Thompson\u27s and Acosta\u27s Collaborative Creation of the Gonzo Narrative Style

In her article Thompson\u27s and Acosta\u27s Collaborative Creation of the Gonzo Narrative Style, Shimberlee Jirón-King presents an analysis of Hunter S. Thompson\u27s and Oscar Zeta Acosta\u27s works and a correction about the origins of Gonzo Journalism. Jirón-King suggests that Thompson\u27s and Acosta\u27s writings express the authors\u27 disillusionment about the loss of the American Dream and that their texts suggest the revolutionary movements they hoped for would transform a disintegrating culture have only fallen prey to the shortsightedness of US-American culture. The counter culture they observe simply develops its own forms of racism, classism, power-mongering, and corruption that re-inscribe hegemonic discourses rather than creating new social forms and values. In Jirón-King\u27s view Thompson and Acosta examine this world and come to the conclusion that no substantive changes can be made, that tyranny always reasserts itself even when the players have changed. For Thompson, the Democratic Convention of 1968 demonstrates the futility of his efforts; for Acosta, the Chicano Moratorium of 1970 leads him to the (fictionalized) bombing of the judge\u27s chambers. These texts thus become acts of rebellion, the effort to at least articulate their dismay at the failure of the American Dream and their efforts at the restoration of a society they believe in