The Dialogue

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03.28.2008

ENTRY # 30

A GONZO TRIBUTE TO HUNTER

Here, below, are excerpts from the text of a letter sent to a film executive by the late Hunter S. Thompson.

In addition to the fact that I admired the man, I also wanted you to see, in writing, the same sort of things which swirl around in our heads – which we keep to ourselves. It’s cathartic.

“Dear [------],

   Okay, you lazy bitch, I’m getting tired of this waterhead fuckaround that you’re doing with [-- Name of Project --].

   We are not even spinning our wheels aggressively. It’s like the whole project got turned over to zombies who live in cardboard boxes under the Hollywood Freeway. I seem to be the only person who’s doing anything about getting movie made …

   What the hell do you think making a movie is all about? Nobody needs to hear any more of that gibberish about your new Mercedes and your ski trips and how hopelessly broke [--- Name of Financing Co. --] is. If you’re that fucking poor, you should get out of the movie business. It is no place for amateurs and dilettantes who don’t want to do anything but “take lunch” and waste serious people’s time.

   Fuck this. … All you are is a goddamn bystander, making stupid suggestions and jabbering now and then like some half-bright kid with no money and no energy and no focus except on your own tits. I’m sick of hearing about … your yo-yo partners who want to change the story because the violence makes them feel queasy.

   Shit on them. I’d much rather deal with a live asshole than a dead worm with no light in his eyes. If you people don’t want to do anything with this movie, just cough up the option and I’ll talk to somebody else. The only thing you’re going to get by quitting and curling up in a fetal position is relentless grief and embarrassment.

   … I’m in a mood to chop your fucking hands off.”

Mr. Thompson was known for being a larger-than-life person with no inhibitions about giving his blunt opinion. In the film business, he was an outsider, not particularly versed in the unwritten codes of conduct that lie therein.

However, for you and me, the management of anger and the phraseology of diplomacy are of vital importance.

When you are enraged at one or several people while working on a project, the first thing to do is to reflect upon the fact that everyone gets frustrated, not just you. Everyone one else on the project has bouts with extreme frustration and impatience.

Once you’ve done that, you can then return to your judgmental state and decide that your frustration is worse than theirs, that yours is more justifiable than theirs and that these other people are the active causes of your frustration.

It’s called “transference” or “projecting.”

Yes, hate me, kill me, tell me to take a flaming flying fuck. Writers are not impotent, powerless entities – despite the mileage of sympathy we swipe and gallons of alcohol we justify by such a thesis.

[It’s fun, I know, to wallow in reverse-snob, righteous, self-abasing, indignant acrimony. I do it every night.]

Just don’t say it; don’t write it. Give a speech to a wall; write an email and simply save it as a document for amusement later.

This is a business in which someone who fucks you over will later offer you a job. And treat you well. This is a business of wearing a fascade. If you snap and you empty both barrels into someone, you´ve weakened yourself. Because you´ve exposed the truth about yourself. Your biggest power is your secrecy.

Are you compromising your personal integrity? No. Because if you´re in this business or trying to get into it -- you are playing a game. Just like spies play games. Yes, by all means, be honest and straightforward in your personal life (as long as it doesn´t involved people who are also in the profession). But, in this game, you play by keeping secrets.

03.24.2008

ENTRY # 29

THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE.

THE INTERNET IS ALREADY TAKING OVER THE PURVEYANCE OF ENTERTAINMENT AND ART.

TELEVISION AS WE HAVE KNOWN IT IS A DINOSAUR.

WE WILL NOW AND FOREVER HAVE OUR OWN PORTAL INTO THE CYBERGLOBE, THE INEVITABLE HYBRID OF COMPUTER AND TELEVISION.

WE WILL CHOOSE HOW PASSIVE OR INTER-ACTIVE WE WANT TO BE, WITH WHATEVER CORE THEORY OF ART/ENTERTAINMENT/NEWS/PERSONAL-CONTACT WE EXPERIENCE THROUGH THIS NEW PORTAL.

AND THE MASSIVE, ALL-ENGULFING WEB ENTITIES, LIKE GOOGLE, WILL EXPAND THEIR VERY CONCEPT OF HOW TO BE A PURVEYOR, YET A BUYER, OR, LIKE THE YOUTUBE PARADIGM, A “FREE-YER.”
REVENUE STREAMS WILL BE AS CREATIVELY IMAGINED AS ENTERTAINMENT CONTENT.

A VAST CHANGE IN MANKIND’S OFTEN FOR-GRANTED, YET TRULY ALL-ENCOMPASSING, LIFE-DEFINING PRODUCTION AND INTAKE OF POPULAR CULTURE, WILL BE MANIFESTED IN A CORE-LEVEL ALTERED TECHNOLOGY, WHICH ...

... EFINES ITS CONTEN ... IN TERMS OF ... S ... PRESENTA ...

[ YOU ARE NO LONGER CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET ]

[ ASSIST ME ]

[ WOULD YOU LIKE TO SET UP A NEW NETWORK LOCATION? ]

“No, you piece of motherf -- !”

[ DIAGNOSTICS ]

[NETWORK SETTINGS (Green); ISP (Green); INTERNET (RED); SERVER (RED) ]

[ DO YOU USE A DSL OR CABLE MODEM? ]

“I use a wire up my fucking ass, you piece of -- “

[ PLEASE RESTART THE DEVICE. WHEN IT IS DONE RESTARTING, CLICK ‘CONTINUE.’]

[ UNABLE TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET. CHECK WITH YOUR INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER ... ]

“I’ll check with the low-life, sub-human, incompetent, mouth-breathing, drooling, shit scum. Oh, I’ll check with them, all right.”

KEE-CHEENK. (Sound of an Armalite 180 being locked and loaded).

* * *

What happened to our brave new world? What happened to the inevitable internet?

Didn’t we have, on one side, the newly-converted content-creators of the arts and entertainment industries, ready to leap upon this new technology of purveyance to an audience?

And the networks and studios, ready to back this foray? And the advertisers conspiring to conceive of cutting edge, new-paradigm revenue streams?

And, accordingly, at the receiving end, didn’t we have the consumer, more than happy to use the point-and-click to choose his niche-specific intake?

So ... what happened, in this brave new world of ever-progressive, brilliant cyber-uber-alles?

Uh.

Something which lies between the consumer and the great future.

Would you like me to actually tell you what lies between these two sides?

Okay --

-- The slime which clings to the underside of the drainage grid at the lowest point of the pit at the bottom of Hell.

-- Also known as -- your internet service provider.

If you’re having trouble, they’d be happy to take your call in the order received, and, as if you were a petitioner in a Kafka story, out-wait you until you die -- not of shrivelling mammal attrition, but of a delirious, perverse deathwish on your part.

Never in human history has there been a global technology in place to revolutionize some aspect of human existence -- which is tied to, by necessity, a flimsy technological infrastructure that is, in and of itself, one of the abject nadirs of incompetence that world science has ever known.

“Please, please,” you may say, “Leave the old-paradigm current infrastructure of television in place as long as possible. I never want to be forced to depend upon something as egregiously debased as an internet service provider.”

But, NO, you must be prepared to become a super-consumer-audience. The future is HERE.

YOU´D BETTER BE READY FOR SOME BIG, BIG CHANGES IN THE WAY THE WHOLE THING IS DONE --

-- ANY FUCKING DAY NOW, TELEVISION AS YOU KNOW IT WILL BE OBSOLETE!

-- ONCE WE GET ALL THE GLITCHES OUT OF THE SPINE-SNAPPING INCOMPETENCE OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF INTERNET PURVEYANCE.

-- AND THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN ... SOON ... really soon. No, really. It really is going to happen soon ...

It is going to

[ YOU ARE NO LONGER CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET ]