Gonzo Recursion: Transmetropolitan
Dec. 19th, 2007 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caraigLately I had the chance to read the first three trade paperbacks of Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan, It's one of those watershed titles that has made a huge mark in comics, which includes Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. I'll make a cut here for folks who aren't interested.
Transmet has been said to be a cyberpunk Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I've never read any of Hunter S. Thompson's work, though after reading Transmet I'm thinking I should at some point. Specifically, the style of the main character, Spider Jerusalem, is supposedly an elaboration and embellishment on Thompson's same-named character.
As I understand it, what a lot of people don't realize is that "gonzo journalism" of the kind that Thompson wrote wasn't autobiographical, per se. Fear and Loathing and some of his other works were fiction, centered on a main character who had the same name as Thompson. Oh, it was journalism; it brought into the harsh light of day the "real" sides of humanity. It only did it in a way that would best be called... well, 'gonzo.'
This is not too far an appellation to make to Transmet as it might seem. Sure, the journalist in Transmet isn't named "Warren Ellis." The world Transmet depicts is like Brazil, Max Headroom, and Blade Runner all rolled into one. It's not a pretty place. It's soul-crushing, absurd, and mad. It's like the future depicted in Idiocracy only worse: there are enough smart people around to run things in an amoral, inethical manner.
The main character is Spider Jerusalem, investigative journalist. He's a muckraker, obnoxious, and a right bastard, but he has one quality that nobody else has in all of Transmet: he tell the Truth, all the time. He'll do sneaky, underhanded things sometimes, but the words coming out of his mouth are always Truth. It has to be this way, otherwise I don't think many people would have given Transmet even half of the attention it got, and Spider wouldn't have had the popularity that he has. He's violent, uses 'recreational pharmaceuticals' to an insane degree, and is vitriolic to an utter fault. The reason is odd but simple: Spider needs to be hated for what he does best.
Before Transmet began, Spider Jerusalem had been a journalist for years. Then he wrote a series of columns attacking the President. Far from being reviled, he was adulated, adored, praised. He signed book deals, and was feted everywhere he went. He had achieved success.
He loathed success, and moved to the mountains outside the eponymious City.
It's a strange, rather odd twist in a character. He deliberately pisses people off because he is at his most acerbically blunt about the Truth when he is hated. In the scenes where he is cared about, successful, or praised, there is hardly a more pitiable, miserable human being in the story. For some reason, being hated for telling the Truth makes Spider into a veritable muckraking machine. Maybe its because that's what's expected: that someone who tells the Truth is for whatever reason reviled for that telling.
So, back to gonzo journalism. Certainly Warren Ellis doesn't live in Transmet's City. And his name isn't 'Spider Jerusalem.' But the City is just background, a Voltairian magnification of all the ills and vices that mess up our society. The snippets of Spider's columns that we read are, for the most part, commentary on life in any urban society that's growing faster than the people can keep up. The few exceptions are brief delves into science fiction that are used as lenses to focus in on certain aspects of the human condition, This is what Ellis has seen in our society, writ larger than life, at levels the defy us to grasp the degeneracy, decadence, and apathy of the setting, all to magnify those ills so that we'll at least notice them.
If you have never read Transmetropolitan I strongly recommend it, but I also recommend going into it with a strong understanding that Ellis is trying to make you uncomfortable with the setting. There really doesn't seem to be any lower limit to what you will find happening in the setting, so be prepared. If you are prepared, however, at least have a go at the first trade. And let me know what you think!
Pax.
Transmet has been said to be a cyberpunk Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I've never read any of Hunter S. Thompson's work, though after reading Transmet I'm thinking I should at some point. Specifically, the style of the main character, Spider Jerusalem, is supposedly an elaboration and embellishment on Thompson's same-named character.
As I understand it, what a lot of people don't realize is that "gonzo journalism" of the kind that Thompson wrote wasn't autobiographical, per se. Fear and Loathing and some of his other works were fiction, centered on a main character who had the same name as Thompson. Oh, it was journalism; it brought into the harsh light of day the "real" sides of humanity. It only did it in a way that would best be called... well, 'gonzo.'
This is not too far an appellation to make to Transmet as it might seem. Sure, the journalist in Transmet isn't named "Warren Ellis." The world Transmet depicts is like Brazil, Max Headroom, and Blade Runner all rolled into one. It's not a pretty place. It's soul-crushing, absurd, and mad. It's like the future depicted in Idiocracy only worse: there are enough smart people around to run things in an amoral, inethical manner.
The main character is Spider Jerusalem, investigative journalist. He's a muckraker, obnoxious, and a right bastard, but he has one quality that nobody else has in all of Transmet: he tell the Truth, all the time. He'll do sneaky, underhanded things sometimes, but the words coming out of his mouth are always Truth. It has to be this way, otherwise I don't think many people would have given Transmet even half of the attention it got, and Spider wouldn't have had the popularity that he has. He's violent, uses 'recreational pharmaceuticals' to an insane degree, and is vitriolic to an utter fault. The reason is odd but simple: Spider needs to be hated for what he does best.
Before Transmet began, Spider Jerusalem had been a journalist for years. Then he wrote a series of columns attacking the President. Far from being reviled, he was adulated, adored, praised. He signed book deals, and was feted everywhere he went. He had achieved success.
He loathed success, and moved to the mountains outside the eponymious City.
It's a strange, rather odd twist in a character. He deliberately pisses people off because he is at his most acerbically blunt about the Truth when he is hated. In the scenes where he is cared about, successful, or praised, there is hardly a more pitiable, miserable human being in the story. For some reason, being hated for telling the Truth makes Spider into a veritable muckraking machine. Maybe its because that's what's expected: that someone who tells the Truth is for whatever reason reviled for that telling.
So, back to gonzo journalism. Certainly Warren Ellis doesn't live in Transmet's City. And his name isn't 'Spider Jerusalem.' But the City is just background, a Voltairian magnification of all the ills and vices that mess up our society. The snippets of Spider's columns that we read are, for the most part, commentary on life in any urban society that's growing faster than the people can keep up. The few exceptions are brief delves into science fiction that are used as lenses to focus in on certain aspects of the human condition, This is what Ellis has seen in our society, writ larger than life, at levels the defy us to grasp the degeneracy, decadence, and apathy of the setting, all to magnify those ills so that we'll at least notice them.
If you have never read Transmetropolitan I strongly recommend it, but I also recommend going into it with a strong understanding that Ellis is trying to make you uncomfortable with the setting. There really doesn't seem to be any lower limit to what you will find happening in the setting, so be prepared. If you are prepared, however, at least have a go at the first trade. And let me know what you think!
Pax.
