Hunter S. Thompson has been dead a little over two years and his ashes still have a street value of well over $1,000,000. I actually authored this line and unless one reads on may consider this "joke" a witty and "hip" joke. However, the structure of this joke is straight from Chevy Chase's Generalissimo Fransisco Franco is Still Dead bit and the punch line to a Keith Richards joke that I think Dennis Miller did--form and function 100% SNL. I wrote the joke to fit the theme of my "essay", and yet was only inspired by 25 years of SNL watching. (I have probably watched more, but, my late 1980's depravity has me uncertain.)
Why the Hunter S. Thompson interest? Actually, my interest was in Lester Bangs, who was labeled a "gonzo-journalist", but not the original since that would be... yes, Hunter S. Thompson. Stating the obvious, no disrespect Lester, but does writing record reviews make you journalist? (I know he was more than an album reviewer, I saw "Almost Famous".) As many of the printed eulogies stated Thompson was not really much of a journalist, but he was one helluva writer. D.A. Blyler pretty much wrote the same thing on rawstory.com, but he was "miffed" because some bloggers thought snorting coke, drinking, writing and taking quaaludes (normally in that order) made them a "gonzo-journalist".
Mr. Blyler deserves his "miffness" (and yes, "damn it", I am over doing it with the paranthetical statements and "quotes"-- I am developing a whole new "style" of "journalism"), especially since the "old" media ( "the" Times for God's "sake") gave credibility by association with the bloggers and the original Gonzo. Blyler made it a point to let bloggers no they should be overjoyed with what they accomplished in the realm of "Journalism"...
Bloggers...journalism...what the Hell? OK, blogging, the internet, Bill Gates--all in one basket combined with CNN, talk radio and time (as always) change the landscape. Hunter S. Thompson was a superb writer that did it differently, as did Kerouac, Twain, Faulkner, Tolkien, etc. Maybe what we should be asking ourselves is why does Dr. Thompson inspire bloggers so much? Thompson's writing was good, sometimes great, but, it exuded the free-spirit, the counter-culture, freedom...things that brought down the the Berlin Wall and many writers (not just bloggers, dammit).
The first paragraph really could have been used to sum up this whole train of thought. Those that create things we like people who inspire us and many times we would like to create like them. When it is all said and done all we have left as our legacy as writers are the words we wrote. ("FYI", (only 3 hits as of this "writing"), but if this "newer", "Freer" style catches on it is documented, by God I can prove it, it's on the "internet").
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