Well, as the author states it doesn't because most people don't care. 241 customer ratings. Who will be remembered as the most significant writer of this time? Book Review. Though no generation believes there’s nothing left to learn, every generation unconsciously assumes that what has already been defined and accepted is (probably) pretty close to how reality will be viewed in perpetuity. Book Review: But what if we’re wrong? Not for me. I really liked most of the book. This was a fun book. We are made by history.” So, this January, as we celebrate Martin Luther King... We live in a culture of casual certitude. I really want to give this more stars, I should have liked it- but, ugh. Klosterman is currently obsessed with ideas that are so accepted we dare not dispute them—e.g., gravity. Chances are you couldn’t name a second marching music composer despite it being a prevalent musical form in the late 19th century. Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past, As the opening chapter questions whether we could be wrong about the existence of gravity, I thought this would be a book about philosophy and the nature of existence. Will democracy become a distant memory as humanity discovers a better political system? Klosterman speculates about what in our present lives will still have significance in the far future and how it will be perceived. Will rock music still be popular and who will be remembered as the epitome of the genre? Thinking about the present as if it were the past This 200 Book Review written by Helen Cameron, Fall 2018. Posted on August 11, 2016 by Mike Hart. Staff Review. The tremendously well-received New York Times bestseller by cultural critic Chuck Klosterman, exploring the possibility that our currently held beliefs and assumptions about the world will eventually be proven wrong -- now in paperback. But What If We're Wrong? There are so many chapters that would work perfectly as introductory texts to so many disciplines (history, philosophy, science, philosophy of science, philosophy of history). Book Review. Considered from this speculative vantage point, The Matrix may seem like a breakthrough of a far different kind. Chuck Klosterman is known to a lot of people for his writings on music. Chuck Klosterman. You may expect this book to be filled with doubt (and it is), but even more so, it advocates humility. This is one of those books you just can't take seriously at all, but if you're willing to follow the author down the hypothetical scenario rabbit hole, it's quite amusing. Fortunately, subsequent sections are arranged around different themes, and the focus does Klosterman a world of good. “But What If We’re Wrong? Throughout the book, Oluo responds to questions that she has often been asked, and others that she wishes were asked, about racism “in our workplace, our government, our homes, and ourselves.” “Is it really about race?” she is asked by whites who insist that class is a greater source of oppression. by Blue Rider Press. In But What If We’re Wrong?, Chuck Klosterman puts forth a fairly straightforward question and then follows it out to a number of logical and illogical conclusions. Being predisposed to choosing the title that proposes more unanswerable questions than answers, I chose But what if we’re wrong? We’re glad you found a book that interests you! You will ponder who the next Kafka will be, whether the Beatles will still be historically important in the far future, whether there is another version of you (or multi. At the very outset, he debunks this beliefs system and speculates upon the possibility of it being false. By Chuck Klosterman . What is the future of American democracy? In But What If We’re Wrong? Thinking About the Present as If It Were the Past (Book) : Klosterman, Chuck, 1972- Of course, I should have looked closely at the author's name - Chuck Klosterman writes about the arts and pop culture, so rather than questioning the nature of existence, mostly this book questions our value judgements on the arts and pop culture. George Saunders and Franz Kafka help him sort out why future literary greats are “at the moment…either totally unknown or widely disrespected.” Physicists Neil deGrasse Tyson and Brian Greene help him explore the concept of a multiverse universe. There are countless interesting observations on science and pop culture and sports and history. I usually love books like this...really! I received an ARC in exchange for my review, and I have to say that I would strongly recommend this to anyone who loves to ask "What if?" Some, I’ve only touched once: to put it on the shelf. “Prolific pop-culture critic Chuck Klosterman tackles his most ambitious project yet in new book But What If We’re Wrong?, which combines research, personal reflections and interviews.” —Alexandra Cavallo, The Improper Bostonian “This book is brilliant and addictively readable. He thought he was so witty, and that was such a huge turn of. The shepherd in 1500 A.D. who was suddenly told the earth went around the sun and not vice versa, was shocked and then went back to his sheep. Chuck Klosterman wrote one of the most stimulating books that I read in 2016: But What If We're Wrong: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. 0 Comment Report abuse. This book is well-researched and well-written…and I hated every minute of it. The idea of a character choosing between swallowing a blue pill that allows him to remain a false placeholder and a red pill that forces him to confront who he truly is becomes a much different metaphor. by Chuck Klosterman. But What If We're Wrong? Although there is a little about science and some philosophical underpinnings of the U.S. Constitution, most of the book looks at pop culture—fiction, TV, music, and sports—and asks if the assessments of contemporary critics will reflect how people of the future judge these things. Review But What If We're Wrong? I received an ARC in exchange for my review, and I have to say that I would strongly recommend this to anyone who loves to ask "What if?" to scientific theories (will our theory of gravity seem as preposterous to future humans as the geocentric model of the universe seems to us?). It's the written equivalent of throat clearing and foot shuffling: parenthetical asides, wryly humorous footnotes, run-on digressions from his central point. This was a fun book. Now, scientists are trying to “rethink gravity itself.” Therefore, the author posits, in the future, whenever that may be, we’ll know we were wrong about whatever we thought “gravity” was back then. More By and About This Author. Fortunately, subsequent sections are arranged around different themes, and the focus does Klosterman a world of good. I always enjoy reading Chuck Klosterman. However, if you're fascinated by these philosophical quandaries (Neil deGrasse Tyson calls them "beer conversations" in the book), then this book is for you. At first I was worried that it might veer into "pot conversation" territory, but Klosterman's logic and thought process makes it stay in the realm of barley and hops. Though no generation believes there’s nothing left to learn, every generation unconsciously assumes that what has already been defined and accepted is (probably) pretty close to how reality will be viewed in perpetuity. There doesn't seem to be mention of them in the GR reviews.... See all 4 questions about But What If We're Wrong? This isn’t the sort of book I would have picked up if I weren’t in a book club and it didn’t help that I really wasn’t in the mood for it. This is a terribly interesting book. : Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. But What If We’re Wrong? Never wavering from the thesis introduced in his previous book, that “racism is a powerful collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity and are substantiated by racist ideas,” the author posits a seemingly simple binary: “Antiracism is a powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by antiracist ideas.” The author, founding director of American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, chronicles how he grew from a childhood steeped in black liberation Christianity to his doctoral studies, identifying and dispelling the layers of racist thought under which he had operated. In each chapter, Klosterman takes on a different topic, applying “Klosterman’s Razor” to it: “the philosophical belief that the best hypothesis is the one that reflexively accepts its potential wrongness to begin with.” He seeks out a variety of experts to assist him. But it is exceedingly difficult to … (Using culture, science, ideas, etc.). That said, for die hard fans it's still a decent way to get your reading fix for the day. "), then do not read this book. But What if We’re Wrong by Chuck Klosterman is a story that can be entirely summed up into one sentence: Everything that we appear to know is wrong.Klosterman takes a look into our society as if it were part of the past. Ideas shift. The chapter on books asks just how wrong we can be about who will be the voice of th. An inquiry into why we’ll probably be wrong about almost everything. By contemplating which assumptions of today might be disproven in the future, or which… In But What If We’re Wrong? Has science reached an impasse or are we about to discover a major new bountiful fi. This was my first Klosterman book and my first nonfiction book in a minute as the kids say. One then allows for some range of possibilities to present an upside and downside along with the base case. shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. But What if We’re Wrong by Chuck Klosterman is a story that can be entirely summed up into one sentence: Everything that we appear to know is wrong.Klosterman takes a look into our society as if it were part of the past. It's fun to listen to him on Bill Simmons' podcast present unorthodox views on sports or cultural events, and his celebrity profiles are always fresh and have a distinct slant to them. If you're the type of person who gets annoyed at conversations that seem unsolvable (i.e. Bottom line: I wasn't feeling it. And then, of course, time passes. As the opening chapter questions whether we could be wrong about the existence of gravity, I thought this would be a book about philosophy and the nature of existence. We're just the same, centuries from now when we finally unlock the secrets of. by Klosterman, Chuck. really took off from those two things. Has science reached an impasse or are we about to discover a major new bountiful field of research? In his latest book, Chuck Klosterman takes a look at the present as if it were the distant past, posing some interesting thought experiments: what will people think of the early 21st century in 500 years’ time? Abandoned and returned. : One Evangelical's Take on the LGBTQ Issue at Amazon.com. NPR's Kelly McEvers talks with author and cultural critic, Chuck Klosterman. “When The Matrix debuted in 1999, it was a huge box-office success. There's a lot to chew on in the book. I thought I might hate this book going by the first chapter, which seemed to talk in circles about doubt and certainty. I see a list of interesting contributors - what did they contribute? : Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. But what if we look back on this book in 100 years and we think it is actually good? It’s also full of intelligence and insights, as the author gleefully turns ideas upside down to better understand them. The younger Wachowski (Andy, now Lilly) publicly announced her transition in the spring of 2016. “History is defined by people who don’t really understand what they are defining.”. Ibram X. Kendi at Amazon.com. And so on through TV and televised sports. Each chapter examines one facet of racism, the authorial camera alternately zooming in on an episode from Kendi’s life that exemplifies it—e.g., as a teen, he wore light-colored contact lenses, wanting “to be Black but…not…to look Black”—and then panning to the history that informs it (the antebellum hierarchy that valued light skin over dark). Moby-Dick received poor reviews on publication. Will team sports like football still be popular? Then Einstein said gravity was really a warping of time and space. The premise: what if we're wrong about what we know "for sure" now, and how will we see our past selves in the future? After devoting most of the book to talking, Oluo finishes with a chapter on action and its urgency. : Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds! If you're the type of person who gets annoyed at conversations that seem unsolvable (i.e. When I read I mark passages that especially resonate with those little plastic sticky Post-It page points. Yes, I'm sure lots of the things we now believe about reality may one day be proven wrong, but so what? The shepherd in 1500 A.D. who was suddenly told the earth went around the sun and not vice versa, was shocked and then went back to his sheep. This has always been the case, no matter how often that certainty has failed. The ever smart, witty, and curious Klosterman (I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined), 2013, etc.) Categories: Klosterman is only 44 and has a background in arts and entertainment writing. Aug. 24, 2017. takes on the notion that it’s “impossible to understand the world of today until today has become tomorrow.” One might call that a “klosterism,” and the book is full of them. He writes with a lot of humor, some of it self-deprecatory, but he also considers his topics with high seriousness. There are many books in my personal library that I have not been able to read. My wrists ache. If it’s true, it means, in a sense, I’ll be reading this book forever. This is my new favorite book. I, on the other hand, am in the third camp and came to him from his books. Chuck Klosterman Review by Henry L. Carrigan Jr. June 2016. But this one....not so much. Simon Reynolds: Your new book But What If We’re Wrong? There were a number of stretches that felt like I was being forced to wonder around in the author's stream of consciousness ramblings that didn't match the weightier tone of the topics. All Rights Reserved. Straight talk to blacks and whites about the realities of racism. I think my main issue was that I did the audio and the author liked himself and his topics of discussion enough for both of us....way more than I ever could. But What If We're Wrong? RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2018. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published We’re meant to see this idea as not a curse but a kind of hope. The tremendously well-received New York Times bestseller by cultural critic Chuck Klosterman, exploring the possibility that our currently held beliefs and assumptions about the world will eventually be proven wrong — now in paperback. Bob Dylan? ‧ Penguin/Blue Rider, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-0-399-18412-3 Thinking About the Present as If It Were the Past (Book) : Klosterman, Chuck : But What If We're Wrong? An inquiry into why we’ll probably be wrong about almost everything. But What If We're Wrong? & [Book Review] In our annual letter to investors this year, we discussed the difficulty of evaluating past decisions for validity without contaminating the assessment with present knowledge of the outcome. She explains, for example, “when somebody asks you to ‘check your privilege’ they are asking you to pause and consider how the advantages you’ve had in life are contributing to your opinions and actions, and how the lack of disadvantages in certain areas is keeping you from fully understanding the struggles others are facing.” She unpacks the complicated term “intersectionality”: the idea that social justice must consider “a myriad of identities—our gender, class, race, sexuality, and so much more—that inform our experiences in life.” She asks whites to realize that when people of color talk about systemic racism, “they are opening up all of that pain and fear and anger to you” and are asking that they be heard. Others assist Klosterman in taking on the future of rock ’n’ roll (“there are still things about the Beatles that can’t be explained”), time, dreams, democracy, TV shows (Roseanne is an overlooked work of “genius”), and sports. I suspect it might be this: The Matrix was written and directed by “the Wachowski siblings.” In 1999, this designation meant two brothers; as I write today, it means two sisters. I usually love reading Klosterman, but this book was difficult to get through and on the whole not enjoyable unfortunately. Chuck Klosterman wrote one of the most stimulating books that I read in 2016: But What If We're Wrong: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. The author then reframes those received ideas with inexorable logic: “Either racist policy or Black inferiority explains why White people are wealthier, healthier, and more powerful than Black people today.” If Kendi is justifiably hard on America, he’s just as hard on himself. … But What If the color red you see book was difficult to get through and on the.! If you 're the type of person who gets annoyed at conversations that unsolvable! Pop culture and sports and history nature of information of person who gets annoyed conversations! 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