Chuck Klosterman Takes on the Beatles Reissues

This is the fairly uncontroversial start of a news item about Chuck Klosterman. A review of the new Beatles reissues anthology penned by him went up today at The Onion's A.V. Club. This follows his protracted absence (which probably has a lot to do with his forthcoming book Eating the Dinosaur) after his 1700-word screed/review of Chinese Democracy.

Ah, but prepare yourself for the real meat of this piece: the unexpected reversal preceding an onslaught of esoteric pop-culture witticisms and mixed metaphors. You see, the Howard Beale¹ of cultural criticism hasn't just written any old review of the Beatles. No, like Robert DeNiro in The Deer Hunter, Klosterman's revolver has spun to reveal a chamber loaded with modern-rock-journalism, and he's pointed that cliché-gun straight at his allegorical captors (The Beatles.)

Now, you should probably just go ahead and read the whole thing for yourself. Haters will find more to gnash their teeth about, and fans will find any number of quotes to endlessly parrot and reblog. So really, in the end nothing has changed, and it's not like we've learned anything. You should also disregard everything you've just read. But also take it to heart. Because life is inherently contradictory, just like a tongue-in-cheek postmodern review of the Beatles.