10 Ways Hunter S Thompson Was Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die
A handful of examples that show how Hunter S Thompson was an absolute legend of a man.
Hunter S Thompson is an almost peerless legend when it comes to journalism and American writing in general. The man’s work is often found throughout many American school’s curriculum for God’s sake, which when considering the gravity of the man is an honour that is still somehow a low point in his career.
From covering everything from presidential elections to prestigious sporting events and documenting all sorts of craziness like his own booze fuelled benders and narrow escapes from the law, Thompson enjoyed, or more accurately endured, plenty of American culture.
The original ‘gonzo journalist’ (who, by the bye, coined that term), Thompson’s eccentric nature was almost as well documented as his work, with those closest rarely knowing how to handle him and those who have so much as glanced as his work could easily notice. Though the truth still stands that even with his disturbing and dubious past there are some truly stand out examples of how the writer was, to use his own words, ‘too weird to live yet too rare to die’.
Even if throughout most of his adult life he was more often than not more drug than man he was still a well-respected and greatly admired wordsmith, the likes of which has inspired generations of writers, such as yours truly, and surely will continue to do so for many years to come...
10. He Started His Career In The Air Force
An odd notion for someone who essentially spearheaded the counter-culture movement, Thompson got his first break as a journalist by becoming the Sports Editor for Eglin Air Force Base’s ‘The Command Courier’ after enlisting in the Air Force with the intention of becoming a pilot. For a variety of reasons, most notably for failing a psychological test, he was not admitted into the Aviation training program so whilst studying electronics by day and taking journalism courses by night at Florida State University he managed to establish enough of a basis to stay within the Air Force.
After lying his ass off about his previous experience (remember, these were the days before that pesky internet could shine a light on your most audacious claims, which is why I was instantly found out to not be the world’s most handsome writer) the Air Force let him write as a columnist and as an editor, though he wasn’t allowed to do so under his own name as airmen couldn’t technically hold several positions.
After a few years of being himself (i.e. fairly abrasive to his superiors; a man after my own heart) he was honourably discharged from the Air Force and began his journalistic career properly as an official Sports Editor for a newspaper in Pennsylvania.