Yeah I hear what you're saying. Hunter was self-loathing (he shot himself - duh). I hate to say it but his writing and life will really fade from memory as nothing more than really, really funny entertainment. To describe him as important politically or as an important man of letters - as I've heard various writers espouse - is bullshit. People are in mourning, You're piece here cuts to the quick and I'm glad I read it. I think Hunter was a great American CHARACTER - nothing more, nothing less.

He hated rich people? Just because someone is not at helpful as Mother Teresa does not mean he hated the poor. He hated phonies. Poor rich popular of non. Liar scum should be hated.

Well, I guess now the Bloggers are going to solve the world's oldest and deepest problems, and fuck whoever doesn't pretent to devote their lives to caring about issues that are beyond them. The author of this entry is obviously a bored, non-intellectual with no imagination, whose TV is constantly flipping between CNN and FOX News and taking notes on why they're wrong. What you ignorant duetch bags don't understand is that trying to legitamately insert yourself into American politics is, has always been, and will continue to be an impossible predicament for a sane person, and is a sport of a proffession that only money grubbing perverts with black hearts and an appetite for proffessional sex at a bargain rate. Thomson never had much interest in being a proffesional whore, he had netter things to do, like enjoy himself. You are a jealous hippocrit and scum, whose thoughts today are on why a Great American Writer should not be taken seriosly. That is valuable internet space that you could use to "Bring the races together." Keep building your resume for political office, and maybe someday the people will all know your name and build statues of you.

Well, I guess now the Bloggers are going to solve the world's oldest and deepest problems, and fuck whoever doesn't pretent to devote their lives to caring about issues that are beyond them. The author of this entry is obviously a bored, non-intellectual with no imagination, whose TV is constantly flipping between CNN and FOX News and taking notes on why they're wrong. What you ignorant duetch bags don't understand is that trying to legitamately insert yourself into American politics is, has always been, and will continue to be an impossible predicament for a sane person, and is a sport of a proffession that only money grubbing perverts with black hearts and an appetite for proffessional sex at a bargain rate can tolerate. Thompson never had much interest in being a proffesional whore, he had netter things to do, like enjoy himself. You are a jealous hippocrit and scum, whose thoughts today are on why a Great American Writer should not be taken seriosly. That is valuable internet space that you could use to "Bring the races together." Keep building your resume for political office, and maybe someday the people will all know your name and build statues of you.

I didn't write that comment above - but I could have.

Al, I was kind of with you through the first half of your post, but you lost me when you declared that Thompson's work lacks intellectual merit. In my opinion, that's simply not the case as he has influenced generations of writers with his fine and innovative style and outlook.

Yes, what a fool. Nice blog page.

Al, I know you're trying to be provocative and all... tweak the dreaded "leftist pinkos" who just looooove HST, but:

1) Wow. It takes a lot of balls and a terrific amount of intellectual insight to shoot fish in a barrel, but be a man, dude: pick a moving target

2) You'd get more interesting 'action' inviting that guy who had the ape photo labeled "Janet Jackson" over to Blogcritics.

3) A GREAT IRONY that the guy who wrote: "...Hunter Thompson's work is real fun stuff for college boys to read while they're stoned, full of rebellion..." masturbates to photos of the Queen of College Boy Fake Literary Profundity, Ayn Rand.

4) What's with the "Nietzchean resentment"? Seems like every time you get in over yer head on an essay, you toss out some "Nietzchean [sic] resentment". Was Nietzsche big during your dorm room days? What the fuck is that supposed to mean, really?

5) what 'Thomas Hughes' said

PS:

re: "...What did Hunter Thompson propose to do to make the world work better? What would he have proposed to do about fixing Social Security, stopping terrorists, or reconciling the races?

If you judge Thompson by the same standards you apply to the political puppets on the right and the left -- um, YOU DON'T GET IT:

Sometimes, it's enough of a 'contribution' to the cesspool of culture just to *piss on the parade.

Somebody's gotta do it.


* see all of Shark's writings for more

Man, i just began typing up a long and icredibly sarcastic dig at Al Barger's incredibly lame post. Then i thought why waste my time with scum like him..

To qoute,

"He oft claimed that his journalistic beat was "the death of the American dream." Thing is, the American dream isn't dying or dead. It's in somewhere near as good a shape as ever."

Jesus Christ Al, do you live in America at the moment?

Hunter would be turing in his grave hearing that kind of jibberish.

I hope you and your 'like' die an early, painful death.

Thank the Lord i live in Australia where your perveted American Dream is diluted to the point that only fools and greedy money loving religous types are infected.

R.I.P - Hunter S. Thompson

HST selfish?

People who drive around in SUVs do more damage in a year than HST ever did to a hotel room. Greedy? You don't think this country is a little greedy?

HST's personal behavior was a shock-value prop for writing about the hyprocricy of his times and ours.

You can't dismiss HST as some clever stylist, a turn-of-the-phrase artist. Read again the first few graphs of F&L; it's brilliant. And try to duplicate something on the level of his Hells Angels work. It's a work extraordinary personal courage, writing, and a challenge to every journalist. HST lived. He lived every day. Who among us can say the same?

I would generally agree with Al B on this but he goes too far in saying Hunter is worthless, which I never would say.

nice job Al, art is not life

How someone could say that Thompson contributed little is astounding to me.
But so was the election of George W. Bush

Every screaming cell in Thompson's tortured, burnout body was a little Jesus Christ sacrifice to "true liberty". How many of our kids are locked up on bogus charges of possession of this or that fucken' substance. What kind of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are they experienced in our great free country.

Thompson knew the darkened truth of every American life: not only can the government jail you for actual crimes like cheating, stealing and killing, they can jail you for ingesting a substance which you've decided might enhance your pursuit of pleasure. Thompson' knew deep down to his chemically mutated genetics what the pitiful sheepish majority of the people fail to see: that a government best controls its people by the regulation of how they are allowed to pursue pleasure.

Thompson lived his life spitting in the eye of this control. His existence was about doing what ever the fuck you want when ever the fuck you want to: as long as it does not aggress on another. Sure he garbed a tit here and there and he suffered the legal ramifications there of and, of course, he was totally fucked up, he knew he had a right to be. He knew that inherent in the American wind that blew through Woody Creek was his inalienable right to liberty... Thompson style.

The press is failing the nation at the moment. A positive press pimple reared it's ugly head during the 60's and 70's but we've since slipped backward like a posh, comfortable, middle-class house sliding down a rain saturated California hill.

The nation in these strange days of 2005 is saturated like a huge pile of wet dung and it's ready to tumble and bury us in a pile of shit.

And as for the quote: "Thing is, the American dream isn't dying or dead. It's in somewhere near as good a shape as ever." I assume that you must think that having a 52-inch plasma-full-injected, up-your-ass, vibrating TV (owned by Citibank VISA) set up in your living room and a Wal-Mart next door is living the American dream. I pity you man, I pity you and all the poor suckers out there.

The king is dead, long live the king.
The next to pick up the torch.
The next in a long line of Road Men for the Lords of Karma.

Thomas Hughes [comment #3]- Ouch! I didn't see that critique coming. I'd hate for people to think that I'm some cheap do-gooder. However, I don't think I have much reputation for that. Feel free to ask around Blogcritics.

It's not that I expect everybody to spend all their time trying to fix everything, but it takes more than pooping on everything all the time to impress me.

Lasting Jones, are you out of your tree? Setting Thompson up as a a little dashboard martyr is just dumb. In the first place, he never did any significant jail time, other than missing high school graduation cause he was in jail for a burglary. He certainly never did time for drugs.

More significantly, you're absolutely deluding yourself if you think that he'd have given enough of a shit about anyone else to be in any form martyring himself. Hell, he didn't care enough about his 6 year old grandson to take his suicide out in the woods or somewhere away from where he'd be directly exposed.

I don't think Thompson cared if he was a martyr or not.

I beleive he was so open about his substances abuse that it was danaggled carrotlike a constant challenge to the powers that be: "Here come get me and through me in jail you Nazi swine. I blow pot smoke in the face of your tiresome regulations."

Thompson was not a liberal.

He was a gun toting, explosion loving, NRA life member. A libertarian. A truth loving pragmatist. He knew you don't have to help a old lady across the street to be morally sound. You just had to not run her over.

Two more bits. Spend them wisely.

Obviously no-one's going to turn Barger's head regarding the fundamental stoopidness of Rand's writing, but, since the main topic is his moral judgment of one celebrity author's private life, I can't help wondering what he thinks of hers.
____________________

I was thumbing through one of those books of Hunter's letters (or maybe it was a review?), and was struck by a passage from an early one in which he discussed how he planned to contrive a persona so as to get famous. One of the obit (or maybe a blog discussion?) recalled a public appearance in which he pretended to be drinking JD and getting progressively drunk (not that he didn't do such things).

As to his writing, I think it was occasionally profound, not just inventive and funny. As to the actual person behind it, well, I'd say he was imperfect. Unlike me.

No, Thompson was NOT a libertarian, but merely a libertine. He voted for Nader, not Browne.

And how do you get "martyr" out of any of this? Again, he was never jailed for his chemical indulgences. He partied hearty until he got completely bored with it, then blew his brains out. That sure doesn't make him Jesus.

I had to look libertine up:

1. One who acts without moral restraint; a dissolute person.
2. One who defies established religious precepts; a freethinker.

I guess your right.

I guess that's what I am too.

There is probably a litle bit of jesus in all of us. This girl or that girl, this job or that stinking job, there's a little sacrifice in every decision we make. I mean just think of what you could have been doing besides running for public office.

You could have been fishing.

You've squandered your time and martyred your manly hunting fising instinct

I've martyred my manly fishing instinct? Yowsa! I'll have whatever you're having.

so, a person is 'of merit' by some set of objective parameters?

you know, the butterfly effect works in just about any realm. just the fact that thompson inspired a bunch of folks to become writers is good enough for me.

Thought I'd post another response to another jackass opinion writer, but looks like the masses are well ahead of me in this case. It's OK, everyone knows you are not even close to capable of providing stimulative interesting banter from your article here, and I understand your frustration.
Hunter Thompson's books are in the fiction section at your library. Others would say that HST told more truth through his fiction than most true journalists. Anyhow, he never claimed his work to be true, so why are you picking on him as a journalist. HE WAS A FICTIONAL AUTHOR! He entertained he provoked thought, he just plain provoked.
Quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." If you can't relate to this then I don't think your opinion is even valid. Let the people who enjoyed his work alone to mourn. I really had no interest in books as a high school student until I read Fear and loathing. Within a year I read most of his work. Is that so bad that an author stimulates a youthful mind out of apathy and into looking at what is really going on and getting pissed and vocal about it? Sorry to say I lost interest in your article before I could get through it. I did read enough to know that you're probably jealous that you'll never be half the man as HST.
As for his suicide, the guy was in a lot of pain, crazy, and probably wanted to go out before he ended up a slobbering fool in a home. I think care-takers would be thankful for this.
Anyhow, nice effort to discredit an insane soul, who just so happened to be able to write incredible material, entertain, and be compared to some of the greatest writers of our time, speak out against gross injustice (go to lisl.com), and speak up for the less fortunate and downtrodden in the world.

Yo. Barger. I'm not here to interrupt the shit-storm or anything. But since you went and started talking about "facts" and "Nixon", then I'm here to point out that it wasn't Woodward and Bernstein who "took the bastard down". It was "Maximum John" Sirica who did that by squeezing the shit out of the burglars.

History is a wonderful thing, and the facts are there for anyone who wants to go get them and stop foisting ridiculous horseshit in the public record.

Happy to help.

Al,I'm not here to rag about ya slagging
off Thompson, as I really don't a f**k
one way or the other.His earlier books
were entertaining enough,but I've got at
least a hundred other writers I'd read
any day of the week before him.

I just wanted to give my take on what
you said about Thompson talking about
Nixon orchestrating the killings of the
Ohio St. students. Of course he did not
directly order this as you well know,you
were just looking for something else to
bash HST about.Again I don't care either
way. But,what Thompson's point was as I
am sure you fully comprehended was that
Pres. Nixon created the environment that
made this possible not in a direct sense
naturally but through his aggressively
pro Law & Order stance on the anti-war
movement all over the USA in the late
60's/early 70's.

I know you were just spinning this as to
have something else to bitch & rag about
as regards H.S.T but considering his um,
"colorful" life I'm sure you could have
done better than to accuse Thompson of
actually directly saying that Nixon had
those hippies gunned down. Again though,
Nixon layed down the groundwork for it
happen and the atmosphere to where this
kind of police state facsist bullshit
could happen in the first place.

As for the rest of your piece I agree w/
about 97% and I'm afraid if this f'ing
love fest for HST keeps up much longer
people are going to start pushing for
his canonization.

You gotta admire in a sick way all these sad-sod blog shits that post about Hunter simply because of the traffic it'll rake in. Even more you gotta admire (in a pathetic sort of way) the right-leaning antics of those that know absolutely nothing about the man and display such ignorance with their rants. All least this particular sodomite bothered to google up a quote or two in an attempt to look literal and educated.

I mean for fuck's sake man. The last guy praising his words preaching for Nixon.

Seriously, what the hell. 90% of you bitching had no idea who he was until recently anyways so bugger the fuck off you disrespectful neocon children of the 80's.

Let's face it, HST did some great writing and observing early on, then repeated himself for 30 years. I think he killed himself because he was flat-out bored with the process and a life with extremely narrow parameters and interests. He painted himself into a corner he could never get out of until the end.

I never thought about Thompson in those terms, Eric, and to be honest I don't know enough about his later writing to agree or disagree (though I enjoyed his ESPN column for the last three or four years, for what it's worth).

But if it is true, it wouldn't be surprising in that drugs and alcohol abuse seem to have a way of sucking the creative juices out of the best of us over time.

And really, Thompson's death could be as banal as that: the drugs got him, or got to him, just like so many other abusers.

E, I agree the ESPN column, although I only read it periodically, gave him some focus and he thankfully rallied to a certain extent, but it appears to have not been enough to hold his attention.

The ESPN column gave him a productive outlet of sorts, but it was nothing at all new creatively. He was just re-writing the same silly rants, and substituting the word "Bush" for "Nixon."

most of my favorite artists are shallow, selfish schmucks. Which is great because it absolves me of having to like them, I can just like their work.

Al, I loved the way this piece began. For awhile in college I worked at a bookstore and it was a little sad how predictable people were in their tastes. You'd have to show the emo kids where to find Kerouac and you'd have to show the frat brats where to find HST.

Excellent point, Katharine.

What or who are "emo kids" ?

For the record: I'm a Kerouac and Thompson fan. Dump those two in with two of my favorite artists -- Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison -- and you have quite a cadre of talented-up-the-ass, drugged-up selfish pricks.

You'd have to show the emo kids...

these days, you'd have to show both the emo kids AND the frat brats where the books are (since they can't be found in instant messenger, facebook or the playstation).

Mark - Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons plays off that theme rather well as he describes in great deal a richly decorated, old library in a fraternity house now used to hold nothing but empty pizza boxes.

Now, someone help me out please: what are emo kids?

look up the music genre of emo. that'll get you there.

Ah, I see. I'm guessing like trance/rave kind of stuff? Those are Kerouac people? This is all new on me.

no, go to amazon and do a music search on a band like..uh...Dashboard Confessional.

you'll see listmania stuff for all sorts of emo.

c'mon, there's gotta be some emo fiends out there! help a guy out!!

Lou Barlow is true 'emo' - and don't forget Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes)

I don't think the emo kids are into Kerouac or HST, unless it is show some sort of intellectual superority as a coolness factor. I'm willing to bet most people commenting on bc and elsewhere after HST's death had little to no connection or interest in his work/life, other than having imbibed some of the same cactus juice.

HW [comment #25]- Do please feel free to rag on me. I'm sure I deserve it- but not for calling out HST on the Nixon obit. He was just LYING on Nixon there.

You could go on as you do about Nixon setting a bad tone for law and order or some such. I'm somewhat skeptical of applying any of that beyond federal officers under Nixon's control, but you might would halfway have a reasonable point to make.

Thompson didn't say that Nixon set a bad example, he said, "he connived to have them attacked and slain by troops from the National Guard." A reasonable person reading that would have to conclude that Nixon conspired (connived) to murder these college students, if they're unwise enough to think that Thompson was a teller of truth.

Nixon simply flat-out did not do anything like that. Thompson had to know better. He just didn't care about the truth. Any trusting reader without a knowledge of the history of the Kent State incident would be deceived.

Deception is supposed to be the work of politicians, not journalists.

I think the only "shallow, selfish schmuck" in this cheap blog is the author, Al Barger. Only a jackass would write something this foolish, and publish it for all to see without doing the real research that your little attacks require to carry any weight. In the end, you are probably just another weasel on the internet trying to be somebody. Cheap shots and half-baked facts do not make for real criticism. As HST would say, it is like "the barking of dumb dogs". And so it is.

See also Orwell on Salvador Dali. Do I dare attempt a hyperlink, which works appx. 10% of the time here in the Blogcritics comments? I do.

You may reasonably to some significant extent judge a writer by their fans. I'm all in favor of being criticized, and wildly so is great- but look at the tone and (lack of) content of, say, comments here #10, 26, 40.

Really, these people are tending to make me think I was a little too generous with HST, if this is the kind of defense he inspires.

NC- I'm not sure why you'd get hyperlinks to work only 10%. I've not had much problem with them. Your Orwell link here worked fine for me.

I'm with Cody. FUCKIN' A BUBBA!! This is BAT country!! Get over it! Anyone with a quarter of a brain would know Nixon didn't "Connive to murder students." I don't think you have to worry about history classes using Dr. Gonzo to teach about the Nixon era, anymore than referencing Fear and Loathing to teach kids not to abuse drugs!
GOOD DAY TO YOU

Dear Al Barger:

Some guys have them and some never will.
I would be willing to bet you are young AND a Republican and a fool as well.
Hunters bowel movements were more complicated than your whole life.

Mr Chapman continues the illustration about HST's character coming out through his fans. Note Chapman's utterly gratuitous hostility.

HAHA.. this is a funny post.

Hunter must have been a pretty good writer to garner such violent opposition.

Maybe people should make distinction between his person and his writing if they are going to debate him. I think it's clear that he wasn't a great, ethical, or particularly moral person. He abused his body despite having responsibilities to those who loved him. Isn't that the case? If my father did that I'd probably hate him for it. But perhaps I'm wrong, maybe he was a good father.

Anyway his writing I think, was pretty good. At least it appealed to my tastes.

Here, lets have a look at how the people feel that used to have to put up with Hunter the most, Aspen. Check out this link and see for yourself how the Pitkin County community is taking this.
http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1306077&secid=1

Also, go to Lisl.com and see for yourself the efforts (he brought lawyers, guns, and money) quite litteraly, except the guns, to help a poor hippy girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and is now spending life in prison without parole for an officers shooting by a skinhead she only met that day, that happened while she was handcuffed in the back of a squad car!
Yet you seem to be saying that Hunter's only cause was himself. That's just a bunch of shit.

Any self informed admirer of HST's would appreciate the utter beauty in his act. At first realization I was shocked and saddened and then I recalled everything that the strange beast represented, a true means to self imposed destiny something that most of you will never realize and will unadmittingly loath in turn. Only an enlightened individual could understand sentiments of such levity and it is a shame that you as a whole were not as equally illuminated by HST and his works.

It is even more humorous that theese feeble individuals could comment on HST's work, let alone his morality, consciousness, and overall intent, without being informed as to his collected works as am I and an entire generation of Gonzo journalists and twisted freaks as well.

What is more intensely arrogant about some of you bastards posted is the simple fact that you have no place to judge any one especially posteumously. To any one interested here are respectable instances of preponderence on the great DR. as listed by their respective URL's.

SONiK

Hunter S. Thompson dead at 67
'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' author takes own life
Monday, February 21, 2005 Posted: 3:49 PM EST (2049 GMT)


Thompson, center, with actors Benicio Del Toro, left, and Johnny Depp at the 1998 premiere of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

(CNN) -- Journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, who unleashed the concept of "gonzo journalism" in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself in the head Sunday at his home near Aspen, Colorado, police and his family said.
"On February 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado," said a statement issued by Thompson's son, Juan Thompson, to the Aspen Daily News.
"The family will shortly provide more information about memorial service and media contacts. Hunter prized his privacy, and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family."
A dispatcher for the Pitkin County Sheriff's Department confirmed Thompson's death.
Neither the family statement nor Pitkin County sheriff's officials said whether Thompson left a note, The Associated Press reported.
Thompson, 67, was associated with the "New Journalism" movement of the 1960s, in which writers -- most notably Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese -- took a more novelistic and personal approach to their subjects.
Thompson, who freely dropped cynical opinions and references to his drug and alcohol use into his stories, termed his style "gonzo journalism."
His account of a drug-fueled trip to cover a district attorneys' anti-drug conference as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine was the seed of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," perhaps his best-known work.
Subtitled "A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream," the 1971 book included his lament on the passing of the 1960s and its "sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil."
"There was no point in fighting -- on our side or theirs," he wrote. "We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark -- the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
In "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72," he described the campaign leading to Richard Nixon's re-election as president with terms like "brutal" and "depraved"; puckishly speculated that Sen. Ed Muskie -- the early Democratic front-runner, whose poor showing in the New Hampshire primary doomed his candidacy -- was under the influence of a psychoactive drug, Ibogaine; routinely mocked candidate and senator Hubert H. Humphrey ("the Hump"); and bemoaned Nixon's looming victory by proclaiming, "Jesus, where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to become president?"
CNN national correspondent Bruce Morton -- who covered the '72 campaign for CBS -- remembered Thompson as a bigger-than-life presence who wrote "good stuff."
"He'd perked the campaign plane or the campaign bus up a whole lot, he'd come out and say, had hey, weird stuff's going to happen, Hunter is here," Morton said on CNN's "American Morning." "He was also, it's fair to say, a very good writer. You read his stuff in Rolling Stone magazine, and maybe it wasn't what you've seen and maybe it wasn't what had happened, but by golly, it was good stuff and it was fun."
Morton also recalled the last time he heard from Thompson -- more than 30 years ago.
"The campaign was over, I think early 1973, and I got a phone call, saying the CIA has me, can you lend me 20 bucks," Morton said. "I said 20 bucks is no problem, but I don't think they'll let me in at Langley [Virginia, CIA headquarters].
"You just never knew with him. He was a free spirit and a gifted one."
Taking risks
There is no way to grasp what a shallow, contemptible and hopelessly dishonest old hack Hubert Humphrey is until you've followed him around for a while.
-- Hunter S. Thompson, from 'Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72'


Thompson's other works included "The Great Shark Hunt," a collection of Watergate-era essays; "Generation of Swine," his lament on the youth of the 1980s; and his account of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential win, "Better than Sex."
His lone novel, "The Rum Diaries," was written in 1959 and published in 1998, while a collection of letters, "The Proud Highway: The Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman," came out in 1997.
Hunter Stockton Thompson was born July 18, 1937, in Louisville, Kentucky. He served in the Air Force and was a newspaper sports editor. In 1966, he published "Hell's Angels," a fairly straightforward chronicle about the motorcycle gang, which Thompson had followed around for a year.
In 1970, he ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, on a Freak Power Party platform of decriminalizing drugs. He lost in a tight race.
The peak of his fame came in the 1970s, when he contributed stories to a number of magazines.
His most notable client was Rolling Stone, where the dispatches that became "Campaign Trail" originally appeared. His battles with Rolling Stone founder Jann S. Wenner were legendary; his stories occasionally arrived on odd media, such as rolls of teletype paper, and Thompson's expense accounts were often challenged by the magazine. (Examples of Thompson's Rolling Stone work have been on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.)
"He may have died relatively young but he made up for it in quality if not quantity of years," Paul Krassner, the veteran radical journalist and one of Thompson's former editors, told The Associated Press by phone from his Southern California home.
"It was hard to say sometimes whether he was being provocative for its own sake or if he was just being drunk and stoned and irresponsible," quipped Krassner, founder of the leftist publication The Realist and co-founder of the Youth International (YIPPIE) party.
"But every editor that I know, myself included, was willing to accept a certain prima donna journalism in the demands he would make to cover a particular story," he said. "They were willing to risk all of his irresponsible behavior in order to share his talent with their readers."
'Shock and dismay'

America's answer to the monstrous Mr. Hyde. He speaks for the werewolf in us.
-- Hunter S. Thompson on Richard M. Nixon

In recent years, Thompson wrote a column for the sports network ESPN's Web site. In his most recent piece, posted February 15, he describes shooting at golf balls like skeet with a friend near his longtime home -- he called it "a fortified compound" -- outside Aspen.
"The general reaction here is shock and dismay, because he was such a figure in town," Aspen resident John Hoag told CNN.
Still, Hoag said, Thompson remained a private person. "The most news we heard from him was when a pack of dogs killed his peacock, Attila, and he broke his leg in Hawaii last year."
Thompson also was the model for the character of "Uncle Duke" in the "Doonesbury" comic strip. But Thompson strongly disliked the characterization, once telling an interviewer that he would set "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau on fire if the two ever met.
In later years, however, Thompson said he had made peace with the "Uncle Duke" portrayal.
"I got used to it a long time ago," he told Freezerbox magazine in 2003. "I used to be a little perturbed by it. It was a lot more personal ... It no longer bothers me."
In 1980, actor Bill Murray portrayed Thompson in the film "Where the Buffalo Roam." And in 1998, the film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was released, based on Thompson's book and starring Johnny Depp as the journalist. A new film reportedly is in production based on Thompson's novel "The Rum Diaries."
The writer himself, Hoag said, will be missed. "There's no one in the world these days who writes the truth ... as he seems to, to me," he said. "He spoke to the world and said what people were afraid to.
___________
Hunter S Thompson dies at 67

Staff and agencies
Monday February 21, 2005


Thompson: "Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist"

Self-styled "gonzo journalist", novelist and gun collector Hunter S Thompson shot himself dead last night at his home in the Colorado mountains. He was 67.
Thompson, an acerbic counterculture writer, popularised a new form of fictional journalism in books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".
"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News. Thompson's wife, Anita, was not home at the time.
Besides the 1972 drug-hazed classic about Thompson's visit to Las Vegas, he also wrote Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72. The central character in those wild, sprawling satires was Dr Thompson, a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.
Thompson is credited with helping to pioneer New Journalism - or, as he dubbed it, "gonzo journalism" - in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. Much of his earliest work appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.
"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist," Thompson said in 2003. "You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."
An acute observer of the decadence and depravity in American life, Thompson also wrote such collections as Generation of Swine and Songs of the Doomed. His first ever novel, The Rum Diary, written in 1959, was first published in 1998.

Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and once said Richard Nixon represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character."
Thompson also was the model for Garry Trudeau's balding Uncle Duke in the comic strip Doonesbury and was portrayed on screen by Johnny Depp in a film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Other books include The Great Shark Hunt, Hell's Angels and The Proud Highway. His most recent effort was Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness.
"He may have died relatively young but he made up for it in quality if not quantity of years," Paul Krassner, the veteran radical journalist and one of Thompson's former editors, told Associated Press.
"It was hard to say sometimes whether he was being provocative for its own sake or if he was just being drunk and stoned and irresponsible," quipped Krassner, founder of the leftwing publication the Realist and co-founder of the Youth International (Yippie) party.
"But every editor that I know, myself included, was willing to accept a certain prima donna journalism in the demands he would make to cover a particular story," he said. "They were willing to risk all of his irresponsible behaviour in order to share his talent with their readers."
The writer's compound in Woody Creek, not far from Aspen, was almost as legendary as Thompson. He prized peacocks and weapons; in 2000, he accidentally shot and slightly wounded his assistant, Deborah Fuller, trying to chase a bear off his property.
Born July 18 1937, in Kentucky, Hunter Stocton Thompson served two years in the Air Force, where he was a newspaper sports editor. He later became a proud member of the National Rifle Association and almost was elected sheriff in Aspen in 1970 under the Freak Power Party banner.
Thompson's heyday came in the 1970s, when his larger-than-life persona was gobbled up by magazines. His pieces were of legendary length and so was his appetite for adventure and trouble; his purported fights with Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner were rumoured in many cases to hinge on expense accounts for stories that did not materialise.
It was the content that raised eyebrows and tempers. His book on the 1972 presidential campaign involving, among others, Edmund Muskie, Hubert Humphrey and Nixon was famous for its scathing opinion.
Working for Muskie, Thompson wrote, "was something like being locked in a rolling box car with a vicious 200-pound water rat." Nixon and his "Barbie doll" family were "America's answer to the monstrous Mr Hyde. He speaks for the werewolf in us."
Thompson wrote of Humphrey: "There is no way to grasp what a shallow, contemptible and hopelessly dishonest old hack Hubert Humphrey is until you've followed him around for a while."
The approach won him praise among the masses as well as critical acclaim. Writing in the New York Times in 1973, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt worried Thompson might someday "lapse into good taste".
"That would be a shame, for while he doesn't see America as Grandma Moses depicted it, or the way they painted it for us in civics class, he does in his own mad way betray a profound democratic concern for the polity," he wrote. "And in its own mad way, it's damned refreshing."


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Hunter S. Thompson, whose life and writing, vivid and quirky reflections of each other, made him one of the principal symbols of the American counterculture, shot and killed himself yesterday at his home near Aspen.
Thompson, 67, was celebrated as a practitioner of an outraged form of personal journalism, offering off-beat ideas and observations in a style that was wildly and vividly his own and that brought him cult-like status and widespread recognition.


Hunter S. Thompson


His books on politics and society were regarded as groundbreaking among journalists and other students of current affairs in their irreverence and often angry insights.
Among those for which he was famed are "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail." He rode for almost a year with the Hell's Angels motorcycle outfit for research on another book. In all he wrote at least a dozen.
Jonathan Yardley, writing last year in The Washington Post, called him "a genuinely unique figure in American journalism," citing his comic writing and social criticism.
Thompson, often seen wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap and with a cigarette dangling from his lips, showed up frequently as Uncle Duke in "Doonesbury," the Garry Trudeau comic strip.
Part of what created his image of outlaw independence and defiance of norms and conventions was his claim to intimate familiarity with a variety of drugs and mind altering chemicals.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone . . . but they've always worked for me," he once wrote.
Pitkin County, Colo., Sheriff Bob Braudis said in a brief telephone interview that Thompson was alone in his kitchen of his Woody Creek home when he shot himself with a handgun. His wife was at a gym, Braudis said.
The sheriff said Thompson had seemed "still on top of his game."
But Braudis's wife, Louisa Davidson, said "he was not going to age gracefully, he was going to go out with a bang. He was tormented."
Thompson was known for a style that he described as "gonzo journalism," a form of "new journalism." It was based on the idea that fidelity to fact did not always blaze the way to truth.
Instead, "gonzo journalism" and its practitioners suggested that a deeper truth could be found in the ambiguous zones between fact and fiction.
"Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long," Thompson told interviewers in a characteristic pronouncement on both institutions.
"You can't be objective about Nixon," he said. "How can you be objective about Clinton?"
Among the writers and works he cited as major influences were most of the classic American authors, including Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, many or most read early in life. He also named the Biblical book of Revelation.
He was born in Louisville, and after a wild youth entered the Air Force, according to one account, as part of a parole agreement.
His writing career is traced to the 1950s, when he contributed to a base newspaper while in the Air Force.
He later wrote unpublished fiction, reported for the mainstream media from Latin America, and made his name with his Hell's Angels article in Harper's magazine.
His star rose while he worked for Rolling Stone magazine, where the "Fear and Loathing" books first appeared.
His beat, he once said was "the death of the American dream." Interviewers later suggested to him that he in a way embodied that dream. They said he exploded in profanity, but conceded that perhaps he did.


Hunter S. Thompson, the counterculture writer credited with creating a new form of journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," was found dead Sunday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Aspen- area home, authorities said.
Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, a friend of Thompson, and Thompson's son, Juan, who reportedly found his father's body, confirmed the death of the 67-year-old writer to the Aspen Daily News.
"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement to the newspaper, according to the Associated Press.
Thompson's wife, Anita, was not home at the time of his death.
San Francisco writer Ben Fong-Torres, a former colleague of Thompson's at Rolling Stone magazine, said he was surprised and saddened to hear about Thompson's apparent suicide.
"He was one of the great pioneers of new journalism and his own invention: gonzo journalism, in which he immersed himself in the story," Fong-Torres said. "He presented it in a way that nobody else, as hard as they tried, could imitate. He was singular and will not be matched anytime soon."
Fong-Torres said Thompson leaves a legacy in the field of journalism.
"It doesn't matter that he was a guy who was capable of doing anything and known to live on-and-beyond the edge," he said in a phone interview Sunday night. "It's a tremendous loss, no matter where he was, at what stage he was, how ill he had gotten -- he was still capable of humorous insights."
Chronicle Executive Vice President and Editor Phil Bronstein spent a few nights last summer with Thompson and his wife in Colorado. He said that Thompson was recovering from spinal surgery and a broken leg from a fall but that there were no signs that the eccentric Thompson was depressed.
They watched the Republican Convention and hours of footage for a documentary that was being made about Thompson. He showed off a new neon shooting target he had, and he held court at the local Woody Creek Tavern, Bronstein said.
"He was exercised about what was going on in the world as he always was," Bronstein said. "He seemed, as always, bizarre and interesting and fascinating and was a remarkably charming and friendly host."
Thompson, who wrote for the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner in the mid-to-late 1980s, lived the legend he created with his writing.
David McCumber, a former editor at the Examiner and now managing editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, edited Thompson's columns at the Examiner in the mid-1980s.
"Everything was legitimate about the man's reputation," he said. "The surprise was as I got to know him ... everything was real ... and that could be scary sometimes."
He said that one day he was on a three-way call with Thompson and Gary Hart's campaign manager when the campaign manager learned that the Miami Herald had the story about Hart's relationship with Donna Rice.
Thompson was at his home in Woody Creek outside Aspen and remembered that his neighbor singer/songwriter Don Henley knew Rice. He went to Henley's house, rifled his drawers, and found a picture for the Examiner, making it the first news organization to have a picture of Rice.
"We always had a very active time. It was never dull," McCumber said. "One of the joys of editing Hunter was you never knew if you were going to get hallucinatory prose or trenchant analysis," he said.
Jeanette Etheredge, another close friend of Thompson and owner of the North Beach fixture, Tosca, said he knew where every ice machine was at every motel in San Francisco.
One night when they were out driving around, he stopped abruptly in front of the Seal Rock Inn and jumped out.
"When he came back, he had a bucket of ice for his bottle," she said.
Chronicle Executive News Editor Jay Johnson, who also edited Thompson's columns when he wrote for the Examiner, said Thompson could not dictate over the phone, so he filed his stories page by page over the fax, sending multiple revisions as the two spent many hours throughout the night and into the morning "wrestling the column to the ground."
"Nobody was as much his editor as his sounding board. He needed to talk it out and get reaction to it. It was not the average creative process," Johnson said.
One morning as deadline neared and they were still working it out, Thompson, who was known to have an affinity for controlled substances, told Johnson, "Our real drug of choice is adrenaline."
Johnson said Thompson was easiest to work with when he was covering a presidential campaign. But he was often just "riffing," Johnson said.
He fondly recalled one night when Thompson told him how he had tried to cheer up a friend who was scheduled to go in for back surgery. He took a bunch of explosives out to the backyard and stuffed them into his Jeep. As the hood flew into the air and the Jeep exploded into pieces, the two friends realized what they had projected into the sky would soon come back down.
"They are like dancing around with this shrapnel coming down," Johnson said.
Johnson told him to write it down and that became Thompson's next column.
Johnson said it seemed that part of the reason Thompson enjoyed writing his column for the Examiner was that he had a burning desire to be plugged in. In the days before the Internet, Thompson turned to Johnson to give him the latest news.
"By calling in, he could ask what was on the wires. He would ask me to read him stuff. That way he could be involved in the business," Johnson said.
When he was in San Francisco, Thompson was a regular at Tosca, even running the bar once when owner Etheredge was out getting a root canal.
He broke his ankle once doing a pirouette off the bar, she said, and then refused medical help, instead taping his broken ankle with electrical tape.
She said he was always a gentleman. One time after hanging out at his hotel all night and into the morning, she told him that she had to go home. It was about 5 a.m. and he insisted on escorting her in a taxi.
But when they were walking through the hotel lobby to get into a cab, she noticed he was wearing just underwear. And when they reached her house, she had to give him money to get back to the hotel.
Sunday night, she was shocked by the death of someone who was so vibrant.
"I spoke to him a few weeks ago and he sounded good," she said. "The one person I would never think would do something like that goes and does it."
Thompson was born in Louisville, Ky., on July 18, 1937, His father, Jack, was an insurance agent. Thompson got his start in newspaper writing while he was serving in the Air Force in the late 1950s.
An acute observer of the decadence and depravity in American life, Thompson wrote such books as "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" in 1973 and the collections "Generation of Swine" and "Songs of the Doomed." His first- ever novel, "The Rum Diary," written in 1959, was first published in 1998.
"The Rum Diary" came out of Thompson's experiences in Puerto Rico. Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy, who had been friends with Thompson since he rejected the then-young writer for a job at the San Juan Star in Puerto Rico, described Thompson as a trailblazer.
"Hunter found a way to be new in the world. His attitude, his language, his subject matter, his take on history, his plunge into booze and drugs -- all these were singular," Kennedy said. "Maybe other people behaved this way, but nobody ever wrote about it with such spectacular originality. He was all by himself."
Thompson's other books include "Hell's Angels" and "The Proud Highway." His most recent effort was "Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and The Downward Spiral of Dumbness."
"Hunter was a gifted writer, political observer and sportsman with a huge appetite for life in every dimension," said William R. Hearst III, a director of the Hearst Corp. "Like Mark Twain before him he occasionally wrote for this newspaper and neither of them tolerated fools gleefully. We will miss his words and collect his letters."











Remembering Hunter: Ed Bradley
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Remembering Hunter: Jim Irsay
Colts owner Jim Irsay ...

Family: Thompson likely planned suicide
Journalist Hunter S. Thompson ...

Thompson wasn't a prima donna, just primo
John Walsh remembers Hunter ...

Author Hunter S. Thompson fatally shoots self.

Associated Press
ASPEN, Colo. -- The widow of journalist Hunter S. Thompson said her husband killed himself while the two were talking on the phone.
"I was on the phone with him, he set the receiver down and he did it. I heard the clicking of the gun," Anita Thompson told the Aspen Daily News in Friday's editions.
Remembering Hunter


Those columns. Those books. That sense of humor.
• Farewell, Hunter: Recollections from his friends
• His final Page 2 column
• His ESPN.com archive

She said her husband had asked her to come home from a health club so they could work on his weekly ESPN.com column -- but instead of saying goodbye, he set the telephone down and shot himself.
Thompson said she heard a loud, muffled noise, but didn't know what had happened. "I was waiting for him to get back on the phone," she said.
Hunter Thompson, famous for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and other works of New Journalism, shot himself in the head Sunday in the kitchen of his Aspen-area home. He was 67.
His son, daughter-in-law and 6-year-old grandson were in the house when the shooting occurred.
"The way he chose to do it was not a surprise, but the timing was a total, total surprise," Juan Thompson said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
Anita Thompson, 32, said her husband had discussed killing himself in recent months and had been issuing verbal and written directives about what he wanted done with his body, his unpublished works and his assets.
His suicidal talk put a strain on their relationship, she said.
"He wanted to leave on top of his game. I wish I could have been more supportive of his decision," she said. "It was a problem for us."
Juan Thompson said the "gonzo journalist" was not acting out of pain or desperation but probably decided it was time for him to go.
"One thing he said many times was that 'I'm a road man for the lords of karma.' It's cryptic, but there's an implication there that he may have decided that his work was done and that he didn't want to overstay his welcome; it was time to go," the 40-year-old son said by telephone from his father's home.
"He was not unhappy, he was not depressed, none of the things you would associate with someone who took his own life," he said.
Juan Thompson said his father had been in pain from a hip replacement, a broken leg and back surgery, but "I really don't believe it was motivated by pain."
Thompson was cremated Tuesday in Glenwood Springs. A private memorial service will be held March 5 in Aspen, with a public commemoration planned for spring or summer.
Thompson's family is looking into firing his ashes from a cannon, as he had wanted.
"It's a realistic possibility," the son said.

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GoneGonzoGone

In my opinion, his suicide was not a surprise. He was getting old and it was getting harder and harder to get attention. His self-destructive lifestyle was catching up with him. According to reports, he had planned this and further he was on the phone with his wife when he did it. Did he think of others? I do not think so.

I do not think he should be compared to Mark Twain. Twain was embittered at the time of his death, but he didn't. like Hunter S. Thompson or Ernest Hemingway, commit suicide. He didn't cop out and talk about overstaying his welcome. Thompson more likely feared death and the indignity of old age and the invisible status old people generally are given.

In my opinion, Thompson was about male bravura and always was thinking of how to gain attention, how to be center stage. It was evident in his writing. What little I have read, prepared me for his suicide.

The real question is: What kind of people find the writings of a man on the path to suicide entertaining or interesting? Isn't that something like being an enabler?

Further, without thinking of others, what can a person really contribute to the world?

I think there are other journalists who have given more, lasting and valuable things to the practice of journalism and writing.

But by going out with a bang, Thompson does guarantee himself a small piece of gruesome immortality.

emo... you know, music about emotions. So, Dashboard Confessional, Matchbook Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World, Bright Eyes, My Chemical Romance. Not the trance/rave stuff, more like the "just effing break up with her" stuff.

Oh, and its totally intellectual superiority as a coolness factor. At least with the emo kids I know. I thought that was part of the emo charm. In addition to being full of feelings they're also insufferable elitists.

emo, you know - you could say Michael Bolton and Celine Dion are anti-emo. :-)

SO, sonik are you a hedgehog? Also, calling yourself a twisted writer of some sort and pasting a bunch of crap you copied from every article you could google makes you so much more credible than the hack that wrote this,or any of the rest of the contributers who may have read nearly every HST book printed? You are sad. You have no personal thoughts to contribute, so just copy and paste eh? You idiot, jesus.

al, you are a jack ass and a half man, go please, for your own good, read "The Proud Highway".

Thanks Katharine -- obviously my utter lack of what emo is or means makes me utterly uncool (and therefore "super cool," in my book).

In any event, I really hope that these emo folk haven't ruined Kerouac for the rest of us... well, they can have the rest at any rate, but leave me On the Road and Dharma Bums.

the thing about 'emo' that has always made me snicker is that i get nothing out of it musically.

i mean, coner obherst writes some pretty cool lyrics...but the music bores me.

oh, and i bet hunter thompson woulda hated it.

;-)

I think I'll leave all of you illiterate priggs to your shallow existences. Read a book get a clue then if you feel the need to run your mouth. Lets see hmmmm I have read and have in my possesion: Fear and Loating in Las Vegas, Hardbound and soft alike as well as, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, The Rum Diary, The Great Shark Hunt, As well as Kingdom of Fear.

I research and read before I talk. I was confused and hurt when I learned of HST's choices, I had a true gut feeling that overcame my sadness a feeling that it was destiny as he wanted it, if you really knew anything about him you would know that he was master of his own destiny more than most of you misled sheep ever will be.

I researched and shared I was dejected and will keep to myself from now on. That is except for my writing.

Keep tapping away to an empty crowd whilst I inform myself and others instead.

SONiK

Mark, I find it amusing that you find the music boring because what I typically like about emo is the music. It may not be the most original music ever, but I still find it to be enjoyable. Conor's interesting lyrically, as is My Chemical Romance but the rest of them... Well, I did already refer to it as music of the "just effing break up with her" variety. You can only sit through so many songs about someone's ex-girlfriend before you start wondering why she didn't break up with him sooner. Its hard to feel sorry for anyone that feels that sorry for themselves.

And, you're right...HST probably would have loathed it.

I just did a super quick self-ed on the emo tip -- not really my scene. But I can see how it's difficult to put a label on it.

In any event, I find My Chemical Romance to be the best of the lot.

BlogCritics: putting you in the know... sweet.

You run away at the first hint of someone challenging your views Sonik? That's not very worthy of a proponent of suicide.

Oh wait, it is. Nevermind.

Good one, Temple!

Eric, You're welcome. I don't think the emo kids could ruin Kerouac. I mean, if the GAP ad didn't, I don't know how a bunch of kids reading his books could. ("Kids" is probably the wrong word for me to use, as I'm talking about people my own age. People my own age I occasionally have a beer with, even.) Kerouac's work will still be what it is in all its booze and jazz and Benzedrine laden glory long after they've all moved on to Dostoevsky or in the case of my friends, Sartre. On a completely unrelated note, the On The Road manuscript is touring the states right now and if you get a chance to see it you totally should. Type-written, 119 feet long, people's real names. It's fantastic.

I'd like to see the One the Road manuscript, Katharine.

Is it the fabled one with no paragraph breaks? If memory serves, he wrote the thing in two weeks on uppers and adrenaline.

That said, the great (self-imposed in part) myth about Kerouac, however, is that he wrote sponstaneously. He wrote from carefully constructed notebooks, which is probably the only reason a masterpiece like On the Road could have come off that fast.

So Ben [comment #43], it's your defense of Thompson that OF COURSE he was making up dumb lies, and we're not supposed to take him seriously?

I don't remember paragraph breaks, but I do remember hand written corrections. The tour schedule is here.

in defense of HST's writing: take him seriously but not literally, I believe that is the spirit he wrote in.

I am not interested in minimizing his literary contributions, which were great, at least in their time, which is long past.

But I agree with Al pretty much across the board on his assessment of Thompson as a person.

And committing suicide is nto hte behavior of a "Master of His Own Destiny," but that of a selfish coward (yes, I am generalizing)

Sonik,
So sorry I doubted you. You are SO close to Hunter, and way to profound to speak with anyone about this anymore. WOW! Did you say you have Fear and loathing in hard and paperback? What a litterary Superman you are! And you read what, four, five of his books? You really must know absolutly everythig then, and this closeness you have with Hunter is astounding. You shoot get a gun and kill yourself in the name of Gonzo! This will prove you Hunter's number one fan, and bring you closer than even now to the man. You will be a legend. Do it. If you're feeling down and out with what your life is all about, lift your head up hig and blow your brains out!

Al,
Yes, I was turned on to Thompson in the late 80s when much of his work was out of date history. I never took much of what he wrote seriously, just the images he could lash out with pen,or typwriter and the ferocity of his words. Perfect stuff when you're an angry young man. I guess after reading Las Vegas as the first one, how could I take the rest serious, right? Anyhow, in the following years, I kept up with nearly every book he put out. Not always totally cutting edge stuff I admit, however it is easy to let his words cary you off to that place, wherever it may be he was taking you, and enjoy the ride.

After reading Al's comments, a question popped into my mind...What the hell has this Al ever done? My guess is Al spends a great deal of time writing about news of the day in hopes someone will stumble across his mediocre opinions. I have to give it to Al for his clever oppurtunism. When a search for news about Hunter pulled up "Selfish, shcmuck..." I clicked on it. The title was catchy, but the content read as wispy as Hunter's later works. I'm guessing Al thinks he'll move the world in some way Hunter couldn't. This delusional view can only be caused by a serious Ibogaine addiction. Al, buddy, get help. Ibogaine kills.

A great to describe the influence of a writer on a reader Ben. !!!!!!! (count 'em seven. It's a Blogcritics tradition)

It was entertainment/fiction you simp. Anyone who calls him a journalist misses the point. Pretty word pictures. Did anybody bitch about Woody Guthries objectivity or lifestyle?

Apparently it is in fact necessary to belabor the obvious for Mr Obvious: Hunter Thompson worked as a JOURNALIST. He was hired to report on actual news events. Under such circumstances, you do NOT get to just make crap up. He repeatedly presented known fictions as if they were actual facts. That's deception, ie LYING.

No one would object to Woody Guthrie or Hunter Thompson on grounds of objectivity. Stating his opinions was not Thompson's sin. It was saying things that were objectively NOT TRUE and presenting them as if they were.

Nor was his lifestyle per se a point of objection - though tales of wife beating, racism and queer bashing don't impress me much. I would not, however, object to him getting high and having a good time. The objection there is that he chose to have those irrelevant things take over as the main subject of his writing.

Tissue mate?

Ever feel like you're treading water, and there's a thousand sharks swimming underneath you just waiting for that wonderful moment, dinnertime. When your pathetic legs cease to function.. mm tasty.

Hey Al,
Case you didn't know it, Hunter's own brother was gay and died of AIDS in the nineties. It was even in one of his books how he had made peace with what his brother was and how they had bonded before his passing.

What book was he wife beating part in? Please inform.

the

Al,
You wrote "I would not, however, object to him getting high and having a good time. The objection there is that he chose to have those irrelevant things take over as the main subject of his writing. "
My question is this...why don't you set the fictitious book down if it bothers you so much, read something else, let the readers who enjoy his work enjoy it, and shut the hell up?!
Who made you the fucking Objection Police?!

AL,
Are you LOATHING this wonderfull negative attention you get here? Or is it just good business for blogcritics? hmmm...

Al - Your comments are a typical FOX-style takedown of all anti-establishment figures.

Discredit and de-certify them personally, professionally, culturally, financially until they become irrelevant.

It would seem that the mainstream conservative media would have learned by now that this type of dis-information campaign against counter-culture heroes works in reverse.

Witness, what the takedown of the Dixie Chicks has done to their careers by making them darlings of a much broader, global audience.

So keep on tearing down Hunter.

Because it only makes his bright light shine brighter.

Hunter will be remembered long after we're dead and gone. Especially with narrow minded critics such as your self cheering from these blog sidelines.

We are onto your game Al and it won't work much longer.

Rave Al, rave on.

Roger, hows about a little reality check for ya hear regarding my supposed "disinformation" campaign against poor HST? For starters, "disinformation" would mean that I'm saying things that aren't true. That is entirely incorrect.

Indeed, that is perfectly and perversely backwards. I don't like Sean Hannity, and I regularly feel strong urges to slap the taste out of Bill O'Reilly's mouth. However, they are not just making stuff up.

Hunter Thompson was known for just making stuff up - and presenting it as if it were fact. THAT is disinformation.

My objections to HST do not have anything to do with him simply being a liberal. Perhaps you need some work on reading comprehension skills.

Also, my supposed "game" of trying to discredit the counterculture, where did you get that from? You're really clueless about my perspective to think that.

Also, I question your idea of what even constitutes "counterculture." Who exactly is counter to what culture? By the time HST became prominent in the 70s, his professional rebel stuff was long since mainstream. HST became a thoroughly processed MSM commodity. He cussed and took a lot of dope- woo, wee, what a rebel! Some freaky snake handling evangelical, now THAT would be countercultural.

MY game is truth, and it will still be going when HST, Richard Nixon, and Dan Rather are all long gone.

ENOUGH! I can't take anyone's whining anymore. For those of you upset by Al's comments, who cares what he has to write. His opinions will vanish into the ether if you let them go. Otherwise, his pieces will continue to appear in the Hot section. There's no need for the name-calling. You all sound like chicks who call the Tom Leykis show and get into arguments with him, not understanding what he's doing.

HST was praised and eulogized by Tom Wolfe, Douglas Brinkley, Mikal Gilmore and many, many other talented individuals across the nation and the world. Al didn't get Hunter, which says plenty about Al, but Hunter isn't for everyone. Why Al has to lash out because he didn't understand Hunter is beyond me, but then I didn't understand the people who felt they had to tell us that suicide was wrong or that Hunter was going to Hell. I disagreed, but I wasn't going to change anyone's minds, so why bother perpetuating tit-for-tat rantings?
---------------------------------------

Al, you do not know what Hunter was hired to do by Rolling Stone, Esquire, ESPN.com, et al. Were you there during the negotiations or did you have access to the contracts? Why would you pretend to have any knowledge in this regard? Does anyone pay you to write? If the editors had had a problem with what Hunter was doing, why would they have printed his work? If they were looking for strictly factual accounts, would they have published his stories and risked libel suits?

Hunter was known as a writer. He started out as a reporter, but then changed. Can you show me where he claimed that everything he wrote was fact? Have you even read his work because it is obvious he mixes fact and fiction in his storytelling? I've seen him say so in interviews and when I saw him speak in Long Beach, CA a number of years ago.

Lastly, in regards to your comment "However, they [O'Reilly & Hannity] are not just making stuff up." You must be joking. Did you really believe that Christmas was "under seige" as reported by these men? Where did you run into this calamity? I can only speak for California, but Christmas went off out here without a hitch. If you look on the web, there's many sites that track their lies and distortions.

Keep the traffic flowing however you see fit.

oh my...just one point here that i didn't make to good olde Al in another Thread..

"Of course, Thompson was a leftist."

i believe Libertarian is the word you are looking for here Al...HST believed in personal freedom...and guns..oh boy howdy did the good Doctor like his guns

not many "lefties" in that camp

there's more..but plenty of folks here are having a good time, and it's a bit late in the evening for me to dissect the partisan screed you have tossed up here

i would almost Respect your effort if you weren't picking on a dead man that can't defend himself

nuff said?

Excelsior!

Thanks Gonzo, for your thoughtful criticism, and perhaps you might have some reasonable points. I certainly won't defend Rand's ridiculous "woman scorned" behavior with Branden.

However, HST was more leftist than a libertarian. He was libertarian only insofar as it involved things that HE liked to do, ie drugs and guns. But he voted for Nader, not Browne, and was constantly pushing the class envy against the "greedheads."

yer Welcome for the discourse Al...glad to engage

i still disagree on your assessment of HST as a "leftie"...merely because he did not vote the "party line" for the Libertarian ticket

as for his pushing against the "greedheads"..i agree there..that was a political crusade that he was constantly engaged in..it was his expressed belief that such sheer unadulterated greed leads to corporate excess that infringes on the Citizen's rights to "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" via various nefarious means

such as ...pollution, releasing faulty products dangerous to the consumer(a Nader argument, now thank Ralph for the seat belt..lol) and a list of other atrocities that i am certain we will disagree about...

to me, the whole point here about "greedheads" can be very simply put..

the Individual has those "inalienable Rights"...NOT the State...(as posited by both HSY and Rand)..but Hunter goes a step further...his underlying argument is that tho the State is empowered by the Citizens to act in THEIR behalf and interests as outlined by the Constitution and limited as per the Bill of Rights...Corporations have NO Rights

this line of Argument seems to have been swept under the rug in the last 20 years as Corporations are allowed to pillage and rape all they want in the name of the next quarters Bottom Line...and some precious few do it with a sense of Civic Reponsibility and Ethics...many do not

those that outsource our Jobs, that Lobby for the FCC to fine 500k for each incident of "indecency" yet place erectile dysfunction ads at all hours of the day and night (explain to YOUR 7 year old kid what that means) adn keep paying our Representitives to not only hike the aforementioned fines to those lofty levels, but KEEP the fines for dumping pollutants into our environment at a MAXIMUM of 25k per DAY..not per Incident...

well..those are the "greedheads"...not the capitalist "heros" of Rand...but the immoral swine that line their pockets at the expense of others well being

i, for one, applaud the good Doctor for that fight..and that is perhaps the best "Cause" he fought for in his writings..

the Jester is a very important Archetype for ANY society, Al...

somebody HAS to say when the Emperor is nekkid

and Hunter never hesitated to do so, in bold, unadulterated, and entertaining Style...

a big difference between a Reporter, and a Journalist...don't ya think?

Excelsior!

"If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."

Theres the words of hunter himself, telling you that his writing was not 100 percent factual. So stop feeling special Al, thinking you figured something out about hunter everyone else didn't know.

Thank you QueenGonzo for that HST quote. It's a perfect example of his fakeness, pretending like he has this deep special knowledge of the Dark Truth. Plus, it's a good excuse for just making up lies when he couldn't come up with something legitimate to make a point.

that's funny. you're perfectly fine with it when ann coulter makes up stuff.

ah, it must be the conservative bent...or perhaps the legs.

to big Al,

might i suggest actually (gasp) READING both campaign trails ..68 and 72

check around, those that were actually THERE have always stated that it was some of the best "reporting" done for both those elections

try "Hell's Angels" for straight up Journalism of the normal stripe

hell, try actually reading ANY of it with half the dedication and attention you give Rand...then we can talk

cuz i HAVE read both, and have drawn a simple conclusion

HST > Rand

nuff said?

Excelsior!

This comment is to the all the mongering idiots who posted negative comments about the late Hunter thompson.... All of you should be castrated like rabid dogs!!!!!!!
He is with out doubt one of the greatest writers of the 20th century his contributions to literature and american life will live on threw his works. He will always be remembered as our Greatest American Outlaw Journalist....LONG LIVE THE KING

you forgot these


blathering idiots
drooling idiots
pedantic idiots
obsessive idiots
borderline schizo idiots
and
perfect idiots

This comment is to the all the mongering idiots who posted negative comments about the late Hunter thompson.... All of you should be castrated like rabid dogs!!!!!!!!
He is with out doubt one of the greatest writers of the 20th century his contributions to literature and american life will live on threw the centuries... He will always be remembered as our Greatest American Outlaw Journalist....LONG LIVE THE KING

This comment is to the all the mongering fucks who posted negative comments about the late Hunter thompson.... All of you should be castrated like rabid dogs!!!!!!!!
He is with out doubt one of the greatest writers of the 20th century his contributions to literature and american life will live on threw the centuries... He will always be remembered as our Greatest American Outlaw Journalist....LONG LIVE THE KING

Okay. These should be edited. They're repeated.

Also foolish, but so are most comments... like this one!

Thanks, Matthew. Your thoughtful and literate comments provide a more eloquent testimonial to Thompson's genius and literary influence than I am capable of writing.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is an American classic, and will remain one for as long as there are American classics, which is more than one can say for Al Barger, who in honor of Hunter, should be sucking on a dead dog's ass until its head caves in.

Thank you Adam. Along with Matthew previously, your words illustrate the wit and literary influence of HST better than I can explain.

well then big Al...try addressing my comments?

heh

my Question to you..how much of HST's work have you actually read from beginning to end in order to make your assessment of him as a writer?

thanks in advance

Excelsior!

Surely not everything, GM. He just wasn't that compelling. I read a couple of whole books, with Campaign Trail 72 being the main one that stuck with me, along with a couple of dozen articles in magazine form. From those, I most remember some of him buying Carter in '76. Sucker! This was especially funny for someone who so much prided himself on cynicism.

But my challenge then to you, since you obviously put so much stock in this schmuck, why don't YOU write up a real article explaining what I'm missing. Not just a dozen words in my comments thread, but a real explanation of why this guy was supposedly so great.

What insights into the human condition did HST provide? Why should I give a rat's ass about this hateful drunken jackass more than 1,000 other writers out there?

Why should I regard HST as being more than the inspiration for guys like Adam and Matthew in the comments above?

well..because i say so?

ummm...ok..too subjective...

seriously..if you read Campaign Trail and still don't get it, then i probably can't explain it to you any better than we can reconcile the differences in much of our musical tastes...

you enjoy C&W that bores me to death, and i enjoy Tool, which doesn't scratch your sonic itch

viva la differance i guess...or to quote Neal Peart of Rush
just between us...
I think it's time for us to Recognize,
the Differences, we sometimes Fear to show.
just between us...
I think it's time for us to Realize,
the Spaces in this Weave...
leave room...
for you and I to Grow.

nuff said?

Excelsior!

why don't YOU write up a real article explaining what I'm missing

because that would be a few hours of gonzo's life that he'd never be able to get back?

No, NOT nuff said. You are a full fledged member Blogcritic. Your very moniker is an HST reference.

I've made my case against HST here.

Now YOU need to make a case for him. Tell me why I should regard him as anything more significant than Adam, Matthew, and I have portrayed him.

oh Al...that would be fine...

if i was any kind of writer myself, which i am not

a Conversationalist...yes...someone who has an occasionally coherant Thought, or a differing Insight into something...?

at times and upon occasion

but a "writer" ...nah..i tried a few, remember?

i can still hear the crickets chirping in the emptyness of the comment area's blankness...

not only that, but what you are Asking for is an Argument...and as i have stated above, my Thought is that appreciation for Art is purely Subjective and cannot usually be explained , or quantified , in the type of communicable format you are talking about

i will say this...HST embodied much of the Libertarian principles you seem to espouse...he Lived them..larger than most could survive and on a daily basis

you refer to him as "selfish"...and i retort..only in the Randian sense...and he still did more to share his peculiar Insights about our Nation than most who proclaim to do so from some type of altruistic motivation...

so i must conclude my own Observation of yoru own rantings in this thread as well as the original Post with a simple , two word analysis....

jealous much?

Excelsior!

Sometimes, it's enough of a 'contribution' to the cesspool of culture just to *piss on the parade.

Somebody's gotta do it.

Ironically, the same spirit embodied by Hunter Thompson's work cannot be applied when posting to "the cesspool of culture" at blogcritics.org, because one will be edited, censored, or worse, even banned in the process of "piss(ing) on the parade." I don't understand what some people are afraid of by not permitting the full range of free speech.

He had some faults but the man is dead. This is not a critique, it's pathological.

because that would be a few hours of gonzo's life that he'd never be able to get back?

Let's not act as if explaining Thompson would be like explaining Dostoevsky. You can explain or defend Thompson's value to the world in about five minutes.

Another poster was incorrect. Thompson was not a Libertarian. True Libertarians exhibit self-discipline and maturity in their lives by using their freedoms appropriately. Thompson was anything but appropriate in his personal behavior. He behaved like an adolescent throughout all his life. I have to laugh, however, at the people that would place such an individual on a pedestal. I would think that mature and sensible adults would look to emulate and champion individuals that embody only the finest of human virtues. I was taught that if you look up to losers you most likely will become a loser, too, along the lines of making the choice of "soaring with eagles or wallowing with pigs."

I judge the totality of a human being's character, not just their work. I can't separate their behavior from the work. It's impossible.

This post about 'greedheads' made me chuckle for several reasons.

Thompson, like many of his counterculture bretheren, were very good at pointing the finger at others. But really, how often did they stop to look in the mirror to judge their own behavior? Most of Thompson's work could very easily be placed in the Pot/kettle argument category.

I also have to chuckle when the populists get their knickers in a twist over corporations. I have always believed it is the people who possess the least materially that complain the most about people who gain the most materially. Instead of complaining about the haves, they should take that energy and apply it to figuring out how to amass more capital and material wealth for themselves.

Wild Bill, comments #103 and #105, read together, are instructive. If people "exhibit self-discipline and maturity in their lives by using their freedoms appropriately," then they need not fear being "edited, censored, or worse, even banned," here or anywhere else.

It's not just a Libertarian ideal, it's an adult expectation.

That's all fine and good, Mr. Winn, but the standards governing "adult expectation" are rather scattershot and randomly applied on a whim, it seems, especially at this website. Any celeb or non-celeb should toe the same line as far as personal limits go here or anywhere else. Thompson gets to inveigh against his targets and is lauded a hero. Certain posters here inveigh against their targets and are edited, censored, or banned. This is the reason the rules are not respected because the gatekeepers are flawed and inconsistent.

excuse me there Wild Bill...but HST did NOT publish his stuff here on Eric Olsen's webspace..

therefore to compare his screed with stuff here on BC is apples to humvees

that being said...

the bit with greedheads...glad you found it amusing...but you seem to miss the point..the point is not that it is bad to make money and better yourself economically...far from it...the point is about a little thing called "ethics" in doing so..

working hard, and smart and providing a quality good or service at a reasonable profit is all kinds of good...now compare that ..oh, let's say Enron, where artificial market manipulation as well as fictitious and illegal accounting practices were used to reap huge profits at the expense of the consumer...

THAT is the definition of the kind of "greedhead" swine spoken of in my previous comment as well as in some of HST's work...

hope that helps explain...

Excelsior!

mr. marx: I would then submit that it is also troublesome to suffer from envy over what others have, no matter how they acquired it. The greed of others does not impact your life directly.

Just think that Enron wouldn't have had to resort to unscrupulous business practices if they hadn't been federally regulated and taxed to death. Think about why so many companies want to flee our shores. There's your answer.

and i must still disagree..

in the energy trading business they wee in, Enron had almost no competition and the concept was so new, there was little to no regulation fo rwhat they did

i submit their price manipulation of the California energy market as an example

being based in Texas and utilizing Anderson Accounting, they paid little taxes, and were known for their donations to the places wherein their facilities resided...

no