I just finished reading
Nelson George's Post-Soul Nation. I could compare it to '
The Clothes Have No Emperor,' one of my favorite books about the '80s (others off the top of my head:
'The Bonfire of the Vanities' (and '
The Devil's Candy'),
'Fear of Falling,'
'Circus of Ambition,' '
Inside Job,' '
Liar's Poker,' '
On Bended Knee,' '
American Psycho'). It plays things a lot straighter than 'Emperor,' and it's got a real thesis (where TCHNE's thesis is 'We don't have a president; we've got an actor portraying one,' which is just a simple statement of fact). There's something appealing, I think, about a book-of-days chronology that attempts to advance an argument, like writing
senryu about the DeCSS algorithm, and I've enjoyed George's work since Hip-Hop Nation and that quickie
Mikejack bio.