'Dispatches'

Dispatches and its author, journalist Michael Herr, are interesting on a number of levels. 

First, Dispatches is considered one of the best examples of New Journalism or a nonfiction novel. Popularized by Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Terry Southern and Norman Mailer, it came about in the middle of the 20^th century when journalists started writing novels like Capote and In Cold Blood, something that started out as an article in The New Yorker, but grew into a whole novel. Or it even came from fiction writers deciding to do nonfiction. 

New Journalism is subjective, raw and intense. It leaves little stone unturned and tells a more honest and, often, brutal portrayal of events. This is especially true for Dispatches, the reporting of Herr as a columnist for Esquire during the Vietnam War.  

It’s not only just a good novel: It’s one of the most truthful depictions of the Vietnam War and it was one of the first open for consumption by the American public. 

The fact that Herr later went on to work on scripts for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket – which contain composite characters taken from Dispatches to the point that it’s achingly obvious to anyone that’s seen the film – makes me love those films even more. 

Eerily enough, Dispatches includes two characters – Sean Flynn (Errol’s son) and Dana Stone – who were kidnapped by communist guerrillas and were never seen from again. They are presumed dead. 

Vietnam always scared me. I think the reasons are obvious. It was a destructive and silly war fought over ideologies. Land, money, spite or hate are reasons I can understand in war. Quibbling over ideologies is something I can’t grasp. 

It was a war fought in a strange land against a truly angry opponent that were smarter and very confident. It seemed no one came back from Vietnam the same way they left: Physically or mentally. It was chaos and seemingly the first complicated war where sides were blurred.  

'Walden, or Life in the Woods'

Henry David Thoreau leaves his home in Concord, Mass. in order to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

He moved to the woods around Walden Pond and built a cabin with his own hands. He lived there two years and observed the seasons, the animals and commented on literature, solitude, economy and more.

Thoreau was born in Concord to a middle-class family. He would later work in the family's pencil factory. He went to Harvard and studied everything from rhetoric to mathematics. He refused to pay a $5 fee and didn't receive his diploma.

Thoreau was a great and brilliant man, in my opinion. He was an abolitionist and the man behind civil disobedience, which would later inspire Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His influence transcended generations and would lead the country he loved into its greatest trial 100 years later.

He was one of the progenitors of Transcendentalism and one of the earliest environmentalists in the United States. After the Walden years, he dived deep into naturalism and botany. He became one of the first American supporters of Charles Darwin and his theories.

Thoreau's two years in the woods resulted in the manuscript, Walden, or Life in the Woods. Eight rewrites and 10 years later, it would be finally published.

It's a brilliant collection of essays. It shows America at its most solitary and self-reliant. It's beautiful in a lot of ways and inspiring in many more.

'Reveries Of A Solitary Walker'

For all intents and purposes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Reveries of a Solitary Walker" was the first ever blog. God might have an argument for the Holy Bible. But I'll stick with the French philosopher.

Rousseau had little use for the narrative or storytelling element of the novel. He had ideas and the most direct, best way to get those ideas to the public or to those who read were through these short little essays.

These essays or "walks" were written near the end of Rousseau's life (he did not finish the final "walk, No. 10, before his death). I can just imagine a very bitter (he was ... it shows) and bored Rousseau probably stuck indoors or in a chair for a lot of the time wanting to get something done and wanting to speak his mind one final time.

What makes it a blog -- of sorts -- is that it's (we assume) completely bias, highly personal and written with no filter.

Hodgepodged throughout are anecdotes about these walks he takes through Paris and the surrounding areas documenting these incidents with individuals and the revelry in nature. Some stories border on the ridiculousness of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," while all support some idea or social standard that has captured Rousseau's fancy at the moment.

Chuck Klosterman has published five books and gotten gigs at SPIN, ESPN and Esquire doing essentially the same thing. Seems Rousseau battled just to have a couple of friends.

'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'

Never in my life has there been a record, book or film that had a bigger gap from the minute I wanted to read it until I actually read it.

I had heard about Tom Wolfe's recollection of the Merry Pranksters when I was 16 and reading Jack Kerouac. It took about 13 years of looking for a copy of "Kool-Aid Test" (see: cheap) until I eventually found one.

I don't think much of Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary or the Merry Pranksters. I do, however, like the idea that LSD was like an evolution, so to speak, of the human mind. As if, the mind had come to a plateau and LSD was the next step to reach some other pantheon of thought and existence. However noble this sounds, when everything turned into an orgy and slackfest, it lost any real credence. Getting high wasn't about reaching some other plane of conciousness, but sitting around and partying.