The suicide of Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson was not a surprise to many people..... Thompson's "life in the passing lane" with it's drug and alcohol worship, and the later troubles with the law....made Thompson a person living always on the edge of some unseen disaster......
Thompson's heyday was the 70's and 80's ....but the Gonzo style of the 80's did not age well. Who cares about Dan Qualye now...or about Poppy Bush..... Thompson seemed to be losing his edge of late, becoming yesterday's man.
And like Kerouac and the Beats, the hard drinking life eventually catches up with you.....The Gonzo papers are filled with angry Gloom and Doom like:
"The fun has gone out of it. There is no hum of madness or adventure, no festering backwaters of hate and alienation... You can't feel properly alienated from a process you never knew, or form a choice you never had....." "All of that is messing in this goddamn dreary mess...."
In truth, the Gonzo papers often read like one long suicide note.....
But eventurally, I think the Triumph of the Religious Right killed Thompson's will to live..... The re-election of Dubya was enough to make many people just give up.
And perhaps, the advent of the Gonzoesque Blogosphere......made Thompson's Gonzo style just another voice shouting in the wilderness......?
Who knows....still there will always be room for Gloom and Doom and Thompson Gonzo style writing....we see it everyday in political blogs these days. Thompson is really the stylistic Father of Blog Style Journalism.
Perhaps old Gonzo journalism was finally obsolete, because everything is Gonzo now?
