What is gonzo journalism?
Gonzo journalism refers to a subjective style of journalism, most commonly associated with Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson abandoned any attempts at objectivity in reporting and often fictionalized events for literary purposes to further illustrate his subjective reporting. Stylistically, gonzo journalism is anti-PC, is laced with profanity, and often represents drug/alcohol hallucinations and psychosis as part of objective reality.
What is "the new journalism", and is it different from el gonzo?
I don't know, don't really care. I use them often interchangeably, and that's probably incorrect in many people's eyes. The new journalism usually refers to Thompson's contemporaries Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer. The foundations of gonzo journalism and the new journalism are very similar. Mailer's work is often more surreal than Thompson's. Wolfe's work is often more nonfictional than Thompson's. I'll leave it to the real nerds to hash this debate out. Personally, I think that legendary "muckraker" Upton Sinclair would be labeled a gonzo journalist or new journalist, if he had written in the postmodern, rather than modern, era.
Why gonzo journalism? Why not just write regular journalism?
Gonzo journalism, not limited to Thompson, came out of the discontent of the American people with the Nixon Administration, the Vietnam War, the War on Drugs, the assassinations of black civil rights leaders, the death of 1960's idealism, and the inability of the media to have any real, positive impact on American society. It was a reactionary, philosophical experiment that attempted to subvert the traditional avenues of reporting. It questioned whether or not it was possible for journalism to be truly objective.
When I first started out in the industry, nobody knew what to do with me. I looked like an actor but spoke like a writer. I was too strange to be marketable, too avant-garde to be non-fiction, too realistic to be surrealistic, too gay and too much of an outlaw to be mainstream. I just thought that was exactly what literature was supposed to be, not vampires with glitter and Oprah's book club. The facade of gonzo has allowed me to more easily communicate what my artistic goals are, although I haven't purposefully set out to assert myself as a new gonzo journalist. If anything, I am offering a commentary on the failures of gonzo journalism and the banality of Dr. Thompson's legacy, as much as I am attempting to subvert the alpha Libertarian bros typically entrenched in gonzo journalism in favor of an unapologetic far-left queer narrative.
If you can't see the parallels to today, if you still wonder why gonzo, I can't help you any more than I just did.
I am also working on publishing a companion, peer-reviewed law journal article with each gonzo novel. For me, it has been an experiment in questioning which form has the most impact. Recently, former Mexican President Vincente Fox announced his belief that cannabis should be covered by NAFTA, which is the thesis of iPot (vol. 1's companion). I don't pretend that iPot had any influence on this announcement, and I don't think it's going to have any real impact. And that's disturbing to me. Does it reaffirm the hypothesis of gonzo journalism, that it is in practice better -- and more honest -- to just report subjectively, rather than go through the trouble of peer-review, fact checking, and working with a major media outlet? I don't know. I am excited to see what the future brings. My views are constantly evolving on this issue. Stay tuned.
Is gonzo journalism dangerous?
Yes. I've received several substantiated threats and been falsely accused (exclusively by politically motivated Republicans), investigated by law enforcement without probably case, and cleared of everything from terrorism to attempted murder, I've been swatted, threatened by gangs, lost job opportunities, blacklisted. I've been defamed in ways no one should. I have been shut out by police and ignored, reported crimes to them and the police refused to investigate. I've dived into the belly of law enforcement hell, and it wasn't pretty. I believe this is because I'm queer and cops don't prioritize (or believe in) justice for queer, trans, and gay people. Broadway is literally "outraged" at me for speaking out against sexual harassment. Several interview subjects for Hell's Angels Revisited want me hurt, mangled, dead (but most interview subjects are happy with the final product and are fans), just for writing my truth. Don't try this at home.
Are the novels in the series fiction or nonfiction?
Fiction.
What are modernism, postmodernism, post-postmodernism, and how do they relate to the series?
I strongly don't recommend trying to figure this out using Wikipedia. The best way to understand these various philosophies is to read writers who experiment in the respected forms. Modernism began with Henrik Ibsen and James Joyce, who attempted to replicate Ibsen plays in novel format, often using avant-garde and highly experimental narrative forms. Modernism was a reactionary movement to oppose melodramas and Romanticism, popular at the time. The idea was, melodrama and Romanticism placated audiences, lulled them to sleep, rather than waking them up, inspiring them, and stimulating their intellects. Like Dr. Thompson, both Ibsen and Joyce used real people, real names, real events, and real places, but transformed them into fiction through these experimental writing techniques, many of which I also use. But many felt that modernism failed when World War II broke out, and a new movement to improve upon and fix modernism emerged: postmodernism. The theories of postmodernism (and post-structuralism) are discussed, ad nauseum, by Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Lacan. Postmodernism retained much of modernism but is entirely separate and distinct. Postmodern novelists are everywhere in America, often sown so deeply into American culture, most don't identify them as experimental: David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut, Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk. Post-postmodernism is similar: moving beyond the failures of post-modernism into something better. Post-postmodernism is ongoing and difficult to define. I consider my work post-postmodern, but maybe I'm more accurately described as a post-gonzo writer. I leave it up to the readers (and other post-postmodernist practitioners) to hash out what this means. Others writers who are typically associated with post-postmodernism include David Eggers, Alan Kirby, and Eric Gans.
Will Dr. Snowman be writing more gonzo journalism novels after the 16 series?
Possibly. I've been kicking around a few notes for a manuscript called The Hell Happened to Colorado and a book about the Church of Satan.
Will Dr. Snowman be publishing any non-gonzo novels?
Yes. I have several manuscripts that I am building that are more genre-based. They take longer to publish, often several years of shopping them to agents and publishers. The nature of self-publishing allows me to get the books to media and other journalists in a more timely fashion. But, for now, this works for me. Some of these titles, for those familiar with the gonzo series, include American Folk, Project INK, Finzi's story, and The Piano Tuner. And like every writer, I have a near-mandatory YA dystopian manuscript and a children's series, which I'm less enthusiastically working on, because them's the breaks today, if you're a writer. It's strange how children have imaginations and adults seem to be losing theirs. The so-called adults today are mostly buying insane self-help books and atrocious celebrity memoirs. But not you -- you're better than that. You are a reader of real grit, and you're here to read novels with fangs.
I'll likely be taking a short break after volume 8 to advance some of these manuscripts. Don't hesitate, bitch, to send me an email. As long as you're not abusive, I'll do my best to respond to any questions.
Dip in!