“If you've spent any time trolling the blogosphere, you've probably noticed a peculiar literary trend: the pervasive habit of writers inexplicably placing exclamation points at the end of otherwise unremarkable sentences. Sort of like this! This is done to suggest an ironic detachment from the writing of an expository sentence! It's supposed to signify that the writer is self-aware! And this is idiotic. It's the saddest kind of failure. F. Scott Fitzgerald believed inserting exclamation points was the literary equivalent of an author laughing at his own jokes, but that's not the case in the modern age; now, the exclamation point signifies creative confusion. All it illustrates is that even the writer can't tell if what they're creating is supposed to be meaningful, frivolous, or cruel. It's an attempt to insert humor where none exists, on the off chance that a potential reader will only be pleased if they suspect they're being entertained. Of course, the reader isn't really sure, either. They just want to know when they're supposed to pretend to be amused. All those extraneous exclamation points are like little splatters of canned laughter: They represent the "form of funny," which is more easily understood (and more easily constructed) than authentic funniness. ”
“If you've spent any time trolling the blogosphere, you've probably noticed a peculiar literary trend: the pervasive habit of writers inexplicably placing exclamation points at the end of otherwise unremarkable sentences. Sort of like this! This is done to suggest an ironic detachment from the writing of an expository sentence! It's supposed to signify that the writer is self-aware! And this is idiotic. It's the saddest kind of failure. F. Scott Fitzgerald believed inserting exclamation points was the literary equivalent of an author laughing at his own jokes, but that's not the case in the modern age; now, the exclamation point signifies creative confusion. All it illustrates is that even the writer can't tell if what they're creating is supposed to be meaningful, frivolous, or cruel. It's an attempt to insert humor where none exists, on the off chance that a potential reader will only be pleased if they suspect they're being entertained. Of course, the reader isn't really sure, either. They just want to know when they're supposed to pretend to be amused. All those extraneous exclamation points are like little splatters of canned laughter: They represent the "form of funny," which is more easily understood (and more easily constructed) than authentic funniness. ”
Chuck Klosterman
“And if something is only itself, it doesn't particularly matter.”
Chuck Klosterman, but what if we are wrong chuck klosterman“The practical reality is that any present-tense version of the world is unstable. What we currently consider to be true--both objectively and subjectively--is habitually provisional.”
Chuck Klosterman, but what if we are wrong chuck klosterman“And the quality all these reasonable failures share is an inability to accept that the statue quo is temporary.”
Chuck Klosterman, but what if we are wrong chuck klosterman“And I'm probably wrong. Maybe not completely, but partially. And maybe not today, but eventually.”
Chuck Klosterman, but what if we are wrong chuck klosterman“It is impossible to examine questions we refuse to ask.”
Chuck Klosterman, but what if we are wrong chuck klosterman“It's difficult to cope with the infinite variety of the past, and so we apply filters and settle on a few famous names.”
Chuck Klosterman, but what if we are wrong chuck klosterman“The world happens as it happens, but we construct what we remember and what we forget. And people will eventually do that to us, too.”
Chuck Klosterman, but what if we are wrong chuck klosterman“I honestly believe that people of my generation despise authenticity, mostly because they're all so envious of it.”
Chuck Klosterman, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story“If I knew I was going to die at a specific moment in the future, it would be nice to be able to control what song I was listening to; this is why I always bring my iPod on airplanes.”
Chuck Klosterman, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story“Sarcasm is when you tell someone the truth by lying on purpose.”
Chuck Klosterman, Downtown OwlAll in One Creative & Marketing Platform to tell stories at scale
