Paintball: a mainstream sport?

Tournament paintball is something that I have a clear passion for. It's fast paced, and in some instances, can push one to the limit in terms of physical and mental performance. However, one of the things I've noticed is that it's not very spectator friendly (or at least it's rarely known about by a large segment of the population). Well, i was looking at the cover of a magazine while waiting in line at lunds, and it had an article regarding tournament paintballer's "metrosexuality". Meaning our 'fashion-sense' for when we're out on the field. Considering this was a magazine which gets to a wide variety of the population, there is a clear reminder that the sport is growing and finally reaching out to people. Just wanted to blog about that, considering I found it pretty interesting that people are actually reading about paintball in the media.

King's realism.

Something I've noticed in the majority of Stephen king's novels is how he keeps the imagery relatively unrestricted. He adds a little bit of 'censored' material to every book he writes. The gunslinger is no exception, he writes about sex, drugs, and intense violence.

A quote regarding sex:

“She would not remove her hands until she was behind him and she doused the lamps one by one, turning down the wicks and breathing the flames into extinction. Then she took his hand in the dark and it was warm. She led him upstairs. There was no light to hide their act.” (King 27)

One regarding drug usage:

“The drug had often disturbed him: his ego was too strong (or perhaps just too simple) to enjoy being eclipsed and peeled back, made a target for more sensitive emotions---they tickled at him (and sometimes maddened him) like the touch of a cat's whiskers.” (King 134)

and one with a mere touch of violence:

“In two second they would be in gripping distance. In the forefront he saw Kennerly; Kennerly's younger daughter, perhaps eleven; Soobie; two male barflies; a whore named Amy Feldon. He let them all have it, and the ones behind them. Their bodies thumped like scarecrows.” (King 64)

Superstition

One of the reoccurring motifs I've noticed in the gunslinger is his constant belief is superstition. It can be seen when 'bones' make a prophesy, when he avoids certain grass in the desert, when he performs a ritual and uses drugs to see another prophesy. I believe that the ending to the novel actually is King's way of saying "superstition is a bunch of bullshit".
“The man in black slipped his hood back. The gunslinger looked at him silently. In a way, the face that the hood had hidden was an uneasy disappointment. It was handsome and regular, with none of the marks and twists which indicate a man who has been through awesome times and has been privy to great secrets.” (King 211)

This quote is the conclusion to the novel. The man in black, whom the gunslinger has been hunting since the openings of the novel, is finally found and confronted. Only there is one problem; he is merely a man. Him and the gunslinger are equals, and there is nothing special about the man in black. The gunslinger was hunting the supernatural, and it turns out to be a fake. King could be pointing out something about life in this case; the possibility that there are always answers to life, there is no supernatural, and superstition is unreasonable.

The gunslinger. Flashbacks

One of the reoccurring uses of style King uses is flashbacks. We are constantly getting a background to the gunslinger, and learn that he's had a pretty terrible childhood. We also get a little bit of unexpected sci-fi thrown in. It turns out, that he is from a different sort of 'dimension' or time period and through the man-in-black has the ability to jump around from time to time.
Here is one of the quotes about his childhood. Probably one of the most important;

"Cort walked over to where the boys stood, casually, and swung his huge and twisted fist at Cuthbert's ear. The boy fell over without a sound, although his lips writhed back from his gums. A trickle of blood flowed slowly from his ear and onto the rich green grass. 'You were slow, maggot,' he said" (King 103)
It shows how in the gunslinger's world, those who were to follow the occupation of gunslinger had to face manhood at an early age. They were repeatedly beaten until they submitted. This probably the reason why the gunslinger is so heartless.

Media and Hype.

Something I've just begun noticing is the media creating a certain amount of hype among consumers through their articles. It seems that every car, video game, movie, or other product that gets enough attention from the media does well. It doesn't even have to be all that great of a product, it just has to receive a large amount of press space. And I've begun to question, is the media getting paid to write articles with positive 'first looks' and 'previews?'. Or are companies merely showing the media their products at various tradeshows, hoping that they will receive some kind of attention? This would make sense, as most of the 'little companies' with big ideas rarely get their products written about as much as the 'big monopolies'. Hence they will not sell as much product and have a difficult time entering into the market. Just a little question I had, maybe I'll find and answer, maybe i won't.

Gunslinger?

Ok, I've been reading through King's novel "The gunslinger" further, and have come across an odd thought. What exactly is a gunslinger? Supposedly the main character (whose name hasn't been revealed yet, it is merely "gunslinger") is the last of his kind and comes from 'another world'. Some kind of fantasy world where everything has been destroyed. However, there isn't exactly a whole lot of technology involved in the book, as the character is using some old western 6 round pistols, and all the water found come from wells. So my question is, what is going on?!? I'm completely lost right now, as the storyline is becoming difficult to follow. Things keep jumping around from past tense to future tense to present tense, making the reader a little bit disoriented. I've given up as to attempting to figure out which time period the narrator is speaking of, and just trying to read through it. It's becoming pretty difficult to read more than 10 minutes at a time.

Old magazines

I can't remember where i was, but it was someplace with a lot of old magazines (and I mean old magazines, dating back to 2004-05). I just thought it was interesting to read through some of those articles about how in 2010 we'll have such and such a technology in all our cars, or how by 2015 all our energy sources will be run off solar power ect. I find it funny that all these articles were written, and here it is 2008, and things are pretty much the same. We haven't found a "new source of energy", World war 3 hasn't struck us yet, and overall predicted doomsday hasn't hit us yet.

The reason behind these articles? I believe it's because juicy, gossipy, bad news sells magazines. There was minimal support behind the articles, just some authors dreaming something up to help sell their magazine. Is it possible that it's like this for all of the media? Constantly looking for the bad things in life? Why doesn't the media look on the good things in life, or the realistic? I guess they just do what it takes to make money.