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Tom Wolfe,
author and fellow “acid head,” had experiences in the presence of
Thompson several
times throughout his life. “Hunter’s life, like his work, was one long
barbaric
yawp, to use Whitman’s tests of the drug-fueled freedom from and
mockery of all
conventional proprieties that began in the 1960’s,” wrote Wolfe. Thompson was an
extremist in every aspect except for moderation. The concept and
control of
moderation, which is embedded as a respected principle in society that
one
should acquire at one point, was not a tactic used by Thompson.
Extremity in
his case consisted of daily dosages of drug intakes, ranging from
mescaline to
cocaine to ether. These things, shunned by the Machine (a Gonzo
word for the Government/Society) were no doubt components of his
eccentric
self, but in my opinion, extremism—at least in certain ways--is a
quality to
consider admirable. Living outside
of the box, as Thompson lived his life, has been an appealing idea and
somewhat
reality for me. Thompson tackled a unique aspect of journalism, created
his
own, customized strings of words, traveled and wallowed in spontaneity;
he
mastered his idea of life and the way it should be lived. In his case,
there
was no “way,” and he possessed no general ambition for direction or
motive. His
death, unfortunate and sad, was both planned and expected, for he had
planned
to kill himself whenever he felt the need to conclude his life in one
abrupt
halt. Perhaps my life
would rest more contentedly in the hands of spontaneity rather than a
planned
and well- beaten trail. In this world, people are driven perpetually by
schedule
and by the hands of a clock, left with no time for spontaneity or the
prospect
of not knowing. Maybe my own satisfaction
could be trained to answer to random events as well as planned events
and not
seeing what it was I wasn’t able to get done as a failure. Thompson
possessed
somewhat of an acquired taste for life. “I
hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but
they've
always worked for me.” He once said. In writing this, I do
not imply at all to advocate drugs and that sort of lifestyle or impose
it; only
to say that the manner in which this man lived touched a spot of
familiarity
and comfort in me and I realized that it was not the substance abuse
that was
admirable but the eccentric, impulsive creature that found significance
where
it is not usually found by most people. “No man is so foolish
but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that
he may
not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is
taught
only by himself has a fool for a master,” wrote Thompson. One of the
many slurs
of wisdom that he spouted during his life and this piece in particular,
I think
is most significant. Considered the ideal fool by some, he mastered the
counseling of his own mind, with his own words, and on his own terms.
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Like Mark
Twain, with his revolutionized free-flow style of writing, the
notorious Hunter
S. Thompson, inventor of Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), possessed a free lance and innovative
writing
style, Gonzo. Gonzo was a unique combination of journalism, personal
memoir
mixed with invention and “wild rhetoric,” inspired by the “bizarre
exuberance
of a young civilization”. It is, in itself, hardly a category, but more
the character
of the man himself, who “died as he lived.”