Spider Jerusalem's Drug Habits: Meaning, or Nihilism?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve read the first seven books of Transmetropolitan and I’m beginning to notice that Spider Jerusalem exhibits a few minor behaviors that might possibly hint at indicating that he maybe occasionally abuses some chemical substances. A lot.

Other than the fact that drug use is de rigeur (and lack of drug use is remarkable) in The City, does his tendency to channel Hunter S. Thomson’s habits mean anything?

I’d prefer no spoilers from the last few books of the series, but if you can talk around major plot points, please dive in with theories. If the answer to my question is a major plot point, just let me know. I’d rather shoot myself with Spider’s fave non-lethal weapon than have major plot bits spoiled, so box 'em up, please.

Anyhow: is Spider an addict? Are his drugs a refuge, a substitute for the rush he gets chasing down a good story, an indication that chasing the truth requires superhuman abilities, or or or…? Is there a symbolic link between drug use and Spider chasing a good story or a bad story? And of course: the difference between The City and The Mountain is an analogy to the conflict of “polluted/unnatural vs. clean/pure/natural”. Spider’s column is called “I HATE IT HERE” but he

  1. chooses to live there to write
  2. chooses to imbibe serious volumes of bad chemistry
    and
  3. becomes more and more unhappy when subjected to “sterilized” city life.

So, where do the drugs fit in?

2

Duh! :wink:

3

Spider Jersusalem is merely a parody of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the famous counterculture journalist. Thompson does use that much drugs, and he does live in the mountains.

Go here.

http://www.gonzo.org/

Be certain to read his books.

I give you permission to e-mail me & thank me for the reading advice later. If that sounds conceited, it’s because telling you about Thompson’s books is doing you a big fat favor.

4

Bosda: I read “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas,” and I think that I will understand Transmetropolitan a little better when I’ve read HST’s book about the Nixon (?) campaign. I absolutely see the parallels between the characters. I’m also familiar with his hobby of shooting propane tanks out in the desert after getting liquored up with Johnny Depp or other celebrity guests.

That said, I’m not really much for wading through seven pages of the Physicians’ Desk Reference excerpts and stoner hijnks to get to a juicy tidbit of political thought. I will probably dive in to his campaign book sometime this summer, in time for the Presidential election, but it’s going to take more than a hyperlink to convince me that his whole ouvre is worth reading. I get his schtick – what else is there?

5

The book “Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail” has been described as the single best insider’s account of an American Presidential campaign ever.

This is true.

Even the people who hate him, like old Nixon admin boys have praised the alarmingly acute insights he has had.

Kissinger has been quoted as praising Dr. T’s “Campaign”, and William Buckley, at the opposite end of the political spectrum from Thompson, has praised it.

The piece on the 68 Democratic Convention Riot in Chicago is profound.

Thompson has schtick, but also substance.

6

Thompson’s book on the Hell’s Angels will also give some insight into a lot of the humour in that Simpson’s episode where Marge has the adventure with the Bikies.

I presume you’re enjoying Transmet, given that you’ve read seven of the TPBs? I waded through the whole thing in single-issue format, and by the end was completely bored.

Ellis tried to explain that he was using a Japanese technique of ‘expanded storytelling’ (I’m paraphrasing his terminology, it was something like that) where you might take five minutes of real-world action and expand on that infinitely, dragging it out and partaking of all the minutiae. The only problem being that Ellis was talking through his hat and had no idea HOW to acheive this technique. So a LOT of the later issues consist of nothing whatsoever. I lost interest in the characters and there was no action or plotline to speak of… nothing happened, and all this in a 42.50 comic (price could be wrong, but it was somewhere around that)

I’d be most grateful if others could tell me how much they loved the end of the series (not just the final issues, but the last twnety or so issues) Tell me if my opinion is for nought, I truly wanted to love this book, and the early stories hooked me so totally I was willing to stay on, but by the end I was asking myself why? why? WHY?!? (however, admittedly, it was part of what lead me to read HSThompson’s material).

Now your OP: my take on the drug use is that it’s nihilistic. There’s lot of scenes of Spider sitting on the couch slowly melting into the vinyl with some chemical or another, all for no particular reason beyond liking it. For the most part, I agree with Bosda, it’s not-so-subtle parody of Hunter S Thompson.

Ellis is a fun writer, but he not as skilled as his minions would argue, so the parody was kind’ve overt. I also felt, very much so, that it was simply a case of Ellis thinking this was wicked and wildly outrageous. He often made comments about how he was trying to blow our mediocre middle-class minds with all these wild new ideas. That’s not a quote, but it is in the style of the trite rubbish he would post on the now defunct Warren Ellis Forum over at Delphi. I was active for quite a while there until I realised I really didn’t enjoy the snide elitism the boards generated (which was very different from the snide elitism here cheesy SDMB smiley).

One of the funniest contentions Ellis ever made was that Transmet was not a superhero book. Yeah… sure… You have a protagonist in a funny cotume who runs around saving the day with sidekicks and fancy gadgets and all the superheroic bells and whistles. We’re supposed to beleive it’s not superheroics cos the main character is a journo. Hell, SUPERMAN is a JOURNALIST!!! (well, sorta).

anyhow, I don’t think I’ve spoilt any plotlines, and overall the series is lots of fun and does have a lot to say, but I really had to push myself to keep reading as we approached the end there!

What do others feel? I know I’ll get flamed for my anti-Ellis comments (his Bloggette over at diepunyhumans.com (not for the faint of heart or easily offended, I’ve intentionally unlinked it) is sometimes interesting, but not nearly as interesting, engaging or just plain NICE as neil gaimans http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp

7

dangergene: decompressed storytelling.

Referring to the OP, I think the drugs are another nonetosubtle parody/shot at the drug culture in the US (more Prozac than Crack). Spider tries to rationalize it away by claiming it helps his creativity (which it may or may not), letting him separate himself from the masses (like the braindead kid in issue 1 or 2).

Aside from the Thompson parody, it might be some wishful thinking on Ellis’ part.

8

Thanks Chairman, yeah, that was the term.
How well do you think he handled it? Despite all his flowery talk about intent.

9

Odd, I just picked up the first volume of Transmetropolitan today, and was wondering if Spider is just Hunter S. thrown into the future. Seems like I nailed it…oh well I’ll be purchasing the second volume as soon as my funds allow.

10

I feel so educated! I’ve read the first 2 or 3 issues of Transmetropolitan and I had no idea that Spider’s character was based on a real person.

11

Like I said, I only read two of the trades (and don’t think I’ll get any further). The first trade didn’t have too much of the decompression, at least not what’s common today. Granted, it’s a lot slower than the Image stuff that was popular, but this wasn’t too bad. You get some fuckers like Rucka who have to end every conversation with the people talking, go to the next panel that’s same framing and then the third panel that’s the same framing, but someone looking in another direction (the important decision). That’s shit. Or Bendis, who has had, IIRC entire issues of Daredevil where someone’s talking on the phone in the john.

Or at least if he hasn’t already, it’s coming soon.

From some other writing of Ellis’ I don’t recall the decompression being too obnoxious.

The other trade I read was about a year ago and as far as I could tell it was one really long issue about a column he was writing, something about hating the world and a girl who got raped by her father and Spider’s grandfather farting butterflies or something. That wasn’t really decompressed storytelling per se, but rather an overly-extended monologue.

Now that I think about it, that second trade was pretty good. Maybe I will give the rest of the series a shot.

Regarding Spider as a parody of Hunter: we should note that Hunter’s basically a parody in and of himself (although a parody of what, I couldn’t tell you…a parody of extreme? That is, extreme in a death metal sense). I guess that makes Spider a pastiche.