The summer between my seventh and eighth grade years my family moved to another state. It was the sixth such occasion in my life; as such, I was relatively used to the general process and associated hubbub.
For me, the trickiest part about moving was simply staying occupied. Really, what were you supposed to do when your entire life - and for a prepubescent middle aged girl all that really meant was your entire means of amusement - disappeared into square brown cartons at the hands of a group of entirely uninvested laborers - hopefully to be seen at a time between a month and six weeks hence?
For whatever reason that year my room was one of the first in the house to fall victim to the cold machinations of the packing crew, and I remember standing at my Dad's bookshelf in the den, scanning through title after title looking for something remotely interesting (something at least verifiably fictional) to read over the course of the next couple days.
I ended up selecting two books. One of them, Ender's Game, I'm not going to write about here. Probably another time, though. The other one - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - was my first introduction to the work of Hunter S. Thompson and the culture of "gonzo journalism."
Hunter S. Thompson was, in my eyes, the ultimate badass. Not only did he imbibe slightly ridiculous amounts of what was essentially poison (which honestly to me carried little to no value in and of itself - having grown up seeing drugs primarily as a fast track to unspeakable amounts of retardation), but in the midst of doing so he managed to produce snarky, concise commentary about the state of politics, culture, and life in general. Now, that was interesting and a bit different. If one was going to use mind altering substances, the least one could do was to harness one's altered mind state and produce some kind of thought provoking work - even if the provocation came primarily from shock value.
Fast forward to a few years ago, and then to a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago I saw the new Jackass movie. A few years ago I was sneaking around to watch episodes of Jackass when I thought my parents wouldn't find out. What was the appeal for me? Curiosity, mostly. Seeing what kind of boundaries folks were willing to push, seeing what kind of - okay, stupidity - other people were willing to dream up just for the sake of doing so.
I feel like Jackass is in some ways kindred to Fear & Loathing, and Thompson's other work - but I wonder how intentional that is. Does Johnny Knoxville think about following in the footsteps of the originator of shock journalism, or is he just some random guy who discovered a great way to make money and have some fun along the way? I can't decide which I'd prefer. If it were the former, I'd be happy to know that there is some sense of interconnectedness among those creating and performing in this kind of entertainment - some sense of continuity, of picking up where the last guy left off. If if were the latter, I'd be relieved to know that no matter what, there will always be those willing to explore those questions most of us would rather never ask, and that it doesn't depend on having someone to show the way.
