I've been in a strange book. Reading dry spell since i finished reading moby dick in 2019, and i thought i would talk about some mind-altering books. I've read in the past instead of five mind-altering books, i'll do five eras of mind-altering books and the first era will be high school and in high school. The two books that stick out are the catcher in the rye, because i had heard it was so legendary i'd heard all about it.

I thought it was going to be this advanced sophisticated. You know charles dickens kind of great expectations, thing that was kind of hard to read you couldn't. I couldn't really find what and then it turned out to be hilarious and very easy to read, and i didn't know that the feelings that i identified with in that book were something that could be universal enough to be in a high school book. High school required reading book, for you know probably 50 years.

I think that book came out and maybe it came out in 1950 and then the second book would be walden. But when i read it, i didn't care reading it now going back and reading it. I understand that walden is sort of a prototype of the way that americans think it's sort of a love letter to american individuality or the rugged individual, as lived through the author. So that's the high school books, the second era, drug books, my friend sam, gave me fear and loathing in las vegas, it's probably 16 or 17., and that just launched me on this insatiable hunter s.

Thompson phase, where i read everything and two things about his books that i found compelling was one the adventures that he was on and the his craziness in the adventures and two just the excellence of the pros. There's this book called hell's angels that he wrote before fear and loathing in las vegas, where he, as a young man, traveled with the hell's angels and there's another book by tom. Wolf called the electric kool-aid acid test. And there are chapters in both of those books that intersect, because the authors were at the same party and wrote about that same party in each of the books, so in hell's angels.

Hunter thompson writes about this party at ken keezy's ranch and in electric kool-aid acid test. Tom wolf writes about this party at ken kesey's ranch. Something about that was spectacular to me also that these books were very significant in in the american culture and they had remained significant among people that i thought were really cool. These phases intersect and it's hard to do this chronologically, because the next phase is america.

Now, i would say the american now books which i'm still reading, but it started probably after september 11, 2001., as almost all of us were. I was just blindsided like what the hell is going on, so i started reading books about what's going on in america right now. One of them i discovered it was called the twilight of american culture. It was written in 2000.

It was written by a man named morris berman and i just found it on a shelf at a farm in virginia, and it was a farm where dolly madison and james madison had gone. There was the water there was supposed to have healing properties. So anyway, i found this book randomly. I just saw the title on a huge bookself.

I brought it home, i read it and that book came out in 2000. It turns out this man. Morris berman had written a trilogy of these books and the second one was called dark ages, america and that came out in 2005 and then the third book in the trilogy was called why america failed and that came out in 2011.. So the twilight of american culture is right before september 11th dark ages.

America is right, after or four years after september 11th, and why america failed is right. After the financial collapse, america has not yet failed as far as i can see, but it's on some kind of decline, and i think that these come in cycles these these declines. I read this other book that i've done a video about called the fourth turning. That's by neil howe and william strauss and the fourth turning explains very plainly.

Why and how history repeats itself that book kind of helps me put the american now books into perspective. I mean there's so many of the i've read dozens of these books. There's a book called dark money by jane meyer, i think, is her name. There's many of these books and they're very for me, they're very fun to read, because it explains all these phenomena that you just see in the news very quickly, and it also helps me sort of conceptualize.

What is this place that i'm living in there was also this book that came out. I believe it came out after september 11th and it's called the culture of fear by barry glassner and this book sort of explained the relationship between advertising, the news and fear. So the basic premise: being that the news reports on terrifying things and then advertising advertises things to make you less afraid of the world, and it made me less fearful it's sort of like understanding how a magician does his tricks. Maybe it had that kind of effect.

On me, oh, this is just this is just a money-making thing that these news people and these advertisers are sort of in cahoots. Doing i'm not saying it's a it's a it's a conspiracy, i it's just that horror sells well things that you are afraid of. You are going to watch the news you're going to watch the news when they're covering bl planes flying into buildings in your town, because it's terrorizing and advertising pays for that news coverage. It's not any kind of like well we're going to scare americans and sell them stuff.

No, it's just our human nature is such that we want to buy things when we're fearful in the hopes that the buying of the things will assuage our fear. It's just sort of a one of these landmark books for me that helped me understand why i did things and why my fellows did certain things and then we have the culture books. The spirited man is brought to you by the spirited man. Patreon team join our patreon team at five dollars a month for exclusive access to archival videos with directors commentary and peer discussions and live streams.

Answering your questions and comments. This areas of books episode was an idea from one of our patrons link in the description and the culture. Books are kind of a family of books that i go to now and then, and they kind of make me feel good and they kind of make me feel like i'm a part of something, and it also feels like the people who write these books kind of Feel about the world the way that i feel about the world they make me want to be able to make something that makes others feel the way that i feel when i read these things - and i know that's a very vague, a very vague way to talk About it, so there's these three anthologies, the first one is called the outlaw bible of american essays. The second one is called the outlaw bible of american literature and the third one is called the outlaw bible of american poetry.

Oh, when i read a book, i read it with a red pen and underline things and make notes, and so i was glancing through some of the red ink in my outlaw bible of american essays book and it's just a collection of essays from you know a Lot of my cultural heroes - and i found a couple of notes in here that are exemplary of of that connection - that i feel with some of these authors and the first one. It's this essay by eileen miles called everyday barf and she talks about this movie called tarnation, and the note i wrote is this: it says i forgot about tarnation. I saw it with the artist. What was his name? I met him jonathan.

I met him in the green room waiting to have my picture taken by albert watson from interview magazine for the superstars issue and his name is jonathan cuyet and he was the other imovie filmmaker besides casey and me he was the other one and um. Every year interview magazine does a, i don't know if they still do it. I hope they do. They do a crystal ball issue where they predict, they take a handful of people and they say.

Oh, these are the people to watch in the future and we casey - and i were in this issue and in the waiting room waiting to get our pictures taken. Was this guy jonathan cool yet, and so this is where wow this i am in it i'm in the culture now i you know that you know reading. That is like. Oh, my, oh, my god.

This is this: isn't hunter thompson with the hell's angels in 1964, or whatever year that was 68.. This is jonathan. Cought you've met this man. You've talked to this man and i don't know what to say about that, but it's one of the rewards for these.

For these, you know lives that we live trying trying to make stuff and another note i read: it was a tennessee williams story called the catastrophe of success, and the note that i wrote is this: i read this on 5. 21. 08. One week after meeting with sue nagle, the head of programming at hbo, with whom casey and i have our first television series on a plane to paris, then nice then can where a film i'm in has been selected for the director's fortnight.

This is what it's like to take the stage at the con film festival, wow, and the first sentence that is underlined is from the from the book itself. Is the cinderella story? Is our favorite national myth and the title of the story is the catastrophe of success and it's tennessee williams and it's about the when the illusion melts away. And then my friend wrote a book. My friend chloe wrote a book called edgewise and it was about this woman named cookie, mueller and cookie.

Mueller was one of the actresses from the john waters, films and it's as if chloe was her incarnate reincarnation, and i just i remember she was working on it forever and ever in berlin. And then she just it came out and she came to new york to do this book party and i got a copy of the book and i read the book. I think i bought 10 copies or something i read the book and it was magnificent and my friend had written it and she had written it because she had so connected with this woman who lived a very difficult life, but she lived one of these truthful lives. You know that was very difficult and she moved to new york and she tried to make it and she eventually became a writer and uh.

You know wrote for esquire magazine and she's beloved, like universally beloved. I just saw an andy warhol documentary where they showed maybe jean-michel basquiat, a picture of like andy warhol, jean-michel, basquiat and keith herring like one of those 80s photographs and cookie mueller is in the photograph as well, and my friend wrote this book having never met this Woman because she died of aids before maybe before you know when we were probably when we were little kids, it's a fantastic book and chloe invited me to shoot the um. The party the launch party and john waters was there and a lot of the remaining people from that gang. From that john waters.

Little gang came to this book and they hadn't seen each other in decades and chloe brought them together, and we all went to dinner in this amazing loft, and it was oh, my god it was just. It was just another one of those things about this life. That is it's one of the rewards. You know, and it's one of the reasons why a lot of us get into it in the first place this you know this made this curated community and i guess the book experience of that it was sublime.

I mean what can i say. I also read this book called shop class as soul craft and that's where i got the phrase the spirited man from and that's the book that sort of combines the bookworm with the gear head. You know, and my current task at hand is to sort of try to understand what it means to be a spirited man and the the well is that book, and i hope this work that i'm doing now making these videos is a distillation of all of the Books that i've read mixed with all of the experiences that i've lived, and i just hope to contribute a verse this week on the patreon archival videos with directors commentary on my patreon right there. The link is right: there.

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