blastedgoat

I will provide specific examples of various social and political commentaries from Hunter Thompson’s article “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.” I will examine Thompson’s place and importance within the culture he was critiquing as well as within the realm of journalism itself. Although he was most often under the influence of one or a variety of substances his words and insight have influenced many who knew or read him. He dedicated himself, compulsions and all, to the craft of journalism. He has personally been one of my favorite writers since I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas several summers ago. What drew me to Thompson was his ability to make the ordinary remarkable. I feel his style is reflective of the subjectivity that has seeped into our culture, beginning with the rise of New Journalism, a style that had many similarities to Gonzo Journalism.

Thompson’s article is immersive due to its exploration of the surroundings and the writer’s obsessive practice of the continual, unquestioned traditions and indulgences in question. Steadman calls this going “native,” which they do, becoming the “real beasts” they have come to see perform. Many of Thompson’s generation sought to expand their minds, they often achieved this by pushing their bodies to extremes while the upright citizens of the day deplored their degrading behaviors. Thompson was perhaps speaking out in opposition to some acts of depravity but lived his life according to his own moral code. I identify with his tactics and works because I too notice a trend of alienation, of increasing anti-social tendencies and isolation. Thompson spoke for his generation because while he felt his views were important he felt equally responsible to point out any biases he had as a journalist. Thompson achieved this with his over-the-top style.

Thompson’s judgments are meant to be humorous at first glance however; they contain relevant cultural critiques and provide readers insight of the times and of the widely different levels of experience that were available within a famous southern tradition. One of the most intriguing aspects of the article was the attempt of the journalist and illustrator to find a proper caricature, a representative face of the entire culture: “He had done a few good sketches, but so far we hadn’t seen that special kind of face that I felt we would need for a lead drawing. It was a face I’d seen a thousand times at every Derby I’d ever been to. I saw it, in my head, as the mask of whiskey gentry–a pretentious mix of booze, failed dreams and a terminal identity crisis; the inevitable result of too much inbreeding in a closed and ignorant culture” (Thompson 5). Thompson and Steadman were seeking more than just an illustration for the piece; Thompson wanted a symbol “of the whole doomed atavistic culture that makes the Kentucky Derby what it is” (Thompson 5). In the end, journalist and illustrator hit the bottom of the barrel but somehow make it out alive. Thompson wakes after consuming mass amounts of alcohol, admirable by even Derby standards and doesn’t even recognize himself in the mirror at first, he has transformed into the caricature he was seeking.

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This is a comment I received on a message I sent the University of Northern Iowa where I am currently a student and employee. My original message was about the declining quality of the education at UNI and my personal dissatisfaction with a proposed $100 surcharge for the spring semester (after financial aid has been established potentially causing the extra fee to come out of student’s living, food or transportation budgets with only a few months warning). Feel free to react to anything, I do not discourage people who disagree with me as long as they bring up valid points. I have considered the following and don’t really see eye to eye with the author.

Keeping that in mind, I invite you to read my response to this gentleman named Mark: Our student tuition is still lower than all the other regent universities in Iowa. UNI has an excellent educational program for the amount we are lucky to pay. $100 surcharge is quite small and I was actually shocked to hear they weren’t going to increase tuition by $500 or even $1000. UNI receives less private and federal money than the other two regent universities, and so cuts like these place an added burden on our institution.
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I am disappointed in my school and their decision to charge students a $100 surcharge when the nearest community college has found a way around a similar fee at their institution. This surcharge comes with additional increases in fees and tuition totaling over 6% for 2010-11!

“As a senior and a student employee (for most of my time at school) I have to ask you to not make us pay a surcharge. I read in the paper today that HCC students wouldn’t be charged a fee for their spring semester and they are suffering with the same cuts that we are. I have been following our school in the paper and am ashamed that students with sports scholarships are protected with a 2 million dollar donation to “preserve” only certain non-academic activities on a university campus when whole programs could get the axe. Shame on you for going ahead with all (even unnecessary) planned building projects plus the demolition of Baker hall (coincidentally the building my department is in.) I am under the burden of classes (which could be two weeks sorter with longer meeting times next semester) that are going to cost me more even when my bills are skyrocketing, the student loan companies are breathing down my neck and as a valued university employee I didn’t get my promised raise. I make a whopping 7.45 an hour, thirty cents less than I was making in food service. I understand that everyone is having difficulties but my point is that UNI should be a place for education, an environment where students can learn and work and not have to worry about footing the bill when departments and individuals insist on using more than their fair share. I just ask that my school do the right thing, before I am forced to leave it. I can not afford and REFUSE to pay for an education that has for the most part NOT BEEN WORTH THE MONEY OR EFFORT!”

I really enjoyed our interview with Maria Gillan because I feel I can trust a poet like her to the truth about the world (which is not necessarily the definitive truth but what memory recalls as truth, a combination of how things are remembered and how that changes over time.) Maria said “memories are clouded and shaped by the people we are,” but was insistent that she doesn’t make things up.” Her poems were easy to follow and relate to possibly because she no longer “hides behind” poetic devices, which was something I did as a young writer. I remember when I first started writing poetry at age thirteen and how after reading those poems years later I discovered how bad they actually were! I was inspired by all the opportunities her work has provided for young (and old) poets and I am hopeful that I will continue writing my whole life and someday maybe even be good at it. I am an autobiographical poet for the most part although I might lie in a poem if it is necessary (but of course I would never change the meaning or hide a part of myself from the reader.) It was interesting to hear her say why she doesn’t write about her daughter since artistic integrity is something I always try to keep in mind. I think I can take a hint from Maria and stop being so vague about everything, except when it is appropriate for the poem I am writing. I don’t make poems confusing intentionally, but I wrap my mind around each word and cut poems down to the necessities (when I have the time!) if I have learned anything in workshop it is that people might not read every word as carefully as I write it so I have to make it understandable so they will see what lurks behind the actual words (in connotation-land). (I will have you know that I had to stop writing this review for five minutes to write a poem for that title, yay!) Anyway, back to the interview! I felt connected with her immediately because of our shared interest in the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My fiancé makes fun of me for reading them and watching the television show that was based off them but there is something so about them. There was one episode in which Laura submitted a book to be published in a contest but the editor ended up changing the book to make it more “exciting.” Laura gave up on publishing if it meant “lying” about the people that were most important to her but she did get the stories of her youth published much later with the help of her daughter. There is something to be said for simple stories that give a snapshot of a person’s life and that is what I find when I read Maria Gillan, she has a narrative style and honesty about her work with the added bonus of the reader being able to pick and choose which events they want to experience or to read them all as they were arranged by her. I saw a lot of my mistakes in the examples she provided of herself (trying to be T.S. Eliot… and in my case also trying to be Edgar Allan Poe!) I am learning to love my own voice and am inspired to learn more about Allan Ginsberg and his background because I could relate to what we talked about briefly in the interview. My life is ripe with poems and I don’t need to travel to Oz to find memorable characters, they were around me all along…

Modernity is reliant on visible evidence this is reasonable due to the shift from a faith-based medieval society to a reason-based modern society. Religious faith requires a belief in something a person cannot see with their eyes while science is the opposite. Science relies exclusively on what can be counted, measured and tested. Elizabethans had the ability to visualize abstract concepts such as the character Revenge in The Spanish Tragedy. While the earliest plays we read were still preoccupied with gruesome deaths and violence that trend started to change as the plays became more modern. It is not that modern audiences don’t like blood and gore but that we became so desensitized to violence due to overexposure.

Elizabethan dramatists manipulated cultural symbols to promote their plays in the revenge tragedy genre each new play was often more gruesome than the last. The Atheist’s Tragedy retained the religious tone of the early modern period by leaving the ‘revenge’ up to God. This is made clear when the ghost of Montferrers tells Charlemont to abstain from revenge and is confirmed when D’Amville’s life is taken by the axe that he intended for his nephew and his fiance.

Edward II shows that early modern audiences were somewhat interested in celebrities and the lives of rich people. Edward II’s death was very gruesome and modern audiences would have a big issue with its portrayal on stage due to its views on homosexuality. Audiences didn’t need to imagine much in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, at least not in the way of Touchwood’s endowment but modern audiences are offended by penises and hardly ever allow a perceptible package to be surmised. When you start talking about flaccid penises you get into weirder territory but in any given “blockbuster” one might see a menagerie of bare tits. That is something you wouldn’t see in early modern drama because all the ‘women’ weren’t really women and were played by men. Another interesting aspect of Chaste Maid is the fake funeral which turns into a celebration. This further illustrates the movement from tragedy to comedy and the emptying of especially ‘sad’ emotions.

A Woman Killed with Kindness puts a modern twist on a failing marriage, reducing ‘revenge’ to guilt. Anne is not killed by her husband in rage but kills herself by allowing her substance to waste away. Heywood also does something interesting with the staging and introduction to the play. He says the sets will be bare and incomparable to the real deal. Heywood wanted to draw attention to that specific element so when the scene was revealed as somewhat spectacular the audience would wonder what was missing and be able to imagine the scene even grander.

The Tragedy of Mariam skipped the production aspect of the play altogether. Cary wrote one of the earliest ‘closet dramas’ which I see as the predecessor to the modern novel. The play was intriguing because it forced the reader to visualize the action because there is very little description of action or scenery in the play. The White Devil was written just before Cary’s Mariam and was supposedly based on an earlier ‘closet drama.’ Although it was a huge failure, Webster gave plenty of reasons: the audience was just plain stupid and didn’t get it, it was also the dead of winter and the actors were horrible. The play was written in 1612 and was revived and published in 1631. Webster included his editorial notes and basically said everyone might not like it but a reader of the play should be able to better imagine what he was going for.
The identity of the author of a work became increasingly important in this time period. Authorship is a mark of modernity and originality is also valued. While early plays were often based on other works there was a growing sense that an author’s personality or beliefs could influence the overall interpretation of the piece. As a result playwrights began commenting more about religious and cultural issues.

Behn’s play The Rover was the most modern play we read in several respects. Her identity as the author allowed audiences to read into her words. Interestingly while I was looking for resources I stumbled upon something that said Behn was inspired by an early ‘closet drama’ called Thomaso from the 1600’s. Thomaso was a comedy, as was The Rover and as we have stated modernity is accepting of comedy because it empties the viewer of everything. In modernity religion is usually only talked about humorously and once grim concepts such as death are also mocked or excluded. In the two plays we attended this semester, Three Sisters and The House of Blue Leaves were vastly different but were able to illustrate this. Blue Leaves was more modern and much funnier and the death seemed to shock the audience. Three Sisters started out in a way that you knew what to expect and death was a major theme.

Overall I really enjoyed this class and am now am more likely to think twice about the kind of entertainment I like and the reasons why. Thanks Dr. Swan, I will see you next semester!

and just so everyone knows Dr. Swan was nice enough to give me an “A”

The bathroom sink’s clogged with hair and toothpaste. I watch cooking shows late at night. Eggs always stick to non-stick pans. I soak in a caffeine buzz on the matress. I drool at meaningless possessions, a square flashcube hums before a ball rolls around the room and closes. Strange metallic sand. Salty afternoon with a cool orange sun, children laughing, popsicles dripping down exposed spines. I ride my bike at night, swerving down alleys…darting across busy highways. Little brothers scream down hallways. In dreams, children roam in gangs, sporting milk mustaches.

In the AM— I roll over to see hair standing on end, reflected in the black clock face that grins, bombarding reddened eyeballs
with blaring archaic cryptograms that buzz, begging to be cracked like an egg on the counter, a fly in a sleepy irritated ear.

I attended the Vets for Freedom Iraq war forum in order to learn from
the firsthand experiences of those who have served in the military. I
feel it is important since being a soldier is a completely different
experience from my own. I’ll admit to being a little bit of a dreamer.
I hold signs at peace demonstrations and talk to members of the
community who are against the war. I felt strongly against the war as
a high school student. I was harassed by classmates when I wore a
homemade badge bearing a peace sign and the words “Don’t attack Iraq”
in the days following the President’s decision to invade. I felt this
war would distract Americans from real crises facing our country such
as education, health care and morale in general.

Who knew we would still be fighting a war based on lies, even after
those lies were exposed? In these five years, I have seen friends put
their lives on hold in order to serve their country. While I can’t
understand their decision, I respect and admire them. I support our
troops, and I don’t feel supporting them means I have to support the
war. They fight so we can “peacefully assemble” and exercise other
freedoms assumedly given to us as American citizens.

I was inspired when I heard the words of fellow student, Ranya Ahmed.
Ranya is Muslim and left her home in Bahrain to seek an education in
the United States. I have always wanted to study abroad and have a
great appreciation for interactions I have been able to have with
people from other countries. Ranya spoke on the pro-war side, which
had only two voices, compared to five voices supporting the war. She
was raised in a mixed religion family, her father being from Iraq and
her mother, from Saudi Arabia. Ranya spoke to the horrors she had
witnessed first hand, volunteering at a hospital when she returned
home. She admitted that it is “hard to see” but she has seen and
treated their wounds. The problem is, war doesn’t only wound those
involved, it kills them. It kills them in numbers that quite honestly,
I can’t register. I cannot fathom 4,000 American deaths, it makes me
sick, sick of war and sick of people who want to keep losing lives for
‘100 years.’ Read the rest of this entry »

This play was performed in an intimate setting that caused the line between audience and action to blur. The action of the play was situated so that everyone had a unique perspective. The seating mirrored the v-shaped stage that was set with a piano, table and numerous rocking chairs. Everything was strikingly monochromatic. The whiteness of the character’s dress and surroundings did not always suggest a pristine world with pure figures gave off the air of dinginess.  The set had a certain amount of fluidity to it; this made the play artificial but it was balanced by the “reality” of servants working behind the scene like little mice, cleaning up after everyone. It was necessary to move the set around by people who seem connected in some way to the action. The space is “magically” transformed several times throughout the play which adds to the feeling that time has passed. I found the contemplations of the characters and their conversations with each other to be interesting. I noticed similarities between this play and Chekhov’s last play The Cherry Orchard which are both preoccupied by the deteriorating wealthy class in Russia as well as the passing of time. Russian literature to a large degree is about suffering but also learning from suffering if you want to survive. Overwhelming emotion and lack of continuous action on stage might have annoyed some people but I don’t mind listening to people talk, as long as they are talking about something interesting. I found the to be very much so and could tell the actors were submerged in their roles. I loved the leaves in the last scene which were symbolic of the approaching coldness of winter. The falling leaves also foreshadowed the death of the Baron and gave it finality. What was supposed to be happy ended on a sad note but the characters are strong and go on. Music is essential to Russian culture and its presence throughout the play emphasized that cultural difference. They sing, they experience loss and they live on to see more winters, more suffering, more death. I was impressed that the production was able to pull off a play as grim as this one with a cast of such young actors. Their ages certainly clue the audience into the sense that the scene is entirely constructed; as did the strange hanging lamp in the bedroom. What was so impressive to me was how they captured their characters quite well and presented the heavy themes of Russian literature in a fairly believable way.

In the last week I have discovered that bad luck comes in streaks, but so does good inspiration. That might not always be a fair trade but I’ll take whatever I can get at this point.

I am supposed to be talking about the lecture on political illustration, and I will, because it was one of the highlights of this semester and it has been one small piece to a larger puzzle I have been working out for the past few weeks. After dealing with some car trouble I decided it was time to get down to business with finishing up my graphic design materials. I typed a mediocre review of the lecture; focusing on the unveiling of the Ralph Steadman painting. I left my computer for mere minutes, resting on the kitchen table and returned to find the screen black with a white blinking line in the left-hand corner. Unfortunately nothing could be done, nothing can be saved or salvaged and I am devastated now that my $1000 investment only lasted two of my four years in college. However, I am not completely out of the game, I had a lot of things backed up, including copies of all my graphic design problems including the old version of my website, of course. I feel horrible for handing in things that are unfinished but I know I must hand something in, if I get a bad grade I will just do better next time, and I still have the experience each problem taught me so I am trying not to stress the small stuff. Things happen.

I thought of typing this assignment on my new typewriter, which is actually my used typewriter that I picked up at Goodwill the other day for $4 but it’s new to me. I figure it is a safer investment than my $1000 hunk of junk Toshiba laptop that is now a dusty electronic paper weight. These things should upset and unravel me, and I would have let them if I had not discovered something else this semester.

I didn’t discover Ralph Steadman or Hunter S. Thompson this semester but I did start reading of a lot of Thompson’s writing and even turned in a paper (which I suspect I might fail) that I wrote in Gonzo style. Seeing the Steadman reminded me why I came to college, to see things, see and learn things I couldn’t learn on my own. This semester taught me that I must learn them on my own. I am paying to wake up early and go to classes (some of which mean little or nothing to me as a person or an artist) why do I need these classes? I wondered this for a long time, and now I have the answer. I do not need college to learn, I can learn on my own if I am interested. I need college for guidance and experience and to help me learn and see things that I might have never known existed. I want to be a writer, you can’t teach someone how to do that. I won’t say you are born to do it, it doesn’t work that way either, you have to want it, really want it. I am going to more actively pursue writing and art in my daily life, having it drilled into my head by teachers isn’t working for me anymore, I have to pursue it, make it what I do, constantly. I want to thank you for your instruction and patience with me while I have come to some realizations and revolutionized the way I approach learning. I have been lazy in the sense that I am paying for this education, I am paying a lot for it. It is time to make the best of it. Read the rest of this entry »

She was very strange from an early age. She collected books and loved to organize and count them. Even when she was little the books she read were morbid. She used to ride her bike down the hills of the cemetery near her best friend’s house. They used to steal discarded flower arrangements from the waste cans and put them on old baby graves. Most of the graves were nameless but the ones that were marked carried dates from long before she was born. They scattered the salvaged flowers around the graves and said prayers for the souls of the babies. They learned not to walk directly over where the bodies laid. The cemetery was peaceful and full of ghosts to imagine. Mandy was always afraid of dying and being forgotten, faraway from her family and friends buried underneath a polished marble monument among others bearing strangely familiar surnames. She could tell you a million stories like this and that is what she wanted to do with her life. Be a writer. She was always odd, maybe it was her way of assuring that she would be remembered. Her only regrets now are all things she left unfinished… but she loved her life, and viewed it as her compelling movie. She offered her work to the world, and hoped to someday author children’s books. This was something she wanted to accomplish in life but now she has placed her words in the hands of others. She was never a recognized film-maker but would want people remember it as one of her passions. She left a few videos on the internet in hope that they might comfort those who long to see her and hear her voice again:

Tall tale / violent keys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve_KSsiAK0Y
Scarlette & the Green Ribbon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LGcQcX4Vmw&feature=channel
Ode to Nature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywuUYBbEhTE&feature=channel