“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” Hunter S. Thompson was good like that. Always generous when it came to doling out whacked-out life advice. In his writing, he offered heartfelt tips on many things, from hotel liaisons (“Don’t have sex in the lobby – it’s usually awkward”) to optimised forms of hedonism (“Have an objective to give your bender a theme. For instance, stalking and killing a wild pig with a bowie knife”). This type of off-kilter wisdom reflects Thompson’s libertarian values and drug-addled life. Until these hard-living ways dulled his creative fire, he channelled this material into Gonzo journalism – an energetic form of subjective reporting that involved the writer becoming a central participant in the story. Yet what truly supercharged Thompson’s writing was his electric style, a form of hyperbolic invective that influenced countless young journalists all over the planet. On the back of his Fear And Loathing books in particular, Thompson became a countercultural hero, right up until his suicide in 2005. But given the unorthodox nature of his daily existence – the firearms, the pranks involving frozen elk hearts, the oceans of Chivas Regal –…
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