If you were the drug-taking inventor of Gonzo Journalism, you'd think it would be hard to feel insuted by anything except being charecterised as an upstanding, sober WASP, but Hunter S. Thompson was insulted by an accurate 'portrait', saying:
"some people grow up and want to be firemen, and some want to be president; nobody wants to grow up and be a cartoon character"That was in answer to being questioned on the fact that Doonesbury cartoon character 'Uncle Duke' was initially based on Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's pseudonymous self-portrait, Raoul Duke.
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'Uncle Duke'
"Uncle" of Zonker, former Rolling Stone writer, governor of American Samoa and ambassador to China, once the proconsul of Panama, former owner of "Club Scud" in Kuwait City, ex-orphanage manager (where he realized one of the orphans, Earl, was his son), and former mayor of the fictional Al Amok, Iraq. He has also been a drug smuggler (and heavy user), an enemy of John Denver, manager of the Washington Redskins, toady to Donald Trump, and a zombie slave to ex-Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Hunter S Thopmson
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971) and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973).
He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. He is known also for his unrepentant lifelong use of alcohol, LSD, marijuana, and cocaine (among other substances); his love of firearms; his long-standing hatred of Richard Nixon; and his iconoclastic contempt for authoritarianism. While suffering a bout of health problems, he committed suicide in 2005, at the age of 67.
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It's hard to surprise when you spend your whole life 'out there' like Hunter S did, but I reckon the above quote is pretty odd, however you cut it. More typical of the man is:
“I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone . . . but they’ve always worked for me.”We need more writers like that.
