Fear and Loathing in 2004

3 September 2004



Hunter S. Thompson's Hey Rube is More than Sportswriting

It has been ages since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and a lifetime since Hell's Angels, and Hunter S. Thompson doesn't do Gonzo journalism in quite the way he used to do - if indeed he ever did. This book is a collection of his page 2 columns that he has been writing for ESPN.com for the last few years. While not sportswriting in the strict sense, there is a great deal of football, basketball and other activities. All of it is leavened with the English language as Dr. Thompson uses it - either as a scalpel or a sledgehammer depending on the situation.

Because this is a collection of short pieces drawn from the internet, it is best read in bits and pieces rather than all in one go. It is rather like a box of bonbons, dessert as opposed to dinner. That said, there is a great deal of historic value to the pieces immediately before and after the Al-Qaeda attacks. He has warned the world before of the dangers of offering up freedom in exchange for security, and the world has ignored him time and again.

The gross insanity of his earlier works fueled by mind altering substances, both legal and illegal, never quite reaches the implausible ridiculousness that his book length writings achieve. However, the value of Dr. Thompson is not in his stories but in his command of the English language in describing that which is often indescribable. In his own words:

Watching the Baltimore Ravens play football is like watching scum freeze on the eyeballs of a jackass, or being stuck for 6 hours in an elevator with Dick Cheney on speed. The Ravens will pounce on you and gnaw you to death, which can take eight or nine days.

The Raven is a queer and dangerous bird, far worse than the Crow. A pack of crows can destroy an owl or an eagle, but a single boss Raven will attack a whole gang of crows and rip the lungs out of its leaders. Most crows would rather commit suicide than go head to head with a boss raven.

These are not the 1970s and for that reason some believe he is past his prime, or passe. Instead, his writing is as beautiful to read as ever, and if his insights into sports don't include an understanding of baseball equal to his knowledge and love of football and basketball, so be it. His work makes the generally awful ESPN.com worth a glance, and for those who missed the 2000-2003 columns, this book is a useful and readable archive.

© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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