Chuck Klosterman, a pop culture journalist and critic from North Dakota, laughed during a lecture Wednesday in the Multipurpose Room in the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus, as he said that many people asked him his opinion on Britney Spears and her presence in the media.
"Here she is smoking cigarettes and putting ash on her baby," Klosterman said. "But when historians look back, she is going to be used in analyzing what it was like to be an American, whether good or bad."
Klosterman is the author of four books, including "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs." He stressed that while some people might think that pop culture isn't important, you have to look for the meaning within it.
"Popular culture provides the soundtrack of our lives," he said.
Klosterman also discussed his views on television, music and the media, in general, which are present in a lot of his writing.
"The role of the celebrity is changing," he said. "Celebrities of the past were appreciated for what they did. But today - guaranteed - an overwhelming majority of the people who make Nick Lachey famous by buying a magazine he's featured in would say they don't even like him."
In response to a question about music, Klosterman said he thinks he should wait at least two years before listening to a record after it comes out.
"If people are still talking about it in two years, you know it's good," Klosterman said. "The only downfall of this is if I die at 78, I'll only have listened to the records made until when I was 76."
Klosterman pointed out that the way we view television completely shapes our perception of the world around us.
"With television, even though intellectually, we know it's fake, we're not really able to consciously differentiate the images we see on television and reality," he said. "I feel like this is what alienates us."
Klosterman asked the audience to imagine a basketball game.
"I bet you thought of a game you've seen on television," Klosterman said. "Even though I'm sure every single one of us has played basketball or maybe even seen one in person."
Klosterman said he had read about this inability to differentiate television images from reality in a pop culture book he randomly came across while reading through Wikipedia. He said a lot of people he asked have never heard of this book, even though it was very popular in its day.
"The reason that I bring this up is that it might happen to me," Klosterman said. "One day, someone's going to search through Wikipedia, or whatever it is in the future. You'll probably just have to close your eyes and think, find my book, and have no idea what it is."
He said that it's interesting to realize that his writing about pop culture might become meaningless in the future, because people will no longer be so familiar with our current media.
"I've realized the popularity of my work might be temporary," Klosterman said. "But I'm comfortable with that."
Klosterman said he is in the process of writing a fiction novel and was asked if he was trying this new genre so that some of his work would remain timeless.
"I've never really thought about that, but maybe you've totally realized something I hadn't yet myself," Klosterman said. "Try to think of nonfiction books that are timeless, and it's kind of hard. The references made in a lot of nonfiction books become meaningless, so you have to tap into things that will make sense in the future."
Klosterman made it a point that his books aren't aimed at trying to make people think the same way he does.
"I'm never trying to persuade people to think a certain way," Klosterman said. "I'm not interested in taste-making."
When he was asked if there was any importance to having drug use present throughout his writing, he referred to an instance in one of his books where he describes a conversation he has with someone after doing cocaine.
"Doing drugs doesn't make me a good reporter," Klosterman said. "But telling the truth does. The truth is I wouldn't have had that conversation if I wasn't doing cocaine in a truck with that guy."
Klosterman said he's trying to achieve literary realism in his books, so that the most authentic interpretation of his experience is presented to the reader.
"I'll never be 100 percent right," Klosterman said. "I'm no robot. But I do the best I can to be a reliable narrator."
When asked for advice on how to achieve a successful career in journalism, Klosterman said no one could really give sound advice, because everyone's experience is different.
"You go to a speech like this, and the speaker thinks their experience was normative,' Klosterman said. "What's insane is their peers in the business didn't get there that way and that applies for all walks of life."
Klosterman went on to explain his personal experience in the business, including his earlier work with Fargo and the Akron Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, and the beginnings of his first book, "Fargo City."
"I didn't know if it was good," Klosterman said when referring to his first novel. "But I knew I'd read worse."
Klosterman described one of his first book readings, which took place Sept. 22, 2001. He recalled the tense flight to New York because of the recent terrorist attacks.
"I remember them giving me a Dr. Pepper and wondering whether I should drink it or keep it as a projectile," Klosterman said.
Klosterman attributed a lot of the laughs he received at the book reading to an audience who hadn't laughed for days due to the tragedy. But nonetheless, an editor of The New York Times recognized him and things went up from there.
"See now, how can I tell you to do that?" Klosterman said.
Klosterman quoted Wesley Snipes about what he thought was the wisest advice about careers.
"You can't control your own destiny," Klosterman said. "In your life, there will be a chance for you to achieve what you want in life. You have to be ready for it at any possible moment."
"All the best decisions I've ever made were arbitrary," Klosterman said. "I don't like to admit it, but it's true."
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