GREAT STYLIST, MISERABLE HUMAN BEING:

Going, going, Gonzo... Review of THE JOKE’S OVER: Memories of Hunter S Thompson by Ralph Steadman (Christopher Hitchens, 15 Oct 2006, UK Times Online)

Perhaps you can picture the work of Roald Dahl without the illustrations of Quentin Blake, or of Charles Dickens without the cartoons of Phiz. In a part of my mind, when reading Anthony Powell, I retain the images of the characters furnished by the imperishable Mark Boxer. Would we really have appreciated Alice in Wonderland without the drawings of Tenniel? However these questions may be decided, it is a certainty that the noir contribution of Ralph Steadman (who also produced a brilliantly illustrated Alice Through the Looking Glass) is as inseparable from the output of Hunter S Thompson as Marks from Spencer, or Engels from Marx.

...To describe the subsequent partnership as addictive would be disconcertingly accurate, although “disconcerting” would be the weakest way of expressing Steadman’s alarm at the properties of a small yellow pill that his friend so thoughtfully gave him on a later bad trip — if you will excuse the expression — to the America’s Cup in Rhode Island. The ensuing near-death experience is described without either rancour or self-pity, and, indeed, Steadman cannot claim not to have been warned.

Despite his recent evolution, Hitchens' enduring love affair with Thompson shows just how powerful the attraction of Death and Misanthropy is for the Left.

Posted by Pepys at October 29, 2006 1:45 PM