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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Books Like Stuff White People Like, Only Useful and Intelligent

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 4:27 PM

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I've taken some guff in the past for disliking the Stuff White People Like books. In the beginning, I thought it was kind a funny blog with an interesting concept, presented in an interesting way. But the problem is that Stuff White People Like became something that White People Like, and any edge that the idea might have had has been dulled to America's Funniest Home Videos-level intensity. It's safe, lazy, and boring.

Chris Lehmann's "Rich People Things" column for The Awl—now collected in a book titled Rich People Things—basically started from the same simple premise as Stuff White People Like. Each post started with a funny generalization: Rich people like The New York Times, rich people like Wired Magazine, rich people like Malcolm Gladwell, rich people like Ayn Rand. But instead of stringing a line of flatulent zingers, Lehmann uses his column's focal point to launch into highly literate, and very funny, criticism of the wealthy.

He lambastes the New York Times for its breathless 2005 coverage (really, less coverage and more cheerleading) of the financial bubble. He attacks brain-dead misreadings of Adam Smith. He condenses Rand Paul's candidacy to its purest form. This is dense intellectual stuff, but Lehmann keeps it funny all the way through, and—perhaps most surprising—he manages to avoid succumbing to nostril-flaring outrage even once. Essay collections of cultural criticism don't get much better than this.

Comments (8) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Perhaps a tad nouveau.

My experience with them (on again, off again) is they like to buy stuff that lasts forever. Izod, ducks, button downs from Palmer Square.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on January 26, 2011 at 4:53 PM

If Chris Lehmann is as talented as all that, he'll likely be rich, too, someday, if he isn't already.

Posted by seandr on January 26, 2011 at 5:02 PM

The key to being a hipster is when your favorite band becomes popular, you disown them and find another band that's exactly the same except nobody but you has heard of them.

But what if they become popular too?!?, you ask?

Haven't you been paying attention, grasshopper?

Posted by The Wretched Harmony on January 26, 2011 at 5:18 PM

I'm sorry to sound like an noob but what sort of book is this?
Your link to Google books shows a document that is like 80% available - this this some sort of generous "look inside" the book or is this the actual book?
Can it only be read in the browser or can I put it on my knidle? It leads to a link for a used book on Amazon - is there a print edition?

Posted by jnonymous on January 26, 2011 at 7:13 PM

I preferred Paul Fussell's Class book. So pointed, funny and true. One can't buy taste.

Posted by Keister Button on January 26, 2011 at 9:14 PM

@5 agreed - still relevant nearly 30 years later

Posted by MoonPatrol on January 27, 2011 at 2:02 AM

@5: Really? To me it seemed like 200+ pages about how icky the lower middle class is.

Posted by Joe Glibmoron on January 27, 2011 at 2:20 AM

"Stuff white people like" sucks. I saw the author on tv somewhere talking about his book/blog and it just sounded like a hipster jackass spouting off a list of things that he would like to think only white people like, huh huh. i remember he included Apple computers and I recalled all my friends and former housemates in Seattle, black, asian, white, gay, straight, etc who had them. Anyways I can't believe shit like this gets popular.

A REAL list of stuff white people like would be kind of interesting, although I also don't care to think so much in the lines of white people this, white people that

Posted by i'm pro-science and i vote