Hey all, this will probably be my last Hunter piece for a bit... at least here at Blogcritcs. The reason is because beginning any day now he will be on the cover of every magazine and a zillion writers and commentators will be telling you how influential he was. They will be telling you what his greatest works were, and how he shaped journalism as it is known today. As I mentioned in my last post, for me to do that would be to demean your personal experience and perception of him. So instead I'd like to share why he was so important to me, and some specifics about how things are going in Aspen right now.
I discovered Hunter in High School. I loved him for the same reasons I loved my other favorite authors; Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller, William s Burroughs, Frank Zappa, and Charles Bukowski. I loved them because at the time I was a long haired hippy freak who loved literature and music and was very influential. I was in that 'fuck corporate America' phase where I thought anarchy was cool. You know, you went through the same phase too. Those folks mentioned above thought the same way... but they were grown ups! They were grown ups and they were famous! It completely validated my stupid existence. I thought for the longest time I was doomed to be a weird loner thinker guy with contempt for status quo. These guys showed me there are alternatives.
Around the time I was discovering this art, I realized most of these folks were dead. Burroughs was still alive (barely), Bukowski, Zappa, and HST. Well, they all died off and left me no role models. All except for Hunter. I love his writing because it isn't just insightful, it's FUN. Just about every word that comes out of his pen is a damn lie if not an exaggeration. I think I lived vicariously through him for that. For me he kept hope alive, and as I mentioned below he was one of the big reasons I chose to move to Colorado.
Article comments
1 - Raoul
Hi, these comments were made by my girlfriend, a short while ago . . . from a womens point of view.. very eloquent, too bad she hates me 90% of the time . . .
Why? why did I like hunter?
Because I finally found someone who saw this world, and especially america, with similar non-rose colored glasses (rifle-range glasses, maybe?), sort of like how i see it: as a vile and evil place where only the most finely-tuned in intelligence are smart enough to be ultra-paranoid, not eat up the constant stream of crap/hype, etc., yet be strong enough not to collapse under the hideous pressure. To make wit of it, even.
Hell, at this point in time you would have to be a pretty stupid individual to trust an american (or a man). And yet, there was always that HOPE, that hope that just maybe one day, some way, something/someone surely would rise above the stench and make it all better. Oh well . . .
Because I finally found a man that could possibly be better at being a man than I.
Because I found a man that could possibly drink me under the table.
Because I liked his sense of style.
Yet I hated his sexism, for it seems that he never really could get past that. Like most common men, while he could wholly embrace his "fellow brothers" from other, less fortunate races, he never could see the light when it came to the female of this gawd forsaken and perpetually doomed species. Such a shame, really.
And I hated his violence, love of guns, love of hunting, love of all things male or with a motor.
Yet I loved his writing, and I actually read it. And I could get lost in it and not feel like I was the only creature alive who had such an urgent and constant need to shun what we are supposed to believe is "authority." To question. To ask more questions. And then some more. To doubt. And to find a belief system through the doubting.
I loved the fast paced bravado, the no-holds-barred fearless use of language. Stating what everyone was really thinking but no one had the balls to say (or write).
He appealed to the outlaw/renigade in me, and apparently I wound up with a huge dose of that in my character. Amen.
2 - Pearl
Hi Lono (and others),
From this article I understood that you are a great fan of Charles Bukowski. Because of that, I thought you might also be interested in the Bach-Bukowski project (concerts and cd) by Willem van Ekeren (Holland). Bach-Bukowski is an extraordinary mixture of singing and piano.
Thirteen of the poems of Bukowski's ˜The last night of the earth poems'
are woven together with 13 parts of the ˜Well-tempered Clavier' of Bach.
The lyrics are sung blues/jazz style in combination with authentic Bach
music on the piano.
On our website you can find more information and audiofragments. It is
also possible to order the cd.
www.bach-bukowski.nl/en
Thought you might want to know!
Best regards,
Marguerite van de Poll
Pearl Productions
spark@bach-bukowski.nl
tel: +3170-3639873
www.bach-bukowski.nl/en