By: RS Janes

RS Janes — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:20:09 +0000

Bob, of course Hunter Thompson’s public persona was a larger-than-life invention for publicity purposes, partly hatched by Thompson and partly by Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone. It helped sell books and magazines. (Or did you really believe he ate a daily breakfast consisting of: “four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned beef hash with diced chiles, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of Key lime pie, two margaritas, and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert….” Hunter drank copiously and took many drugs, but a breakfast like that would leave him barely able to leave his bed, much less write. Believing Thompson practiced journalism is akin to believing insects actually emerged from the typewriter of William S. Burroughs. Hunter was not a ‘journalist of record’ nor historian; he was a critic of American society and politics who based his critiques on fact, and a damn funny writer. In creating his persona, he did no more than emulate his hero Ernest Hemingway, who also created the persona of the hard-living, hard-drinking writer that he couldn’t possibly live in real life to sell his books.)

BTW, I understand you’re trying to maintain your reputation as the World’s Laziest Journalst, but just FYI, the line, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” came from “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence,” not “Rio bravo.” It wasn’t clear if you knew that.

Comments on: “ . . . print the legend.”

By: RS Janes