Book Reviews
Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing Legacy
Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing Legacy A Literary Reflection, By Christine Blake.
The grays between fact and fiction. The blacks and whites and yellows that divide objective journalism and subjective memoir. The tie-dyed reds and blues and greens of recreating experiences versus reconstructing events. These are the blending pigments on the palette used to create a portrait of Hunter. S. Thompson. American Journalist or Counter Culture Icon? Thompson played both roles with a sense of seeing them each as ridiculous. Can a journalist really report the news without inserting himself into the story? Is the idea of an icon contradictory to the non-conformism celebrated in the American 1960.s counter culture? Yet, Thompson reported on the happenings of the American culture in Rolling Stone in a way that left us all questioning with a new awareness; therefore, becoming an icon of journalism. However, the vision Thompson offered was blurred by hallucinogenics and warped by an enormous ego. So, can we trust his sketches of the government as corrupt and our culture as naive? In his writings, beginning with Hell.s Angels, he introduces us to his monstrous alter ego, Dr. Raoul Duke, whom we warm to, while at the same time cringing at his cynical and distorted view of life. In some ways, Duke represents that dirty little secret in each of us; and while we want to push him into the recesses of forgotten naughty thoughts in our heads, we recognize him, and therefore, welcome the unashamed hedonist. Thompson, in many ways, disfigured our notion of American culture in a way that forced us to re-analyze our society. We recognize his vision as skewed, but we are intrigued enough to begin to identify the reality within the representation. I might even go as far as to say he was a literary Van Gogh, leaving us with a colorful impression of our own lives. In creating and developing his own way of writing, Gonzo, he was free to express what he experienced, rather than catalogue the realism of the data before him. His skepticism in politics and in publicly reported news, reminded us all not to swallow the pill handed out in line. And yet, did Thompson only offer us yet another variety of pill? At his funeral on August 20, 2005, in Aspen, Colorado, as his ashes were shot out of a cannon, Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man was played to the star-studded crowd. And hearing Dylan's words, "And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme/To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind,/I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're/Seein' that he's chasing," we are reminded that to read Hunter S. Thompson is to take a fantastic trip 'upon [his] magic swirlin' ship. and watch as he chases the shadows that haunt us all.Join the Thompson discussion & watch the video here:
By Christine Blake, July 2008
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