It is unquestionable that the work of Hunter S. Thompson belongs to all of us. The notion that Thompson belonged to himself-and only himself-has been ultimately affirmed by his suicide Sunday.
I was introduced to the unique world of Hunter S. Thompson as a high school freshman when I happened upon his most well-known work, \Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,"" an unsettling yet outrageously entertaining account of a nominal sports-writing assignment turned drug-fueled blitzkrieg on Las Vegas. Though the constant references to hash, acid, uppers and downers were entirely lost on me at the time, the pure nature of Thompson's characterization of a different ""American Dream"" mesmerized me.
While ""Fear and Loathing"" is an amazing work, Thompson's true essence is exhibited in the wealth of articles he wrote for publications such as Playboy and Rolling Stone. Taking on everything and everyone that ever amused or outraged him, Thompson presented readers with a perspective so incredibly outlandish, yet so endearingly perceptive, that to pay him even the slightest bit of attention was to be irreversibly drawn into his reality (or surreality).
In his quest for what was termed ""the New Journalism,"" Thompson embraced subjectivity while casting off the oftentimes false pretenses of so-called ""objective"" journalism. By inserting himself into his assignments and articles, Thompson provided an honest, humorous and unapologetic view of his subjects and American society, while continually enhancing his ""star persona"" of Gonzo Journalism to mythic levels.
In an academic climate where young journalists are forced to obey convention with robotic leads-""Author Hunter S. Thompson commits suicide,"" the headline on www.cnn.com, seems ironically simple for such a complex individual-and mechanical, predictable story structure, Thompson's work is a beacon of nonconformity for writers who know nothing but the ""laws"" proscribed in crusty textbooks.
Every journalist wishes they could operate on Thompson's level-going out on assignment and injecting their own self into the story, rather than simply observing the action taking place before them. Understanding an issue through self-immersion seems far more journalistic to me than simply picking up a telephone to fish for quotes.
Not only the subconscious ideal of the young journalist, Thompson represents the ideal of every student, collegiate or otherwise, the man that got paid (and became famous) to attack unquestioned authority and upset the status quo. That we all belong to Hunter S. Thompson, if at least for a single moment in our lives, is unquestionable.
In the 1977 Author's Note preceding a collection articles in his book, ""The Great Shark Hunt,"" Thompson cryptically relates the laborious process of writing the prologue of his collected works to his own death, 27 years before taking his life.
""I feel like I might as well be sitting up here carving the words for my own tombstone ... in fact the only way I can deal with this eerie situation at all is to make a conscious decision that I have already lived and finished the life I planned to live-(13 years longer, in fact)-and everything from now on will be a new life, a different thing, a gig that ends tonight and starts tomorrow morning,"" Thompson writes.
""So if I decide to leap for The Fountain when I finish this memo, I want to make one thing perfectly clear-I would genuinely love to make that leap, and if I don't I will always consider it a mistake and a failed opportunity, one of the very few serious mistakes of my First Life that is now ending.""
Pete can be reached at writePNL@yahoo.com.
