"Writing is the flip side of sex – it's good only when it's over." Hunter S. Thompson I think this quote engages purpose, audience, and context quite well. The purpose of this quote in my opinion is to convey the difficulties and hardships of writing a piece in a humorous and unique way. Hunter S. Thompson is not your average mainstream writer. So this comparison to sex is targeted to more of your non-mainstream type of audience. His audience is probably the late teenager/early adult. He is getting into subject matter that wouldn’t be suitable for a younger audience, and also would probably be considered offensive to an older audience. I like how he uses humor in this quotation to get across his purpose.
A comparison between sex and writing is not usually made. Once you get past the humor what he is saying is pretty much true. The process of writing really does suck. You have to put a lot of time and effort into it, and a lot of the time it can be extremely frustrating. I hate writing rough drafts and doing revision and revision. So when the task is finally complete that’s when you get the real pleasure and can enjoy your final piece of work. This quote does a really good job of engaging in context. He does a good job of considering the environment that the reader is going to read this quote.
By injecting humor into the quote he can take really almost any uncomfortable place one might in at the time and can improve it by making the reader laugh right off the bat. On the flip-side I can see how this quote will not work in certain places. I think it is obvious that the quote wouldn’t go over well in a church of a funeral home, but I really can’t see anyone reading this in those situations in the first place. Overall the quote does a good job of getting its message across. The process of writing is tough and most of the time unenjoyable, but once the process is done, you can find real pleasure in enjoying the fruits of your labor and savor the final piece of work.
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