SEWARD: Guns, drugs, gonzos: Hunter S. Thompson retrospective
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."
The opening salvo to the 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" previews the drugged-out depravity yet to come as Johnny Depp, playing Thompson's Roman á clef Raoul Duke, advises his lawyer, Dr. Gonzo, against picking up a hitchhiker due to his hallucinations of bats caused by a large dose of LSD.
Thompson's bat country ramblings now live in infamy, serving as a summation of an author more renowned for his substance intake than his body of work.
Summarizing Thompson in such a manner would be a great disservice to the man. He was an evolution of the liberal writings of George Orwell if Orwell had lived through Watergate. I tend to agree with critics regarding the movie adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," as film and music critic Stephen Holden writes, "Even the most precise cinematic realizations of Thompson's images (and of Ralph Steadman's cartoon drawings for the book) don't begin to match the surreal ferocity of the author's language."
Needless to say, I am a massive fan of Thompson. It was not always like that.
I was first introduced to the Rolling Stone journalist by a literary-loving friend during a monotonous shift at Ace Hardware. I was 19, working and attending school part-time. I was desperately in need of a jolt.
The idea of a drug-infused social commentary book struck me as thrilling, capable of snapping me from suburban reverie into a creative force. I quickly bought a copy of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and stopped reading after ten pages, confused about what I was reading.
Prompted by my friend, I turned to a more coherent narrative: "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72".
Here, I saw the light. Thompson's wit and insight shine through his recounting of events, the anger he expresses toward the political system and Richard Nixon made glaringly obvious and only buoyed by his faint hope that the underdog challenger George McGovern would beat the incumbent Republican on Election Day (spoiler alert - McGovern lost in a landslide).
Thompson kickstarted many of my passions. My decision to study political science was based on that fateful 1972 coverage, and my passion for writing stemmed from his unique ability to combine wit, insight and bizarre humor on the page. There is a novel accounting for my time in Kosovo that will never see the light of day, written in the style of Thompson.
For all my egregious fan-boying of the author, I am also more than willing to admit his many faults. A substance-abusing gun nut? Goodness knows we have way too many of those in this country.
Yet, under all of his bravado, an intelligent and rebellious soul existed.
Thompson broke journalism numerous times, from his year spent with the motorcycle gang Hell's Angels to his founding of Gonzo Journalism, a first-person reporting style without claims of objectivity, as the reporter is participating in the events they commentate on. It allowed Thompson to expand the story to include characters he had met on the way and scenarios he had encountered, all in purpose of serving his commentary.
Media today has retained certain aspects of Thompson's journalistic revolution, namely the inherent political bias in all outlets, thinly veiled or not. Yet, similarly to the film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", it lacks any sort of ferocity, insight or personality, seeking to push out as much news as possible, leading to the slow death of journalism.
Ryan Zickgraf argues that "smartphones and our endless parade of screens have flattened all news, entertainment and information into (a) digital sludge of 'content.'" Modern journalism has become quicker at the cost of personality.
While speed is vital, the indistinguishable content slop that this emphasis on speed has caused makes media vulnerable to disinformation campaigns, with Russian disinformation campaigns wreaking havoc on social media in recent years.
Journalists, seeking to cover as much as possible, overwhelm their outlets with fast and breaking news, which inevitably spreads to social media and becomes content slop. Disinformation is easy, as fact and fiction all look the same when journalism lacks personality.
Thompson, for his many faults, was one of a kind. Whenever you pick up an article or text by him, you know it will be a legitimate account of events, only capable of being written by Thompson.
Media has gotten stale and susceptible to assault, much like the media of Thompson's heyday. While I might delude myself into thinking that someone could be like Thompson, my primary hope is that we maintain a rebellious spirit, much like the founder of Gonzo Journalism himself. Be legitimate, be yourself, stand up and express what is right. Just stay away from LSD.
Samuel Seward is a senior at the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in political science and minoring in English. Seward’s column, “Dead Air,” runs on alternate Mondays.
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