What was it about The Beatles that made them so great? What is it that sets them apart from all the legendary bands of the time? Answering a question like this takes serious consideration and a certain level of knowledge and understanding. But when the research is over and one has come to a well thought out and, most importantly, comprehensive conclusion, that person may realize the answer is much simpler than was made out to be. But to really understand The Beatles – and anyone for that matter — you must first understand their environment, what was going on in their world. To answer really any question about The Beatles we must first dive into the sixties and be able to the fullest of our abilities, at least have an idea of what happened and to a certain extent understand why it happened that way.
Part I
The 1950s in the West was marked by the first of the Baby Boomers, the Korean War, reemergence of the Red Scare, economic prosperity, and most notable the beginning of the Cold War. Europe was on the rise again having very much recovered by the mid 50is from the destruction of WWII. The peoples attitude in the West, particularly England and the U.S., was very business oriented and material driven. This lifestyle worked for the pre-baby boomers, those who lived the woes of the Depression and the travesties of the war. In fact, to them there was no other way because the events that played out in their lives told them “this is it, this is the way to go.” Society in turn was conservative, and with good reason.
This was the environment The Beatles and their contemporaries – artists and fans alike – were raised in. You work to achieve monetary wealth, raise a family, and that’s it; that’s what life is all about. This sort of attitude spilled over into the sixties but didn’t last. With their major commercial success, The Beatles became increasingly unsatisfied and began questioning themselves, as many others of the generation did.
When one observes The Beatles’ musical progression over the decade – 1960-69 – it becomes very apparent their eagerness to try anything new and exotic, a trend you see throughout the decade among that generation. In many ways their eagerness for the new and “strange” was the result of very rapid and early commercial success at such a young age.
Beginning with the album Rubber Soul, released in 1965, as a group, The Beatles took a huge leap forward in the sophistication of their compositions. Songs like “Nowhere Man” and “Day Tripper’s” socially critical lyrics and genius harmonies (Nowhere Man) and “Norwegian Wood’s” excellent use of the sitar are among the early examples in The Beatles reflection of a growing cultural movement with a taste for the eccentric and exotic. Like the movement, The Beatles began to blossom as musicians just as it began taking form.
Part II
In 1966, The Beatles did their last tour of Britain after which they would have the most down time since1962. Each member began experimenting on their own, learning different disciplines of music and indulging themselves in culture by means of reading and traveling. Paul began studying classical music, Lennon began exploring his inner consciousness through LSD, while George on the other hand began studying Indian music and culture. George’s infatuation with Indian culture began on the set of the movie Help! when a Hindu devotee gave all the members of the band a book on reincarnation. In 1965 fellow musician and friend David Crosby of The Byrds would introduce him to Indian musician and Sitar guru Ravi Shankar whom would inspire George to buy his first Sitar; this being the first step towards his spiritual/cultural awakening. The catalyst would be Harrison’s trip to Indian in 1966 to study the sitar under Ravi Shankar. During this trip he would visit various shrines and holy places which only deepened his affection for the culture. From then on he was devoted to Indian culture.
Around this time, Harrison became in a sense the group’s spiritual leader. He didn’t necessarily introduce Eastern philosophy to the rest of the band members but he certainly cultivated it among them. The Beatles all had tremendous influence on each other. What one thought or said about something directly affected what the others thought about it too. For example, in an interview with Paul McCartney about changing attitudes in the late 60ies, he says, “Even though everyone is sort of getting on very well in this society we've got, it's a bit too controlled, you know. Because you suddenly, you want to go and do something and somebody says: 'Oh, no!! Subsection B, Clause A!! You can't do that, you know!!.......' (http://beatlesinterviews.org/db1967.0118.beatles.html) This is directly related to Harrison’s interest in Eastern philosophy because Paul is basically asking for people to be more open and not assume things are a certain way without any information or experience to back their assumption. Traditionally Europeans have looked down on anything not Christian and white. Now you have this British fellow from Liverpool getting into Meditation and Indian culture – which is the “inferior” colonized culture to the British I might add – it doesn’t set well with an overly-proud and ethno-centric society.
This journey of Spirituality began with George’s experiences with LSD. Through his trips he had the realization of God which is what sent him looking for the answers in meditation and transcendentalism. George would be the first of the group to admit that LSD has powerful spiritual effects and can help one see things that aren’t necessarily visible or perceivable at first, but it isn’t an answer. Many of the victims of the middle sixties drug explosion would agree that psychedelics do have profound consequences on one’s outlook on life but they aren’t the answer. Hunter S. Thompson, author, doctor of journalism, and victim of the middles sixties drug explosion, shot the whole scene down in one paragraph. He said, “That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling consciousness expansion, without ever giving a thought to the grim meat hook realities that were lying in wait for all those peoples who took him seriously. All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy peace and understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss, and failure, is ours too. What Leary took down with him was that the central illusion of a whole lifestyle that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the acid culture. The desperate assumption that somebody, or at least some force, is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.” (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) Nothing could be further from the truth, and George quickly recognized the fallacy of the trip. He realized that acid could only take you so far, from there on you would have to do it yourself. This is what led him to transcendental meditation. To George that was the final step, that level of consciousness between being awake, asleep, and dreaming, obtainable only through an unaltered head and deep concentration. Though he realized this early on there were, others like band mate John Lennon, who took it more seriously and were more naïve toward the acid culture. Coincidentally, it would be Indian culture and transcendental meditation that George introduced to the group that John would be weaned from his psychological addiction to LSD.
With the release of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” George only gets one song on the album: “Within You, Without You” and is easily the most profound and beautiful of the album; or any Beatles song for that matter. Demonstrating his study of Indian music and culture he combines the two in a sublime composition of musicianship and lyric. Though the music of the song is genius to say the least, the real genius lies in the lyrics and its profound message. Highly critical of society, the song demonstrates Harrison’s passive nature and great social awareness in lines like: “We were talking-about the space between us all,
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion, Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away,” or “Try to realize it's all within yourself, No-one else can make you change ,And to see you're really only very small, And life flows on within you and without you.” George like many of his contemporary artists felt the energy of the generation and saw the potential that could be. This acute social awareness is demonstrated in lines “With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew” and, “We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people, Who gain the world and lose their soul-They don't know-they can't see.” Widely disregarded as nothing more than a pleasant filler song on the album by most people, this is definitely the most sophisticated in terms of musicianship and lyric on Sgt. Peppers. Within You Without You is George Harrison’s masterpiece, truly capturing the spiritual essence and social discontent of the counter culture. No other Beatles song truly represents the sixties counter culture in all its glory than Within You Without You.
“Being in The Beatles did help speed up the process of God-realization, but it also hindered it as there were more impressions and more entanglements to get out of.” (George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology) The Beatles are so iconic because of the numerous parallels of social change over the decade happening to coincide with the changes happening in the band itself; in particular, George Harrison’s experience as the group Guitarist and youngest member. By the age of 23 George had enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life and had no real reason to stop making money. But he grew dissatisfied with his social status of rich and famous and began wondering what it was all about, if that was all there was to life? “When you’ve had all these experiences – met all the famous people, made some money, toured the world and got all the acclaim – you still think: ‘Is that it?’” (George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology) Like many people growing up or already grown up in the sixties, they saw their parents slaving away, day by day, doing a job they hated and thought is that really what life is? Doing something you hate to reach a goal that society says is the right way? Many bought into their parents lifestyles but George and many others of the generation chose different path. Those paths were all about not weighing success or happiness in monetary terms. They were about bettering of oneself in a different way than just how much material you owned.
Part III
With The Beatles officially not touring anymore, Lennon – as all the other Beatles did – had lots of free time for himself. John became interested in exploring his psyche through the use of LSD. With no established LSD scene in England at the time, Lennon had no teacher or anything to model after. He took to the “authority” of Timothy Leary with his book The Psychedelic Experience which would serve as the modal for his experiment. This would be the beginning of a phase in Lennon’s life where LSD became an increasingly important element in his life. So much so that he would trip for days on end with little rest between the next binge. Under Leary’s guidance John became an acid fiend which almost left his mind obliterated, narrowly escaping the near fate of the unfortunate “acid casualty”.
With the release of The Beatle’s 7th studio album Revolver we see the full effects that this spare time has had on the sound of The Beatles. George with his sitar and Indian music and John with his LSD inspired lyrics. John’s Tomorrow Never Knows really sets the tone for what is to come from him on the later albums. The song was actually conceived from one of John’s early acid trips and really shows John’s innocence towards the drug and what was really happening in regards to Leary and his “cultural revolution”. At this time in 1966 Leary was at the height of his influence and it had clearly rubbed off on John. Much of the lyrics of the song are actually taken directly from Leary’s book The Psychedelic Experience – which was based on Buddhist script The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Though John would go on to write numerous LSD driven songs, this one is most directly about the drug than any other.
Though musically exhilarating and sophisticated the most important concept to take away from this song is its cultural impact. For one, it introduced LSD and Leary’s “revolution” to the youth of Western world. For the next four to five years LSD and Leary were in the spot light. Anything The Beatles did almost certainly became a fad or at least popular with the youth. For example, Paul McCartney’s interview about LSD and Journalism on 6/19/1967 (http://beatlesinterviews.org/db1967.0619.beatles.html) – In the interview, the journalist asks Paul if he had taken LSD and how many times. Paul answers truthfully about having taken and goes onto explain that just because he took acid doesn’t mean he’s promoting it among the youth or that just because he took it his fans are going to take it. Musically it changed everything; this song’s influence alone resonates in many other modern genres. For instance, the many sub-genres of rave and dance music and in modern styles of rock through the loud and aggressive drum lines. George’s influence of Indian music brought into Western music sounds that hadn’t been heard in since the 1200s. The reintroduction of drone and the psychedelic lyrics, harmonies, and drum sounds had a direct influence on modern psychedelic genres today including rave music and drone rock. (Revolution in The Head)
Lennon for the next two years would be an avid adherer to Leary’s revolution, living in a chemically altered state for the better part of that time. For a time he lost contact with who he was, chasing this mythical state of ego-death and eternal joy. He never found it and unlike many of his fabled contemporaries, made it out in one piece; still functioning and for the most part mentally unaltered. Once he realized the fallacy in the acid culture, especially the culture being sold by Leary, Lennon began distancing himself from Leary, slowly but surely that phase was coming to an end. Though acid did many positive things for him, it very nearly left him on the brink of psychological collapse and John was very aware of this. “If we had met Maharishi before we had taken acid, we wouldn’t have needed to take it.” (John Lennon, The Beatles Anthology) Like many others of the generation, John was a seeker. He sought the meaning of all this which is why George and John had such a close but distinct relationship; a mutual understanding. Both were after what most people were and as they matured realized there were no shortcuts, the answer was inside of them. It was there, it was just a matter of finding it.
Part IV
So what was it? Why The Beatles? Apart from their excellent musicianship The Beatles had this acute social awareness that really made them able to capture the energy that was the sixties. They changed with the times but most importantly they did it sub-consciously, unplanned, and effortlessly. They moved to the same beat as the generation. It is clear that as the sixties progressed and moved further away from that post war insecurity and into a more aware and open society you see it in their music. If you knew nothing of the sixties but the music of The Beatles, based on the phenomenal change in the sound of their music and the sophistication of their lyrics, the turmoil of the time becomes obvious. Each album can almost be interpreted as a reaction in itself to an external event. The Beatles embodied the energy of the sixties and when that energy ran out so did The Beatles. By 1970 it was clear that the potential of the age was lost and with that The Beatles were over. An entity like The Beatles cannot exist without the energy of a generation fueling them. No surprise that a musical group as popular and influential as The Beatles hasn’t existed since, just as a generation like theirs hasn’t either.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Pure Evil and Second Chances
What one should take into consideration when watching these movies is the degree of evil the characters either a. possess or b. are surrounded by. Which characters were motivated or influenced by evil? How does their past influence their current decision making? These are fundamental questions one should be asking as one watches these movies. In Capote such answers are much clearer and definitely lean towards true evil especially in the case of the actions of Perry Smith, sole murder of the Clutter family. In Freedom Writers, the characters lean more towards the good, but surrounded by great evil on all sides. They are also heavily influenced by the deaths and killings of their friends and family due to frequent gang activity and over all violence in their neighborhoods. Although Perry Smith and the students in the movie have very similar pasts the big difference between them is the decisions they make and the fundamental fact that, in the case of the Freedom Writers someone cared about what happened to the kids. Though all make decisions greatly influenced by the evil in which surround them, the students in Freedom Writers can hardly be considered evil in comparison to the sociopathic and psychotic killings of Perry Smith, in addition, all hatefully made decisions are made up for in the end by an overall consensus of their own ideas of what is right and what is right is what should be done.
Perry Smith was an interesting man at the very minimal. A man with a troubled childhood and an equally troubling adulthood could easily be compared with many of the students of Wilson High School of the Freedom Writers story. Intellectually sophisticated and emotionally disturbed, Smith was raised by an alcoholic mother and an abusive father. His mother and sister abandoned their father in Juneau, Alaska escaping his abuses to the greater San Francisco area. When his mother died he was put into a Catholic orphanage where he was repeatedly abused physically and emotionally by the nuns because of his chronic affliction of wetting his bed. He was eventually removed from the clergy-run orphanage to a Salvation-Army orphanage. Though even with this move, Perry was not free from torment. Here one of the caretakers apparently tried to drown him. With such a violent and unstable childhood how could he not grow to have a trouble psyche?
Smith had a history of violence. While serving in the Army during the Korean War, he was often reprimanded for excessive drinking and fighting with Korean civilians and other soldiers. Though with such a history of violence no one could have predicted his turn from petty crimes and minor violent crimes to a mass murder? His spontaneous decisions to murder the Clutters support him being a sociopath. A sociopath is someone who does not take into consideration how their actions might affect others, complete disregard for others rights and liberties when in conflict with personal agenda. The Clutter family massacre was and obvious complete disregard for the families lives and actually, was unnecessary considering the lack of profit from the burglaries and would have faced minor charges for breaking and entry and burglary, if caught that is. These murders were spontaneously decided. Perry did not pre-meditate them which is worse. Such a poor and rash decision over a measly $20 can be attributed to his mental unhealthiness, this Psychotic Sociopath.
The level of true evil is limited among the protagonists of Freedom Writers. All evil actions and intentions are redeemed in some way or form by the end of the movie. The situation in Long Beach is a curious one with the situation in Wilson being one of its greatest examples. Wilson is one of the biggest high schools in Long Beach. The two largest are Poly and Wilson. Wilson is located in a very safe, suburban neighborhood while Poly is located downtown on the edge of the ghetto. As the movie explains the district is implementing a new system that busses in kids who come from less fortunate and ethnically diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods to different high schools to “diversify” and hopefully, better the learning environment for everyone. This inevitably brings the problems and rivalries of the downtown neighborhoods to the bubble gum, happy-go-lucky, suburban Wilson high school. Even today it is plagued by gang activity and associated problems. Although most, if not all the problems presented in the Freedom Writers are inspired by race and ethnic rivalries there solutions are all dealt with eventually through education. For example Eva Benitez’ testimony originally accusing a Black teen of murdering another Cambodian teen, then rightfully accusing her Mexican boyfriend of the murder, changes because of the education from the writing course; ensuring her that doing what is right is more important than protecting “one’s own”. In addition their issues are tackled much earlier in the students’ lives than Perry Smiths. Through education and the escape writing provided these kids they were able to better cope with their situations and deal with their individual struggles accordingly. They were able to positively tackle their troubles, an option Perry wasn’t given, not out of malice, but sheer bad luck. These kids are luckier than he was. But at the same time, these kids are not Psychotic Sociopaths either. Though many were at one point capable of something as terrible as murder, they were saved by the art that is writing.
Perry Smith received no education higher than that of grade school. Though processing a sophisticated mind, he was in turn, a very uneducated man. Maybe if the proper education would have reached him earlier in his life, he would have not been the infamous protagonist of In Cold Blood and a mass murderer but such speculation is unsustainable. The fact is he did not receive an education and met no one that was as truly good and at the end of the day actually cared as much as Erin Gruwell. The kids of Freedom Writers were lucky to have met such a person genuinely dedicated to good. If one were to go to the root of the matter, many of those depicted in Freedom Writers could have well ended up like Perry. Maybe not on death-row, but in jail, dead, or lost on the streets, everything taken away and with nothing less to lose which I believe is the handle. The one thing that separates Perry from these kids is that someone believed in these kids, they got a second chance, Perry on the other hand, was barely given a chance, a chance with the odds stacked against him, and unfortunately these miserable odds prevailed.
Perry Smith was an interesting man at the very minimal. A man with a troubled childhood and an equally troubling adulthood could easily be compared with many of the students of Wilson High School of the Freedom Writers story. Intellectually sophisticated and emotionally disturbed, Smith was raised by an alcoholic mother and an abusive father. His mother and sister abandoned their father in Juneau, Alaska escaping his abuses to the greater San Francisco area. When his mother died he was put into a Catholic orphanage where he was repeatedly abused physically and emotionally by the nuns because of his chronic affliction of wetting his bed. He was eventually removed from the clergy-run orphanage to a Salvation-Army orphanage. Though even with this move, Perry was not free from torment. Here one of the caretakers apparently tried to drown him. With such a violent and unstable childhood how could he not grow to have a trouble psyche?
Smith had a history of violence. While serving in the Army during the Korean War, he was often reprimanded for excessive drinking and fighting with Korean civilians and other soldiers. Though with such a history of violence no one could have predicted his turn from petty crimes and minor violent crimes to a mass murder? His spontaneous decisions to murder the Clutters support him being a sociopath. A sociopath is someone who does not take into consideration how their actions might affect others, complete disregard for others rights and liberties when in conflict with personal agenda. The Clutter family massacre was and obvious complete disregard for the families lives and actually, was unnecessary considering the lack of profit from the burglaries and would have faced minor charges for breaking and entry and burglary, if caught that is. These murders were spontaneously decided. Perry did not pre-meditate them which is worse. Such a poor and rash decision over a measly $20 can be attributed to his mental unhealthiness, this Psychotic Sociopath.
The level of true evil is limited among the protagonists of Freedom Writers. All evil actions and intentions are redeemed in some way or form by the end of the movie. The situation in Long Beach is a curious one with the situation in Wilson being one of its greatest examples. Wilson is one of the biggest high schools in Long Beach. The two largest are Poly and Wilson. Wilson is located in a very safe, suburban neighborhood while Poly is located downtown on the edge of the ghetto. As the movie explains the district is implementing a new system that busses in kids who come from less fortunate and ethnically diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods to different high schools to “diversify” and hopefully, better the learning environment for everyone. This inevitably brings the problems and rivalries of the downtown neighborhoods to the bubble gum, happy-go-lucky, suburban Wilson high school. Even today it is plagued by gang activity and associated problems. Although most, if not all the problems presented in the Freedom Writers are inspired by race and ethnic rivalries there solutions are all dealt with eventually through education. For example Eva Benitez’ testimony originally accusing a Black teen of murdering another Cambodian teen, then rightfully accusing her Mexican boyfriend of the murder, changes because of the education from the writing course; ensuring her that doing what is right is more important than protecting “one’s own”. In addition their issues are tackled much earlier in the students’ lives than Perry Smiths. Through education and the escape writing provided these kids they were able to better cope with their situations and deal with their individual struggles accordingly. They were able to positively tackle their troubles, an option Perry wasn’t given, not out of malice, but sheer bad luck. These kids are luckier than he was. But at the same time, these kids are not Psychotic Sociopaths either. Though many were at one point capable of something as terrible as murder, they were saved by the art that is writing.
Perry Smith received no education higher than that of grade school. Though processing a sophisticated mind, he was in turn, a very uneducated man. Maybe if the proper education would have reached him earlier in his life, he would have not been the infamous protagonist of In Cold Blood and a mass murderer but such speculation is unsustainable. The fact is he did not receive an education and met no one that was as truly good and at the end of the day actually cared as much as Erin Gruwell. The kids of Freedom Writers were lucky to have met such a person genuinely dedicated to good. If one were to go to the root of the matter, many of those depicted in Freedom Writers could have well ended up like Perry. Maybe not on death-row, but in jail, dead, or lost on the streets, everything taken away and with nothing less to lose which I believe is the handle. The one thing that separates Perry from these kids is that someone believed in these kids, they got a second chance, Perry on the other hand, was barely given a chance, a chance with the odds stacked against him, and unfortunately these miserable odds prevailed.
No Direction Home
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
- Hunter S. Thompson, The Wave Speech from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The first time I read—at age 15—Hunter Thompson I wasn’t much of a literary enthusiast. I enjoyed reading but had never read anything I can truly say changed me. I had never had the privilege of reading a novel that caused something to stir inside of me like Fear and Loathing had. Just reading that first line captivated me unlike anything intellectual had done before. I was addicted; hooked like some half crazed dope fiend lusting for his next fix. As far as I was concerned at the time, literature of that sort didn’t even exist. Dr. Thompson shook my world to its core with that novel. He changed everything for me, intellectually speaking. Thompson’s humor, satire, and downright degeneracy are mesmerizing to say the least. No one else that I’ve read from his generation has even come close to capturing the beauty of the 60ies. He illustrates the hope of what could have been and the grim reality of what that hope was forced to manifest in. He captured an age in all its glory; and misery.
Many view Hunter S. as a simple drug fiend; a social degenerate here to do nothing else but corrupt society with his strange antics and wild behavior. They’ll read his work and label him a criminal. They read Fear and Loathing and find it difficult to see it as more than drug fueled visit to Las Vegas. Despite the excessive consumption of illicit substance by his famed protagonists, he has an underlying point. There is meaning behind the madness; despite popular belief. He puts the status quo on trial and mercilessly degrades it to what it truly is. Demonstrating in the process how sick and perverted the American public has become. Despite our industrial luxuries, efficient federal and private sectors, economic possibilities, and most importantly a full functioning constitution ensuring freedom and liberty to all, present in this great nation the few are still oppressed for the gain of few. He saw this clearer than almost anyone of the time.
Las Vegas is the whorehouse of America; a place where the swine rule and decadence runs rampant which is precisely why he chose it for the setting of his novel. In Hunter’s mind, it’s the place where the American Dream as we know it was ravaged and left for dead, out on the scorching desert plain. Hunter had originally seen Chicago as America’s death place because of the Chicago riots due to the Democratic National convention. There, he saw the freedoms we so willingly export, promised in the Constitution forsaken by the county police and National Guard who clubbed our God given rights out of those unfortunate citizens. He saw the potential of a generation beaten out of its people with his very eyes all over the nation. The good and beauty spat on over a simple disagreement. The Democratic National Convention of 1968 in Chicago is in many ways the sentimental inspiration of what would become the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Following the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., would be presidential nominee Robert F. Kennedy, and the mass race riots tensions were high to say the least. Hunter, being a journalist and correspondent for various magazines and news companies experienced the brutality first hand. Rights held dear to all Americans, the very basis of our nation, trampled underfoot with the least bit of hesitation. He saw this as the end. This was the high water mark. The ease with which those in power would simply set aside what they were supposed to be upholding to preserve their idea of the Status Quo represented the downfall for him, with good reason.
Thompson saw what could have been. He was a part of something very special; something I could only imagine what is like to experience. That is what Fear and Loathing is about; the death of a generation, the death of hope. He saw all of this by 1971, for many the ride was still going, but he knew better. As he said, a peak like that only comes once in your life and to his dismay he saw that peak beaten into submission by those who call him evil, who call him a degenerate.
It is hard to say whether the power of a whole generation will ever come together in such splendid harmony in the country. That time is over. It certainly won’t happen for us (this generation). We have better things to worry about like the new generation iPod that’s coming out or how many pictures I have on my Facebook, or even more compelling who’s BBMing me. Unfortunately my generation is caught up with all the right things for the wrong reasons. We have all the reason to be pissed off at how things are being done our nation and the world and all the means to actually do something about it and be heard but still nothing is done. Maybe of the Doctor was still around things might be a bit different, probably not, but it’s still pleasant to imagine. That’s the most painful part, 39 years later and nothing has changed, except that we’re a lot less courageous than our grandfathers and worse still, there are less people willing to do something for the greater good.
Some things just don’t get old. They grow stronger and more vibrant with the coming age. Fear and Loathing is one of those. Almost two generations later it still evokes that same melancholy and disappointment at the way things turned out in people who weren’t even there to experience anything he talks about, yet it still takes on as much importance, minus the satisfaction to knowing you were that in that time and place in that corner of the world.
How does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?
- Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone
- Hunter S. Thompson, The Wave Speech from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The first time I read—at age 15—Hunter Thompson I wasn’t much of a literary enthusiast. I enjoyed reading but had never read anything I can truly say changed me. I had never had the privilege of reading a novel that caused something to stir inside of me like Fear and Loathing had. Just reading that first line captivated me unlike anything intellectual had done before. I was addicted; hooked like some half crazed dope fiend lusting for his next fix. As far as I was concerned at the time, literature of that sort didn’t even exist. Dr. Thompson shook my world to its core with that novel. He changed everything for me, intellectually speaking. Thompson’s humor, satire, and downright degeneracy are mesmerizing to say the least. No one else that I’ve read from his generation has even come close to capturing the beauty of the 60ies. He illustrates the hope of what could have been and the grim reality of what that hope was forced to manifest in. He captured an age in all its glory; and misery.
Many view Hunter S. as a simple drug fiend; a social degenerate here to do nothing else but corrupt society with his strange antics and wild behavior. They’ll read his work and label him a criminal. They read Fear and Loathing and find it difficult to see it as more than drug fueled visit to Las Vegas. Despite the excessive consumption of illicit substance by his famed protagonists, he has an underlying point. There is meaning behind the madness; despite popular belief. He puts the status quo on trial and mercilessly degrades it to what it truly is. Demonstrating in the process how sick and perverted the American public has become. Despite our industrial luxuries, efficient federal and private sectors, economic possibilities, and most importantly a full functioning constitution ensuring freedom and liberty to all, present in this great nation the few are still oppressed for the gain of few. He saw this clearer than almost anyone of the time.
Las Vegas is the whorehouse of America; a place where the swine rule and decadence runs rampant which is precisely why he chose it for the setting of his novel. In Hunter’s mind, it’s the place where the American Dream as we know it was ravaged and left for dead, out on the scorching desert plain. Hunter had originally seen Chicago as America’s death place because of the Chicago riots due to the Democratic National convention. There, he saw the freedoms we so willingly export, promised in the Constitution forsaken by the county police and National Guard who clubbed our God given rights out of those unfortunate citizens. He saw the potential of a generation beaten out of its people with his very eyes all over the nation. The good and beauty spat on over a simple disagreement. The Democratic National Convention of 1968 in Chicago is in many ways the sentimental inspiration of what would become the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Following the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., would be presidential nominee Robert F. Kennedy, and the mass race riots tensions were high to say the least. Hunter, being a journalist and correspondent for various magazines and news companies experienced the brutality first hand. Rights held dear to all Americans, the very basis of our nation, trampled underfoot with the least bit of hesitation. He saw this as the end. This was the high water mark. The ease with which those in power would simply set aside what they were supposed to be upholding to preserve their idea of the Status Quo represented the downfall for him, with good reason.
Thompson saw what could have been. He was a part of something very special; something I could only imagine what is like to experience. That is what Fear and Loathing is about; the death of a generation, the death of hope. He saw all of this by 1971, for many the ride was still going, but he knew better. As he said, a peak like that only comes once in your life and to his dismay he saw that peak beaten into submission by those who call him evil, who call him a degenerate.
It is hard to say whether the power of a whole generation will ever come together in such splendid harmony in the country. That time is over. It certainly won’t happen for us (this generation). We have better things to worry about like the new generation iPod that’s coming out or how many pictures I have on my Facebook, or even more compelling who’s BBMing me. Unfortunately my generation is caught up with all the right things for the wrong reasons. We have all the reason to be pissed off at how things are being done our nation and the world and all the means to actually do something about it and be heard but still nothing is done. Maybe of the Doctor was still around things might be a bit different, probably not, but it’s still pleasant to imagine. That’s the most painful part, 39 years later and nothing has changed, except that we’re a lot less courageous than our grandfathers and worse still, there are less people willing to do something for the greater good.
Some things just don’t get old. They grow stronger and more vibrant with the coming age. Fear and Loathing is one of those. Almost two generations later it still evokes that same melancholy and disappointment at the way things turned out in people who weren’t even there to experience anything he talks about, yet it still takes on as much importance, minus the satisfaction to knowing you were that in that time and place in that corner of the world.
How does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?
- Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The 20 Virgens in Heaven Syndrome
Over the past sixty years the perception of Islam, at least from Western eyes, has been steadily deteriorating. It is quickly judged and in almost all cases not fully understood. Most people have no idea what true Islam is and are stuck on the most noticeable, but ironically the smallest, interpretation of Muhammad’s message: Extremism. The irony in this is that extremism is obviously not limited to Islam. There are hundreds of thousands extremist Christians just in the Mid-West of the United States alone. Not to mention the atrocities committed by the Catholic missionaries in colonial America, and all other—predominantly European—Christian missionaries in whatever time or place their activities were taking place. People fail to see that we as Christians have done just as bad, if not worse, than the Muslims have in the past six decades. And now, more than fifteen hundred years after its founding, Islam has taken great leaps and bounds, turns and curves. But unfortunately, most of us are unable to see past the cruel and wicked front amassed and distributed by the very incarnation of evil. To truly understand the most frightening of unknowns, one must be able to place themselves in their “enemy’s” shoes, see the world from their eyes, sensitivity, is what’s needed. A wise man whose name is lost to my mind once said, “In religion as in philosophy humanity's best hope is open-minded toleration.” Whoever this man was, he couldn’t be more right.
I’m really jealous of most Muslims. They have this remarkable sense of faith; a religious zeal unlike almost any other people of our modern age. They make one really question whether they’re missing out on something by not being as faithful as they are. Praying 5 times a day, fasting, the Hajj, it’s really quite admirable if you can put aside all the differences we’ve built up over the past fifteen hundred years. They are a people who are strong believers in their ways, which is just as true for us, and when two peoples as strong a willed as both of us—Westerners and Muslims—are it’s a given that we will have confrontation. I feel that Christianity has hit stagnation, and is leaning towards a drop of some sort, while Islam, on the other hand, has had almost a rebirth. They are a growing faith—again—and the typical perception of this faith is, well, fanatical to put it lightly. Muslims are proud of who they and their past and don’t want to be bossed around by Westerners; let alone Christians. But this resent of the west, out of all honesty, manifests itself in fanatical-extremist tendencies so rarely. Most Muslims are peaceful people, adherers to the Koran, and its 5 Pillars. Most don’t want x amount of virgins in heaven and to die in the name of Allah. Most want exactly what we want: a family that loves and cares for each other, economically successful, and active participants in their society.
People fear that which they don’t understand. It’s a natural instinct. Animals have it, it’s not exclusive to humans but we tend to exaggerate our misunderstanding thus enflaming our fear. The difference is animals don’t have any means to truly understand what they fear for obvious reasons. We on the other hand have the means and the definite capacity to educate ourselves. To be able to learn and hopefully to gain an understanding of each other, but unfortunately this is not what happens. Instead our fears are amplified by mass media, FOX News, and war stories. And people instead choose to not understand but simply hate. It’s definitely the easier path but what an atrociously offensive path. It pains me to know the resources making education so available to the general western public—who are affected by the Western-Muslim conflict—and their lack of use of it. Instead it is used to wrongly augment the situation. Blow it out of proportion. Anyone with a basic level of analytical skills who reads a chapter on the origins of Islam and its empire could profoundly change their view. But, unfortunately this also isn’t the case. What is so frightening about understand WHY a people think that particular way? Why? Because, honestly, they might actually discover that we’re wrong in most cases. That in reality they have every right to be angry with us because if the western world was portioned between Western powers – as it was at the turn of the 20th century and continued to be until the 1950s – we would do the exact same thing, or worse. The U.S. fought a war of independence because they had to pay extra taxes, imagine if some Muslim nation a whole world away treated us like we treat them, just imagine…
The image that most hold of Islam is an unfortunate one. They are one of the most admirable and culturally diverse religions and civilization there is and has been. No other religion has united such diversely different groups of people maintaining a sense of uniformity while still staying true to ones people. Islamic knowledge covered almost all there is to learn. They were skilled mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and inventors while still acceleing in literature, philosophy, medicine, theology, and other humanitarian subjects. They are not all barbarians who strap bombs to their chests to kill themselves in the name of Allah for an easy ticket to heaven and 20 virgins to do with what he pleases. But as in any religion there are people who pervert the message and wield it for evil. We’re not all that different. We are both peoples of the book; we can find some common ground be it in religion or politics. There is much to be done if we expect to better our relationship in the Middle East and the first thing would be to as fully as possible understand Islam and its people.
I’m really jealous of most Muslims. They have this remarkable sense of faith; a religious zeal unlike almost any other people of our modern age. They make one really question whether they’re missing out on something by not being as faithful as they are. Praying 5 times a day, fasting, the Hajj, it’s really quite admirable if you can put aside all the differences we’ve built up over the past fifteen hundred years. They are a people who are strong believers in their ways, which is just as true for us, and when two peoples as strong a willed as both of us—Westerners and Muslims—are it’s a given that we will have confrontation. I feel that Christianity has hit stagnation, and is leaning towards a drop of some sort, while Islam, on the other hand, has had almost a rebirth. They are a growing faith—again—and the typical perception of this faith is, well, fanatical to put it lightly. Muslims are proud of who they and their past and don’t want to be bossed around by Westerners; let alone Christians. But this resent of the west, out of all honesty, manifests itself in fanatical-extremist tendencies so rarely. Most Muslims are peaceful people, adherers to the Koran, and its 5 Pillars. Most don’t want x amount of virgins in heaven and to die in the name of Allah. Most want exactly what we want: a family that loves and cares for each other, economically successful, and active participants in their society.
People fear that which they don’t understand. It’s a natural instinct. Animals have it, it’s not exclusive to humans but we tend to exaggerate our misunderstanding thus enflaming our fear. The difference is animals don’t have any means to truly understand what they fear for obvious reasons. We on the other hand have the means and the definite capacity to educate ourselves. To be able to learn and hopefully to gain an understanding of each other, but unfortunately this is not what happens. Instead our fears are amplified by mass media, FOX News, and war stories. And people instead choose to not understand but simply hate. It’s definitely the easier path but what an atrociously offensive path. It pains me to know the resources making education so available to the general western public—who are affected by the Western-Muslim conflict—and their lack of use of it. Instead it is used to wrongly augment the situation. Blow it out of proportion. Anyone with a basic level of analytical skills who reads a chapter on the origins of Islam and its empire could profoundly change their view. But, unfortunately this also isn’t the case. What is so frightening about understand WHY a people think that particular way? Why? Because, honestly, they might actually discover that we’re wrong in most cases. That in reality they have every right to be angry with us because if the western world was portioned between Western powers – as it was at the turn of the 20th century and continued to be until the 1950s – we would do the exact same thing, or worse. The U.S. fought a war of independence because they had to pay extra taxes, imagine if some Muslim nation a whole world away treated us like we treat them, just imagine…
The image that most hold of Islam is an unfortunate one. They are one of the most admirable and culturally diverse religions and civilization there is and has been. No other religion has united such diversely different groups of people maintaining a sense of uniformity while still staying true to ones people. Islamic knowledge covered almost all there is to learn. They were skilled mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and inventors while still acceleing in literature, philosophy, medicine, theology, and other humanitarian subjects. They are not all barbarians who strap bombs to their chests to kill themselves in the name of Allah for an easy ticket to heaven and 20 virgins to do with what he pleases. But as in any religion there are people who pervert the message and wield it for evil. We’re not all that different. We are both peoples of the book; we can find some common ground be it in religion or politics. There is much to be done if we expect to better our relationship in the Middle East and the first thing would be to as fully as possible understand Islam and its people.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Hope We Can Believe In
I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
-Niccolò Machiavelli
The first time I heard of Obama was in mid 2007. I had never heard of the man, and he was on the cover of Time magazine with a caption like: Obama says he will change politics. I was intrigued, to say the least. “Who is this guy,” I asked myself? And, most notably, he’s black. Before Obama I couldn’t even name a black politician; and he’s supposed to change politics. But after that I didn’t hear or read about him for another year or so, until he ran for president. Then, I was really impressed.
I couldn’t believe we elected Bush twice. To be honest, this is a truly evil man we’re talking about here. Two wars -- one unprovoked -- a recession like no other since the Great Depression, and the infamous Bush Doctrine*; truly one of the great boogey men of our time. It comes down to that fact that things had gotten so bad in our country we elected the first black president, which just 10 years ago would never even been considered a serious option. Figures like Colin Powel, who definitely could swing the white vote wasn’t as seriously considered as Obama was. It took the biggest screw-up in American history to get our heads straight and finally get someone worthy of saving us from ourselves.
It’s still early in his presidency to give a meaningful analysis of what he’s actually done. But one has to understand the dire situation that we expect Obama to be able to handle and clean up. He’s handling two wars; one of which is increasingly being considered unsalvageable. More people have died in the last two months than at any other time of the war. In addition, an economy that a year ago looked like it was on its way to crash and burning. Last year this time, people were saying we’re heading for the next Great Depression. Look at it now, everything is up and rising. He’s managed to turn things around for us in less than a year amidst receiving great criticism, domestic and abroad. Whether you like him or not, the man is respectable, intelligent (which is not so much you could say for the last guy), and, most importantly, I think he cares.
As of late, Obama has been the most influential public figure in my life. I really admire the man. I mean I have two posters of him hanging in my room. I can tell you, this is the first time in eight years that I can say I’m proud to be an American. Bush brought such shame to my country. But the fault cannot completely fall on him. We are the ones who gave him power. We elected him. We put up with his atrocities abroad, and most disgracefully, at home. For the first time in eight years I think the world respects us for more than fear of being deemed terrorist harborers. It goes to show, when we go from something like that, to a Nobel Peace Prize winner, I like to think America has, in some way or form, returned to the hearts of the world, at least in a small way because it has returned to mine, and it’s thanks to him that it has.
*Bush Doctrine: a phrase used to describe various related foreign policy principles of former United States president George W. Bush. The phrase initially described the policy that the United States had the right to secure itself from countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups, which was used to justify the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Later it came to include additional elements, including the controversial policy of preventive war, which held that the United States should depose foreign regimes that represented a potential or perceived threat to the security of the United States, even if that threat was not immediate; a policy of spreading democracy around the world, especially in the Middle East, as a strategy for combating terrorism; and a willingness to pursue U.S. military interests in a unilateral way.
-Niccolò Machiavelli
The first time I heard of Obama was in mid 2007. I had never heard of the man, and he was on the cover of Time magazine with a caption like: Obama says he will change politics. I was intrigued, to say the least. “Who is this guy,” I asked myself? And, most notably, he’s black. Before Obama I couldn’t even name a black politician; and he’s supposed to change politics. But after that I didn’t hear or read about him for another year or so, until he ran for president. Then, I was really impressed.
I couldn’t believe we elected Bush twice. To be honest, this is a truly evil man we’re talking about here. Two wars -- one unprovoked -- a recession like no other since the Great Depression, and the infamous Bush Doctrine*; truly one of the great boogey men of our time. It comes down to that fact that things had gotten so bad in our country we elected the first black president, which just 10 years ago would never even been considered a serious option. Figures like Colin Powel, who definitely could swing the white vote wasn’t as seriously considered as Obama was. It took the biggest screw-up in American history to get our heads straight and finally get someone worthy of saving us from ourselves.
It’s still early in his presidency to give a meaningful analysis of what he’s actually done. But one has to understand the dire situation that we expect Obama to be able to handle and clean up. He’s handling two wars; one of which is increasingly being considered unsalvageable. More people have died in the last two months than at any other time of the war. In addition, an economy that a year ago looked like it was on its way to crash and burning. Last year this time, people were saying we’re heading for the next Great Depression. Look at it now, everything is up and rising. He’s managed to turn things around for us in less than a year amidst receiving great criticism, domestic and abroad. Whether you like him or not, the man is respectable, intelligent (which is not so much you could say for the last guy), and, most importantly, I think he cares.
As of late, Obama has been the most influential public figure in my life. I really admire the man. I mean I have two posters of him hanging in my room. I can tell you, this is the first time in eight years that I can say I’m proud to be an American. Bush brought such shame to my country. But the fault cannot completely fall on him. We are the ones who gave him power. We elected him. We put up with his atrocities abroad, and most disgracefully, at home. For the first time in eight years I think the world respects us for more than fear of being deemed terrorist harborers. It goes to show, when we go from something like that, to a Nobel Peace Prize winner, I like to think America has, in some way or form, returned to the hearts of the world, at least in a small way because it has returned to mine, and it’s thanks to him that it has.
*Bush Doctrine: a phrase used to describe various related foreign policy principles of former United States president George W. Bush. The phrase initially described the policy that the United States had the right to secure itself from countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups, which was used to justify the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Later it came to include additional elements, including the controversial policy of preventive war, which held that the United States should depose foreign regimes that represented a potential or perceived threat to the security of the United States, even if that threat was not immediate; a policy of spreading democracy around the world, especially in the Middle East, as a strategy for combating terrorism; and a willingness to pursue U.S. military interests in a unilateral way.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Short Term Hibernation, Long Term Repercussions
My favorite place in any of the four houses that I can remember living in is definitely my bed. It hasn’t always been my favorite place in the house but as of recent of taken a special liking to it. My bed has gone through many phases over the 9 years I’ve been sleeping in it. It’s changed rooms, countries, directions, sheets, pillows, and positions. But there are two things that make my bed the most comfortable and aesthetically attractive to look at in my 18 long-years living at home. First off is the egg carton-shaped foam thing spreading my bed under its sheets. This makes the mattress soft and absorbing and in a sense, engulfs all those who succumbed to its powers and lie in it. And second is its physical position in my room which is –from the door– pushed into the top right corner against the far wall. This may sound like a minor detail, easily overlooked but its position in some strange way, is literally half the reason why it’s so comfortable. When you look at it as you walk into my room, it seems to almost pull you in, beckoning for you to just lie there if only for a minute. But you soon realize, you can’t just lie there for a minute, it’s just too cozy.
Until I moved here 3 years ago, I didn’t fully appreciate how great my bed actually was. In fact, it wasn’t until about maybe 3 months ago that I can say I began to fully appreciate my bed as the best place in the house. When we moved into this house, I put my bed in a pretty awkward place: directly in the middle of the room, pushed against the wall on its right side (its head facing the far wall from the door). Needless to say, there was no wall against the head of the bed—which, if you believe in such things, is actually bad feng shui. Supposedly all the good energy flows straight off the bed because there was no wall to catch it; which wasn’t the only thing not being caught from falling. It was common for me to wake up and have pushed off all the pillows from my bed and lying with my head flat on the hard mattress. One day I woke up with no pillow and a sore neck and decided there needed to be a change. But what could I change? What was bothering me about my bed other than my neck? It bothered me because I didn’t know what needed to be change—I was actually somewhat satisfied with my beds position. I went to school and thought about it and when I walked into my room when I got home, it hit me like the first rising vibes of a child on a sugar rush. It was so obvious and I didn’t understand why I hadn’t seen it sooner. I knew what I had to do: get my sleep box out of the middle of the room. So that’s what I did, I pushed the box-spring against the far wall and into the right corner and stepped back to marvel at my brainchild. As I stood there admiringly, I noticed how much more inviting my bed looked. In fact, I was so impressed that I decided I would test drive this sleep machine with a nap, I wasn’t even tired; it was just too good to not have taken advantage of such an opportunity.
The foam egg carton actually came before I moved the bed. The mattress before the foamy egg carton wasn’t bad. It wasn’t too hard, but it definitely wasn’t soft enough. My brother in college had this really dingy old hard mattress but when I went to visit him the one and only time, his bed was so soft, engulfing if you will. It was almost like it absorbed you, molding to your body creating an absurdly relaxing sleep. In other words, his bed was so much more comfortable than mine. I was bothered by this. I thought, “This is unacceptable. How the he// did he get such a mesmerizingly comfortable bed out of such a dingy mattress?” I made it my duty to find out why. First course of action, instinctively I removed all sheets from the mattress, which ended up paying off instantly. I found this foam thing. I looked like a 120x120 individual egg holdings foam carton; and I was confused. This was the missing link, a giant egg carton? The first thing I did when I saw my mom was ask if she knew about such a genius invention and if she knew where to get these things to put one on my bed. Thankfully she did. Truth be told, she was the one who bought the thing for him. Believe it or not, the foam carton makes that much of a difference. It changed my sleeping life. But you would never guess that from looking at it.
But there is a down-side to having this insanely comfy and cozy looking bed. I can’t get out of bed in the morning, and when I do I look back and want to crawl back in. I know everyone has this problem, but I REALLY have this problem. I will be on my way to the shower and, to my own demise, turn right around, stumble back and creep slowly back into bed and curl up in the fetal position. This in turn frustrates my mom to no end and, well deservedly, fuming after various attempts at waking me up begins yelling, “GET OUT OF BED ALE! YOU WON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME FORE BREAKFAST!?” But it works its self out in the end because usually I sleep so well she doesn’t have to yell at me.
Well, that’s my favorite place in this house. That 4 by 7 foot double sized bed. In fact I can feel it calling me right now. It looks temping. It’s just so inviting. In fact, I might not even be able to finish this ess…..
Until I moved here 3 years ago, I didn’t fully appreciate how great my bed actually was. In fact, it wasn’t until about maybe 3 months ago that I can say I began to fully appreciate my bed as the best place in the house. When we moved into this house, I put my bed in a pretty awkward place: directly in the middle of the room, pushed against the wall on its right side (its head facing the far wall from the door). Needless to say, there was no wall against the head of the bed—which, if you believe in such things, is actually bad feng shui. Supposedly all the good energy flows straight off the bed because there was no wall to catch it; which wasn’t the only thing not being caught from falling. It was common for me to wake up and have pushed off all the pillows from my bed and lying with my head flat on the hard mattress. One day I woke up with no pillow and a sore neck and decided there needed to be a change. But what could I change? What was bothering me about my bed other than my neck? It bothered me because I didn’t know what needed to be change—I was actually somewhat satisfied with my beds position. I went to school and thought about it and when I walked into my room when I got home, it hit me like the first rising vibes of a child on a sugar rush. It was so obvious and I didn’t understand why I hadn’t seen it sooner. I knew what I had to do: get my sleep box out of the middle of the room. So that’s what I did, I pushed the box-spring against the far wall and into the right corner and stepped back to marvel at my brainchild. As I stood there admiringly, I noticed how much more inviting my bed looked. In fact, I was so impressed that I decided I would test drive this sleep machine with a nap, I wasn’t even tired; it was just too good to not have taken advantage of such an opportunity.
The foam egg carton actually came before I moved the bed. The mattress before the foamy egg carton wasn’t bad. It wasn’t too hard, but it definitely wasn’t soft enough. My brother in college had this really dingy old hard mattress but when I went to visit him the one and only time, his bed was so soft, engulfing if you will. It was almost like it absorbed you, molding to your body creating an absurdly relaxing sleep. In other words, his bed was so much more comfortable than mine. I was bothered by this. I thought, “This is unacceptable. How the he// did he get such a mesmerizingly comfortable bed out of such a dingy mattress?” I made it my duty to find out why. First course of action, instinctively I removed all sheets from the mattress, which ended up paying off instantly. I found this foam thing. I looked like a 120x120 individual egg holdings foam carton; and I was confused. This was the missing link, a giant egg carton? The first thing I did when I saw my mom was ask if she knew about such a genius invention and if she knew where to get these things to put one on my bed. Thankfully she did. Truth be told, she was the one who bought the thing for him. Believe it or not, the foam carton makes that much of a difference. It changed my sleeping life. But you would never guess that from looking at it.
But there is a down-side to having this insanely comfy and cozy looking bed. I can’t get out of bed in the morning, and when I do I look back and want to crawl back in. I know everyone has this problem, but I REALLY have this problem. I will be on my way to the shower and, to my own demise, turn right around, stumble back and creep slowly back into bed and curl up in the fetal position. This in turn frustrates my mom to no end and, well deservedly, fuming after various attempts at waking me up begins yelling, “GET OUT OF BED ALE! YOU WON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME FORE BREAKFAST!?” But it works its self out in the end because usually I sleep so well she doesn’t have to yell at me.
Well, that’s my favorite place in this house. That 4 by 7 foot double sized bed. In fact I can feel it calling me right now. It looks temping. It’s just so inviting. In fact, I might not even be able to finish this ess…..
Friday, October 16, 2009
Confessions of A Man on the Move
“We were somewhere around Barstow, at the edge of the desert...” These words ring out in my mind, captivating me, urging me to read on. If you know where this is from, well done; if not, it’s the first line of, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, by the great doctor of journalism Hunter S. Thompson. I first read the Doc at a very, turbulent and critical time in my life, on a plane creeping towards Panama. Moving is difficult. Even though I had done it twice before, this time it was different, this time it was serious. All that I had come to know and love, was slowly, but definitely surely, getting taken away.
Maybe I give too much significance to reading Hunter S. on my first trip back to Panama since leaving in 2003 to live in Chile. Maybe if I would have read him at another point in my life it wouldn’t have seemed so great. I ended up reading the book in one day on the 6 hour plane ride from Chile. Up until that point I had never read anything like it; there was nothing I had seen or heard of in literature that could even compare to or prepare me for such a raw and unforgiving reading. No one had really put things in perspective like Hunter did. Although the book was published in 72, and would become the masterpiece of the love generation; it easily applies to today’s society which, apart from technologic advances, has not changed much.
Many view Hunter S. as a simple drug fiend, a social cripple, swine, to put it vulgarly. They’ll read his work and label him a degenerate. They read Fear and Loathing and find it difficult to see more than a drug fueled visit to Las Vegas. But what they fail to see is the underlying meaning of his trip, which was meant to be different. With his words, he puts the status quo on trial and mercilessly attacks it, demonstrating how ridiculous we actually are. Las Vegas is the whorehouse of America; a place where people go to get away with things that simply would not be had at home. He breaks every rule that we live by: heavy use of illegal substance, harassing the locals, public belligerence, the list goes on. But no one can stop him. The journey is a strange and terrible combination of humor and utter horror in one insane novel. I felt like he said a lot that needed to be said, or at least I needed to hear —or read—be said in the book. The book sort of reassured me that I didn’t need anyone’s approval, just my own.
Fear and Loathing was the spark and fuel of the fire it would set off in my head. I this astonishing feeling of accomplishment after finishing the novel, something I haven’t felt from any other written work. Reflecting on the novel now, my view has changed and become more sophisticated than it once was. I appreciate a lot more than the fact that Raoul Duke—Hunter Thompson—was a complete badass. I appreciate his freedom, which came at a serious cost. He really did whatever he damn well pleased and shoved it in the establishments in the face in the process; which did not come without serious repercussions. He may have been an absurd man, but all his criticisms and treatise don’t come un-sustained and lacking of sincerity. He once said, “The truth is a rare commodity among journalists,” which really sums up what much of his writing was all about: Gonzo Journalism.
If you haven’t read Hunter Thompson you won’t fully understand what I’m saying in this essay. Fear and Loathing was just the beginning. From there I was captivated by the writings and the man. He is a serious and lasting influence on me, and my train of thought. This work came to me a turning point in my life causing more change than I thought was actually happening at the time. The most serious influence that I can attribute to Hunter’s writings is not to gobble up everything that is fed to you. Always suspect, always question their motives. And now, writing this essay, reflecting on the book that is responsible for my love of the written word, I have yet another sense of accomplishment, sort of like how Raoul Duke felt at the end of the novel: “a man on the move, and just sick enough to be totally confident.”
Maybe I give too much significance to reading Hunter S. on my first trip back to Panama since leaving in 2003 to live in Chile. Maybe if I would have read him at another point in my life it wouldn’t have seemed so great. I ended up reading the book in one day on the 6 hour plane ride from Chile. Up until that point I had never read anything like it; there was nothing I had seen or heard of in literature that could even compare to or prepare me for such a raw and unforgiving reading. No one had really put things in perspective like Hunter did. Although the book was published in 72, and would become the masterpiece of the love generation; it easily applies to today’s society which, apart from technologic advances, has not changed much.
Many view Hunter S. as a simple drug fiend, a social cripple, swine, to put it vulgarly. They’ll read his work and label him a degenerate. They read Fear and Loathing and find it difficult to see more than a drug fueled visit to Las Vegas. But what they fail to see is the underlying meaning of his trip, which was meant to be different. With his words, he puts the status quo on trial and mercilessly attacks it, demonstrating how ridiculous we actually are. Las Vegas is the whorehouse of America; a place where people go to get away with things that simply would not be had at home. He breaks every rule that we live by: heavy use of illegal substance, harassing the locals, public belligerence, the list goes on. But no one can stop him. The journey is a strange and terrible combination of humor and utter horror in one insane novel. I felt like he said a lot that needed to be said, or at least I needed to hear —or read—be said in the book. The book sort of reassured me that I didn’t need anyone’s approval, just my own.
Fear and Loathing was the spark and fuel of the fire it would set off in my head. I this astonishing feeling of accomplishment after finishing the novel, something I haven’t felt from any other written work. Reflecting on the novel now, my view has changed and become more sophisticated than it once was. I appreciate a lot more than the fact that Raoul Duke—Hunter Thompson—was a complete badass. I appreciate his freedom, which came at a serious cost. He really did whatever he damn well pleased and shoved it in the establishments in the face in the process; which did not come without serious repercussions. He may have been an absurd man, but all his criticisms and treatise don’t come un-sustained and lacking of sincerity. He once said, “The truth is a rare commodity among journalists,” which really sums up what much of his writing was all about: Gonzo Journalism.
If you haven’t read Hunter Thompson you won’t fully understand what I’m saying in this essay. Fear and Loathing was just the beginning. From there I was captivated by the writings and the man. He is a serious and lasting influence on me, and my train of thought. This work came to me a turning point in my life causing more change than I thought was actually happening at the time. The most serious influence that I can attribute to Hunter’s writings is not to gobble up everything that is fed to you. Always suspect, always question their motives. And now, writing this essay, reflecting on the book that is responsible for my love of the written word, I have yet another sense of accomplishment, sort of like how Raoul Duke felt at the end of the novel: “a man on the move, and just sick enough to be totally confident.”
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