vanity, resentment, disingenuousness, tipsiness and other forms of insecurity. Which is why long dead writers are usually the most enjoyable ones to have around.

Regarding “Janet Malcom” — I haven’t laughed so hard in days...

Perhaps the editor of these conversations could tell us in a few words who is the person being interviewed. That is, who is Chuck Klosterman?

A realistic depiction of emotional confusion. Nice... I am not emotionally confused a this moment. This is one of my favorite features in the Times.

Favorite cereal? Cocoa Puffs.

I am tempted to think, New York Times, that you do these interviews to make the rest of us feel bad. Yes--bad. In the sense of (1) uneducated (2) illiterate (3) boorish. All these guys--my goodness! They read and they read and they read. I guess, as professional authors they don't have nine to five jobs--not exactly. So time might hang on their hands. Just a bit. Sometimes. PLUS-- --the fact that, as professional authors, they've GOT to keep a few fingers on the literary pulse. Find out (to put it crudely) what the competition is up to. OR MAYBE-- --(but this is such a crude, such an unworthy thought--I am ashamed to put it in words)-- --you say nice things about the competition in the hope they'll say nice things back. But no! I'm sorry. That WAS a pitiful, unworthy thought. Scratch that. Seriously--these guys really ARE so interesting. You cannot HELP thinking about books--books you like--books you despise--if you're in the business of writing books yourself. And seriously--these authors are GREAT when they get onto the books they really DO love. We are all eloquent when talking about things we love. Like Graham Greene (a favorite of mine). Who read "War And Peace" when he was in his forties. And inquired plaintively: "What is there left to do?" Thanks, New York Times. That really WAS-- --great.

Wow, what a great interview. Mr. Klosterman does not take the usual boring path of such interviews. He's having fun being funny, ironic and honest. I'd be terrified to have Janet Malcolm write my biography, too. Everything he has to say is interesting to hear.

I don’t know that I care about Howard Stern but the Fifties was great.

If you like alternative histories, please read, if you haven't , the "Foreigner" series by C.J. Cherryh. ( I'm sure you're already familiar with Ursula LeGuin.) The Foreigner series is set on another planet but otherwise meets your criteria for alternative history, I believe. I love your point of view on having the dinner party! LOVE the visual of dead people screaming throughout the meal and of EA Poe confused by the concept of air conditioning!

I love that this guy loves literary junk food so much.

I forgot how funny Klosterman was. What a way to answer a simple question. It's true, you gotta invite the dead people, your hand is totally forced, and it's entirely plausible that Edgar Allen Poe either spends two hours yelling at his unexpected and perhaps unwanted re-incarceration or is just totally blown away by the restaurants air conditioning and can't stop talking about it. You know, cause he's been dead a long time and isn't current with technology.

Part-time bookstore employees and research librarians have plenty of free time? What an odd thing to say.

The response to the dinner party question is just about the best thing I've read this year. Can't stop chuckling at Poe's amazement over the air conditioning.

I would tell you how emotionally confused I am after reading this, but I’m afraid I would not pull off a realistic enough description. Until the last question, I was thinking to myself that this was possibly the best “By the Book” piece I have read. I laughed throughout the thing, and nodded agreement, and thought about how great it would be to have dinner with this guy, until...Howard Stern? My heart sank.

"Sapiens" Really. If this had been a Ph.D. dissertation it would have been rejected because of so many arguments presented without support. Can you believe that the Agricultural Revolution was responsible for the beginning of the end of the good life? And hunter-gather societies were some kind of high point for human beings. Utter nonsense. That Harari is even able to be a writer and an academic is the result of the Agricultural Revolution. He personally might have preferred to hunt and gather rather than an academic, but I doubt if many others lament the transition.

Research librarians have plenty of free time? I don't think so. They are a tremendous resource, yes, but but being available to help is different from 'free time'.

Wow. I enjoy this series of articles, but this might be my favorite so far. Here's a person who knows what he's about, thinks deeply (the dare-I-say deconstruction of the dinner party question is priceless, fresh, and deeply true), expresses himself engagingly and with clarity, and seems to have a genuinely interesting answer to every question without trying too hard. This is a lengthy and substantial tasting menu that still leaves me wanting more.

Best responses in the history of this series, especially regarding Poe. Well done, sir.