Writer's Block Part 2

Spider Jerusalem

Still nothing is coming out of my brain, yet I’m thinking of a lot. I want to write about comic books, oh especially Scott Pilgrim which was made into movie. I want to find out who Spider Jerusalem is. My friend suggested me to read a graphic novel, called Transmetropolitan. I’ve met Spider Jerusalem in Google and yeah he rocks! He’s not handsome, he’s old, he’s bald and he’s a fighter. He wears a pair of shades but with different colors. He’s a renegade gonzo journalist. I still haven’t read the comic book, but he’s trying to find me a copy and I’m so excited. This is great being one of the boys.

Let me explain what gonzo journalism is. I am intrigued as well or how this style of journalism exists and how it became to be. Gonzo journalism is written subjectively and the reporter is included in the report. Gonzo journalism is written via first-person narrative. This makes it exciting because you are able to experience the report as if you part of it. I may say it’s like an adventure. I could imagine myself writing then closing my eyes being in the scene and feeling the events as they happen. I may not be a journalist but I may learn how they do it.

Hunter S. Thompson

The term gonzo was first used by Hunter S. Thompson. Now I know where they derive the character from Transmetropolitan. It’s from a real person and he looks like him as well. He used the word gonzo in 1970 in an article. This type of journalism favors more the style than accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide the body of the topic. It does not include any “polished” editing just like how newspaper media does. Writers tend to write rough. They often use sarcasm, humor, exaggeration and profanity as part of the writing.

I guess it’s not a writer’s block anyway but I guess this was not one of my topics and just suddenly came out of nowhere. I’m going to look for this comic book and once I’ve read it. I’m going to share it to you. It’s all about writing real and honest.

Look at their similarities! 

  

“If I’d written the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people- including me- would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.” –Hunter S. Thompson Rolling Stone, February 15, 1973