Until Thompson died, I didn’t know anything about him but his name. But as a journalism studnet I was heard his name thrown about a lot yesterday by my fellow students and school paper staff-members. So I looked him up, and I really don’t understand what the fuss is all about. Beyond the fact that he reputedly pioneered Gonzo journalism (which I think can be a good journalistic style), the man doesn’t seem very worth remembering. He was irresponsible (he once shot his assistant with a shotgun while trying to scare a bear off his property), made a complete mockery of democracy/republicanism by running for office on the “Freak Power” ticket in what strikes me as nothing more than a publicity stunt, appears to have been an alcoholic and was undeniably a drug addict (at least for a long period of time) and also appears to have seen nothing wrong with either problem, was reportedly a wife-beater, was once investigated for and charged with (though ultimately not convicted of) possession of child pornography, etc, etc. Basically, from everything I’ve read about Thompson over the past couple days, he seems to have been a Bohemian deviant with no redeeming values.

Ah, but Pieter, have you read the man? If the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, then it is in the man’s writing that his pudding is proved. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is amazing work. Darkly depraved, ingeniously humoured, and quietly apt - in a screaming, mayhemic sort of way. Did you read the pitchfork tribute? It seemed to get to the heart of the man. If a man lacks religion, his hope must lie in the earthly, in the political. Thompson recognized full-well the hopelessness in the earthly and in the political - and so his experience is a valuable one to take to heart. His was an honest evaluation of the “liberation” of the 60s (”So now, less than five years later [in 1972], you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back”). And then, I’m not sure of your evaluation of his political campaign; yes, he mocked the system, but it had already made a mockery of itself - he was just calling attention to its failure.