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C E L E B R A T IN G A D E C A D E
7
Street roots
Education • Dialogue ♦ Independence
Not like
the others
Hunter S. Thompson's eratic and brilliant
life the subject o f a friend's new memoirs
BY K E V IN GOPAL
survived for long.
That opened up the way for a discussion
unter Thompson paid fastidious
of his creative processes and craft in a way
attention to cultivating his own
that no one else had done, nor seemed
legend. There were the books and
likely to. Plus there were all those personal
the hell raising, of course, but also the details of his life that I think really help
thousands of letters, written on the
define anyone, and had a lot to do with
typewriter he carried everywhere with him
shaping my outlook on some things, for
and painstakingly carbon copied for the
better or worse. We were also grounded in
archive.
similar experiences during the height of the
The legend may well have become a curse “revolution years” in the late 1960s and
________________
by the time the
early 1970s, even though I was almost a
author of “Fear and
generation younger than Hunter. That gave
Hunter S Thompson:
Loathing in Las
me a chance to look back at an entire
Vegas” shot himself
An Insider's View Of
history-making epoch in our times, using
four years ago -
Hunter as the lens, and that was a very rare
Deranged, Depraved,
while talking to his
opportunity. It also allowed me to present, I
Drugged Out
wife on the phone
hope, some insights about Hunter that no
Brilliance is published and with his son in
one else could.
by Lyons Press.
the house. But it
continues.
K.G.: Few people have subjected his prose to
the analysis you do in the book. How does it
Documentaries
stand up?
and books such as Alex Gibney’s film
“Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S
J.C.: M uch of H u n te r’s w riting never
Thompson” and “Gonzo: The Life of H u n ter
ceases to grip m e, especially th e funny stuff
S Thompson,” the oral history by Rolling
and th e really poignant big issues th a t h e
Stone founder Jann Wenner and Corey
sum m arized so beautifully, so often. T h ere
Seymour, are revealing but neither has the
was also some very weak writing, and long
insight of Jay Cowan’s new book, “An
patches of it at times. I think that it looks
Insider’s View of Deranged, Depraved,
more repetitious and self-referencing the
Drugged Out Brilliance."
more you expose yourself to big chunks of it
Cowan met Thompson in 1969 during the
at any one time — which I unwisely did in
audacious campaign to get a counter-culture
preparing to write this book. But I wanted
candidate elected as mayor of Aspen, and he
to revisit everything, and I needed to find
went on to be a friend, confidante and
quotes I’d always admired. It was fun but
caretaker of his ranch. No mean writer
definitely took on the colors of an overdose.
himself — nor a poor hellraiser — Cowan’s
Read over time and less critically,
account of their relationship is unusual in its
Hunter’s writing is mostly still very good.
close analysis of Thompson’s writing and its
But held up to its own measure as
combination of affection and unsparing
established by the first three or four books,
honesty. Thompson’s brilliance is laid bare
it can come up lacking. There are many
but so too is his poorest work and his
stand-out moments, whole stories, and even
cruelty and violence.
most of some books that he wrote after the
STREET NEW S SERVICE
H
Kevin Gopal: 7Vn? s no shortage of books
and films about Hunter Thompson, especially
since he died. Did you set out to explore an
angle others had missed?
J.C.: When I first pitched the book to a
friend at Lyons Press, I only did it to get his
attention. Hunter was always good for th at
And I told him that there were already a
bunch of books on Hunter out or planned. I
also had other ideas I wanted him to read,
but I thought this was a good opener. When
they got back to me within half an hour,
they wanted Hunter. They were especially
interested in the fact that I had lived so
close to him for so many years, during the
height of his career. And that was the big
difference. Except for a few of the women
who lived with him or worked for him, no
one had the kin d of on going firsthand
experience around him that I did. Not and
mid-1970s that anyone else would be thrilled
to claim as their best works. But I don’t
think he would have ever made that
mistake. Obviously the two “Fears” books
were seminal. Several of his stories for
Rolling Stone and others after that were
also superior. And “Lono,” “Better Than
Sex” and some parts of “Hey Rube” were
really good. The collections had brilliant
stuff, and Rum Diary was remarkable, but
largely unchanged from when he first wrote
it, making it really his first book.
K.G.: Being close to Thompson was worth it
“up to a point,” you write. What did you gain?
What did you lose?
J.Cu In the end, Hunter was probably like
any good friend, except, typically, more so.
There were many things to admire and
enjoy about him, and a few that made me
crazy. I think he felt the same way about
me, and I always figured if he could put up
with me, I could certainly do it with him. In
K.G.: Wzs tf just the alliteration overload
that put you off the title the publisher gave
your book?
th e end, I lost som e of my free will and
independence, m y ability to live outside his
tem pers, relationships and schedules. He
didn’t take it away, I gave it away. T h at w as
my decision and nothing I ever blam ed him
J. C.: I’ve always b e en dism ayed by people
w ho w rite about H u n te r by trying to w rite
like him and say s o in th e book. I felt this
title was an attem p t to sound like som ething
for. In return I gained a lot: a very good
friend, vast insights into writing and politics,
someone I could talk to about anything at
any time, the chance to meet a lot of
interesting people, a front row seat at some
of the big moments in our shared history,
and an insider’s look at all kinds of things.
K.G.: Do you think the circumstances of his
suicide were narcissistic, as some have said?
J.C.: Maybe they all are, of course. Did he
kill himself because he could no longer be
the person he thought he was, or wanted to
be? I suppose that plays a role in many
suicides. I know he was very depressed at
his ongoing physical ailments, and he never
handled pain well, nor was he good at
rehabilitating himself following injuries, and
that’s key to any kind of full recovery,
especially as you get older. Hunter was not a
patient man, I think we can conclude, and
fond of saying he’d already far outlived the
age he thought he would reach. But I
definitely believe, as I say in the book, that
the prospect of one more divorce was the
final straw for him.
Though his last writing produced some
good, tight pieces, the work seemed to be
getting more difficult and less interesting to
him. He wasn’t doing the stories he wanted
to do, or the novel he hoped for to succeed
“Rum Diary,” and not living up to the
standards he’d set I think he feared he
never would again. And the political
situation had become a nightmare.
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Hunter might have written. And I preferred
my idea of calling it “I Am Not Like The
Others,” one of his favorite sayings and one
I mention throughout the book.
K. G.: What do you think Thompson would
have .made of Obama and U.S. politics after
the Bush era?
J.C.: I think he would been ecstatic and
nervous about Obama’s ascent, as are many
of us still. Can a good, honest and brilliant
man survive in American politics? Can he
dig us out of a hole that the last president
and his party dug us into, with a purpose
that seemed bent on destroying everything
except a few large fortunes for a tiny clique
of crooks? I think if Hunter could have held
on until now, it might have changed
everything for him. That’s probably naive on
my part. But he was so devastated about
what was happening in our government and
the world that I think it colored all his other
moods and made it hard just to get up each
day. And the fact that we could finally, as a
people, in the depths of the darkest
eleventh hour, make a stab at turning the
bus around, I believe would have been as
tremendously heartening to him as it was,
and is, to so many of us.
I think it could have literally given him
reason to live. Or killed him partying at the
inauguration.
Reprinted from Big Issue in the North ©
Street News Service: www.street-papers.org
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