Gonzo journalism
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The term gonzo was first applied to Thompson's writing in 1970 by Bill Cardoso, a Boston Globe reporter who claimed the word had originated with the Irish in South Boston to describe the last man standing at the end of an all-night drinking marathon.
Gonzo journalism argues that journalism can be truthful without striving for objectivity. It favours style over accuracy and aims to describe personal experiences or the essence or mood of things rather than facts. It disregards the 'Polished' edited product favoured by Newspaper Media and strives for the gritty factor. Thompson was disappointed with the state of journalism and sought to press greater truth over specific facts.
Gonzo journalism extends the New Journalism championed by Tom Wolfe, Lester Bangs, and George Plimpton. "I don't get any satisfaction out of the old traditional journalist's view—'I just covered the story. I just gave it a balanced view,'" Thompson said in an interview for the online edition of The Atlantic. "Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. You can't be objective about Nixon."
In Thompson's work, the author's viewpoint is frequently distorted by consumption of drugs and alcohol (often noted in the article), but gonzo journalism is not about using drugs and alcohol.
Douglas Brinkley said "gonzo" requires virtually no rewriting and frequently uses transcribed interviews and verbatim telephone conversations. Other writers who have worked in "gonzo" mode include P. J. O'Rourke, William Godwin, and Matt Taibbi.
Gonzo journalism is a highly subjective and extremely personal form of reporting. While Dr. Thompson's writing style has not changed dramatically since the sixties (although his form has), the first piece of writing to be called gonzo was The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved written for Scanlan's and illustrated by the Welsh cartoonist Ralph Steadman. As the deadline approached, and with his article still not done, Dr. Thompson resorted to ripping pages out of his notebook and send them to the editors. What resulted was "gonzo", as Bill Cardoso called it. (Gonzo is really an Italian word for absurdities - gonzagas. Cardoso claimed it was a corruption of the French Canadian word "gonzeaux" which means "shining path". To my knowledge, no such word exists). Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream followed in 1971. It has become a cult classic and was recently turned into a CD recording. F&L is a failed experiment in gonzo journalism. Thompson says this himself. He had intended it to be a record of everything he did as it happened, and unedited. Thompson rewrote and edited F&L five times!
Gonzo journalism has been called outlaw journalism, literary cubism, new journalism. Other people expressed their view that Gonzo does not deserve to be seen as a writing style worth classifying in harsh language. Many see it as an offshoot of the New Journalism movement in the sixties, led primarily by Tom Wolfe. In other words, NJ breaks all the rules of traditional journalism. This, however, is not exactly true. The changes in journalism made at the beginning of the 20th century is the original NJ. Some people argue that NJ really isn't new, since objectivity has been the great myth of journalism. As hard as media sources try to be objective, they can never truly achieve it. Everything from space limitations to illustrations infringe on objectivity.
Gonzo journalism is characterized by the use of quotes, sarcasm, humour, exaggeration, and profanity. Dr. Thompson bases his style on William Faulkner's idea that "the fiction is often the best fact". While the things that Dr. Thompson writes about are basically true, he uses satirical devices to drive his points home.
Another feature that makes it unique is that true gonzo writing is unedited. A notorious misser of deadlines, Thompson often drove editors nuts because he often faxed articles late, too late to be edited but just in time to make the printers. Dr. Thompson thought the fax machine, or "Mojo Wire" to be the ultimate communications instrument, as one can send information anywhere in seconds.
See also
- Gonzo
- "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved", first incarnation of a gonzo article
- The eXile
External links
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