gonzo journalism

The term gonzo was first used in connection with Hunter S. Thompson by The Boston Globe magazine editor Bill Cardoso in 1970. He described Thompson's article "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved", which was written for the June 1970 edition of Scanlan's Monthly, as "pure Gonzo journalism".{{Sfn|Hirst|2004|p=5}} This predates the December 1970 debut of the Muppet Gonzo in The Great Santa Claus Switch.[https://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/02/10/mf.muppet.favorites.stories/index.html Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters - CNN.com] Cardoso said gonzo was South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after an all-night drinking marathon.{{Sfn|Thompson|1997}} He also said it was a corruption of the Canadian French word {{lang|fr|gonzeaux}}, which means {{gloss|shining path}}, although this is disputed.{{Sfn|Hirst|2004}}{{listen

| filename = Gonzo by James Booker, 1960, gonzo.ogg

| title = "Gonzo", 1960 song by James Booker

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Another speculation is that the word may have been inspired by the 1960 hit song "Gonzo" by the rhythm and blues pianist James Booker. This possibility is supported by a 2007 oral biography of Thompson, which states that the term is taken from a song by Booker{{Sfn|Wenner|Seymour|2007}} but does not explain why Thompson or Cardoso would have chosen the term to describe Thompson's journalism. The 2013 documentary Bayou Maharaja: The Tragic Genius of James Booker{{Cite web |last=Keber |first=Lily |year=2013 |title=Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker |url=http://www.bayoumaharajah.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331234207/http://www.bayoumaharajah.com/ |archive-date=March 31, 2014 |publisher=Mairzy Doats Productions}} quotes Thompson's literary executor as saying that the song was the origin of the term.{{Cite web |title=Unplugged: New documentary explores life, legacy of pianist James Booker |url=http://www.dosavannah.com/article/mon-12162013-2113/unplugged-new-documentary-explores-life-legacy-pianist-james-booker |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407070603/http://www.dosavannah.com/article/mon-12162013-2113/unplugged-new-documentary-explores-life-legacy-pianist-james-booker |archive-date=April 7, 2014 |website=Do Savannah}} According to a Greg Johnson biographical note on Booker,{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Greg |title=James Booker |url=http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/JamesBooker.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420171707/http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/JamesBooker.htm |archive-date=April 20, 2008}} the song title "Gonzo" comes from a character in a movie called The Pusher,{{Cite web |last=goblinhairedguy |date=February 1, 1960 |title=The Pusher (1960) |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054219/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170612175045/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054219/ |archive-date=June 12, 2017 |website=IMDb}} which in turn may have been inspired by a 1956 Evan Hunter novel of the same title.

Thompson himself first used the term referring to his own work on page 12 of the counterculture classic{{Cite news |date=February 21, 2005 |title=Entertainment – Thompson's classic Las Vegas trip |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/4284147.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227212645/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/4284147.stm |archive-date=February 27, 2014}} Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He wrote, "But what was the story? Nobody had bothered to say. So we would have to drum it up on our own. Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. Do it now: pure Gonzo journalism."{{Sfn|Thompson|1971}}

Lexico proposes etymology from {{langx|it|gonzo}} {{gloss|simpleton, dolt}} and/or {{langx|es|ganso}} {{gloss|dolt, goose}}.{{Cite web |title=Gonzo |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/gonzo |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025034917/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/gonzo |archive-date=October 25, 2019 |website=Lexico Dictionaries |language=en}}

Thompson based his style on William Faulkner's notion that "fiction is often the best fact".{{sfn|Rolling Stone|1998}} While the things that Thompson wrote about are basically true, he used satirical devices to drive his points home. He often wrote about recreational drugs and alcohol use, which added subjective flair to his reporting. The term "gonzo" has also come into (sometimes pejorative) use to describe journalism in Thompson's style, characterized by a drug-fueled stream of consciousness writing technique.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas followed the Mint 400 piece in 1971 and included a main character by the name of Raoul Duke, accompanied by his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, with defining art by Ralph Steadman. Although this book is considered a prime example of gonzo journalism, Thompson regarded it as a failed experiment.{{Cite book |last=Thompson, Hunter S. |title=Fear and loathing in Las Vegas and other American stories |date=1996 |publisher=Modern Library |isbn=0-679-60298-4 |location=New York |pages=210 |oclc=38432032}} He had intended it to be an unedited record of everything he did as it happened, but he edited the book five times before publication.

Thompson would instigate events himself, often in a prankish or belligerent manner, and then document both his actions and those of others. Notoriously neglectful of deadlines, Thompson often annoyed his editors because he submitted articles late, "too late to be edited, yet still in time for the printer".{{Cite book |last=Whitmer |first=Peter O. |title=When the Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson |date=1993 |publisher=Hyperion |isbn=1-56282-856-8 |edition=First |location=New York |oclc=26544707}} Thompson wanted his work to be read as he wrote it, in its "true Gonzo" form. Historian Douglas Brinkley said gonzo journalism requires virtually no rewriting and frequently uses transcribed interviews and verbatim telephone conversations.{{Sfn|Thompson|2000}}

"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."{{Cite web |date=August 27, 1997 |title=Writing on the Wall: An Interview with Hunter S. Thompson |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/graffiti/hunter.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100912163409/http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/graffiti/hunter.htm |archive-date=September 12, 2010 |publisher=The Atlantic Monthly Company}}

The Gonzo Studies Society proposes eleven features that, to varying degrees, are included in Hunter S. Thompson's Gonzo journalism:

• Subjectivity
• Immediacy (using notes, transcripts, etc.)
• A blend of fact and fiction
• Dark comedy
• A peculiar lexis
• Some kind of sidekick figure
• Hyperbole and/or fantasy
• Drug use
• Violence
• Digressions
• Conspiratorial tone{{Cite web |last=Wills |first=David S. |title=What is Gonzo? |url=https://gonzo-studies.org/what-is-gonzo/ |access-date=2023-04-16 |website=Gonzo Studies Society}}

Thompson felt that objectivity in journalism was a myth. Gonzo journalism has now become a bona fide style of writing that is similar to the New Journalism of the 1960s, led primarily by Tom Wolfe and also championed by Lester Bangs, George Plimpton, Terry Southern, and John Birmingham, and is considered a subgenre of New Journalism.[https://dc.ewu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1295&context=theses Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism as literature - EWU Masters Thesis Collection][https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/the-hunter-s-thompson-you-dont-know/242198/ The Hunter S. Thompson You Don't Know - The Atlantic] When asked whether there was a difference between the two, Thompson answered, "Yeah, I think so. Unlike Tom Wolfe or Gay Talese, for instance, I almost never try to reconstruct a story. They're both much better reporters than I am, but then I don't really think of myself as a reporter."{{Cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Hunter S. |title=Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson |last2=Hitchens |first2=Christopher |date=2009 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-7867-4798-6 |editor-last=Thompson |editor-first=Anita |edition=First |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |oclc=449190907}}

In 1998, Christopher Locke asserted that the webzine genre is descended from gonzo journalism,{{Cite news |last=Locke |first=Christopher |date=July 9, 1998 |title=Fear and loathing on the Web |work=The Industry Standard |url=http://www.thestandard.net/articles/article_display/0,1449,1019,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990117022847/http://www.thestandard.net/articles/article_display/0%2C1449%2C1019%2C00.html |archive-date=January 17, 1999}} a claim that has since been extended to social media.{{Cite news |last=Marinelli |first=Jennifer |date=May 1, 2010 |title=Hunter S. Thompson: The Man, The Legend, and his effect on the Digital Age |agency=Michigan Online News Association |url=http://michiganonlinenews.com/?p=405 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510034949/http://michiganonlinenews.com/?p=405 |archive-date=May 10, 2010}} Thompson's gonzo journalism influence is reflected in the current website Gonzo Today which features a top banner by Thompson's longtime illustrator Ralph Steadman, with rotating contributions by others including Thompson associate, poet Ron Whitehead.

It has been claimed that Thai writer Rong Wongsawan wrote in a style that was Gonzo, beginning in the 1960s when he reported from San Francisco. However he wrote in Thai, and he probably developed the style independently of Hunter S. Thompson. He also used the style in his books Sattahip and Takli which describe American soldiers and Thai bar girls during the Vietnam War.Tony Waters (2019). Rong Wongsawan’s Gonzo Journey through California in 1976, A Thai Writer Looks at the Americans, Journal of the Siam Society 107(2) https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/pub_jss/article/view/224702 His book The Man from Bangkok: San Francisco Culture in the 60s is an English translation of a book published in Thai in 1978.The Man from Bangkok by Rong Wongsavun (2022), tr. by Tony Waters. Thailand: While Lotus Books.

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|style=width: 600px;|

• Citizen journalism
• Creative nonfiction
• Embedded journalism
• Gonzo pornography
• Hamilton Morris
• Immersion journalism
• New Games Journalism
• New Journalism
• Nonfiction novel
• Reportage
• Roman à clef
• Shane Smith
• Transmetropolitan
• Postmodern literature

}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{Cite web |last=Bowe |first=Brian J. |date=Spring 2012 |title=A Brain Full of Contraband: The Islamic Gonzo Writing of Michael Muhammad Knight |url=http://www.ialjs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/A-Brain-Full-of-Contraband-_-Brian-Bowe.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108152741/http://www.ialjs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/A-Brain-Full-of-Contraband-_-Brian-Bowe.pdf |archive-date=2014-01-08 |publisher=Literary Journalism Studies |volume=4}}
• {{Cite web |title=Gonzo |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/gonzo |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025034917/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/gonzo |archive-date=October 25, 2019 |website=Lexico Dictionaries |language=en}}
• {{Cite web |last=Hirst |first=Martin |date=January 19, 2004 |title=What is Gonzo? The Etymology of an Urban Legend |url=http://eprint.uq.edu.au/archive/00000776/01/mhirst_gonzo.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414084730/http://eprint.uq.edu.au/archive/00000776/01/mhirst_gonzo.pdf |archive-date=April 14, 2008 |publisher=University of Queensland}}
• {{Cite book |ref={{harvid|Rolling Stone|1998}} |url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstoneseve00kahn |title=The Seventies: A Tumultuous Decade Reconsidered |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1998 |isbn=0-316-75914-7 |editor-last=Kahn |editor-first=Ashley |editor-last2=George-Warren |editor-first2=Holly |editor-last3=Dahl |editor-first3=Shawn}}
• {{Cite book |author-link=Hunter S. Thompson |last=Thompson |first=Hunter S. |title=Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream |publisher=Random House |year=1971 |isbn=0-679-78589-2}}
• {{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Hunter S. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780679406952 |title=The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman |publisher=Villard |year=1997 |isbn=0-679-40695-6 |url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Hunter S. |url=https://archive.org/details/fearloathinginam00thom |title=Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2000 |isbn=0-684-87315-X}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Wenner |first1=Jann S. |url=https://archive.org/details/gonzolifeofhunte00wenn |title=Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson, An Oral Biography |last2=Seymour |first2=Corey |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=2007 |isbn=978-0316005272}}

{{Refend}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• Gonzo Today – Independent gonzo journalism website with some contributions from Thompson illustrator Ralph Steadman

{{Hunter S. Thompson|state=expanded}}

{{Journalism}}

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Category:Hunter S. Thompson

Category:Journalism ethics

Category:Newswriting

Category:Types of journalism