The Nineties: A Book *EPUB
An instant New York Times bestseller! From the bestselling author of But What if We’re Wrong, a wise and funny reckoning with the decade that gave us slacker/grunge irony about the sin of trying too hard, during the greatest shift in human consciousness of any decade in American history. It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. In the beginning, almost every name and address was listed in a phone book, and everyone answered their landlines because you didn’t know who it was. By the end, exposing someone’s address was an act of emotional violence, and nobody picked up their new cell phone if they didn’t know who it was. The 90s brought about a revolution in the human condition we’re still groping to understand. Happily, Chuck Klosterman is more than up to the job. Beyond epiphenomena like "Cop Killer" and Titanic and Zima, there were wholesale shifts in how society was perceived: the rise of the internet, pre-9/11 politics, and the paradoxical belief that nothing was more humiliating than trying too hard. Pop culture accelerated without the aid of a machine that remembered everything, generating an odd comfort in never being certain about anything. On a 90’s Thursday night, more people watched any random episode of Seinfeld than the finale of Game of Thrones. But nobody thought that was important; if you missed it, you simply missed it. It was the last era that held to the idea of a true, hegemonic mainstream before it all began to fracture, whether you found a home in it or defined yourself against it. In The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman makes a home in all of it: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan. In perhaps no other book ever written would a sentence like, “The video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was not more consequential than the reunification of Germany” make complete sense. Chuck Klosterman has written a multi-dimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful that future historians might well refer to this entire period as Klostermanian. Read more
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Why Must Read The Nineties: A Book?
This book has 12 main chapters, and about 337 pages, not including the Notes at the end. In the Introduction Klosterman waxes philosophically about what the 90s felt like; and how the way that the decade is often remembered is different from what it actually felt like to live through it at the time. He gives a few examples of how the decade was unique; what life was like right before the internet age, and how different it was from previous and later eras. In the first few chapters Klosterman covers several topics that are central to his explanation of 90s American culture. He explains the Mandela effect, the book “Generation X” that coined the name for a generation, and a general sense of apathy being cool. Klosterman covers some of the most influential authors of the time period, the music of Nirvana and other cultural icons like Pearl Jam and Tupac. He analyzes Bush's defeat in the 1992 election, even though he had an 89% approval rating just a year earlier. The first Gulf War, Ross Perot, Ebonics, Blockbuster Video, and unique 90s movies are all discussed. Klosterman goes on to address other changes that took place in the 90s, and how technology forever altered American culture. He mentions the unforeseen changes brought about by the internet, the music industry having to deal with Napster, and the anti-technology sentiments of the UNAbomber. He covers 90s sports, and specific strange events like Jordan playing baseball. Klosterman recalls the logic behind certain marketing and consumer trends, like Zima and Crystal Pepsi; and unique events like Biosphere 2 and Heaven's Gate. The last few chapters discuss OJ Simpson's trial, the Columbine shootings, Y2K, Clinton's scandals, the 2000 election, and finally the 9/11 attacks. Overall I enjoyed reading this book, and traveling along with Klosterman on this trip down memory lane. If you remember the 90s, this book might remind you of events you hadn't thought of in a while, and Klosterman's takes on the importance of some of these events was interesting. I would tend to agree that it was a unique time, and it can be difficult to explain to those that weren't around to live through it; but in my opinion Klosterman does a good job of recapturing what it felt like.
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