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Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - Web posted at 8:18:25 GMT Going, going, Gonzo: 60s icon shoots himself LOS ANGELES - Hunter S Thompson, a renegade journalist whose "gonzo" style threw out any pretence at objectivity and established the hard-living writer as a counter-culture icon, fatally shot himself at his Colorado home on Sunday night. |
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He was 67. His son Juan Thompson reportedly found the author's body at his home in Woody Creek, near the ski resort of Aspen, about 256 kilometres southwest of Denver. Thompson, famed for such adrenaline-packed narratives as 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', turned his drug and alcohol-fueled clashes with authority into a central theme of his work, challenging the quieter norms of established journalism in the process. He also cultivated an aura of recklessness, starting with the blurb on his book 'Hell's Angels', in which he called himself "an avid reader, a relentless drinker and a fine hand with a .44 Magnum". A long-time gun enthusiast, Thompson had a shooting range on his property. By his heyday in the 1970s, Thompson had distilled his style of invective-laced, outlaw journalism into a slogan: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." He spun outlandish tales to describe his experiences. Writing in the first person, Thompson flirted with the border between fiction and journalism, creating a genre that became known as "gonzo journalism", in which the writer engages himself and his personal views in the story. It made him a cult figure. He described the birth of gonzo journalism in a 1974 interview with Playboy, saying he was covering the Kentucky Derby on deadline, but "I'd blown my mind, couldn't work." "So finally I just started jerking pages out of my notebook and numbering them and sending them to the printer. I was sure it was the last article I was ever going to do for anybody." The positive response was overwhelming, which, he said, was like "falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool of mermaids". 'WRITER OF SIGNIFICANCE' 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', adapted from a two-part article written for Rolling Stone magazine in late 1971, is the apocryphal tale of a wild, drug-fuelled weekend spent in the desert gambling hub of Las Vegas by protagonist Raoul Duke, a thinly-disguised version of Thompson. The adventure was recreated in a 1998 Hollywood film starring Johnny Depp, who became a friend of the author. Thompson's refracted coverage of the Super Bowl and the 1972 presidential race also inspired the 1980 movie 'Where the Buffalo Roam', with Bill Murray as the self-proclaimed doctor of gonzo journalism. Stories of his heady experiences earned him a popular reputation as a wild-living, hard-drinking, LSD-crazed writer bent on self-destruction. His other works include 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72', a collection of articles he wrote for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the election campaigns of then-president Richard M Nixon and his opponent, Senator George McGovern. He was also caricatured as 'Uncle Duke' in the comic strip Doonesbury, right down to his signature aviator glasses and cigarette holder. Although Thompson's later work got mixed reviews, critics credited him with pioneering a style of invective-laced and hyperbolic political commentary that was uniquely American. CONTEMPT FOR POWER A 1994 essay in Rolling Stone written as an obituary for former President Richard Nixon was typical. At a time when many commentators offered a more generous re-assessment of Nixon's legacy, Thompson called him "a liar, a quitter and a bastard. A cheap crook and a merciless war criminal". "I think Thompson has remained a writer of significance, because, essentially a satirist, he has displayed an utter contempt for power — political power, financial power, even showbiz juice," novelist Paul Theroux wrote in 2003. Raised in a middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky, Thompson's father died when he was 14, and by 18 he had been jailed for his part in a robbery. After a stint in the Air Force working as a sports editor, he became a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune in Puerto Rico. In 1965, Thompson broke through with an article about the Hell's Angels that he turned into a critically hailed book. It was his association with Rolling Stone that turned both into literary icons - even though Thompson initially considered the upstart San Francisco-based magazine "a bunch of faggots and hippies". In 1963, Thompson wed Sandy Conklin, a union that would last 18 years and produce one child, Juan. He also moved to Woody Creek, where he would spend most of the rest of his life. In 1970 Thompson ran for sheriff in Pitkin, Colorado, campaigning on the 'Freak Power' ticket. He lost by a handful of votes. His later works included 'Screwjack and Other Stories', ''The Proud Highway' and his last work, 'Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and The Downward Spiral of Dumbness'. Thompson is survived by his second wife, Anita Beymunk, whom he married two years ago, Juan and a grandson. - Nampa-Reuters-AFP |
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