Hunter S Tompson And Gonzo Journalism Essay

Hunter S. Tompson And Gonzo Journalism Essay, Research Paper

In the late sixties a young journalist and free-lance novelist named Hunter S. Thompson (HST) emerged with a new, crazed and exaggerated brand of reporting. It was sooner or later referred to as .Gonzo.. HST.s own definition of gonzo has varied over the years, but he still maintains that a good gonzo journalist .needs the talent of a master journalist, the eye of an artist/photographer and the heavy balls of an actor. and that gonzo is a .style of reporting based on William Faulkner.s idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism.(Carroll, page 192). Gonzo journalism has also been referred to as outlaw journalism, new journalism, alternative journalism, literary cubism, and other words better not repeated here. With such high profile stages for his writings in Rolling Stone Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire and Vanity Fair, HST has proven that his exaggerated gonzo journalism is as relevant (or even more so) than that of conventional journalists. In this essay, the concept and development of gonzo journalism and its relevance to media and reporting will be thoroughly explored.

Dr Hunter S. Thompson is a man of great wit and charisma. He is 6.2. tall, and, due to the fact that one leg is longer than the other, he tends to bob back and forth. He is apparently always thirsty, and his favorite drinks are known to be Wild Turkey and Chivas Regal. Besides being a writer and failed politician, HST is also a collector of peacocks and guns. HST is also happily divorced with one son, Juan. Dr Thompson.s journalism career began in the daily columns of small town newspapers, but because of differences in personality, opinion and style, he did not last long at any of them. HST.s first piece of writing to be labeled gonzo was The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved written for Scanlan.s magazine along with illustrations by the well known cartoonist Ralph Steadman (a sample of Mr. Steadman.s work will be found on the title page to this essay). As the deadline for the article approached, and with the article still incomplete, HST resorted to ripping out pages of his notebook and sending them to the editors. What resulted was the beginning of gonzo journalism.

Many see gonzo journalism to be a variation of a theme, which began with new journalism in the 60.s, led primarily by author Tom Wolfe. (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, etc.) New Journalism was said to have broken all the rules of traditional journalism. The old style journalists were supposed to take an objective point of view in their articles. The new journalists were far more subjective, getting personally involved in the stories they were reporting.

New journalism really isn.t new at all. Objectivity has been the great myth of journalism. As hard as media sources try to be objective, they can never truly achieve it. Everything from space limitations (a journalist must decide what is and what is not important enough to fit into a column) to illustrations (this gives readers a non-objective picture in their head about the issue) infringe on objectivity. New journalism and gonzo journalism alike pay no regard to the objectivity laws of journalism and instead focus their works very little on the facts but on the .facts., as they perceive them. One difference between gonzo journalist Thompson and new journalist Tom Wolfe is that while Wolfe tries to become the fly on the wall, Thompson is very much the fly in the ointment.

HST.s writings cannot be taken 100% seriously, as even he admits. .Basically it.s all true. I warped a few things, but basically that.s the way it was. Thompson said describing his second book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the heart of the American Dream (quotation found on book cover). .If everyone took everything I said seriously they would be missing the whole point of gonzo journalism. Thompson explains.

Journalist John Sack illustrates a common journalistic dilemma in this quotation:

I wrote my story for Stars and Stripes: .Seoul, Korea. Gen. Maxwell Taylor said today that there is no ammunition shortage in Korea.. But I also know what he said was a lie. But under the rules of journalism, there is no way I can say so.

(Wolfe, page 8)

HST never hesitated in calling a spade a spade and a liar a liar. Gonzo journalism could then be called true freedom of the press. Everyone knows and expects that politicians and media sources are not always truthful, nor intend to be. Gonzo journalism is more honest about its untruthfulness. In this quotation Thompson states his opinion on Richard Nixon:

For years I.ve regarded his very existence as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream; he was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad. (The Great Shark Hunt, page 213)

Writers, realizing that objectivity in news was more or less a myth, tried to write about things as they saw them. These things usually tended to be counterculture activities of the times, such as peace demonstrations, drugs, flower children and music, subjects which were either passed over or apparently misrepresented in the mainstream press. HST was able to say and write what other journali