But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking about the Present as If It Were the Past

by Chuck Klosterman

We must concede that important writing finds a way to accurately represent life, and that the writing that does so will consciously intermingle with the meaningful culture of the time (impermanent though it may be). What that constitutes in our present culture is debatable, but here’s a partial, plausible list . . . The psychological impact of the Internet on day-to-day living. The prevailing acceptance of nontraditional sexual identities. The (seemingly regular) deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers. An unclear definition of privacy. An impotent, unspecified hatred of the wealthiest “one percent.” The artistic elevation of television. The cultural recession of rock and the cultural ascension of hip-hop. The prolonging of adolescence and the avoidance of adulthood. A distrust of objective storytelling. The intermittent rebooting of normalcy in the years following 9/11. I’m not saying an important book must include one of these ideas, or even an idea that would comfortably fit on this list. But it needs to include something that taps into what matters about the world now. There has to be something at stake that involves modernity.