I keep hearing the same gripe from the critics of the critics of pop culture: Today’s writers eat it. Nobody knows how to cover music, or movies, or video games, or any of the other media that matter. We need someone to swoop in and save us: We need a new Lester Bangs, or a new Hunter S. Thompson– one of those guys who made criticism and alternative journalism seem so vital back in the 1960s and 70s. Where they hell did they go?
Chuck Klosterman writes in Esquire about the failure of the gaming press to cough up a single critic who embodies whatever Bangs was doing when he told people to listen to the Troggs. Old school fans of music crit watch the field slip into the morass of mp3 blogs, message boards, and kids who just shout, “Hey, can you YSI that to me?” every time a new album leaks– and they wonder, what happened to the great critics? They want a tastemaker, a voice of authority, who can put it all in perspective and knock our heads together with his or her crazy-yet-dead-on arguments.
read the whole story…
OK. I get it. To tell the truth I know a lot of these folks. And to add to the misery, a couple are great writers in their own right. But they don’t write about this. They try to write the “popular” way. Or they are working on the next great american novel that won’t get finished. Or they are trying something so bleeding-edge new that most people can’t understand what they are doing yet. ahem…
What the hell. Why not.
August 2nd, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Take the time to read the entire article. I thought it was great, with a lot of intresting perspective. My favorite part ” Acid makes you smell colors and fart light. ”
Jester looks like there’s a job opening waiting for you.
August 2nd, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Myself, I had a number of problems with the article, first among them being the cry for a new ‘gonzo’ to cover technology. To my way of thinking, while tech writing may need a new incarnation of Lester Bangs to “put it all in perspective and knock our heads together” - suggesting that technology is the field where the reincarnation of the ‘gonzo’ spirit is most needed is absolutely absurd.
Hunter’s best writing was political, the tone that catapulted him to fame was informed by drug-use, but it wasn’t about drug-use; it was about politics and how the political climate is informing the social fabric of america. To me, the good doctor is best found in the phrase fear and loathing, the creation of a Hunter S. Thompson is a reaction to corruption, greed-heads and fascists taking over the political, and therefor, social fabric of american life, a Hunter S. Thompson is not created because there are a bunch of new toys lying around that need a discriminating voice to sort out.
I guess what I’m ultimately driving at here is that so much of technology is being used to distract the american populace, we’re living in a cultural climate that encourages solipsism of the most dangerous sort, and most of the technology that is becoming available to the consumer serves to reinforce this trend, allowing humans to hide their heads in the sand while sucking down the latest pablum that the juggernaut of the entertainment industry is foisting upon us.
The good doctor was an outlaw and an outsider, in his passing he has left a set of enormous shoes that could use someone to fill them, but the person who picks up that outlaw flag and starts ranting with the grace and panache that Hunter displayed are going to touch on a number of topics, (and for my money, they are already out there, it’s just that much harder for them to get heard in this ‘flag sucking’ climate) but video games and i-pods are not going to be chief amongst the subjects that they feel need to be talked about.
August 4th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
I still think the article was enjoyable, but after reading the Jesters reply I must agree that the good Doctor would not be writing just tech reviews. I wish there was someone to fill Hunters shoes -hint hint Jester. I doubt the “flag suckers” would let a Hunter like figure exercise free speech in our current climate of fear.
I love our country and I believe we have one of the greatest systems of government ever devised. It is our job as citizens of this republic to fight for our freedoms, whomever the enemy becomes. Keep your eyes open kids and learn from history. Use your critical thinking skills. Don’t believe what your told until you investigate the story further. Each storyteller has his or her own agenda.