Short thoughts about The Brown Buffalo

I´ve just finished reading The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo by Oscar Zeta Acosta, and for the first time after reading a book, I´m totally exhusted. It was soo emotional and gripping at times that when I finished the book, I started crying because I felt all drained out. The book evoke a lot of feelings within me and it raises some good points about identity and soulseaching. I´m deeply touched by it and I´m soo glad that I got to read it. I Will definitely read it again. I will write more on my next entry about this book, but for now, this is it.

The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo by Oscar Zeta Acosta

Within a week I will have completed both Hunter S. Thompson´s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as well as Oscar Zeta Acosta´s The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo. When I started this project of mine, I never would have imagined me being so drawn into the worlds of these two books that I´ve become. I thought at first that I should give it a go, and I was prepared for a struggle, that I would feel a need to endure them. Instead I have found myself reading them very quickly because I can´t put them down. I´m already through half the book by Mr Acosta. The way he writes has struck a cord with me. I can feel his lonliness at times and when he describes some of the events in his childhood I can´t help but feeling sad, and at the same time impressed by him. How he handled the rough and tough situations he went through. I feel like I can feel his pain.
I can identify and relate to many things that he writes about. Well, except for the drugs and alcohol, I´ve never been much for that sort of thing, but I don´t have to. The book is more than just drugs and alcohol. The storytelling is what is the core here. It´s so amazing and well-written, and I especially like the sections where Mr Acosta talks about his childhood and upbringing.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

I´ve now finished reading the book and I got to say that I´m surprised over how amazing the book was. Or to be more exact, how I reacted to the book. It took me by surprise how funny and hilarius I found it to be. With rental-cars packed with drugs, Hunter S. Thompson aka Raoul Duke and his attorney is searching for the american dream in Las Vegas in the sixties. I´m soo glad that I decided to start this project, otherwise I wouldn´t have had the pleasure of this book. When I saw the movie which is based on this book, I didn´t really like it and I couldn´t understand it. I tried, but it was still hard for me to comprehend it. Now when I´ve read the book the movie seems different to me now. I think that Terry Gilliam, Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro made the book justice. I can´t see it being any different. I´ve got a whole new understanding for what they were trying to do, and that was the reason why I wanted to do this project from the start. I wanted to be more enlighted and to learn things I never would have taken the time to spend time on otherwise.

For me the way Mr Thompson writes is quite unique. I both understand it and don´t get it, but I find it fascinating and I kept on reading and laughing outload because it was so funny and brilliantly written. I finished it in like two days and that surprised me. I thought it would take me longer, but the whole experience was soo fantastic and I wanted to continue, to find out how it all ended.

Eversince I started reading Hemingway, Dostoevsky and Sartre I´m amazed how easy it is to keep reading their works and still have questionmarks all over my face. I´m amazed over how I try to figure it out and I go back and ponder over some stuff I just recently wanted to know about a special part of the books. I like that, and it gives me great pleasure when I finally get it. I try to turn it around and see things from different perspectives, especially the women in the books. I always try to understand where they are coming from, but instead of pushing it, I let it sink into my brain, and all of the sudden I understand. I will go into more details later hopefully. As it is now I feel my brain can´t think of something more at the moment. It´s just too hot.

Updates and what´s to come + links

I´ve now completed reading five books on the list I´m following for this blog. So far I´ve managed to read:

1. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
2. Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
3. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
4. Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
5. The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky

And I just started reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson. That will be interesting. I´ve seen the movie, but I think I will have a different experience reading the book. I hope I will be able to understand it better. I think that´s why I love the remake of The Wolfman so much. That movie made be become more interested in Benicio Del Toro. I´ve noticed that I look at his acting in a different way now. It´s interesting to see how he manages to build up his characters. I never thought about that before. I´m always fascinated by people who can make you see things from another perspective.

Part of this blog was to watch ten movies as well, and I´ve managed to get hold of The Universal Horror Collection containing:

1. Dracula (1931) Director; Tod Browning Starring Bela Lugosi as Dracula
2. Frankenstein (1931) Director; James Whale Starring Boris Karloff as the monster
created by Dr Frankenstein (Colin Clive)
3. The Mummy (1932) Director; Karl Freund Starring Boris Karloff as The Mummy
4. Werewolf of London (1935) Director; Stuart Walker Starring Henry Hull as the werewolf
5. Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Director; James Whale Starring Boris Karloff as the monster and Colin Clive as Dr Frankenstein
6. The Wolfman (1941) Director; George Waggner Starring Lon Chaney Jr as The Wolfman aka Lawrence Talbot
7. Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman (1943) Director; Roy William Neill Starring Bela Lugosi as the Frankenstein-monster and Lon Chaney Jr as The Wolfman
8. Phantom of the Opera (1943) Director; Arthur Lubin Starring Claude Rains as The Phantom
9. House of Frankenstein (1944) Director; Erle C Kenton Starring Boris Karloff as Dr Gustav Niemann and Lon Chaney Jr as The Wolfman
10. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Director; Jack Arnold Starring Richard Carlson as Dr David Reed

If you want to know more about which books and movies I´m going to watch, go to these websites:

http://www.beniciodeltoro.com/biography.htm

http://www.beniciodeltoro.ca/ArticlesArchivesBlackBookDec2000.htm

Some of the movies that are listed amoung Benicio´s favourites have been kind of hard to find so I will try and read more books than what I first intended. It´s going to be books that are connected somehow with Benicio or his work, but also books I´ve been inspired to read because of what I´ve found in a bookstore. I used to be good at locating books a long time ago, but I kind of lost that when I didn´t keep it up. Now when I´m into it again, I´ve found some really good books that seems very interesting. That´s what I love the most about my newfound interest in Benicio Del Toro. It feels like I´m not exactly a changed person because of him, but I´ve been more aware of things and interests that´s been a part of me, but hidden or forgotten. You might say he has brought those things to the surface.

http://www.flicksnews.net/2010/03/benicio-del-toro-interview.html

I love this article because it contains my new favourite saying; the ability to see that everyone is different, that you can be smart in different ways. I used to think that I wasn´t smart because I couldn´t think like this or that and I didn´t realise that there isn´t a particular way that you have to be smart in. That´s what fascinated me with this article. Another great interview with Benicio can you find here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4410385919400037051#docid=-3073392062454022045

Ok, this was a little different blogentry, next time I´m going to continue discussing the books.