The Influence of the Mighty Gonzo (Read New Post Inside)

I see that Thompson's work and persona are affecting some people on this board recently. Nothing could be better in this time of reflection. I see it by the likes of Don Vercetti (With Fear and Loathing) and Long Lost Corleone (With the Gonzo avatar).

Does anybody else enjoy the Price of Gonzo? I'm glad that I might have influenced some people to enjoy the man who has brought me so much joy for many years. If Vercetti, Corleone, or anyone else wants to post about the Mighty King of Fun, let's do it.

Long Live Gonzo.

The Doc

P.S. I'm going to Woody Creek in Aug. or July, whenever they hold his ash launching. Anyone care to join me? I will probably be driving to Aspen in order to get to Woody Creek.(not far from it)

Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Jack Nicholson, and Bill Murray have already stated they will be in attendance. I can't wait to see Ralph Steadman, his long-time friend and illustrator drawing the ceremony.

GONZO

If I buy a book whenever, it will probably be Fear and Loathing.

I'm not a fan of him exactly but I did enjoy that piece of work, and hats off to Gilliam for being able to create an "impossible cinematic transition."

I think I asked you this before but I forgot. Why not the king? :p

Doc, have you read the exclusive interview that Razor magazine had with him just a month or so before his death? I really didn't know a whole lot about Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, but the interview sparked my interest, and I've been surfing the web for any information or books I can find on him. It's in the May issue of Razor magazine, if you're interested, Doc.

King? King of what? Gonzo?

Do you mean why is he not the King of Gonzo, instead of the Prince?

If so, it's because he wanted it that way. He was already the self-declaired King of Fun, so he could not be King of too much according to him.

I highly suggest Fear and Loathing. Though you'd be starting off with the best, it's the best way to start out interested.

The Doc

I just bought the latest Playboy because it had Hunter's last correspondance with that magazine. The article was called "Postcard from the Proud Highway" and included many of his thoughts on a wide range of subjects. It's amazing.

As for Razor? No, I have not heard of it. But I have read just about every interview with him. I'll check it out though, thanks.

The Doc

Thompson is absolute pure genious -- one of the most influential writers of all sorts in the past thirty years, in my mind.

I will, within all my powers, get my hands on this issue of playboy so I may read the article; all though at my age, that could be a tad problem, just walking about into the establishment and greeting the sucker working for minimum wage with something along the lines of: "Hello gentile friend, I'm a minor. I'd like a playboy." So if anyone may know where I can find the article by means of the internet, I would appreciate such help.

If I can get my scanner working, I'll try and send you an email of the article. But don't try and ask me for the nudey pictures you underage perv. :p

I'm glad you got into Thompson and I will happily feed your addiction.

By the way Corleone, when did Thompson peak your interest? I didn't really notice you in all the threads I made before and after his death. Was it rather recently? (which would explain the Avatar change)

The Doc

Also, Thompson has been the best for around 40 years. Let's not sell his days in the mid-sixties with the Hell's Angels short.

I talked about this in the "Profile Thread", so I thought I should post it here. In my opinion, this is the best thing Hunter ever wrote. It is from the book, FALILV.

The Wave Speech
By: Hunter S. Thompson


Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era-the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run…but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant…
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time -and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights - or very early mornings - when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L.L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder’s jacket…booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of the Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I stumbled for change) … but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that….
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up at the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda….You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning….
And that, I think, was the handle – that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting – on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave….
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark – the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.


Amazing. Truly a gift to the world of literature.

What a God.

The Doc

I am very interested to know what you guys think of this passage above. In my opinion, it is not only Thompson's best work, but the best work of any writer anywhere. This passage is what drove me to want to become a writer. What do you guys think??

Share your thoughts about this, please.

The Doc

better playboy than playgirl

Well, I actually saw Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Bravo at about four in the morning, sometime last year. I was tumbling over in laughter -- I just wasn't sure if they were for real! Little did I know that the film was actually based on the novel by the same exact man who had written Hell's Angels, an absolutely amazin book I had read only a few months earlier.

After getting my hands on Fear and Loathing in it's written form, I finished quickly and then rented the film, and watched it several times through -- almost religiously. Infact, I had a few quotes from the film/book rotating through my profile earlier this year. Recently, I came around to finally purchasing the Criterion Edition DVD, and my own copy of the book, which I am about half way through for the second time (I was borrowing it from a buddy of mine earlier.) Although, I didn't really feel compelled to changing my avatar until recently; I'm just a lazy wad of ass.

***

The passage you posted is by far, in my personal opinion, the best exerpt from the book. I just love it. It is also one of my favorite parts of the book, alongside the first three or four chapters, about the Hitchhiker, and how they came to their journey to the desert.

When bored, am I the only one who likes to draw the Fear and Loathing logo many times in my notebook? If you don't know what I am talking about, watch disk 1 of the Criterion DVD menu. :p

I did that a lot in high school, Vercetti.

I used to draw a lot of Steadman-esque drawings for fun.

The Doc

I just bought the issue of Razor with the last Thompson interview. It looks amazing and I recommend it to everyone.

The Doc