ng tiny details that most people might miss. This attribute applies to Thompsons writing in two ways. The first is in description. Usually he can describe a person or an object in under two or three sentences and manage to create a crystal clear picture of what is being described. For example, in the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompsons car isnt just a convertible but a Great Red Shark. The second is in how he analyses a situation. He can observe for a few minutes and then sum up the behavior of the people and describe the surroundings perfectly. This quotation is just one of many descriptive examples throughout HSTs writings:His remarks reached us by way of a big, low-fidelity speaker mounted on a steel pole in our corner. Perhaps a dozen others were spotted around the room, all facing the rear and looming over the crowd so that no matter where you sat or even tried to hide, you were always looking down the muzzle of a big speaker.This produced an odd effect. People in each section of the ballroom tended to stare at the nearest voice-box, instead of watching the distant figure of whomever was actually talking far up front, on the podium. This 1935 style of speaker placement totally depersonalized the room. There was something ominous and authoritarian about it. Whoever set up that sound system was probably some kind of Sheriffs auxiliary technician on leave from a drive-in theater in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where the management couldnt afford individual car speakers and relied on ten huge horns, mounted on telephone poles in the parking area. (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, page 137)Gonzo journalism can and should be a valued addition to societys daily media intake by providing a refreshing, off-center and humorous point of view. While Thompson bases his style on William Faulkners idea that the fiction is often the best fact sarcasm, humour, exaggeration, and profanity makes HSTs work unique and serve to create a styl...
