Book Review for "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs," by Chuck Klosterman

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This is my write-up after our first book club meeting where we read and discussed the first three essays in the book.

Culture standardizes human behavior. Culture standardizes personality types. Fictional stories that take place in familiar settings change the expectations of reality. At least that’s what Chuck Klosterman is saying in the first three essays of his 2003 book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. In those first three essays, Chuck connects a film, a video game, and a reality TV show to changes in behavior patterns he observed.

Why choose a 20-year-old book, filled with cultural artifacts older than all of our book club members? In fact, the first three essays cover When Harry Met Sally, The Sims, and The Real World; and none of us had spent significant time in them.

In our book club meeting, our barely-structured discussion ebbed and flowed, but we focused primarily on themes from the first essay in the book, titled "This is Emo."

But the fact none of us had seen the film, played the game, or watched the show didn't matter. It didn’t matter for this book club meeting because the connections between the media and human behavior that Chuck makes don’t require a working knowledge of it. (This was less true in future meetings though). Further, all of them exist in mainstream society with a hefty ubiquity. For instance, Chuck argues that the film When Harry Met Sally is built on the premise that two platonic friends can be in love with each other for years and end up together. Chuck argues that the cultural ripples were so strong after this film's release that millions of people started to believe the scenario is entirely plausible. He then goes on to say that it gave hope to people all around the world. It made people hopeful that the version of a romantic relationship they were looking for could be found in their best friend. It changed thought patterns and behavior on a massive scale.

Now I may have had figurative walls made out of VeggieTales VHSs blocking my exposure to the mass media of the 1990s, but even I eventually became aware of what a “When Harry Met Sally” relationship dynamic was. Watching the film wasn’t required to absorb the cultural message it sent. Unbeknownst to me, it shaped my behavior. I spent all of high school madly in love with my "best friend," a girl I spent all of my time with. We hung out with each other's families, we took classes together, and we had the same social circle. But I dated other people, she dated other people. During our senior year, we finally embraced each other, dated for a year, and eventually broke up. (I attended her wedding 10 years later though; no one got that hurt).

Did I have a crush on my best friend because of the cultural signals of a rom-com I had never seen? Would the feasibility of a romantic relationship (or whatever the equivalent is when you’re 17) have been considered if Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan didn’t show the template in a fictional story? Did the courage to kiss her come from a hope that stemmed from two millionaires pretending to be in love?

Chuck Klosterman certainly thinks so.

This quote encapsulates Chuck’s argument in the first essay: “Pundits are always blaming TV for making people stupid, movies for desensitizing the world to violence, and, rock music for making kids take drugs and kill themselves. These things should be the least of our worries. The main problem with mass media is that it makes it impossible to fall in love with any acumen of normalcy.”

Is Chuck right? Are the messages that mass media feeds to adults more dangerous than the messages it feeds to children?

Rather than seek to answer that question, the Oversharing Book Club launched down a broader avenue. We tried to define the degree to which art shaped groups of people. We asked if reality was less real because it was trying to emulate art. We shared our own definitions of “art,” and debated its merit if a profit motive was involved in its creation. And we closed the night with a discussion about the power of news media to shape our political ideologies.

The subject of news and politics scared me the most. It was not the direction my mind went when reading Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. One of our book club members asked, “if we agree with Chuck’s assertion, that media has the power to shape our feelings about romance, does it have the power to shape our feelings about political events?” This is a powerful thought. News media, with its profit motive, seeks to increase the number of viewers by any means necessary. They have made issues out of nonissues. They get to tell their audience what is and isn’t important. And to make matters worse, they gain their viewers because of a particular bias, not in spite of it. (Go read my essay about Disneyland, Monsanto, and commodified culture if this kind of thought experiment tickles your fancy).

So if a news outlet, with its bias on full display, can make people go to war, hate their neighbor, and guide their vote; why is it unbelievable that When Harry Met Sally makes you think your best friend is your soul mate?

In our 80-minute Zoom call, none of us comes to a concrete conclusion. And that lack of finality is kind of beautiful.

Discussion Questions:

Here are some of the other discussion questions we talked about for these first few chapters for those interested in discussing the book with their friends or classmates:

(1 This is Emo)

1. Chuck asserts that people's actions and feelings are immensely impacted by mass media. Is his assertion correct, or is he vastly understating individual agency?

2. The film When Harry Met Sally is used as an example of how the type of romance one seeks is unrealistic and manipulative. What other types of media, either broad genres or specific works, can you see as examples of presenting unrealistic versions of reality that people believe?

3. Chuck claims that "every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less. But When Harry Met Sally gives the powerless, unrequited lover a reason to live." Is the power of film strong enough to give people this kind of hope? Would people still have that hope if this movie never came out?

(2 Billy Sim)

1. This idea is presented that children learn faster with computers, but they also begin to think like computers. Speculate how using computers (and other electronic items) for learning and other entertainment has been different for you compared to people who did not?

2. In what ways is a video game that seeks to replicate the real world different than a video game that seeks to create its own universe?

3. In The Sims, when a character purchases an item, there is a quantifiable gain in "happiness points." Is this what we base real-world purchases on? Or are our purchases made based on the value of labor, shipping, and materials?

(3 What Happens When People Stop Being Polite)

1. Speculate the reasons that reality TV took off in the 1990s and 2000s. Has the genre disappeared, or has it just changed?

2. In what ways can the character archetypes of reality TV show characters be observed in real life? Has real life begun to imitate these characters, as Chuck claims?

3. Reflect on your own presentation, personality, and mannerisms. What influences your personality and character traits?

4. How might people describe you to someone else when you're not around? Do you fit into any of the simplified personality types, as Chuck claims Real World castmates do?

More updates on the rest of the book as we progress through our book club.

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