On this edition of ST, we speak with the well-regarded author, essayist, and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman, who has published a number of books and also writes the weekly "Ethicist" column for The New York Times Magazine. Klosterman's latest title, "I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)," is just out in paperback; it's a far-reaching, often funny, and highly entertaining exploration of why we as a society are so attracted to -- yet also, of course, repelled by -- villains both fictional and nonfictional...as well as the very notion of villainy itself. The insightful and frequently autobiographical essays comprising "I Wear the Black Hat" thus offer the reader, as a critic for New York magazine has written, "great facts, interesting cultural insights, and thought-provoking moral calculations [regarding] our love affair with the anti-hero.” And further, per The Los Angeles Times: "By underscoring the contradictory, often knee-jerk ways we encounter the heroes and villains of our culture, Klosterman illustrates the passionate but incomplete computations that have come to define American culture -- and maybe even American morality."
"I Wear the Black Hat" --- Reflections on Our Fondness for Villains, Anti-Heroes, and Other Bad Guys
