Just when the eulogies are going a bit stale, it has come time for me to add my thoughts about the late Hunter S. Thompson.
The "Good Doctor" was, in his own way, an incredible writer. He did have a knack for getting a story. However, he wrote with such reckless abandon, tossing accuracy aside in the process, that he merged fact with fiction to the point where the lines between the two became blurred. It was if he was forcing you to believe every single thing you read. I've always thought it was strange how he kept pushing the limits and breaking the law, and yet somehow - incredibly - continued to get away with it. You thought to yourself, this guy must be God himself. He's untouchable.
In short, he was a man who had a super-inflated opinion of himself. And, expressing this opinion in the more fictional accounts of his adventures/assignments, HST became legendary.
But, though excessive, his writing was interesting. It's always fun to hear about someone's adventures after they've rendered themselves nearly mentally ill from too much alcohol, amyl, marijuana, cocaine and acid. It was the acid that Thompson was especially fond of. And then actually trying to explain your worldview while in the throes of a come-down - this was the "bent appeal," as HST would say himself, in his work. There was a good reason why Hunter's work was referred to as "Gonzo" journalism.
HST had always been a Leftist. The more political views expressed in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas reflected his distrust of the Establishment, but it was the Nixon-bashing Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail '72 that appealed to liberal-Leftists everywhere. That book bestowed immediate anti-Establishment credentials on Thompson and made him a favorite of pinko cognoscenti everywhere.
Yet, though quite far to the Left, HST did have a love of firearms. And he was not afraid to use them. For instance, in Hell's Angels, in describing his living arrangements at the time he first started hanging out with the biker gang, Thompson wrote, "For reasons that were never made clear, I blew out my back windows with five blasts of a 12-gauge shotgun, followed moments later by six rounds from a .44 Magnum. It was a prolonged outburst of heavy firing, drunken laughter and crashing glass." Uhm ... for reasons that were never made clear, Hunter? You were severely shit-faced! Seems pretty clear to me. (Incidentally, regarding Hell's Angels, it is worth noting that in this 1965 book, Thompson first uses his trademark phrase "fear and loathing" (from Chapter 4 of "Making of the Menace": "Here was Examiner, which had always viewed the Angels with fear and loathing ...")
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mike
Fuck you, true Hunter S. Thompson fans will never get over his death!
2 - HW Saxton
Nothing to get all worked up about Mike,
the author is just as entitled to his
opinions about Hunter S.Thompson as you
are to yours.
Instead of the eloquent reply, maybe you
should take a little more time & effort
to state YOUR views on why his writing
does not suck in your opinion.
But: "Fuck You!!!!!!!" will always gets
the point across in a pinch.
3 - RJ
HST was a great writer. But he wasn't a good man.
He was very influential, but did he use that influence to better the world? Or just to better himself?
4 - Tom
If HST led a normal life with a wife, 2.5 kids, a dog, and a small manicured suburban lawn the press wouldn't have been gushing over him. It's because of his excesses, his abuse of every drug, and hatred of mainstream America that so many in the media loved him so dearly.
5 - Temple Stark
Wow all these unoriginal replies match the agenda-filled nothingness of the post.
Is there such a word as "staler?" Cause you're there infant.
6 - Eric Olsen
I think this is a very well-written and measured account of the relationship between the writer and the person, from the point of view of an admirer of the writing. I'm not convinced there is a left-right angle to this at all, but I find the rest of it very perceptive
7 - Bill
Hunter's brother was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989 or 1990. As for his views on race, you have to read all of his work. If you're surprised that a young man in 1940-50s Louisville, Ky., had rascist views, well, then you're a terminal moron. But like many folks, HST grew out of his youthful experience. Read what he had to say about Thurgood Marshall.
HST was no liberal. He held libertarian views, and had nearly as much venom for the craven Left as his did the Right. He was a political persuasion unto himself.
The man had personal flaws. That doesn't detract from his accomplishments. If we're going to weigh the value of all writers based on their personal lives, we're going to be left with little literature of value.
If you're a Leftist brimming with disappointment, get the fuck over it. HST was what he was. He's going to be remember through his books and movies long after sneering bloggers mentally jerking off on the sidelines of obscurity.
8 - jud
What another failed tabloid reporter, who has nothing worthwhile to say. Just another parasite who lives on the talents of others. HINT: try to get yourself some orginal material. And quit picking on the dead. But despite all the efforts to discredit Hunter, GONZO lives on, and on, and on.
9 - Rodney Welch
Mark Edward Manning isn't making sense.
"The man whose death every liberal-Leftist mourned was the very vision of what they consider repugnant."
Which Left-Liberals are we talking about here? Tom Wolfe and Tucker Carlson, who all but canonized him? Or MTV's Kurt Loder, whose article was comparatively dispassionate? Or traditional liberals like Jimmy Breslin and Sidney Zion, who knew Thompson well and thought the reaction to his death was much ado about not much?
Thompson was a hero to writers and will likely always be -- particularly among journalists, who realize early on that a story can be objectively and accurately reported and completely wrong at the same time. He turned it completely around; he could write factual bullshit that was true in spirit.
This is, I think, the only kind of hero Thompson cared to be: a hero of the imagination. He certainly would have preferred that to being some kind of saint of the left. As Bill notes above, Thompson took great delight in liberal-bashing: Johnson, Humphrey, Muskie, etc. There was one time, I recall, when he attended the unveiling of a portrait of Dean Rusk and asked who the artist didn't paint the bastard with blood on his hands.
He didn't hide his use of the "n word"; it floats freely through several of his pieces -- although, personally, I was quite willing to chalk that up to drugs or irony or the possibility that he was doing Tarantino before Tarantino was cool.
Thompson wasn't a saint, and I think that's why people miss him so much. He tried to get as much of himself into his writing as he could -- and that's dangerous. He didn't present himself as a harmless, banal little putz who followed the rules and believed all the right things. He was fearless.
10 - Eric Olsen
very well said Rodney, but while he may have been fearless a a writer, from what I can tell from a distance, he was a very fearful person, hence all the running from reality, blusterr and bravado. Adn his last act certainly confirms that scenario
11 - Rodney Welch
I don't see it that way; I think there was a genuine fuck-you, take-it-or-leave-it ballsiness to him, you know? Call it adolescent or immature or psychotic, but it wasn't timid and I don't think it was false bravado. The thing that's interesting to me in these days after his death is all the people coming forward saying how much his outrageous behaviour WASN'T an act.
Recall, I'm strictly anti-suicide, so any reason for doing that is a bad reason. You can credibly argue that it was cowardly, but I think the suicide was mainly reflective of his life in its weird spantaneity, and the fact that he attacked a nagging problem with a gun.
12 - Mark Edward Manning
Tom: "It's because of his excesses, his abuse of every drug, and hatred of mainstream America that so many in the media loved him so dearly."
Exactly.
Bill: "[HST] had nearly as much venom for the craven Left as his did the Right."
That was never made clear in his writings. The only liberals he ever bad-mouthed were the "cold-war liberals" of Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon Johnson. I remember, in The Great Shark Hunt, HST writing about a soiree that the Democrats in Jimmy Carter's entourage (during Carter's '76 primaries) were going to hold for Dean Rusk and Hunter refused to participate, and couldn't understand at all why, because Rusk was a "warmonger." Hunter based all his venom upon those who fought or directed any war for any reason. Some of that sentiment is understandable, but I get the distinct feeling the HST would have spat in Gen. MacArthur's face ... and that is not the sort of man that I will ever put in a good light.
13 - Rodney Welch
I wouldn't spit in MacArthur's face, but I always love reading about how President Truman showed the arrogant S.O.B. who's the boss.
14 - Dale Bottoms
Good old Dr. Thompson, always shooting his mouth off.
15 - RJ
"Good old Dr. Thompson, always shooting his mouth off."
Punny!
16 - Cpt. Willard
Mike, you dick. WE don't care about yours or any other num nut view on The Doc. WE will continue to shed tears, drink beers and beat queers (only those who bad mouth The Doc). If you were my wife Mike, I'd beat you senseless then share you with my BLACK friends. It's something to think about Mike, WE'LL be watching you.
17 - Cpt. Willard
Mike, Mark, same bastard, you know who I mean. We'lll still be watching you.
18 - Aaron
History forgives those who write well.
Hunter S. Thompson wrote well.
19 - Mark Edward Manning
Cpt. Willard, I salute you!
20 - Willy
It is amazing to me how many people there are in this world that are capable of crafting a readable sentence, but incapable of recognizing an original thought. You entirely miss the point of a writer like HST. Was he a perfect politically correct caring man that shoudl be respected by people like you for his fairness and respect for all human beings regardless of their lifestyle choices? No. Was he quick to condemn those who did not share the view that all people are created equal and to stand up for their right for them every opportunity he had? No. And the way he did none of theos things are what made him brilliant. Fuck the politically correct always compassionate, fair and balanced, all Men are created view of life. That is not life. That is bullshit. Art is long and life is short and YOUR success if VERY far off my friend. Keep it up with the narrow minded everything is fixable mentality. You are doomed to a life of late night musings on rarely read websites. HST was a genius who kept us laughing and thinking, oftne times to ourselves so we woudl not be judged by the phonies like you and yours. He was human and flawed like you and I. The key difference was he had something original to say, unlike you ... you obsequious dung beetle. - res ipsa loqutur.
21 - Shark
Because of Manning's insatiable hard-on for "Liberals", he's decided to trot out all the horrible activities from HST's personal life.
Like we give a flying fuck what some motard with a modem thinks of one of the greatest writers of the late 20th century.
Just wanna add my "dittos" to all other contributors who took the time to articulately explain why Manning is a dick.
22 - Shark
BEST LINES OF THE DAY (and an explicit indication of the extent of HST's influence)
BILL: "If we're going to weigh the value of all writers based on their personal lives, we're going to be left with little literature of value."
WILLY: "You are doomed to a life of late night musings on rarely read websites."
CAPT. WILLARD: "If you were my wife Mike, I'd beat you senseless then share you with my BLACK friends."
You should be so original, Manning.
23 - Al Barger
Rodney [comment 9]- NO, GODDAMIT: he could write factual bullshit that was true in spirit. What you're saying is that it doesn't matter that he's lying, cause he's saying what we already know is true, ie what we WANT to believe.
Write a novel with fictional characters, and you can say whatever you want. If you're publishing non-fiction NEWS articles, then you don't get to make up the facts.
By what standard do you propose to judge "truth" if you start by discounting the necessity of judging based on actual facts on the ground?
24 - Steve Mitchell
To Captain Willard and his fans,
I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings but Hunter Thompson was just an aging anti-establishment redneck (as you openly seem to be Cpt Willard). Yes, he was original (probably more so for commercial reasons) and yes he could write a good limerick with interesting anecdotes but he hardly seemed
"liberal" - a liberal wouldn't be part of the NRA to start with...
From a younger generation's standpoint Hunter S. Thompson was always much more of a Libertarian self-styled redneck. He was unique and undoubtedly acted according to his own moral code but that doesn't make him a liberal in any sense (Libertarian's are anti-war too). His advocacy of the use of drugs and alcohol, may have made him seem liberal in the 1960's but by the 2000's, just left him seeming stuck in adolescence.
I would say that he killed himself to rekindle a final moment of self-styled glory in a fading horizon. It was a classic way for him to go out. He liked the limelight and this was his final blast. Quite literally.
If he killed himself because of a despairing and fore-boding view of the post-September 11th future that seems amazingly narrow and self-absorbed. And that may just be an indication of who he was and what he really stood for...
25 - Mark Edward Manning
So what you're saying, Shark, is that it's OK to be a racist, a wife-beater and a homophobe as long as you can claim to have put the most negative spin on Nixon and then Bush Jr.
Now I know where you really stand. Good job.