Hunter S Thompson was a one trick pony. He did a fairly amusing trick, but it was pretty limited. It went something like this: Get journalistic assignment to cover a political campaign. Get really wasted on as many exotic chemicals as you can lay hands to. Engage in confrontational drunk and disorderly conduct and make a nuisance of yourself. Write it all down, with some made up crap thrown in to make it extra colorful. Add some dark, broad predictions of an apocalypse, and you've hit literary pay dirt. Oh, and if you can shoehorn in some kind of a quote from the candidate who is the nominal subject of your diatribe, that would probably be considered good form. ["Remember Alice? This is a song about Alice."]
Boy howdy, did this approach get O-L-D with a quickness. It could be entertaining in a Rolling Stone article, but was not near enough to carry a real book. And that was in the 60s and 70s. He was still writing the same article again and again to the very end. From an ESPN column "Welcome to the Big Darkness" dated July 22, 2003:
The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse. I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it. Our highway system is crumbling, our police are dishonest, our children are poor, our vaunted Social Security, once the envy of the world, has been looted and neglected and destroyed by the same gang of ignorant greed-crazed bastards who brought us Vietnam, Afghanistan, the disastrous Gaza Strip and ignominious defeat all over the world.The Stock Market will never come back, our Armies will never again be No. 1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of our lives.
The Bush family must be very proud of themselves today, but I am not. Big Darkness, soon come. Take my word for it.
Note the utter lack of actually saying anything. There's no indication of exactly what which specific "greed-crazed bastards" have actually done to screw the pooch. Indeed, it's an utterly generic screed with no active connection to any particular facts. He could have substituted "Nixon" for "Bush" and dated in 1970. He could have said "Clinton" and dated it in the 90s.
Essentially, Hunter Thompson was the literary precursor of punk rock. It made a pretty big splash, but there was nowhere for the purebreds' uncut nihilism to go. The Sex Pistols knocked 'em dead with Never Mind the Bullocks, but the rejection of all values (particularly journalism and musicianship) left them with no follow up.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dr. Tongue Kiss
yawn.
2 - Tyler Liar
Double yawn. Another tired and lame article on Hunter S Thompson were drugs eclipse everything else.
3 - Eric Olsen
interesting comparison
4 - wally bangs
Good post Al. Including the Welcome To The Darkness piece was a really nice touch. Only somebody completely blind to reality, historically ignorant, or somebody wanting to just grind an axe would actually believe things are worse today than they were decades ago. I'm no huge fan of huge corporations, and I do despise seeing the same franchises all across the country (buy local and independent), but the actual standard of living has improved dramatically since my childhood. And how poor are our poor? We always support the local Angel Tree program every Christmas where I work and there are always numerous requests for video games. If you've got a Playstation 2 I don't consider that poor. I grew up during the 70's and I remember many a night when all I had to eat for supper was butter and bread. As for the folks yawning, you are beating a dead horse for people with death ears.
5 - wallybangs
I forgot to add: I read recently that one problem with the USA is that we have gone from people feeling they have the right to pursue happiness(which we do), but that we all have the right to pursue pleasure, which of course are not the same thing.
6 - Eric Olsen
Tyler, you're right: it was drugs, alcohol and guns that came to eclipse everything else.
7 - Shark
Al, if you wanna reach the 'top of the charts', you should give up beating a dead horse and post Al Barger's "100 Greatest Guitarists List". That should keep your post active for decades.
It would also be more honorable, and probably has less of a chance of making you sound like an idiot with a tight sphincter who's trying to hard too be provocative.
Extra points for not using the phrase ""Nietzchean [sic] resentment", though.
PS: Ayn Rand still sucks.
8 - DJRadiohead
I don't really care all that much about HST. I am sorry he's dead.
PJ O'Rourke, on the other hand, has been a favorite of mine for years.
9 - Katharine Donelson
As a style pioneer, if HST can count P.J. O'Rourke as part of his legacy, I'd say he did a pretty fine job pioneering. Nearly everything I know about economics I know because of Eat the Rich.
And, this may sound ridiculous, but I keep reading criticism of Hunter S. Thompson's work and I can't help but think of criticism of Dorothy Parker's work. He talked about the same things over and over again (Parker was criticized for writing on narrow topics), he didn't offer any alternatives to fix the problems he pointed out (to quote from the penquin classics intro to Parker's complete short stories, "those [women, like Parker] who point out the absurdities in life without offering an accompanying twelve-step program to fix it all up are deemed ethically irresponsible"). Now, Hunter S. Thompson is not really worthy of a comparison with Dorothy Parker. Her catalogue is much more varied and noteworthy, but I find the parallels interesting nonetheless.
10 - Steve Clackson
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Hunter did not simply blaze a trail he ignited it.
His passion, wit and insight grabbed a whole era of flower power poets and writers and stood them on their jaundiced ears.
A life of substance abuse silenced a voice that was brilliant and a life that was tragic, but lets never forget that voice.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Hunter was a Gatherer who rode the road,
Choppers and Angels were his Motherlode,
Stomped and Ripped his story was told,
Damaged and Dangerous from carrying the load.
So set him high on the funeral pyre,
Strapped upright on his steed,
Use Pretenders books to stoke the fire,
Gonzos spirit has been freed.
Steve Clackson
11 - Bill
Al misses the point. He's been pounding on HST all week. Yawn.
The fact remains that Thompson was influential. It was HST and All the President's Men that drove a generation into journalism in the 1970s -- the generation that today runs major media. Hence, the nice remembrance pieces from people like Walter Issacson, et al.
HST's books remain strong sellers. They've made 2 movies about him. His influence on journalism was beyond drugs, booze and violence. He was a structurally brilliant writer, on par with Fitzgerald. If two books defined time periods in the 20th century, it was Gatsby and FLLV.
And at the end of the day, I find myself asking, who the fuck is Al Barger?
12 - jadester
It *could* be argued that with HST's style of writing, it's not facts, exactly, that are important. Unfortunately i haven't read any more than the snippets i've seen in articles like this, tho i've seen the Fear And Loathing film (excellent) and fully intend to check out one or two of his books; because of this i can't say for sure, but it looks to me like his main "thign" was to write more or less exactly what was going through his head, rather than trying to dress it up or dress it down or explain it. Inevitably, this would mean a large number of people not particularly liking it, but that's the price you pay for being brutally honest about your own petty little world.
Inspired by HST, amongst many other people and events and stories and films, i'm actually trying something out myself. It's not quite so vitriolic though (or drug-fuelled for that matter)
13 - sonny
let it go, already, al.
p.j. used to amusing. he's now boring.
hunter was never less than entertaining and often quite more.
14 - HW Saxton
Personally speaking,I don't see the HST
influence on O'Rourke as being all that
strong. Thompson kept his same old (I do
mean OLD)views on matters politics for
the length of his entire career. On the
other hand PJ is a well known convert
to the right and long ago grew out that
"Gonzo" phase(entertaining as all hell
when he was doing it).
I find PJ O'Rourke to be a much funnier,
more insightful and politically mature
writer.Thompson on the other hand really
seemed to be in a rut regarding his own
writing and he was cannibalizing his own
written pieces towards the end of his
career.At least that is how they read to
me,his ESPN work in particular.
15 - terry brennan
Al Barger is, to coin a phrase, A Big
Fat Idiot. He obviously cannot read, or lacks the attention span it requires. That's the problem with the GenX group--don't read, don't REALLY want to read broadly, LOVE video anything, and don't have a clue what History is, and Barger's first paragraph overtly shows this.
I'm staring at a bookcase that has every
single book HST ever wrote, including his two volumes of compiled letters chronicling his life and views from 1955
to 1976. "One Trick Pony?" Hey, Al, how many journalistic tricks do you know?
Here is the simple nut about Thompson and why none of us have ever or will ever be able to surpass his lucid and wildly entertainly style-- (and yes, any
idiot can see that his later years from
1988 on were getting boring and repetitive--anyway, to wit, when asked what it takes to be a Gonzo journalist, Thompson replied, "You must have the skills of a master journalist, the eye of an artist/ photographer, and the heavy balls of an actor." Do any of the
critics here have one or even two of these traits? Ahh, yes, and Thompson left out just one ittsy bittsy other skill that's kinda necessary in order to
write like he did in the 60's and 70's:
a genius for seeing the Truth behind complex political bullshit and the ability to write about it in a lucid and wildly entertaining way.
All of you should not embarrass yourselves any further until you read his works. Then come back and comment on the man. But that would be hard WORK,
eh? Much easier to watch the movies/videos, isn't it?
16 - Squane
Hey--were you attempting an "HST" of your own? I couldn't help but notice some of the inaccurate information in your screed, especially concerning the "one trick pony"/political "explaination". In actuality, the minority of Thompson's writing was overtly political..take a look at the pieces filed from South America, for example, or the Hell's Angels book. Or for that matter, any of the other Dow Jones Corp. stuff or Scanlon's pieces (many of which were included in Shark Hunt). Sure, he was occasionally tired-sounding and repetitive, but so what? Even your vaunted O'Rourke seems like a mouldy dishrag on many occasions, but I overlook those for the times when he's good.
17 - Billy Beck
"I keep reading criticism of Hunter S. Thompson's work and I can't help but think of criticism of Dorothy Parker's work. He talked about the same things over and over again (Parker was criticized for writing on narrow topics), he didn't offer any alternatives to fix the problems he pointed out."
"I am not a constructive critic."
(H.L. Mencken)
18 - David Fiore
my major problem with Thompson is not with his perception that all is not right with America--but with his absurd conviction that anything here (or anywhere!) was EVER anything but wrong...
like all cynics, Thompson was far too nostalgic for his own good... and this makes him sound like a peevish jerk who came late to the party, missed all of the "good times", and decided, as a consolation, to get fucked up on whatever the cool people didn't drink or inhale and just forget about the whole mess...
I won't miss him
Dave
19 - Sheldon Bartleby
Wow. So all you've said is "I understand HST". You really don't. You're projecting qualities you expect upon him. How can one invent a new style of journalism by falling back on all the conventions you expect to see?
20 - Al Barger
Yeah, you cheese eaters expect an innovative genius to fall back on journalistic conventions like "truth" and "facts." Idiots.
21 - Maurice
Love PJ O'Rourke. HS who? Maybe I'm too young.
22 - Jillian
This piece is an example of the laziness and superficiality that has left American media in its current sorry state. Hunter Thompson created a genre that made us realize the inadequacy of standard-issue "non-partisan" journalism. In order to cover their asses, journalists far too frequently give us a laundry list of facts that provide readers with no substantive information. A journalist's job, in addition to fact-finding, is to get to portray a situation as it effectively is. Thompson does this. Something as highly-publicized as a presidential campaign hardly needs more empty network news hackery, and desperately needs another HST to help us understand what is actually happening to our country.
23 - Shark
Al "Sonny" Barger: "...you cheese eaters expect an innovative genius to fall back on journalistic conventions like "truth" and 'facts.'"
Facts and Truth -- like Reality -- are highly overrated. Someday, if you EVER FUCKING DEVELOP ONE IOTA OF IMAGINATION, Big Al, you'll understand.
(Oh, wait, you're an Objectivist. Never mind.)
24 - Tristan
ummmmmmmmmmm.........
wait a second ...!!!!
maybe it was all those mushrooms and orange sunshine, and purple doubledomes, and blur flats, and church paper that i did as a teenager~~~~
but don't i remember something about a murder trial way back years ago---
involving a Hell's Angel named SONNY
BARGER ~~~~~~~~~~~ ??????????
( i think his true "colors" came out when he just wrote:
Comment 20 posted by Al Barger on March 4, 2005 01:23 PM:
Yeah, you cheese eaters expect an innovative genius to fall back on journalistic conventions like "truth" and "facts." Idiots. " ~~~~~
now THAT sounds like the SONNY BARGER that was in all the papers for being a Hell's Angel MURDERER..........
25 - Tristan
oh ...nooooooooooooo !
i just found good ole' Al's
webpage for him running for SENATE ...!!
http://www.morethings.com/index2.html
"Welcome to MORETHINGS.COM
AL BARGER - LIBERTARIAN FOR US SENATE
Official campaign website
*****************************************
isn't THAT "special' .... !!!
heh ....heh.........
was he a Hell's Angel MURDERER ...???