Living The Gonzo Way
Although I’m running around airports trying to get back to campus by tomorrow morning in time to give a presentation on Toni Morrison for my American Studies seminar, I wanted to post a great letter that I received from a reader from Delaware. Yes I do get many wonderful emails from readers, and I wish I could post them all, but this one encapsulates the reason I wrote the book all in one email. He had me cheering out loud (waking Athena up) when he says that yes, Hunter did give him the confidence he needed as a young man…
Dear Anita,My name is Sean Stellfox, I am 23 and from Delaware. After chasing the moon with marathon of videogames and scotch, I woke up around 10 am. and immediately reached for my copy of The Gonzo Way, which shipped to my house on Friday, Sept 28. With a minor hangover I managed to read the entire book cover to cover, in less than 2 hours. I am writing this email while I am still feeling the emotions from my initial reading to let you know the impact Hunter has had on my life.
I first came into contact with Hunter Thompson in my sophomore year of high school sometime in ‘99 or ’00, through “the Vegas movie.” At the time drugs were a huge part of my life and I only saw the film as a wild drug trip. After doing some research, I found that the movie was much more then about drugs and more of an epitaph to the American Dream.
At the time I began reading any books I could find by Hunter starting with Screwjack and The Rum Diary. Before this I barley picked up a book (or cared about academics), but there was something about Thompson’s writing that I found intriguing and inspiring. My parents began to notice a change as well, so much so that I can remember the time my father, to his show support, bought me copy of The Great Shark Hunt. By the time I graduated from high school, I had read though many of Thompson’s books and as a result saw an improvement in my grades.
After high school, I went to a small college in PA, and got a degree in English (the only field that I was good at). I feel that this is due to Hunter, who showed me the value of the printed word as well opened my world to many other authors. In college, I was able to turn some of my close friends on to Hunter. This was done through a combination of drugs, “The Vegas Movie,” and my knowledge on him. I was even able to recruit some students who were undecided to become an English major directly because of Hunter’s writing.
In my senior at college, I heard that Thompson died through a friend late Sunday night. That following Monday, I mourned his death by writing a small note of inspiration in the margin of an old hardback edition of Hell’s Angels.
Since graduating, I have taken two jobs. One job is as a stock clerk at a local grocery store and the other is as an adjunct teacher at a local community college. I will eventually go on to get my Master’s and I would like to study and teach Hunter’s work because I believe that his writing needs to be read by everyone.I feel that your book was very moving and encouraged me to continuing pursuing my dreams with a vengeance. Even though, I would like to study and teach Hunter, I do NOT feel I am one of the “elite who understood the value of his work in ‘literary history’" because I was once and -still am at heart- that young teenager who gained confidence and courage from Hunter. I feel that if it were not for Thompson I would not have found myself and don’t know what path life would have led me down.
I will take the advice from this book in my effort to live the Gonzo Way, but I guess by sending this email; I am also breaking that final rule of Gonzo.
Sincerely,
-Sean Stellfox
Okay. Sean, I love you. Whoever you are! Until next time, your friend,
Anita Thompson
