Tom Wolfe, The Unspoken Thing.
I'm in the middle of reading Tom Wolfe's 1968 novel Electric Kool-Aid Acid Trip-to be more specific, I'm on page 188 of 430. I really didn't expect a book about the 60's beatnik generation, acid tripping, individuals circumnavigating themselves to attain a higher calling for life and existence to be long and well, exhausting to read. At times, I'm not sure if I want to set down the book and forget it all together or to continue the journey with Kesey and the Pranksters through all of the hippievilles USA. I took an interest in this genre of literature documenting the protesting 60's after I did some of my own soul searching. The overarching question that comes to my mind is why isn't our generation as responsive, risk taking, suave, and involved as the youth of the 60's? Sure, we can blame the internet, reality Television, or the plummet in the quality of popular music, but even I can't say that during my rebellious teen phase I fought with the same vigor, or smoked pot with the same apathy I see the youth of the 60's doing in movies and books (think Bertolucci's The Dreamers) . Thats another topic open for discussion...
Earlier this year, I had read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas after seeing countless posters of the movie hung on the walls of freshman dorm rooms. Yes, I got why people thought it was cool- because it was about drugs and awesome to look Johnny Depp's face after taking a hit. I want to say that I was not too impressed with the pseudojournalistic account. It wasn't life changing for me-My favorite part were the illustrations done by Ralph Steadman which perfectly translated the fleety disposition of the main character to a tangible representation that the author himself wanted the reader to picture.
What I appreciate about Tom Wolfe's pseudojournalistic expidition, is that I find it largely philisophical and taking directly from (my favorite philosopher) Ludwig Witgenstein.
I'm in the middle of reading Tom Wolfe's 1968 novel Electric Kool-Aid Acid Trip-to be more specific, I'm on page 188 of 430. I really didn't expect a book about the 60's beatnik generation, acid tripping, individuals circumnavigating themselves to attain a higher calling for life and existence to be long and well, exhausting to read. At times, I'm not sure if I want to set down the book and forget it all together or to continue the journey with Kesey and the Pranksters through all of the hippievilles USA. I took an interest in this genre of literature documenting the protesting 60's after I did some of my own soul searching. The overarching question that comes to my mind is why isn't our generation as responsive, risk taking, suave, and involved as the youth of the 60's? Sure, we can blame the internet, reality Television, or the plummet in the quality of popular music, but even I can't say that during my rebellious teen phase I fought with the same vigor, or smoked pot with the same apathy I see the youth of the 60's doing in movies and books (think Bertolucci's The Dreamers) . Thats another topic open for discussion...
Earlier this year, I had read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas after seeing countless posters of the movie hung on the walls of freshman dorm rooms. Yes, I got why people thought it was cool- because it was about drugs and awesome to look Johnny Depp's face after taking a hit. I want to say that I was not too impressed with the pseudojournalistic account. It wasn't life changing for me-My favorite part were the illustrations done by Ralph Steadman which perfectly translated the fleety disposition of the main character to a tangible representation that the author himself wanted the reader to picture.
What I appreciate about Tom Wolfe's pseudojournalistic expidition, is that I find it largely philisophical and taking directly from (my favorite philosopher) Ludwig Witgenstein.
No comments:
Post a Comment