Gonzo republic : Hunter S. Thompson's America / William Stephenson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stephenson, William, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Thompson, Hunter S.

Physical Description:

190 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, [2012]

Summary:

Gonzo Republic looks at Hunter S. Thompson's complex relationship with America. Thompson was a patriot but also a stubborn individualist. Stephenson examines the whole range of Thompson's work, from his early reporting from the South American client states of the USA in the 1960s to his twenty-first-century internet columns on sport, politics and 9/11. Stephenson argues that Thompson inhabited, but was to some extent reacting against, the tradition of American individualism begun by the Founding Fathers and continued by Emerson and Thoreau. Thompson sought out the edge-the threshold of chaos and insanity-in order to define himself. His characters enact the same quest, travelling through the surreal landscape of his literary America: the Gonzo Republic. Book jacket.

Contents:

Stepping into history: Values, contexts, influences

Riding with the angels, tripping in the Haight: Drugs, authorities, countercultures

Gonzo fists, guinea worms and freaks: The political circus

The elusive American dream; the edge, the lodge and the frontier; Gonzo sex and gender

'Bash the buggers silly; bomb the insane': Thompson and the American empire

Conclusion: 'The place of definitions'.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781441159229

1441159223

9781441168276

1441168273

9781441163424

1441163425

9781441142290

1441142290

OCLC:

657603261