Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author. He was known for his flamboyant writing style, most notably deployed in his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which blurred the distinctions between writer and subject, fiction and nonfiction. It became known as gonzo journalism and was widely imitated.

Legacy

Popular slogans

A slogan of Thompson's, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro," appears as a chapter heading in Kingdom of Fear. He was also quoted as saying, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." Another one of his favorite sayings, "Buy the ticket, take the ride," is easily applied to virtually all of his exploits. "Too weird to live, too rare to die", a phrase applied to Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, has been widely used to qualify the Good Doctor after his death.

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The Hawaiian word "mahalo" also frequently appears in Thompson's works and correspondence. Loosely translated, it means "may you be in divine breath." On more than one occasion, "mahalo" would follow Thompson's usage of "buy the ticket, take the ride."

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Letters

Thompson was a prolific letter writer. Letters served as Thompson's prime avenue for personal conversation. Beginning in his teenage years, Thompson made carbon copies of all his letters, which were almost always typed. Thompson's letters include all of his noted flamboyancy, and were sent to both dear friends and unsuspecting public officials and reporters.

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Some of his letters have begun to be published in a series of books called The Fear and Loathing Letters. The first volume, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman 1955 - 1967, is over 650 pages, while the second volume Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist passed 700. Douglas Brinkley, who edits the letter series, said that for every letter included, fifteen were cut. Brinkley estimated Thompson?s own archive contains over 20,000 letters. The last of the three planned volumes of Thompson?s letters has yet to be published, and according to Amazon.com will be released in January 2006 as The Mutineer : Rants, Ravings, and Missives from the Mountaintop 1977-2005.

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While Thompson did not write an autobiography, his letters serve that function. Since his early days in the US Air Force, which he claimed discharged him as "totally unclassifiable", Thompson's letters contained comic "asides" to "his biographers" that would presumably be "reading-in" on his collected letters. Some of these letters, poured into a story by narrative passages, were already bundled into Thompson's Kingdom of Fear, though it is not considered an autobiography. Three biographies have been written about him.

Related Topics:
Autobiography - US Air Force - Biographies

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Accolades

A new journalism contemporary of Thompson?s, Tom Wolfe, has called Thompson the greatest American comic writer of the 20th century.

Related Topics:
New journalism - Tom Wolfe

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Hunter Thompson showed up frequently as Uncle Duke in Doonesbury, the Garry Trudeau comic strip, to loud protests from Thompson himself, though he supposedly took a liking to the character in later years.

Related Topics:
Uncle Duke - Doonesbury - Garry Trudeau

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Similarly, Spider Jerusalem, the gonzo journalist protagonist of Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan, is (more lovingly) based on Thompson.

Related Topics:
Spider Jerusalem - Protagonist - Warren Ellis - Transmetropolitan

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Outre columnists Ed Anger of the Weekly World News and Matt Brock of Pro Wrestling Illustrated show a clear Thompson influence.

Related Topics:
Outre - Ed Anger - Weekly World News - Matt Brock - Pro Wrestling Illustrated

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Political Beliefs

Although letters from Thompson to his friends note that he had taken an early interest in Ayn Rand's school of Objectivism, he eventually drifted away from Rand's version of anti-establishment politics into his own field. While distinctly embracing the notion of democracy and its virtues as evidenced in his political writings in both the 1972 and 1976 elections, Thompson was acutely aware of the flaws in such a system and regularly advocated radical approaches to politics that veered between libertarian, anarchist, and even some aspects of socialism. In the documentary "Breakfast With Hunter", Thompson can be seen wearing a Che Guevara shirt, while his son Juan Thompson acknowledges that his father never had any respect for property.

Related Topics:
Objectivism - Democracy - 1972 - 1976 - Libertarian - Anarchist - Socialism - Breakfast With Hunter - Che Guevara

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Said Thompson's longtime friend Douglas Brinkley:

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"He?s both a kind of old-fashioned believer in democratic virtues, but also an anarchist. There?s always that unpredictable element with him. In any given situation, as soon as he feels there?s a system closing in, he?ll destroy it."

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Regarding contemporary politics, in 2004 Thompson wrote: "Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for—but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush-Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him." (Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004, Rolling Stone)

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Movies

The film Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) depicts Thompson's attempts at writing stories for both the Super Bowl and the 1972 U.S. presidential election. It stars Bill Murray as Thompson and Peter Boyle as Thompson's attorney Oscar Acosta, referred to in the movie as Carl Laslow, Esq.

Related Topics:
Where the Buffalo Roam - 1980 - Super Bowl - 1972 U.S. presidential election - Bill Murray - Peter Boyle

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The 1998 film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was directed by Monty Python veteran Terry Gilliam, and starred Johnny Depp (who moved into Hunter's basement to 'study' Thompson's persona before assuming his role in the film) as Raoul Duke and Benicio Del Toro as Dr. Gonzo. Thompson appeared in the scene at the club "The Matrix", sitting at a table. The film has achieved something of a cult following.

Related Topics:
1998 - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Monty Python - Terry Gilliam - Johnny Depp - Raoul Duke - Benicio Del Toro - Dr. Gonzo - Cult following

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The film Breakfast With Hunter (2003) was directed and edited by Wayne Ewing. It documents Thompson's work on the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his arrest for drunk driving and his subsequent fight with the court system.

Related Topics:
Breakfast With Hunter - 2003 - Wayne Ewing - Drunk driving

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A new film is currently (2005) in production, based upon Thompson's novel The Rum Diary. Both Depp and Del Toro will be starring in this new Thompson film. Del Toro was supposed to have directed, but he withdrew in January 2004. Bruce Robinson is directing.

Related Topics:
2005 - The Rum Diary - January 2004 - Bruce Robinson

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