"It Never Got Weird Enough For Me"

When British-man, Todd Fahey, first heard of Hunter S. Thompson, someone was accusing him of trying to pull a Hunter, Jr. with his refreshing style of writing; we call it Gonzo Journalism. Gonzo journalism is known as a more modern style of writing, influenced mostly by drug use. The name was created in 1970, by close friend Bill Cardoso (another American writer), for Thompson’s writing style, who, at the time, was writing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Gonzo journalism can be described as a kind of fictional non-fictitious form of writing. Most commonly written in this writing can include: quotes, sarcasm, humor, exaggeration, and occasional profanity. It tends to mostly poke fun at the idea of social ethics and politics.
It is said that Thompson was very inspired by a quote William Faulkner, the 1949 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, stating, “fiction is often the best fact” (Martin). Most of Thompson’s writing involved plenty of personal experiences, though exaggerated a lot to give more extreme visual to his readers. His most commonly read novel is Fear and Loathing, published in 1971. The first scene begins very descriptive: “We were somewhere around Barstow at the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like, “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive…” And suddenly there were a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus! What are these Goddamn animals?” Dr. Gonzo accompanies the main character, Raoul Duke, to Las Vegas as Duke’s attorney.
Other well-known Gonzo artists and writers include: Ralph Steadman, who did all of Thompson’s artwork for bookcovers, etc. Lester Bangs, a former writer for the Rolling Stone; George Plimpton was a big fan of the style, who also knew big-shots like Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick; and although I have not seen anyone consider him a Gonzo writer/lyricist, Bob Dylan has more or less influenced the genre.
Hunter S. Thompson had a major influence on Gonzo journalism, not solely because the name was given for his style of writing. He created an entirely new revolutionary genre, and he never stopped influencing Gonzo. People read his novels and think, “I can do that; how creative!” Thompson is known as one of the strangest persons to ever live, and his death was just as strange.