Gonzo blogging

In the spring of 1970 writer Hunter S Thompson and illustrator Ralph Steadyman arrived in Louiseville to report on the Kentucky Derby, or more to the point the great alcohol over-use and excess of all sorts that tended to surround the affair. The published piece was called “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved“. Both Thompson and Steadyman decided to dive in and indulge in all activities surrounding the derby - i.e. went on a week’s worth of total binge and ended up in what is sometimes charmingly called ‘a hell of a state’. It was in such state that upon looking into a mirror they realized that actually it was them - personification of decadence and deprivation. And so Thompson put them at the centre of the writing. With looming deadlines and no actual article ready he started sending his editor pages he took out from his notebook (before I knew it had a name I used to practice this with my college assessments…). And this, dear kids, is how Gonzo came about.

Thompson developed a very particular journalistic style - subjective to the point of being partially a fantasy, more representative (of the places, feelings, people, events etc.) than factual and fairly punk in it’s approach to logics of written piece. On top of that it was mixed with his crazy, binge induced writing style, witty, humorous and quite often fairly cruel.

Here’s why I’m mentioning this: I’ve been watching a documentary about Thompson, ‘Buy the ticket, take the ride’, recently. I use the past perfect tense because I watched it few times and I’m going to watch it again. Or rather listen to it, it’s got a great narrative, and why I go about some dull business of everyday life liek eating or cleaning i put it on to have some one tell me a story. (However I always have a look when the scene from ‘Fear in loathing in Las Vegas’ comes on, in which the voice over says ‘there was an evidence in this room of excessive consumption of almost every type of drug known to civilized men 1544 a.d.’ Meanwhile you can see Johnny Depp standing up in a room full of water and turning around so that we can see he’s got a massive tail.) I’ve been watching it and thinking about journalism and gozo and - that’s more on the margin - how excess can become a brand, or at least how there is an audience that will praise you for it, which makes my perspectives a bit better then I thought.

While there is no shortage of personal narrative around blogs (indeed a lot of times it’s quite too personal taken into account the public nature of the medium) the reporting bit is next to none. I mean reporting as journalistic reporting, not as telling some sort of a story that occasionally is not about the author. What I’m thinking about is going to the field, observing and researching something properly - something that has social significance on one or another level. Which arguably most topics do, but being aware of it brings in different quality (and commitment).

Of course this is not early 60s. Rolling stone wouldn’t publish a transcript of drugs and alcohol induced stream of consciousness (or hardly-consciousness) these day and age. One wouldn’t get away with sending a magazine pages from their notebook even if it was signed with a false name that sounds as good as Ralph Duke (except maybe if the magazine was Vice).

But you know what? Blogging is made for Gonzo. Blogging is Gonzo, but not nearly enough.

The bar opened at seven. There was also a “koffe & donut canteen” in the bunker, but those of us who had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts. We wanted a strong drink. We were, ater all, the absolute cream of the national sporting press.
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas