Response to : The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved. By: Hunter S. Thompson

                    "But now, looking at the big red notebook I carried all through that scene, I see more or less what happened. The book itself is somewhat mangled and bent; some of the pages are torn, others are shriveled and stained by what appears to be whiskey, but taken as a whole, with sporadic memory flashes, the notes seem to tell the story.”-Hunter S. Thompson

                     Isn't this how all of our lives are? Hunter S. Thompson slipped in an unintended metaphor. Aren't we all like his big red notebook, disheveled imperfect creatures, living a life full of unplanned occurrences? We are somewhat bruised, but strong like the whiskey that stained his book. We remember bits and pieces of the most important and the most humdrum moments that shape our being.
                     It seems as though we find out the most about ourselves when we don't intend to. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a film divulged in the strange yet extraordinary life of Hunter S. Thompson, and by far one of my favorites, ties in so well with the feeling of belonging. Raoul Duke, a character in the film says, "..No explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time in the world."
                     His words lead me to believe we are more than just monstrous products of society, we are the saviors of humanity, something so powerful, and something so dominant. It's as if we are Mount Everest, an entity so grand, we can admire and analyze the confusion around us. Even with everything that goes on in this constantly spinning world we call "home", the devastation and manipulation, we can fight the urge to conform and find our path, our journey. We may even be able to answer the age-long philosophical question, "Who am I, really?"
                    Raoul continues to say, "And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave." Even though Thompson and Steadman's drunken nights in Kentucky were blurred and jagged like the edge of an old, dull chainsaw, it still managed to slice through them and stir their insides. Even though so exhausted from their constant binge drinking, they were finding themselves, they were reaching their peak. Always exploring ways to depict people in pictures, Steadman, not particularly liked by many, created new images expressive of his own desires.
                   Self-discovery. Ugly, it's always ugly. Yet beautiful, it's always beautiful. The two men explicitly used illicit drugs and substances to find their inner light, or darkness, in their case. I personally feel both are important to know. I must know the darkest corners lurking in myself to find my lightest most heavenly qualities, and vice versa. It's like searching for the needle in the haystack. The soft golden hay crunching as you continuously prick your finger, drawing blood, in order to grab hold of the needle.