Idle Rambling On Tuesday Morning -- November 6, 2018 -- Nothing About The Bakken

Wow, what a great day. My schedule this week will be greatly disrupted due to all the driving I have. As mentioned earlier, my wife is visiting our younger daughter in Portland, OR, so I will pick up the driving responsibilities: taking the granddaughters to and from school this week.

Complicating things today: a) the weather is beautiful; I should be out biking; not blogging; and, b) I am enjoying the heck out of The New Journalism, an anthology of early "new journalism" pieces, from the 1960's and early 1970's, edited by Tom Wolfe, c. 1973.

Years ago I created a long, long Microsoft Word document (now an Apple document) in which I chronicled the history of "storytelling," from Homer to the 1970s. I think I started that project about the time I was reading Hunter S Thompson's Hell's Angels. I was curious how "we" got to where we were in literature in the 20th century.

I believe I read Hell's Angels for the first time in the spring of 2000. My family had moved to the location of our next assignment and I had six weeks or so before I was scheduled to depart. I lived in my office for those six weeks, which was entirely "illegal." It's possible the custodians / cleaning staff knew I was sleeping in my office, but they would have been the only ones.

I stayed late; my colleagues assumed I was simply working late. Around 11:00 p.m. I would change into "scrubs" and sleep on the short couch in the office. I had to get up by 5:00 a.m. because the day shift folks were starting to arrive. I would shower down in the men's locker room, have breakfast in the dining hall, and return to my office about the time my secretary expected me to show up.

I remember vividly reading Hunter S Thompson's book and enjoying it immensely, during those six weeks. I was incredibly depressed; suicidal thoughts but not suicidal ideation (if there is a difference) and the book kept me sane. It remains one of my few top-shelf books.

But I digress.

Back to my "storytelling" project. When I got to the '70s, I had trouble putting that era into perspective. It was my own "coming of age" era, 1967 - 1977. Wow, I never thought of that -- one decade.

So, what a gift. Tom Wolfe provides the background to new journalism that I needed. I was aware of the names, but not the chronology or how "the new literature" came to be.

Huge thanks to the reader who suggested the book.