Saturday, June 05, 2004

Watching Out with the Good Doctor

Since Tom Mangan has unfortunately discontinued his Prints the Chaff blog and with it his Hunter Thompson Watch, I will pick up the binoculars. At least until Tom has rested and got over his blogging burnout and returns better than ever.

Now Hunter isn't a poet per se, but he is an original voice. His Fear and Loathing epics are, well, just that. Epics. And can any American ever thank him enough for his obituary of Richard Nixon, He Was a Crook. I doubt not. He is the Thomas Jefferson of Gonzo journalism, and why, amazingly enough, he's still here, we should pay strict attention.

Which brings me to his recent article in ESPN sports, where his writing can now be read on a somewhat regular basis. I know that around these parts (Metro Boston,) the Democratic National Convention have people on edge. Basically, those outside of the city will not be able to enter it, even to score their drug of choice. And those inside are stuck there with all those political junkies. But the Summer Olympics in Athens is a whole different baklava. Mr. Thompson speaks to this issue (and Abu Ghraib) with his usual considered deliberation:
And why would I want to go to Athens in the summer, anyway? Only a fool or a paid sportswriter would do a thing like that. ... Or a suicidal terrorist, eh?

You bet. There will be plenty of those in Greece when July rolls around. It will be like strolling up to a wasp's nest that some jackass just swatted with a sharp stick. Welcome to the birthplace of the world-wide Olympics, bubba. You'll like it here. Just get naked and prowl around the streets tonight. You will find friends everywhere.
This is not going to be pretty TV I fear.

2 comments:

shanna said...

my husband (a fiction writer to my poet) has the following hunter s thompson quotation above his desk:

"Too many people in this gutless world have come under the impress that writers are a race of finks, queers and candyasses to be bilked, cheated and mocked as a form of commercial sport. It should be noted, therefore, that some writers possess .44 Magnums and can puncture beer cans with that weapon at a distance of 150 yards."

Other than the slightly derrog. use of "queer" (which I giving HST the benefit of the doubt outta context may be attributing to the "people" of whom he complains), I think that's just pretty damn funny.

son rivers said...

Ah! That's what I'm missing. I gotta get me one of those .44 Magnums.

I agree. That's a riot. (And I agree that he's attributing "queer" to those disrespectors.)