Factotum and The Fear

"To begin, this post has no real structure. That is not to say many of my posts do, but to know that up front relieves me a little."

~Exordium~

Factotum ~ Latin for "do everything"

Fear ~ 1) a distressing emotion aroused by an impending threat; 2) something that causes a feeling of dread or apprehension


Gonzo journalism made Hunter Thompson a factotum. This is a strange word to describe a person (in my mind) as it sounds more likely to be describing an object or a legal paper. However in its rawest meaning it describes Thompson to a tee.

Consider his many writing assignments at different publications. Low rent rags and high end tabloids. Newspaper columns and books. How many journalists write as burning a wit at the politics of a presidential election and also dive to incredible detail on football playoffs and the Super Bowl. Having breakfast with Teddy Kennedy and Jimmy Carter before Carter's run to the White House and having attended the last days of Saigon during the War.

His book on being a newspaper man in Puerto Rico in the 50's and attending a law enforcement officer's (LEO's) convention in Las Vegas...after navigating the treacherous bat country in the White Whale. Soon to be the Red Shark. And Hunter's epic novel on a year spent living, partying, and generally "telling it right" among the Hell's Angels.

He not only did everything but he did it with a passion. Whether it was raising peacocks at 8000 feet of altitude ("everyone knows peacocks can't live at that altitude") on his Owl Farm in Woody Creek, Colorado. His do everything (and sometimes all altogether) attitude towards drugs, alcohol, and guns.  Hunter betting $70,000 with an Arab prince who lived down the road from him and when he won, the Prince skipped but left his sister with Hunter for a year as sort of flesh collateral. He regularly had the Sheriff, the Coroner, and Ed Bradley over for sporting events.

Many of HST's books and even articles contained the recurring theme of Fear and Loathing. His take on Fear was a little hazy at times, when he referenced it. The word was almost always capitalized and appeared to be given the respect you would give a grizzly bear standing ten or eleven feet way. It felt like something was just out of reach of him describing the details like an incomplete painting or thought.

The Fear was there.

Whether talking about the Bush years (Part 1, 2 and 3). Al Davis and the Raiders. Or his most fear-inducing antagonist...Richard Milhous Nixon. The periodic Fear of what was coming next, I think gripped him occasionally and caused some of his best writing.

Hunter says it best in this quote:

"I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on Fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. My father taught me that, along with a few other things that have kept my life interesting."

-Hunter S. Thompson ( Quotes from Kingdom of Fear : Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century )

In the end it was said that (true or not) part of his despair and eventual suicide was due to the fact he could not stand the idea that Dubya had won another term and the country was going to be stuck with the "child-president" for four more years.

~Res Ipsa Loquitor!~