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Sunday, February 20, 2005
The Gonzo Journalist is Gone
One of the finest modern writers has left us and I know I'm not the only one who will be saddened. Thompson prose was, to me, an absolute revelation. Reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 was one of those experiences in life where you can feel a new door opening up. Without reading that book and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas I am sure you would not be reading this blog today and my life would feel like it had no direction.
The style of writing Thompson employed felt like a prison breakout compared to what I was being taught in California public high school. It energized me and is one of the pieces of work that made me want to be a writer. It was something I wanted to do but it was Thompson (along with the departed Lester Bangs) who proved to me that it could be done without buckling to anyone else's idea of what "proper" prose is. It was the same feeling I got as a musician when I heard bands like the Rancid and Minor Threat for the first time.
I also chose this graphic because this is a blog about drawn images and Thompson's frequent collaborator Ralph Steadman is one of my favorite illustrators. Like most people I discovered his manic works of splatter through Thompson's books and I cannot imagine one without the other. It is tragedy that now they will never work together.
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