{"product_id":"i-wear-the-black-hat-grappling-with-villains-real-and-imagined-9781439184509","title":"I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne-of-a-kind cultural critic and \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Chuck Klosterman \"offers up great facts, interesting cultural insights, and thought-provoking moral calculations in this look at our love affair with the anti-hero\" (\u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e magazine).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChuck Klosterman, \"The Ethicist\" for \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, has walked into the darkness. In \u003ci\u003eI Wear the Black Hat\u003c\/i\u003e, he questions the modern understanding of villainy. When we classify someone as a bad person, what are we really saying, and why are we so obsessed with saying it? How does the culture of malevolence operate? What was so Machiavellian about Machiavelli? Why don't we see Bernhard Goetz the same way we see Batman? Who is more worthy of our vitriol--Bill Clinton or Don Henley? What was O.J. Simpson's second-worst decision? And why is Klosterman still haunted by some kid he knew for one week in 1985? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMasterfully blending cultural analysis with self-interrogation and imaginative hypotheticals, \u003ci\u003eI Wear the Black Hat\u003c\/i\u003e delivers perceptive observations on the complexity of the antihero (seemingly the only kind of hero America still creates). As the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e notes: \"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.\" \u003ci\u003eI Wear the Black Hat\u003c\/i\u003e is a rare example of serious criticism that's instantly accessible and really, really funny.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of many books of nonfiction (including \u003ci\u003eThe Nineties\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, I Wear the Black Hat, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eBut What If We're Wrong?\u003c\/i\u003e) and fiction (\u003ci\u003eDowntown Owl\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Visible Man, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRaised in Captivity\u003c\/i\u003e). He has written for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSpin\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Believer, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eBillboard\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe A.V. Club\u003c\/i\u003e, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003efor three years, and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Scribner Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50566500090130,"sku":"9781439184509","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f4f6b8ae-0af3-427c-ad2c-acaf2e513c0a.jpg?v=1731900616","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/i-wear-the-black-hat-grappling-with-villains-real-and-imagined-9781439184509","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}