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About ArmaVirumque ( AHR-mah wih-ROOM-kweh) 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. Recent posts
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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.
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