Is there anyone else like Chuck out there?

April 5, 2007 3:00 PM

I really love Chuck Klosterman's writing. Please help me find more authors/columnists like him.

I really love the scholarly and witty way Chuck Klosterman writes about pop culture. I am looking for writers similar to him. So, MeFites, is there anyone else out there who can write about a subject in an intelligent or scholarly way, while still remaining accessible to a wide audience? The writing doesn't have to be constrained to pop culture. It can be about any other subject. It can also be any medium (blogs, books, magazines).

Thanks all!

posted by reenum to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Bill Simmons, aka The Sports Guy, is Klosterman's analog in the sports world. Simmons writes about pop culture in his columns heavily, and he and Klosterman are buds. They've even written some great joint columns for EPSN's Page2.
posted by mcstayinskool at 3:19 PM on April 5, 2007

Best answer: David Foster Wallace's nonfiction is pretty good and sort of along the lines of Klosterman, although admittedly I haven't read much of Klosterman. DFW's got two nonfic collections that are probably available at your local library.
posted by the dief at 3:24 PM on April 5, 2007

That is so funny. I second Wallace (Girl with Curious Hair) and Bill Simmons - well, he's a blue-collar genius. I've abandoned Page2 a long time ago, but his older articles are priceless.

(I still tell people about "the Ewing effect" about once a week.)
posted by phaedon at 3:28 PM on April 5, 2007

Best answer: Susan Orlean.

Mary Roach (on death and the beyond)

Jon Krakauer, on mountain climbing and many other topics.
posted by GaelFC at 3:43 PM on April 5, 2007

Best answer: James Lileks on pop culture from the 40s and 50s.
posted by COD at 3:47 PM on April 5, 2007

Wow, just a little too late here, the first two that popped to my mind were also Krakauer and Lileks.

I also recently found MetroDad, I enjoy his stuff too.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:13 PM on April 5, 2007

Oh oh oh, and Malcolm Gladwell! His New Yorker articles are online and free for access, and they're really quite good.
posted by the dief at 4:19 PM on April 5, 2007

Best answer: Nthing DFWallace, who knows his stuff but is considerably drier and less wry than Chuck. Otherwise, how about digging into the NPR/This American Life contributor catalog? Sarah Vowell on politics, John Hodgman's tweedy faux-scholarship, and David Rakoff on the urbane condition are where I'd start.

Then, of course, there's David Sedaris.

For the four authors linked above, their voices are so unique I recommend their audiobooks heartily.
posted by peacecorn at 4:25 PM on April 5, 2007

Third for Bill Simmons. Ironically, I've read Simmons for a long time but I just read my first Klosterman book (Killing Yourself to Live).
posted by lukemeister at 10:40 PM on April 5, 2007

George Saunders writes great essays (The Braindead Megaphone) but is better known for his fantastic short stories and small fiction books.
posted by codger at 5:40 AM on March 12, 2008