mixxmaster’s blog

Gonzo – The Genesis of a New Journalistic Genre

Mar 2nd 2009
4 Comments
respond
trackback

Vor einigen Wochen durfte ich als mündliche Informationsquelle für A. herhalten, der einen kleinen Text über Gonzo schreiben durfte. Das ganze hat sich allerdings dann so weit entwickelt, dass am Schluss mein Blog sogar mehr oder weniger als Referenz aufschien. A. schrieb dazu:

    “scheiße….. dass ich diesen blogeintrag mal als referenz in eines meiner academic papers einfließen lasse…… wer hätte das gedacht….”

Hätte ich mir auch nie, aber mein Blog fühlt sich sehr geehrt. Nun gut, der Text wurde als befriedigend anerkannt, allerdings mit der Notiz am Rande, es wären teilweise doch sehr obstruse Quellenangaben dabei zu finden. Damit ist sicherlich nicht mein Blog gemeint.

Um letztlich diesem Blog den restlichen akademischen Touch verleihen zu können, hier nun das Essay von A. über Gonzo.

Gonzo – The Genesis of a New Journalistic Genre

The following essay deals with a special type of journalism, which firstly appeared in 1970 and which was invented by Hunter S. Thompson: Gonzo. This way of writing journalistic articles and reports is still popular nowadays among journalists and bloggers. To illustrate the properties of Gonzo, there will be a short definition given at first. Afterwards the focus will be put on Thompson’s novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream to demonstrate the concept of gonzo with several references to the text.

The term “Gonzo” was first used in 1970 by Bill Cardoso[1] – editor of the Boston Globe magazine – in order to describe Hunter S. Thompson’s article The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.[2] Thompson had to face the given deadline for this article and because of a lack of time, he just tore out pages from his notebook and handed them in, however, unrevised and unedited and full of personal notes, which usually were not to be published. This modus operandi was also copied afterwards by journalist Cameron Crowe (author of Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous) at the beginning of the 1970s, who was starting his career for the Rolling Stone magazine in those days. The term “gonzo” was – according to another biographer of Thompson – South Boston Irish Slang describing the ‘winner’ of a binge drinking marathon.[3] This description should give a basic idea of what is called gonzo.

Gonzo is – according to several journalistic codes like the German Pressekodex[4] – not a form of journalism, but a form of literature. It often includes the author as part of the story – for example as a first person narrator (“…and I was, after all, a professional journalist”[5]) – and blends factual (“the fabulous Mint 400”[6]) and fictional elements (“and the sky was full of […] bats”[7]). Pieces of gonzo also make use of sarcasm, contain humoristic passages and exaggeration (“Not that we needed all that [drugs][…]”[8]). In Thompson’s novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas there also appear racisms and other politically incorrect expressions (“Because in spite of his race [he is Samoan], this man is extremely valuable to me.”[9]). Drugs also play a crucial role in Thompson’s basic form of gonzo literature, although he is merely the only gonzo journalist with repeated references to drugs and drug abuse (“We were […] on the edge of the desert […] when the drugs began to take hold”[10], “The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. […]”[11], “[…] drinking Singapore Slings with mescal […]”[12]). Nevertheless Thompson’s “narrating I” does not forget and repeatedly mentions his assignment of writing a journalistic piece of text, even in states of him being intoxicated by different drugs. (“A fashionable sporting magazine in New York[…]”[13], “[…] I had an obligation to cover the story[14]). This is a crucial element of gonzo journalism: “Gonzo journalism […] can be truthful without striving for objectivity […]”[15].Thompson’s “narrating I” obviously knows, that he has a job to do, even th ough he seems not to be very interested in it. An Austian blogger who writes under the pseudonym “mixxmaster” also gives this other aspect of gonzo-journalism, which fits Thompson’s way of reporting: “Although there were no drug-excesses I can easily understand this kind of “fainting” which hits you […] when you have to write about an event, in which you are not interested (any longer)[…].”[16] Thompson – or at least his “narrating I” – seems to have a similar attitude towards writing about the Mint 400 desert race[17] or the “Kentucky Derby”[18]. Therefore it is no surprise, that Thompson’s experiences in reporting about the Kentucky Derby find their ways into his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Hunter Stockton Thompson created a new way of reporting. His invention, gonzo, was formative for journalism since the early 1970s and is currently experiencing its comeback on the internet (cf. Web 2.0). Gonzo breaks with journalistic conventions (“Been there, saw this, did that”) and enables the author to report about what was really essential for him or her. Although gonzo is not seen as classic journalism, it gives a more personal image of the happenings it reports about. Gonzo conveys emotions and imagery. It moves away from cold and objective coverage towards an individual story. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson gives an idea, about how gonzo comes into existence, however, in a rather extreme way.

Sources:

· Thompson, Hunter. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. London: HarperHarper Perennial, 2005.

· Thompson, Hunter. The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved. Scanlan’s Monthly, vol.1, no.4, June 1970.

(http://thebivouac.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/the-kentucky-derby-is-decadent-and-depraved/)

· Whitmer, Peter O. When the going gets weird: The twisted life and times of Hunter S. Thompson. New York: Hyperion, 1993.

· Hirst, Martin. What is Gonzo? The Etymology of an Urban Legend. University of Queensland, 19th January 2004.

(http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ:10764/mhirst_gonzo.pdf)

· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo_journalism (2009-02-06)

· http://www.mixxmaster.cc/blog/2009/02/12/%E2%80%9Ei-dont-know-what-the-fuck-youre-doing-but-youve-changed-everything-its-totally-gonzo%E2%80%9C/


[1] Hirst (2004) p5

[2] From Thompson (1970): The Kentucky Derby is decadent and depraved

[3] Whitmer (1993) p168

[4] Cf. http://www.presserat.info/pressekodex.html & http://www.presserat.ch/richtlinien.htm

[5] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p4

[6] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p3

[7] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p3

[8] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p4

[9] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p8

[10] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p3

[11] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p4

[12] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p8

[13] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p3

[14] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p4

[15] From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo_journalism . 2009-02-06

[16] From http://www.mixxmaster.cc/blog/2009/02/12/%E2%80%9Ei-dont-know-what-the-fuck-youre-doing-but-youve-changed-everything-its-totally-gonzo%E2%80%9C/ (analogous translation)

[17] Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (2005): p37

[18] From Thompson: The Kentucky Derby is decadent and depraved


This post is tagged

4 Responses

  1. Alex says:

    wer fehler findet…… eh scho wissen^^

  2. Alex says:

    naja….. jetzt, wo ich den ganzen textcorpus sehe….. da hatte die frau ‘fessa ned so unrecht, dass ich die bracket-quotations besser hätte lassen sollen…. und meine punctuation lässt auch zu wünschen übrig….. aber a 3er is a 3er

  3. mixxmaster says:

    ;)

Leave a Reply

Categories