Mark Weiss wrote:
> Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of the great sad American stories,
> essential reading for understanding our terrible history. It's on the
> very
> short shelf with The Great Gatsby, Huck Finn, The Oregon Trail, A. Gordon
> Pym and Moby Dick.
>
> Only 65--I thought he was much older.
Radio news and the BBC report him as 67, but what's the difference? I
remember him best for Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, maybe the
first book to tell the truth about how uttered fucked-up American
politics had become even as long ago(!) as the McGovern-Nixon
manipulated campaign in '72. Was he not the model for Zonker's uncle
Duke in the "Doonesbury" strip? I once that Thompson recognized himself
in Duke and threatened either to beat the crap out of Garry Trudeau or
simply shoot him. Sounds about right.
Thompson (I suppose you could argue for Tom Wolfe too) made it possible
for writers to write about themselves as part of a cultural landscape,
to self-promote, egoize, and yet look at what was going on around them.
So much for the myth of objectivity. In that way, I suspect "gonzo
journalism" requires a willingness to risk yourself via
self-disclosure. I have a memoir I absolutely do not have the guts to
send to anyone--I'd like to think it's as funny and informative as it is
scurrilous, and it does not cast me in the best possible light. But
conventionality is what keeps some writers with a (nasty) story to tell
in the closet. Hunter Thompson appeared not to give a damn.
Then again, the level of despair that led him to eat a gun.... Thank
you, no.
Not a good one, this Dia de los Muertos: Thompson, John Raitt, even
Sandra Dee, the last far too close to me in age to make me comfortable
that long life is on anyone's ticket.
Ken
--
Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538
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