Copyright © 1997 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved.
By Dan Kennedy
Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson's command of the facts has always been shaky. Few in his craft, though, have ever had a surer grasp of the truth. In a fascinating new online interview, Thompson semi-coherently explains why objective reportage simply can't capture the essence of such "a maudlin, truthless affair" as Richard Nixon's funeral: "You're talking about your objective journalism? It was one of these things where speak no evil of the dead. Well, why not? What the fuck? Nixon goes out as a champion of the American dream and a hero. It enraged me."
Those remarks, and a whole lot more, can be found in the new installation of "American Graffiti," part of the Atlantic Monthly's website, the Atlantic Unbound. The package consists of a rambling, 5000-word interview with Thompson, complete with audio and video clips; a review by Sven Birkerts of Thompson's recently published early letters, The Proud Highway (Villard); and the highlight, Thompson's 1994 obituary of Nixon -- inspired, Thompson says, by H.L. Mencken's vicious send-off of William Jennings Bryan.
For anyone who hasn't previously seen the Nixon piece, it is a shock, a jolt of genius as unexpected as if Bob Dylan were to release a follow-up to Highway 61 Revisited that was every bit as good as the original. It is impossible to describe it without diminishing it, but here's a line worth pondering: "He was a cheap crook and a merciless war criminal who bombed more people to death in Laos and Cambodia than the U.S. Army lost in all of World War II, and he denied it to the day of his death."
The interview, by freelancer Matthew Hahn, is long and uneven, but it has its moments -- especially the humiliating scene in which Thompson orders Hahn to read the Nixon obit out loud. The interview also makes clear that becoming a legend is not what becomes this legend the most. "The fact that I'm not dead is sort of puzzling to me," Thompson tells Hahn. "It's sort of an awkward thing to deal with."