Hunter S. Thompson and the Birth of Gonzo

Hunter S Thompson created Gonzo journalism - aDecadent and Depraved which was included in the
style of journalistic writing that blurs the distinctionJune 1970 edition of Scanlon’s Monthly as
between fiction and non-fiction. It is writtenpure ‘Gonzo’. Cardoso claimed that
subjectively and often includes the reporter asGonzo was South Boston slang for the last man
part of the story, via a first person narrative.standing after an all night drinking marathon.
Indeed, the writer is the central figure of theGonzo Journalism can be seen as an offshoot of
story, with everything circling around them withthe New Journalism movement of the sixties
personal experiences and emotions being used towhich was led by Tom Wolfe. Thompson was an
provide context for the story. Clear editing isenigmatic figure - reclusive and often unintelligible
abandoned, creating a gritty, real-time, in the zonein conversation but a writer of genius who was a
read and exaggeration and profanity is par for themammoth in political criticism who could define
course. Gonzos believe that truth in journalism canentire movements in his sprawling articles. He will
be achieved while writing objectively. The termalways be linked with the hippie counterculture of
was first used by Bill Cardoso, editor of thethe sixties for his ruthless hounding of the Nixon
Boston Globe magazine, when he describedadministration and his wholesome consumption of
Hunter S Thompson’s Kentucky Derby Ispsychedelic drugs.