“I Wear the Black Hat” by Chuck Klosterman – Am I Evil?

For most part of his childhood and adolescence, Chuck Klosterman was walking the straight line and only related to the characters and people who transpired positivity and goodness. However, as the illusions of youth faded away Klosterman noticed something strange; he was having much more fun siding with those who would be classified as evil rather than good. 

This one realization eventually pushed Klosterman to write a book titled I Wear the Black Hat, in which all of the text is centered on exploring the modern concept of villainy.

Self-admittedly, Klosterman did not go to the dark side because of the evil… rather, it was because bad guys were being villainous on purpose, because that is what they liked to do. In other words, those people want to be evil, but really what does the notion of evil entail in itself? 

And thus begins the cavalcade of questions Klosterman attempts to answer in his book, and they range from very vague ones, such as why is it that everyone likes the anti-hero so much, to exceptionally narrow ones, such as who deserves our praise more between Bill Clinton and Don Headley.

Though it may be dealing with a somewhat morbid and definitely serious theme, I Wear the Black Hat manages to stay very light and humorous, mainly thanks to the author’s line of thinking. Best described as somewhat eccentric and infinitely curious, Chuck Klosterman has a way of letting his train of thought take him wherever it goes, and then write down about it.

Though some of the writing feels a bit disjointed as a result of that, on the whole the sheer ridiculousness of his approach (self-interrogations being one of his favorite techniques) as well as his lively sense of humor really make this book a pleasure to read.

As you can imagine, this book has plenty of bias in it, and most of the writing refers to hypotheses and ideas with a few facts being thrown around here and there. Of course, it doesn’t really offer any conclusive answers you could basis a thesis on, but it sure presents some interesting ideas while making observations (mostly in regards to the various villains in our modern world) you probably wouldn’t have thought of yourself (I know I wouldn't have). 

On the whole, I’d say that if you like light-hearted books that teach, raise questions and entertain all at the same time without really having any kind of story, you’ll probably find I Wear a Black Hat to be a very interesting read.

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Chuck Klosterman Personal site Chuck Klosterman is an American writer whose books and essays have mostly revolved on American pop culture, and who has also dabbled in journalism, having written columns for The New York Times Magazine. He is arguably best-known for his intriguing essay collection titled Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. He is also the author of a couple of non-fiction novels, Downtown Owl and The Visible Man.