Look in the mirror, what do you see? In IV, Klosterman interviews American pop culture icons, athletes, and writes about his experiences too. He often tries to look beyond a person's image and discover their real personality. He interviewed pop culture icons like Britney Spears and Bono and he looked for what's beyond their image and how they viewed themselves. Throughout the book he analyzes many aspects of American mainstream media. These pieces are all connected because of the common theme of looking for the significance of how these people see themselves and how self-aware they are of their public image.
"U2 is the most self-aware rock band in history. This generally works to their advantage(Klosterman 21). In this piece Klosterman interviews Bono, the famous singer and songwriter of U2. U2 is one of the only rock bands to stay relevant for such a long period of time. They've made over a dozen studio albums and are still going strong over 30 years since their inception. "I don think anyone who's famous didn't want to be famous, says Bono, which might be true for everybody but is certainly true for him"(30). To be famous you need to be conscious of everything you do and the most successful celebrities have planned their every .
move. You need to be aware of what the critics say about you and the publics' perception of you. Bono knows U2's place in pop culture and he never does anything that damages their image or steers them out of their lane. Klosterman wonders, "Was this whole thing a specific performance, or is Bono's entire life a performance? And if your entire life is a performance, does that make everything you do inherently authentic? Is this guy for real, or is this guy completely full of shit?"(24). Is Bono really being himself, or is everything he does just him playing a character?.
Chuck Klosterman also interviews a couple athletes in this book, including Steve Nash and Gilbert Arenas.