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My Beloved Gonzo
is Gone
Hairlines between Sadness and Madness
Feb 21, 2k5
by CyberWryterCJ
gonzo:
Adjective
Slang 1. Using an exaggerated, highly subjective style, especially in journalism: "a hyperkinetic, gonzo version of Graham Greene" (New Yorker). 2. Bizarre; unconventional.
Etymology
Perhaps Italian, simpleton (perhaps short for BorgonzoneBurgundian), or Spanish ganso, dullard, goose ( of Germanic origin; see ghans- in Indo-European roots).
I haven’t cried since witnessing an entire family enslaved back in 2k2, but today my eyes, neurons and spine have all liquified. My hero, my influence, my kaleidoscope into the precious counter-culture, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson has bitten the big one. He fooled us. We all though it would be a massive cardiac arrest due to alcohol poisoning and a Noah’s Arc of free pharmacuetical samples on the way to a hash bar in Amsterdam. Nope. He utilized the self-serve-line and exited this irradic, unfair ride Hemingway style.
I was reading this guys crap in fifth grade. I lived and breathed his words, his hallucinations, his seizures and hangovers. Words keep flowing through me to thank him for his influence of purity in madness, his chaos I treasure oh-so deeply. It is here I find my dogma towards life and its endless facades. Thompson’s pen has taught me that our own distortions and mind melts are what matters…not who scammed the last primary or how many kickbacks GE gets for censoring liberal programming. Gonzo wrote us first-class tickets that transcend corruption and social unfairness. Decades of his sheer, gut-wrentching experiences taught us that we are the main events and that the hypocritcal establishment is the pathetic sideshow.
Compared often to the mega-degree of reincarnated HL MENKIN, Thompson’s perspectives of social change and madness gave us a purposely distorted, but an always honest look into his heart and soul. His writings span for over forty years and the fan base has been as solid as his liver spots. "Disenchanted" readers, like myself, who thirsted for something to cover the bitter after-taste of the perpetual status-quo, received gifts of hope and encouragement. Thompson taught us that just because we didn’t have millions of dollars to buy politicians, we could sure as hell examine, analyze, expose and humiliate the whole rotten structure for what it is.
As we know, Watergate proved him correct to the extent of vindication. His "saturation" coverage of Tricky Dick's Watergate hearings engulfed the nation as his arch enemy, the imperial presidency of Richard Nixon cumbusted into flames before America's eyes. Thompson was there to tell us that even the overly-powerful who try to screw with our consitutional principles must pay a price.
It is here I learned NOT to believe the government every time it told me something stupid. It was within these precious, perplexing writings that I felt I was no longer a sheep. Indeed, from the writer’s perspective, I could easily become the wolf. Forget the sheep’s clothing. I am quite proud of what I am...whatever this may be. The pen, as Maestro Thompson has taught us, can ravish a corrupt presidency, inebriate a generation of youth and encourage us to make alternative decisions for ourselves, instead of taking orders from "bloated political hacks".
Some of my favorites are Hell’s Angels, A Generation of Swine, The Great Shark Hunt, Fear and Loathing in Vegas and The Campaign Trail. Yet some of his most personal stuff cannot be found on the mainstream. In the tiniest of bookshops do I stumble across obscure booklets of his animosity towards political tyranny and his chemical withdrawals graphically displayed before my eyes. It is there I stand for durations on end absorbing his thoughts and prowess, the quintessential writer. The man of the people, as I called him.
I’ll never be as great as the great Gonzo, but I will surely pay him homage whenever I press down upon pen or keyboard with a thought and a buzz of his mighty roar, raging gently through my head.
PS. It’s a good thing I don’t drink anymore..or I’d be dead tomorrow.
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