Not Guided by Policy: Hunter S. Thompson and the Birth of Gonzo Journalism

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“We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.” This is the opening line from the highly acclaimed roman à clef Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream written by Hunter S. Thompson, one of America’s most countercultural and anti-authoritarian writers. The untamed master of his own self-titled genre, “gonzo journalism,” Thompson set ablaze the American standards for journalism during the 1960s and 70s with a cornucopia of drugs, alcohol, gun toting, and most notably, his exemplary writing.

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[seef]

"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up."
Words to live by.

[paulraider]

My first contact was finding a copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on the mess deck of my ship in 1984. I read it during my entire 8 hour watch without putting it down once. I've never had a similar experience with a book before or since.

[RaoulDuke]

Thanks for doing this, he was a true American icon, a rebel from cradle to grave. Buy the ticket, take the ride...

[GatorScientist]

Shotgun golf sounds like the only kind of golf I could get into.

[scook]

I got to meet Mr. Thompson when I was 18. Words don't do him justice. I love that man.

[r-urbex]

"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."

[Sevenigma]

The opening lines to Fear and Loathing are some of the best opening lines ever written.

[Adeian]

This guy was great. I would love to read an account of the 2016 campaign trail written by him. Bummer it can't happen.

[godpopov]

A high powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production.

[MephLeo]

That would make golf bearable to watch.

[jonnda]

True gonzo journalism is any journalism written by Gonzo, the blue muppet with an affinity for chickens.

[magistrumartium]

A friend of mine, a huge fan, met him back around 1983. Said Thompson was big and abrupt and scared the hell out of him.

[garretwoeller]

My hero Thompson you live on in my dreams

[NJP]

I never expected his last words to be so prophetic, so poetic, so tragic

[Mattteus]

"peregrination", now there's a word you don't hear often!

[FrancisPatrickPerron]

Also check out "Where the Buffalo Roam" with Bill Murray playing Hunter.

[kokigami]

Hunter wasn't crazy. He just had the balls to do what we all wished we could do.

[KealohaHarrison]

I love Hunter S. Thompson and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is probably my favorite book of all time (that or Catcher in the Rye or Gatsby) and Thompson’s work is the reason why I want to be a journalist. Obviously I wouldn’t go to the same extremities as he did during his career, but still, he’s my journalistic inspiration.

[alhutch]

"WHEN THE GOING GETS WEIRD, THE WEIRD TURN PRO!"