Reading in the Time of Monsters 002 - Richardson, "Strange Journey"

Reading in the Time of Monsters

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Reading in the Time of Monsters 002 - Richardson, "Strange Journey"

A biography of a legend misses the mark

Peter Berard

Jan 24, 2023

In this second episode, I introduce a feature we’ll see going forward: self-crit! I’m going to own the stuff I get wrong, according to my own lights, and refine my ideas that way. I talk about the criticism of the smog of discourse, and how it’s hard to nail down who you’re talking about it sometimes.

The review here is of Peter Richardson’s Savage Journey: The Weird Road to Gonzo (2022). I’m a big Thompson fan and someone who loves intellectual history that wanders from the academy, so, I was excited to see a book that promised to discuss Thompson as a writer and how he developed. Alas, this isn’t really what I was looking for, with a shallow “child becomes the man” analysis of the sort we see all too often in history and journalism. Is it too much to ask for a history that acknowledges change, as opposed to everything becoming what it was already? Also, can we have a biographer of a funny person who can get what a hyperbolic joke is when they see it? Is that too much to ask?

I referred to the Rite Gud podcast, go listen!

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Reading in the Time of Monsters

The old world is dying; the new one cannot be born; now is the time of monsters. What better time to read, and read seriously? Every pedant on the internet thinks they're a critic because they have cultural preferences and their various streaming and social media services encourage them to state these preferences in little boxes. But some of us think criticism is something more. We know that criticism implies a way of being- a rejection of complacence, a dedication to searching high, low, and in between for insight and perspective, a constant development of the critical toolkit. Not only does that way of being point towards a better existence, but it also makes for criticism that's more fun to read. That's the gambit of this podcast- that there's an audience for something other than same-same mediocrity and parasocial agreement-clubs.

There should be one free episode a month. There will be another for people who become Citizens by subscribing at the Citizen (or Chieftain!) level at Melendy Avenue Review. MAR includes numerous text reviews a month, various life updates and guest posts, cute cat pictures, etc.

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