In "But What If We're Wrong?", Chuck Klosterman talks about different subjects, and wonders if we got things wrong about the past, wonders if we're getting things wrong now, and wonders if our view of the future is misguided.
His opening chapters discuss books and music, and initially I was skeptical because he sometimes presents his premises and both exclusive and mutually exclusive. For example, he posits that rock and roll will die, and will be remembered by either Elvis Presley or Bob Dylan. This is a preposterous proposition, not only because rock and roll will be defined by more people than just those two, and why can't those two embody rock and roll together.
Klosterman's position that his, or any critics opinions matter, doesn't have much weight to me. I've never thought that Rolling Stones' One Hundred Greatest Guitar Players was a definitive list that made any sense to me, and I don't place a lot of weight where any art is put into competition - like the best movies of all time, or the most influential writers.
But later in the book, he delves into some interesting topics, some of which still irritated me, but some of which made me think. I didn't like his challenging of Neil DeGrasse Tyson's view of science - Klosterman doesn't seem to understand that knowledge is kind of like a parabolic curve, where knowledge and learning are a very steep curve in the beginning, and the more something is studied, verified and validated, certain assumptions can be rooted more firmly.
He also talks about politics, history and global warming. There were some interesting ideas there, so I'm glad I didn't stop this book in the earlier chapters.
Still, I think I'd only give this book a 6 of 10.
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