Fear and Loathing in Manhattan by Stefan Beck

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In the Aeneid, the Roman poet Virgil sang of "arms and a man" (Arma virumque cano). Month in and month out, The New Criterion expounds with great clarity and wit on the art, culture, and political controversies of our times. With postings of reviews, essays, links, recs, and news, Armavirumque seeks to continue this mission in accordance with the timetable of the digital age.

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Mar 01, 2005 11:31 AM

Fear and Loathing in Manhattan

by Stefan Beck

Faithful readers may wonder why Hunter S. Thompson, beloved and deceased man-child "gonzo" "journalist," hasn’t yet received the Said-Sontag-Miller treatment on Armavirumque. For one, he makes a pitifully defenseless target--and no, not because he’s dead. He ended his life a near-catatonic Chivas-swilling caricature of himself, complete with the same achingly self-conscious uniform (funny hat, "tea shades," cigarette holder) he had always worn. His prose was so studiously, monotonously "crazy" and "over the top" that were there no evidence he had written it himself, we might suppose it came from a computer program. (Although I confess to having enjoyed his terrifically informative Hell’s Angels.)

But the better reason to avoid a long disquisition on Dr. Gonzo is that, if reactions to his suicide are any indication, there will be no convincing his adulators of how tragically wrong they are about him. Writing a bit, plummeting into alcoholism, holing up in a fortified compound, and shooting oneself in the head may seem to a certain species of teenage boy like a romantic trajectory. In real life, where the rest of us dwell, Thompson’s suicide should serve as a warning to his fans that both his hysterical bile and his self-destruction were signs not of genius, but of an inability to see the world clearly or to love much in it. All the critics lavishing praise on the Good Doctor should stop and consider whether they’d like to emulate his example.

P.S. Kevin Kane, the father of this baby, has penned an excellent Letter to the Editor to the Sun regarding Thompson:

Re: "Hunter S. Thompson, R.I.P.," John P. Avlon, Opinion, February 22, 2005. When I was in college, Hunter S. Thompson accepted a large fee to speak at an annual event on campus.
He showed up stumbling drunk, unable to speak a coherent sentence and spent most of the time on stage playing with a fishing rod and muttering under his breath. So it was difficult to read John P. Avlon’s homage to Thompson without smirking. Thompson spent a lot of time pontificating about our corrupt society and failed political leaders, but it didn’t stop him from collecting checks he had not earned.
Aside from the juvenile nature of Thompson’s analysis (were the quotes Mr. Avlon included intended to burnish his reputation or destroy it?), his holier-than-thou perspective on politics and American life provided far less insight than Mr. Avalon seems to think.
The 9 to 5 world Thompson decried was as unfamiliar to him as the world of collecting large speaker fees, and then stiffing the audience, who paid them, is to most Americans. And Thompson’s brief foray into politics was typically highhanded: Rather than crafting a serious message to the electorate, he had such disdain for, he treated it as one big joke.
Mr. Avlon may write off Thompson’s critics as "uptight, self-righteous patriots" but it was Thompson’s commentary that oozed a contempt fueled by a mighty sense of self-righteousness.
KEVIN KANE
Manhattan

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