Hunter S. Thompson
Chris Robinson
Hunter S. Thompson: The myth outlives the man
I knew of Hunter Thompson in my early 20s. I tried to read his stuff, but just couldn't digest it. It wasn't until a few years ago that I really started reading him. I started in chronological order, reading Hell's Angels, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail (a wild book about the 1972 presidential elections), and I'm still ploughing through The Great Shark Hunt (the first collection of Thompson's articles). Whether covering the Kentucky Derby, the Super Bowl, a Hawaiian marathon or political campaigns, Thompson remained front and centre. In an explosive fusion of journalism, memoir and drug-induced fantasy, he was his own story. Thompson's voice could be vicious, satirical, paranoid or deeply honest. In his writings, Thompson was a larger-than-life figure: a clown, bully, drunk, druggie and all-around pest who wasn't content unless he was stirring up shit. When Thompson didn't find his stories, he created them. He was a fiction writer living in a journalist's world. Thompson's outrageous writings brought him a huge following. But who was Hunter Thompson? Was the real man as crazed as the written one?
Typically, the truth is a bit murky. Even Thompson wasn't sure where the myth ended and the man began.
"I'm never sure which one people expect me to be," he admitted in a 1980 documentary. "Very often, they conflict - most often, as a matter of fact. ...I'm leading a normal life and right alongside me there is this myth, and
it is growing and mushrooming and getting more and more warped." By the 1980s, the myth absorbed the man. His writing suffered, marriage collapsed and drinking worsened. He became a caricature.When Thompson blew his brains out in February 2005, his death, naturally, ignited a steady stream of biographies, interviews, memoirs and documentaries about the myth and the man. They include Gonzo: The Life of Hunter Thompson (a fascinating oral biography), The Joke's Over by Thompson's frequent collaborator, artist Ralph Steadman, The Kitchen Readings by two of Thompson's friends and neighbours in Woody Creek, Colorado, and Outlaw Journalist, a more conventional bio by William McKeen. Together, the quartet works like a Cubist painting, offering readers overlapping and conflicting perspectives on Thompson.
What we're left with is an inconsistent picture that's admirable, romantic, yet troubling and sad. Beneath the mythology, Thompson was a fragile, paranoid, pampered and egocentric boy who craved attention. He was an alcoholic, a drug addict, and had a personality disorder of some type. He was also fiercely loyal, loving and generous.
Kerouac and Proust, who were gonzo before Gonzo, drew upon their lives for their writing. Thompson uses writing to create his life. That might seem pathetic to some, but I kind of admire it. While so many of us sleepwalk through life, Thompson was making it up as he went along and having a pretty damn good time living it.
The one thing Thompson did plan was his exit. He'd once told Ralph Steadman "that he would feel real trapped if he didn't know that he could commit suicide at any moment." Tired and ailing, Thompson decided that enough was enough. As he wrote in his suicide note: "67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun - for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax - This won't hurt."
He got it wrong, though. It did hurt an army of family and friends who loved him and stood with him through it all.
And that, more than the writings, myths and pranks, is all that really matters.
Well, that and lots of money. Ho ho.
let's see...the Ottawa International Writers Festival just announced its upcoming schedule; there are a host of literary events happening here and a bunch of authors who actually live in Ottawa. since the management changes at Xpress, we've had very little Ottawa content in the books section. is how about covering some of our events and writers?
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Amanda Earl
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