Blog 15 – Undercover reporting

All reporters go undercover to a degree. When covering certain events, such the local rodeo, the reporter will play the part, so to speak. Wearing a three-piece suit will not be conducive to immediate and helpful interviews, so the reporter puts on blue jeans and aims to fit in with his or her subjects. This isn’t, by any means, going “undercover,” but it suggests that even the most ethically stringent reporter must recognize that some pieces of information simply cannot be gathered without some wiggle room. How much wiggle room is up for debate.

In reference to Bob Steele’s “Beware the Dangers of ‘Testing the System,’” it is not clear how one goes about determining whether the topic in question has “adequate” or “inadequate” ethical justification. What if a reporter had a seemingly solid lead that a certain corporation was torturing human subjects for medical trials, but, once inside, learned there was no such thing occurring. Does it have to end in a scathing exposé for it to be “ethically justified”? Ethical justification might, unfortunately, mean the following question: does the end justify the means?  

I wholeheartedly agree with Greene’s statement below:  

“We must recognize the considerable ethical and legal dangers associated with any form of undercover reporting and deceptive tactics designed to test systems. Any good we might seek can quickly be outweighed by the harm we cause.”

I’m not sure that any editor or reporter can objectively determine whether or not information obtained is “of profound (enough) importance” to justify the use of deception. When all other alternatives for obtaining the same information have been exhausted, it would appear that there is not enough journalistic meat to the story. Furthermore, bringing in examples such as “To Catch a Predator” simply make the practice laughable and subject to the most exaggerated entertainment value.

And the heart of it, for me, really lies in Greene’s pivotal question (from the ABC-Food Lion case):

“Is it ever justifiable for a journalist to violate the principle of honesty to honor the principle upon which journalism is founded, a duty to provide the public with meaningful, accurate and comprehensive information about significant issues?”

Perhaps I am too ethically stringent or simply from the old-school journalism variety, but I have to answer a resounding “no.” Outstanding, society-altering exposés have been done without the journalist going undercover (Watergate comes to mind), and it tarnishes the good name of journalism to gather material under false pretenses. (That being said, I’ll certainly read an undercover story’s revelations, but it will not be my – or hopefully my newspapers’ – conscious on the line.) 

Blog 14 – ‘The Fight to Live’

Al Stump (1916-1995) was an author and sports writer. He graduated from the University of Washington, was an apprentice at the Portland Orgonian, and built a successful freelance career for which he was a regular at “True” magazine.  In 1961, Stump was the ghostwriter for Cobb’s (arguably sugarcoated) memoir, “My Life in Baseball” and he also wrote Cobb’s biography titled “Cobb: A Biography.” Stump later wrote a more critical biography of Cobb in 1994 titled: Cobb: The Life and Times of the Meanest Man Who Ever Played Baseball.” For this story (and for the memoir/biographies), Stump lived with Cobb for 10 months, first in his luxurious hunting lodge on the crest of Lake Tahoe and then a variety of places, from seedy hotels to his (electricity deprived) San Francisco mansion. Stump, without a doubt, practices immersion for this article, and, appears to have gotten relatively close to Cobb, praying with him and, at times, calling himself Cobb’s only friend.

Ty Cobb in his legendary days.

The purpose of this story, in my opinion, is 1) to demystify a public legend (much like that of Bob Greene’s “So We Meet at Last Mr. Bond”), and, 2) to offer up the stark reality that death is immanent for all, even those like Cobb who seem superhuman and untouchable.  “The Fight to Live,” was published in True magazine in 1961. The scenes vary in timing but are entirely centered around Stump and Cobb – mostly with Stump following him around, trying to keep him complacent. The story is not about sports or baseball, but about a miserly, rebellious man at the end of his life. According to “Art of Fact, Stump “dramatizes the psychopathic ferocity that made Cobb such a great individual performer, while evoking the universal struggle of an old man raging against the dying of the light.”

The story follows “True” magazine’s rapid, narrative pace – the tempo of which also acts as the double purpose of capturing Cobb’s restless energy. Stump uses scene-by-scene construction connected with dialogue that aims to delve deeper into the character. The entire story is written in first-person narration and historical present tense. The author uses his own account in addition to others’ voices (Cobb’s family, former associates, etc.) and Cobb’s own voice to help describe the man. For example, the text states:

“He carried a gun in the big league and scared the hell out of us. He’s mean, tricky and dangerous. Look out he doesn’t blow up some night and clip you with a bottle. He specializes in throwing bottles.”

Or:

“Nobody can live with Ty. Nobody ever has. That includes two wives, who left him, butlers, housekeepers, chauffeurs, nurses, and a few mistresses. He drove off all his friends long ago.”

Stump is also is constantly using nicknames as a way to dramatize and give bigger-than-life greatness to the legend. For example, some include: “old king of ball players,” “Tyrus the Terrible,” “the legendary Georgian,” “the one and only Ty Cobb.” Throughout the story, Stump makes clear that he is, in fact, afraid of Cobb and makes no subtlety about depicting him as a rage-filled loose cannon who will throw a (violent) fit if he doesn’t get his way in practically any situation. More than that though, it appears that Stump is seeking the man behind the front, the one who donates scholarships to children and sends anonymous funding to former players in need. It’s as if Stump doesn’t really like Cobb, but he would like to.

Discussion question:

I had a difficult time answering Dr. Rodgers’ question of “what is the writer’s purpose” of this story? Do you agree with my analysis, or is there something else going on here? (Even more befuddling for me is Stump’s re-writing of Cobb’s biography years later in a more negative light.) 

Blog 13 – ‘Harlem on My Mind’ and ‘The Bronx Slave Market’

In “Harlem on My Mind,” author Lawrence Otis Graham attempts to immerse himself in Harlem in the early 1990s as a poor black man. His purpose, I believe, is to expose the levels of “blackness” in America through the voice of Harlem. In this essay, Graham bounces from setting to setting, noting, perhaps, what he finds to be the most interesting or telling exchanges during his one-month stay in Harlem. The plot, as such, is Graham’s attempt to blend in with others in Harlem as he strolls through the streets, looks for jobs, and tries not to get too involved in the daily lives of others around him. In addition to scene-by-scene construction, Graham uses the following literary journalism techniques: dialogue, status details, and expressiveness. Graham appears to be attempting to capture the dialect, using his own voice with those in Harlem, as he sets a scene and then uses himself to tie the reader from one arc to the next. Themes for this essay include: race and privilege; a racially polarizing world; class division; a longing for a better life; blacks’ demand for justice and respect; and a quiet resolution to the black situation.

The following quote (during the second trial of the officers accused of beating Rodney King in 1993) is symbolic of blacks’ demand for equality in the legal system:

“So tell me, Lekeisha,” one of the other stylists said to a coworker nearby while combing gobs of white relaxer onto a client’s scalp. “You think we should go on and burn our own neighborhood down? Just to show the white people that we can’t be walked on? (This was during the second Rodney King trial.)

Lakeisha clipped away at a woman’s bangs. “Girl, I don’t know. I mean how are we going to get some justice, some respect?”

The next quote is representative of both racial polarization and Graham’s inability to “pass” in Harlem:

“Look,” he said with a wrinkled brow. “You and your white boys come in here from Jersey suburbs to buy stuff all the time. Well, if you’re gonna come here, then you’re gonna buy it our way.”

In terms of the themes of varying levels of “blackness” and racial polarization, the following two quotes nicely capture the purpose:

“They don’t tell you that to live in a rooming house, you better dress like a hood, but if you want to get into the more respectable Harlem establishment, you better not dress like a hood.”

“My clothes, while ideal for helping me fit in on my block, were a problem in this other world, the one in which blacks wore business suits and carried briefcases.”

Graham describes, also, a sort of quiet resolution to the black situation in Harlem, captured well by the following two quotes:

“For whatever reason, no one interferes. Tenants either just listen in and get further caught up in the lives of the people who sit outside their building day after day or they turn up the television volume and get further caught up in the lives of the soap operas and talk shows they watch from ten in the morning to five in the afternoon.”

“One quickly gets a sense of the boredom, which soon turns into lethargy and, eventually, hopelessness.”

The author, Lawrence Otis Graham, was born and raised in “an affluent New York suburb, educated at Princeton and Harvard Law School, a practicing attorney and widely published author.” Graham also wrote 14 non-fiction books on the subjects of politics, education, race and class in America and has published work in The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Glamour, US News & World Report and Reader’s Digest. For this essay, Graham lived a month in Harlem in a one-room apartment on an assignment from New York magazine to pass as a poor black man.

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“The Bronx Slave Market,” by Marvel Cooke, captures the author’s attempt to pass as a domestic day laborer in 1949 on the New York street corners. The purpose of this essay, I believe, is to argue that not much has changed for working class black people. Clear from the title, “The Bronx Slave Market,” Cooke is also referring to the former slave markets where blacks were traded like cattle. And, she argues, here we are so many years later, and the situation is no less bleak than it was then.

Unlike, Graham, Cooke already lives Harlem and had witnessed first-hand what it was like to be a disadvantaged black person living in Harlem. Also, unlike Graham, Cooke fully embraces her role, losing her “identity entirely” as a member of the “paper bag brigade.” Cooke dives straight into the racial issues, immediately identifying the women as “slaves” for which white women bargained on the street corners and uses words such as “madam” and “bought.” The themes in this essay are: social identity; exploitation of blacks; empowerment of blacks; and anger at the black situation. Literary journalism techniques include the following: dialogue, status details, third-person narration, and, at times, plain style.

Cooke captures well the feeling of anger at the black situation (and subsequent empowerment felt), as evidenced in the following two quotes:

“Suddenly I was angry – angry at this slave boss – angry for all workers everywhere who are treated like a commodity. I slipped under the window and faced the old woman. The moment my feet hit the floor and I dropped the rag into the pail of water, I was no longer a slave.”

“I no longer felt ‘new.’ But I was not at peace. Hundreds of years of history weighed upon me. I was the slave traded for two truck horses on a Memphis street corner in 1849. I was the slave trading my brawn for a pittance on a Memphis street corner in 1949. As I stood there waiting to be bought, I lived through a century of indignity.”

One major difference between Graham’s essay and “The Bronx Slave Market” is Graham’s quiet resolution to blacks’ situation. As outlined above, Graham is content to simply describe the indignities of the life of a Harlem native, while Cooke is ready to light the fire under her reader and decry the outlandishness that is the working class black situation.  Both tackle the themes of race and privilege and stark class division as they aim to unveil something about their race while immersing themselves in the surrounding. And although Cooke and Graham use a lot of the same literary journalism techniques, their outcomes (in terms of how it affects the reader) are very different.

Marvel Cooke (1903-2000) was a journalist, writer and civil rights activist who was born in Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota. In Harlem, Cooke worked as secretary for W.E.D. Du Bois, editor of the NAACP magazine, The Crisis. Cooke was the first African American and first African American woman to work at The Daily Compass. For this essay, part of a five-part series for The Daily Compass in 1950, Cooke attempts and succeeds at passing on several New York Street corners where black women would gather in the hopes of being hired as domestic day laborers.

Discussion question:

How did you feel about Graham’s efforts to go undercover? Do you think he just personally wasn’t cut out for the role of passing as a poor black man, or do you think class division is branded on one’s soul, so to speak? [Or, perhaps you thought he was more successful than I did at his efforts.]

Blog 12 – Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga

“Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga” chronicles Hunter S. Thompson's recounting of spending more than a year immersing himself with the then-notorious (and widely feared) Hell’s Angels. Thompson summons his hatred for the (rape-hungry) mainstream media and misinformed bourgeois “squares” to get to the truth behind this dirty, beer-guzzling, violent, homosocial group of men “terrorizing” the nation. In a chaotic, quasi-chronological manner, Thompson takes his readers in a whirling journey of the following main events: 1) Monterey Run, Labor Day 1964, in which the Angels made headlines for allegedly gang-raping two teenage girls on the beach; 2) July 4^th Run, Bass Lake 1965, a much-anticipated (by town and authorities) gathering in which the Angels are quarantined by local officials and take over part of a national park in order to party; and 3) A look at the Angel’s use of marijuana/LSD, the reality of rape in the group, and the stomping of Thompson. For each of these events, Thompson tells a version of the story from the Hell’s Angels point of view and counters it with the “official” police and government reports and “wildly inaccurate” media stories. Each time, the Hell’s Angels come across as misunderstood outsiders and the media/authorities come across as incompetent rumor-mongers. Interspersed between these main stories are many, many smaller stories about Thompson’s interactions with the Hell’s Angels (and his thoughts about the culture) and recreations of alleged occurrences of the Angels vs. the local authorities/townsmen. Also interjected throughout are well-researched facts about motorcyclists, the Hell’s Angels, the media’s portrayal of the Hell’s Angels, and other national events/statistics of the time.  Thompson continuously uses introductory and interjecting quotes from policemen, government officials, Hell’s Angels, and everyone from Allen Ginsberg to John Milton (Paradise Lost).  These quotes are part of Thompson’s overall attempt to have “Hell’s Angels” serve as a snapshot of the mid-60s in which major national changes were under way and the countercultural groups (and perceived anarchist lifestyles like the bikers’) were both mesmerizing and frightening to the general public.

I was drawn to this book because 1) I didn’t want to have taken a literary journalism class without having read a book in its entirety by either Thompson or Thomas Wolfe, and 2) because I grew up with my father reading all of Thompson’s work and I was curious to see what the fuss about Gonzo journalism is all about. (I also concluded that any book that chronicles the lifestyle of the Hell’s Angels had to be interesting.)

The plot line of “Hell’s Angels” is noted above, and Thompson continuously uses narrative threads in other, less directly relevant chapters, to tell (and foreshadow to) the main Angel events. Thompson will dedicate a few chapters to a specific event, such as the Lake Bass gathering, and then break up the continuous narrative with random tidbits of relevant information, such as chapter 6, which focus on the Angel’s “time honored concept of an eye for an eye” or chapter 7, which discusses the economic boom of lightweight bikes. Thompson, the father of Gonzo, incorporates nearly all elements of Gonzo journalism in “Hell’s Angels.”

He is, based on previous class discussions, of the “active” Gonzo variety in this book. Thompson is, without a doubt, a main character in this book, but, perhaps surprisingly, he is not as self-centered, emotionally charged or stream of consciousness-esque in this writing as in others since, such as “The Scum Also Rises.” Other elements of Gonzo journalism include: a questioning of authority and mainstream media; disjointedness; sex-oriented; a lack of objectivity (though he arguably attempts to tell both sides, in spite of his favoritism of the Angels); a truth-seeking quest; includes comedy, irony, and black humor; features solid research and reporting; and seeks a larger meaning.

The most prevalent anti-establishment theme throughout “Hell’s Angels” is undoubtedly his distrust and distaste for the mainstream media. For example of the Monterey rape allegations, Thompson quotes the attorney general:

“‘Last fall, two teen-age girls were taken forcibly from their dates and raped by several members of the gang.’ [Thompson speaking now:] This was flagrant libel, for in fact all charges against Terry, Marvin, Mother Miles and Crazy Cross were dropped less than a month after their arrest. In their eagerness to get at the hair and meat of the story, Time’s interpreters accidentally skipped page one of the Lynch report, which clearly stated that ‘further investigation raised questions as to whether forcible rape had been committed … ‘and besides, one girl refused to testify and the other was given a lie-detector test and was found to be wholly unreliable. This was pretty dull stuff, however, and the Time couldn’t find room for it.”

In another chapter of the book, Thompson argues that “the Hell’s Angels as they exist today are virtually created by Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times.” The myth of the Angels, therefore, (which is the entire point of the book: to demystify the Angels) is, according to Thompson, completely and utterly the product of media sensation.

A new element of literary journalism (of the Gonzo variety) might be a use of Capote’s vertical plunging into writing – the big difference being that here it is the author’s inner thoughts and not the subjects’ – in order to capitalizes on mood, emotion, and the opinions of the writer to tell the story.

Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) was a journalist and a novelist who is the father of what came to be known as “Gonzo journalism.” Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and he later began his writing career in Florida as a sports columnist and subsequently wrote for many newspapers. Other books by Thompson include: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72; The Great Shark Hunt; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; The Curse of Lono; Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the 80s Gonzo Papers, Volume II; Hell’s Angels; Better Than Sex; The Rum Diary (a novel), Screwjack and Other Stories; and Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century. Hell’s Angels was Thompson’s first nonfiction attempt, and he spent more than a year associating with the Hell’s Angels, riding, hanging out, plotting, and partying before he was eventually “stomped.”

Discussion question:

When literary journalism reporters are immersing themselves in a story, as Thompson does for “Hell’s Angels,” what do you think the rules should be to maintain an ethical baseline (if you believe there should be one)? For example, should Thompson have thrown parties for the Angels at his own apartment or should Thompson have been the one to go pick up a carload of Angel-paid-for beer for the party at Bass Lake (where officials were afraid of the outlaws getting drunk and disorderly)?

Research Outline

Research Outline and (Updated) Annotated Bibliography

for

The Use of First-Person Narrative in ‘Black Like Me’: The Power of ‘I’

By

Ginny Hoyle Lawrimore

Introduction:

Why the strong social message of “Black Like Me” is made possible by the author’s decision to provide first-person narrative structure instead of traditional third-person journalism. Explanation of “Black Like Me,” which consists of a diary-like format that catalogs different forms of racial oppression at that time. John Howard Griffin uses first-person narrative and explicit personal opinions to speak universally of the severely strained race relations of the South. Includes a review of the relevant literature on first-person vs. third-person narrative as well as a look at the literature on the merits of “Black Like Me” and its use of first-person narrative.

RQ: Why is the use of first-person narrative in “Black Like Me” more suited to the overarching goals of the author than traditional third-person narrative?

How this investigation into the use of power behind first-person narrative in “Black Like Me” is an important link to the revolutionary art of new journalism. How this book is representative of the power of first-person narrative and why it was important to the field at the time and continues to serve as an example of powerful first-person narrative. This specific argument using this piece of literary journalism has not been made prior, and should contribute to the field in its application of the power of first-person narration in literary journalism.

Literature Review:

Use of multiple academic sources to demonstrate the profound difference in the roles of both first-person and third-person in literary journalism. An explanation of the specificities of “Black Like Me” and its particular need for first-person narrative by Griffin. Why the use of first-person narrative and a powerful use of “I” throughout the book allows for 1) empathy for blacks, 2) a complexity of race identity, 3) revelation of racist South.

Method:

For the purpose of this paper, a close, analytical reading of the use of first-person narrative structure will be conducted in John Howard Griffin’s “Black Like Me.”

Results:

Explanation of what was discovered in the analytical reading of first-person narrative in “Black Like Me.”

Discussion and Argument:

Analysis of what results of paper demonstrate and what further research still needs to be done on first-person vs. third-person narrative in the field.

(Updated) References

Abbott, H. P. (2008). The Cambridge introduction to narrative. Cambridge introductions to literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This book outlines the differences between the use of first-person and third-person narrative, arguing that there is a link between the two and introduces the concept of “external narrator.”

Aucoin, J. (2001) Epistemic responsibility and narrative theory: The literary journalism of Ryszard Kapuscinski. Journalism. vol. 2, 1: pp. 5-21.

The author of this essay argues that a “combination of epistemic responsibility from moral philosophy and narrative theory provides a foundation for establishing literature-based standards for judging the quality of literary journalism.” This essay’s portion on first-person and third-person point of view will be used for this research paper.

Baldwin, K. (1998). Black like who? Cross-testing the “real” lines of John Howard Griffin’s "Black Like Me.” Cultural Critique, No. 40. The Futures of American Studies. pp. 103-143

This essay offers a critical view of Griffin’s endeavors and discusses “passing” and racial identity. The author argues that the “introduction of passing into the discussion about race has served to elucidate this risk, as narratives of passing articulate in particularly complex ways the constructedness of "race" as a process primarily dependent on ways of seeing.”

Bertens, J. W. (2008). Literary theory: The basics. London: Taylor & Francis.

This book argues the merits of using first-person or third-person narrative and discusses the relation of both between narrator and character.

Bonazzi, R. (1997). Man in the mirror: John Howard Griffin and the story of Black Like Me. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books.

This book provides an in-depth look at Griffin and the journey that led to his experiment and “provides a fascinating look at the roots of a book that galvanized America, and offers reflections on why, after all these years, this work retains its astonishing impact."

Delgado, R. (1993). Critical race theory: An annotated bibliography. Virginia Law Review. 79, 2. pp. 461-516

This bibliography looks at critical race theory and lists and annotates the major entries within the theory’s corpus.

Ginsberg, E. K. (1996). Passing and the fictions of identity. New Americanists. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Through discussions of such literary works as “Black Like Me,” the authors of this book examine issues of power and privilege and ways in which passing might challenge the often rigid structures of identity politics. Specifically addressing “Black Like Me,” the this book examines how the behavior, dress, language, and the body itself “contributes significantly to an understanding of national and racial identity in American literature and culture.”

Griffin, J. H. (1961). Black like me. New York: New American Library.

“Black Like Me” is the primary source for this research paper.

Hartsock, J. C. (2000). A history of American literary journalism: The emergence of a modern narrative form. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.

This book looks at the techniques of the realistic novel and how past writers “developed a new narrative style of reporting aimed at lessening the distance between observer and observed, subject and object.”

Hatch, J. A., & Wisniewski, R. (1995). Life history and narrative. Qualitative studies series, 1. London: Falmer Press.

This book discusses the stigma of first-person narration in literary journalism, but uses Thomas Wolfe to argue the ethics of not admitting to first-person use by the reporter.

Kennedy, B. (2008). ‘Black Like Me,’ but not quite like a presidential candidate remembers. Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

This article offers some relevant facts on the book’s popularity and use in teaching. For example, the follow excerpt states: “The book has sold 11 million copies in 15 languages … Readers still buy more than 100 copies every day, many for high school or college literature courses.”

Kleege, G. (2007). The strange life and times of John Howard Griffin. Raritan: A Quarterly Review. 26, 4. pp. 96-112.

This article discusses Griffin’s writings about the ten years he was blind and also reveals “other facets of an unusual life and some clues to the thinking that brought him to conduct the Black Like me experiment in which he provides an account of the six weeks he spent disguised as an African American traveling through the Deep South.”

McQuail, D. (2005). McQuail's mass communication theory. London: Sage Publications.

This book provides information on theories in the field of mass communication, covering the major components of mass communication and how its theories relate to the “broader understanding of society and culture.”

Russell, Margaret M., Race and the Dominant Gaze: Narratives of Law and Inequality in Popular Film, 15 Legal Stud. F. 243 (1991). (2, 4).

Specifically addressing “Black Like Me,” this essay examines the “role of popular movies in replicating and reinforcing images of racial subordination” and  “analyzes the ‘dominant gaze’ of mainstream Hollywood cinema through which people of color historically have been objectified as morally or intellectually deficient, and analogizes it to dominant legal narratives that omit or marginalize the experiences of people of color.”

Sharpe, E. (1989). The man who changed his skin. American Heritage Magazine. 40, 1. Retrieved October 8, 2010, from: http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1989/1/1989_1_44.shtml

This article outlines the goals of “Black Like Me” and offers an in-depth history of its author, John Howard Griffin. This also includes a reference to the book’s “passionate firstperson prose [that] brought home to millions of American whites the misery and injustice daily endured by American blacks.”

Sims, N. (1990). Literary journalism in the twentieth century. New York: Oxford University Press.

This book is a collection of critical essays on literary journalism that “address the shifting border between fiction and nonfiction, literature and journalism.” The book’s discussion of first-person and third-person point-of-view in narrative will be especially helpful.

Stanzel, F. K. (1984). A theory of narrative. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press.

This book outlines the uses of first-person and third-person narrative, arguing that the main difference lies in the manner in which the narrator views the events of a story.

Whitt, J. (2008). Settling the borderland: Other voices in literary journalism. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.

This book discusses the use of first- and third-person narration in literary journalism and the art of moving from first to third.

Zinsser, W. K. (1998). On writing well: The classic guide to writing nonfiction. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

This book will be used for its portions dedicated to first-person and third-person point-of-view in literary journalism. 

Blog 11 – Word choice

The beginning of “The Scum Also Rises” opens like a film noir in a detective’s office and you can almost hear the male voiceover and the beating down of the torrid rain. The scene suitably sets the reader up for a depressing tale as the story of Washington falling to its knees is embarked. Immediately, Hunter S. Thompson makes use of the “pathetic fallacy,” or the attribution of human emotions to inanimate objects,” as he introduces the “high yellow eye of the National Affairs Suite” under the backdrop of a “howling” radio and hot storm that fell like “balls of sweat.”

Throughout this story, Thompson capitalizes on word choice to convey the following themes: water (representing drowning), rats (representing Nixon and company), sinking ships and death (representing the administration), and being off balance (representing the nation). Thompson continually refers to the decomposing state of the Nixon administration with words such as rotting, rapidly dissolving, “rats are deserting,” while his use of dreary weather and “haunting” music conveys Thompson’s personal emotions at the time and his foul take on the matter at hand. The weather (“shitrain”) also serves as a force of unpredictability in a time of an “eerie spectacle” and general “madness.” Thompson also constantly refers to the notion of Nixon’s fate using words such as “dungeon” and “bunker.” Water, in addition to a form of pressure (no pun intended), serves as an element of hopelessness as the “rush of sucking water around his ankles must have almost pulled him [Nixon] out to sea,” the “rats are deserting the ship at high speed,” and the “storms of destiny” are brewing. Even when he’s written into the story as writing the story, Thompson’s surrounding is always either rainy or revolving around water (the pool).

In his ending, Thompson purposefully describes the spectators as being blown off-balance from the rotors of Nixon’s helicopter, a larger symbol for a national feeling of shock and betrayal. As “On Writing Well” states, the ending should ideally “encapsulate the idea of the piece and conclude with a sentence that jolts us with its fitness or unexpectedness.” Thompson follows through on this as he has Nixon’s helicopter swoop toward the Washington Monument (a source of pride, loyalty and staunch leadership) before angling up into the fog (where he is lost in the storm of fate and his own undoing). “Richard Nixon [in every way that the nation thought it knew its president] was gone.” (My brackets.)

Discussion question:

What is the point of Thompson’s off-task rant about his long ago, rainy drive to the furniture factory and his reference to locking himself up with a “good woman” (p. 304)?

Blog 10 – Gonzo Journalism

A proper definition of Gonzo journalism might be as followed: a style of subjective writing whereas the author becomes intimately involved in a emotionally-charged story using first-person narrative. Relative elements of this style might include: intimate first-person narrative, fearlessness (in terms of discussing people, issues), lack of conciseness, humor (but not always), and a general lack of adherence to traditional journalistic rules. Style is favored and highlighted over factual reporting and use of self (writer’s) is crucial.

In a November 1988 interview on “The Letterman Show,” Letterman introduced Hunter S. Thompson as the “most accurate and least factual” writer. By “most accurate” Letterman was referring to Thompson’s keen ability to capture a scene, an event, or a time in a manner out of reach of that of the New York Times’ concise, factual telling. Gonzo journalism, when done well, can perhaps convey “truth” in a situation like anecdotal he-said, she-said quotes and figures cannot. Using Capote’s vertical plunging into writing – the big difference being here that it is the author’s inner thoughts and not the subjects’ – Gonzo journalism capitalizes on mood, emotion, and the opinions of the writer to tell the story.  Thompson’s Gonzo journalism focuses on self and, according to “Art of Fact,” “gleefully defenestrated all the traditional rules of journalism: conciseness, sobriety, objectivity, even accuracy, and especially unobtrusiveness.” Thompson revels in the use of “I,” a big no-no in the newspaper world. It is, therefore, a form of nonconformist, “outlaw journalism,” as noted in “on Gonzo.”

In terms of getting at the “truth,” Thompson in “Hell’s Angels” rightfully slams the media for its quickness and eagerness to cover alleged rape and drama in the news: (For a modern example, see the Duke-Lacrosse case):

“Weird as it seems, as this gang of costumed hoodlums converged on Monterey that morning they were on the verge of ‘making it big,’ as the showbiz people say, and they would owe most of their success to a curious rape mania that rides on the shoulder of American journalism like some jeering, masturbating raven.”

Even more to the point of media’s aim to seduce its audience, Thompson states (with a dash of himself), “Here, sweet Jesus, was an image flat guaranteed to boil the public blood and foam the brain of every man with female flesh for kin.”

Use of self is an obvious, but important, element in Gonzo journalism. For example, in “The Scum also Rises,” Thompson uses his own thoughts to convey the overall longing for a “simpler time” and an escape (double meaning) before Nixon’s downfall:

“Ah, this haunting, honky music. … I am running a serious out-of-control fever for that long remembered dream of a tin-roof, hard-rain, belly-to-belly day with a big iron bolt on the door and locked away in a deep warm bed from every connection to the outside world except a $14.95 tin radio wailing tunes like ‘I Smell a Rat’ and ‘The Wild Side of Life.’”

In terms of the differences between Thompson and Ron Rosenbaum, it would seem that Rosenbaum is using self more as a tool for telling the story rather than an excuse to get wild with the story. As Rosenbaum traces his personal fascination with “Skull and Bones,” he intertwines himself and his history as a means of adding an emotional element; however, his brazen examination (expose?) of the “Bones” determines it to be more Gonzo than not. With Thompson, meanwhile, no authority member is safe as he foully outlines the history of Nixon’s demise. Likewise, in “Hell’s Angels,” Thompson’s opinions and points-of-view of the situation become front and center, above all else. Thompson and Rosenbaum, however, share a desire to expose and speak of truth, each using his own style to dig deep into their respective subjects.

Discussion question:

In “Hell’s Angels,” Hunter S. Thompson is constantly lambasting the national media for hyping up and overdramatizing the violent acts of the motorcycle group, claiming that so-called respected outlets (Newsweek, New York Times, etc.) just plain get facts wrong. If the media is guilty of doing so, do you believe that Thompson is guilty of the opposite – glorifying the Hell’s Angels as righteous badasses? (See first paragraph of the “Roll em, boys” excerpt.)