2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Many have heard more than once about a rather scandalous, insanely interesting personality called "Doctor Gonzo".
Who is this? - you ask. This pseudonym is much less memorable than a scene from the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, or than a quote that begins: "Two bags of weed, seventy-five balls of mescaline, five blotters of bitter acid …"
Biography
Hunter Stockton Thompson is one of the most significant American writers in contemporary culture. He partly invented his nickname Doctor Gonzo himself, calling the hero of his novel that way. Hunter was born July 18, 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky. After the death of his father, his mother became an alcoholic, and he was forced to join the US Army. In 1956, Thompson began working as an editor for his own newspaper, where he wrote a sports column. While studying at Columbia University, H. S. Thompson has worked for several of New York's largest publishers.
Contribution to Literature
Hunter Stockton Thompson is indeed considered the founder of the gonzo style and gonzo in generaljournalism. This genre of literature combines audacity, lightness, irony and the absolute absurdity of the story.
Dr. Gonzo literally turned the traditional work of journalists around, now it was not just people standing on the sidelines and taking interviews, no, he himself became part of the events. Drugs, sports, madness, politics and an endless stream of dark humor, sarcasm, foul language - these are the traits you can recognize his work, it was this that made an explosion, turning the traditional framework of writing upside down.
Gonzo Traits
The gonzo style to a certain extent gave rise to a kind of freedom movement, including in literature. The question may arise why it was Hunter who was given the name of the whole direction? Because he was an absolute reflection of it. Most people agree that everything written by him and about him was true. Dr. Gonzo was the only person who could come to an anti-drug conference in a full room with cops, carrying a suitcase full of all kinds of illegal substances in his hand.
At the time, this kind of honesty in storytelling was a completely new phenomenon, giving rise to many new directions: from journalism to dirty realism. The main feature was the genuine directness of the author, right down to the style of his self-expression, syllable.
Dr. Gonzo Hero
In one of H. S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A Wild Journey into the Heart of the American Dream (and the eponymousfilm) Dr. Gonzo is the lawyer of the protagonist, journalist Raul Duke, the prototype of H. Thompson himself. The character of the lawyer is also taken from the real person Oscar Zeta Acosta, who was a friend of Thompson, a lawyer and activist, a writer who had a very defiant civic position. Roughly speaking, according to the book, he was not a lawyer, but rather just a friend who skillfully gets out of various situations that Raul Duke liked to get into so much. The two of them went to Mexico with a trunk full of drugs:
We had two bags of weed, seventy-five balls of mescaline, five blotters of bitter acid, a perforated s alt shaker full of cocaine, and a whole intergalactic parade of planets of all kinds of stimulants, trunks, squealers, gullers … and a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of crude ether, and two dozen amyl.
This quote is familiar to everyone, it has been rewritten, used and almost put on a pedestal by millions of people. This phrase has become the motto of many generations. She fully described the life of these people at that time and life in the style of gonzo.
The character Dr. Gonzo and his prototype in real life, although they have similar features, still depict completely different people. The photo of Dr. Gonzo is most often taken from the sensational adaptation of the novel directed by Terry Gilliam.
Lawyer Acosta
Oscar Zeta Acosta was born in April 1935 in Texas. Acosta was Mexican by nationality, grew up in a poorfamily without a father. He helped the same families, becoming a well-known lawyer. In 1967, a significant event took place for the future Dr. Gonzo - acquaintance with Acosta.
Acosta was an activist and defended activists of Mexican origin. For impudence, courage and disrespect, the lawyer was arrested more than once, he aroused the wrath of the police and high-ranking persons who had influence in this area.
As a strong personality and honest lawyer, Acosta led people who believed him, of course, this caused the anger of many. But his only weakness was drug abuse - LSD and amphetamines. Two major autobiographical novels were written by his hand, covering much of his professional activity. In 1974, Oscar Zeta Acosta left for Mexico and since then no one has seen him, he is considered missing.
