A Cyborg Existence

There is something beyond human about Evel. When I say this I am not putting him on the deity pedestal just yet; the man certainly has his human flaws. What I’m more so addressing is that this is not just a bare man doing stunts we’re talking about, but more so of a cyborg doing stunts.

            Evel’s motorcycle is like his super power. They do it all together. He wasn’t just riding it off ramps in whatever he happened to be wearing that day either; he wore armor. Evel depended on that gear for his entire repertoire as a stunt man and for his life and survival. In that way he became somewhat physically connected to it and defined by it: His skin becoming leather; his skull developing a metallic shell; his legs replaced by burning rubber.

            When I think of all the crashes he’s been through, and all the crashes he might go through in the future, I realize he has achieved a bionic state of invincibility. Not to mention the majority of the blood in his body isn’t even his any more!

            My question stemming from this is, who is he when it’s gone? For someone whose physical and societal identity is so subject to technology, what happens to the personal identity? Is the bionic part of his existence an add-on? Or is he naked and disarmed of his identity without it? Which side of Evel will I see, the machine, the human, or the cyborg?

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The Supernatural Subconscious

I had another dream last night. Evel Knievel flying high up in the air. It was his jump at Caesar’s Palace- one of his first. But in this dream version there was a significantly larger crowd, probably hundreds upon thousands of people. In the crowd were his first wife, his second wife, and his children. They all had completely despondent faces. Then I realized the whole crowd had the same miserable expression on and all were completely silent. Knievel’s bike flew off the ramp, wheels spinning, hands gripped tight, body tipping slowly backwards to reach maximum hight, and yet it remained ghostly silent as he glided along.

As I watched I began to notice sparks shoot up from behind him, then small flames, which grew, and grew until his entire bike was consumed in orange and yellow wings. The crowd finally started shouting, chanting almost, and it dawned on me that we were no longer at Caesar’s palace in Las Vegas, we were in a massive coliseum!

            I began shouting madly and waving my arms as the flames grew wider and wider! Knievel careened down towards the landing ramp and just as he was about to land, through the helmet and flames, I saw his eyes. They were flat, cold, and lonely. Stairing almost dead at me.

Then bam. I woke up.

Now I need to know. I need to know what was behind those eyes. I need to find out where those flames were coming from. What brought that look to the audience’s faces?

I must meet him.

I have a feeling this will not be the last dream I have of such depth and mystery. In fact, I feel as though they will only get more elaborate from here. My subconscious will push me forward.

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Hesitation

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since the interview was scheduled. I have not been sleeping a lot as a result. It’s a little early to be nervous, but I am. I want something more from Evel than what we, the general public, already know. I want something from him that the internet can’t tell me. I want to ask him a question he’s never been asked before. To ask him something he doesn’t want to answer.
I want to talk to Robert Craig Knievel. I want to talk to ‘Bobby’.

And then I think, is that wrong? Would that simply be an offense to a man who has built himself into such an iconic existence? There’s a place I feel called to go with this interview and I’m not sure I’m so ready to go there. I don’t even know if I’d be allowed to. 

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The dream is on the starting ramp.

It’s every reporter’s dream to interview a hero. It’s every human beings dream to meet someone who has proven stronger than death on numerous occasions! And it is the most unfathomable thing when you are that one reporter who’s been dreaming about such an encounter since she first saw that red, white, and blue helmet hit the headlines.

            That’s right ladies and gentlemen, the date is finally confirmed!  Come June 21^st I will have the unbelievable opportunity to not only meet, but to interview the one, the great, the DEATH defying Evel Knievel! The man they call the last gladiator on Earth! I’ve had to questions building up for years. Why did he start? Was he ever afraid? What does it feel like to fly? …What does it feel like to land?

            Ladies and gentlemen keep an eye on my blog – this reporter is gearing up for the journalistic ride of her life!
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