Gonzo professionals

[Orleander]

What exactly do you have to write about to be a gonzo journalist? Or is it more of an attitude? Can a scientist be a gonzo scientist?

[skaught]

It involves the author often participating in what is being journaled. Although often contains some fictitious events in order to keep the reader engaged, and produce an underlying message.

But it is saomewhat about attitude. Normal journalism is often dry, detached and somewhat unbiased. But gonzo is about reporting with passion and raw emotion.

From wikipedia: The use of Gonzo journalism portends that journalism can be truthful without striving for objectivity and is loosely equivalent to an editorial.

[Orleander]

so bloggers are gonzo journalists? A scientist who is his own guinea pig is a gonzo scientist?

[Fraggle Rocker]

The word was coined in 1971 by Hunter S. Thompson to describe his own bizarre, subjective, exaggerated style of journalism. He actually joined the Hell's Angels in order to write a book about them, which I think defines the word "gonzo" quintessentially. The character Duke in Doonesbury was modeled after Thompson. (And in those days the Hell's Angels were not the fiftysomethings with minivans full of grandchildren who show up at their reunions today.)

It's hard to Google "Gonzo" because the Muppets have such a huge presence in cyberspace. (I think every tenth article on Wikipedia contains a Muppet reference.) But Gonzo with a capital G is the essence of gonzo with a small G: He does everything to extremes, the weirder the better, and never worries about the consequences. Just like Hunter Thompson.

Characters in literature, by being larger than life, answer our questions. To be gonzo is, by definition, to already be larger than life. So Duke and Gonzo, by being even larger than that, illustrate the word very well. :)

Can there be a gonzo scientist? Perhaps. The dictionaries tell us that the word has spread beyond journalism, although gonzo journalism is still the primary definition. But, although science welcomes the bizarre, I think the nature of the scientific method precludes someone whose work is exaggerated or the least bit subjective from being counted as a scientist.

No one knows how Thompson came up with the word. He's famous for being stoned on several drugs at once so he had no idea. Etymologies tell us that gonzo is the Italian word for "simpleton" and ganso is Spanish for a lazy or dull person. Given its amusing phonetic nature, I suspect it was just a bit of spurious whimsy that caught on, like "rambunctious" and "humongous."

Thompson, best remembered for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, died in 2005 at 72.

[Mike Honcho]

I think I've just witnessed an example of gonzo posting. jk:)
Very informative and well researched Frag.

[Fraggle Rocker]

Very informative and well researched Frag.Hardly research. I remember Hunter Thompson and read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And I'm a big fan of both Duke and Gonzo. :)

[Vkothii]

I always thought it was a hispanisation, of "gone so", type of thing.

To be a journalist, say report the Hell's Angels , you have to have "gone so" Hells Angel.

[one_raven]

I thought it was just the silly name Thompson came up with for his alter-ego.

[Fraggle Rocker]

I always thought it was a hispanisation, of "gone so", type of thing. To be a journalist, say report the Hell's Angels, you have to have "gone so" Hells Angel.We didn't use "so" as idiomatically in the 1960s and early 70s as we do now. In fact I've never heard "gone so" in America.I thought it was just the silly name Thompson came up with for his alter-ego.No, he coined the term "gonzo journalism." It originally only applied to journalists.

[Fraggle Rocker]

What synchronicity. The Washington Post just ran a review of a biography of Hunter Thompson. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081402576.html) The word "gonzo" was applied to Thompson's journalism style by Bill Cardoso, "It's totally gonzo." The biographer seems to be saying that it was Boston bar slang for "the last man standing after a night of drinking."