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“Once I understood what was making America such a dangerous, unhappy nation of people who had nothing to do with real life, I resolved to shun storytelling.” – Kurt Vonnegut The most influential force in society, the media has for years been a chronicle of the zeitgeist, typifying public opinion on everything imaginable. For the outspoken the media is an invaluable tool with which to evangelise unspoken truths. During the latter half of the 20th Century, three ambassadors of American counter-culture – Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Joseph Heller - used their art form as a weapon against society and the force that governed it. The trio’s distinctly different approaches all pointed to the same targets – the heart of the American dream, and the jugular of US society. All of these writers live in a time where avarice, racism and corruption are rife in society and government. Hunter Thompson chronicles the ‘fear and loathing’ he experiences in Las Vegas, but his themes are much farther reaching. By an unspoken caucus he became the leader of the disenchanted generation of late 60’s America. Staunchly anti-Nixon, Thompson’s pioneering work in Gonzo Journalism may have generated detractors of such stature as Tom Wolfe, but he remains for many the one true icon of New Journalism. One of Thompson’s fans in the literary circle, Kurt Vonnegut, present at the bombing of Dresden (which gives him much ammunition with which to attack war and suffering), is perhaps more renowned for his unique narrative style than political agenda. Nevertheless, Breakfast of Champions is clearly designed to rub middle-America’s face in the sheer, unadulterated ugliness of life with its frank and unrelenting dissection of US life. Regarded by many as one of the greatest American writers of all time, Vonnegut has created a truly delightful yet deeply sinister book. Joseph Heller is an author often compared to Vonnegut in the hall of 20th century American literati. In Closing Time, Heller returns armed with the surviving cast of Catch-22 to highlight again the problems with the USA today. A keen social satirist, Heller’s style of jocular dialogue and scenarios as a front end to a very grave and serious underlying meaning. In their quest to topple the imposing monolith of America commercial greed, racist underbelly and hypocritical government these three writers all use very different styles. Firstly, Vonnegut’s unmistakable style is exaggerated in Breakfast of Champions, his 50th birthday present to himself, in which he gleefully takes aim in a self-declared open season on America’s society. The story is fragmented and often Vonnegut commands the reader to “Listen…”. Not in keeping with the weighty subject matter, Vonnegut writes in the style of a Children’s encyclopaedia, for example when he introduces us to the sleeping patterns of a lamb and the function of a gun, complete with visual accompaniment; “A gun was a device that’s sole purpose was to make holes in human beings: It looked like this…” This style of streamlined, succinct satire is extremely effective as it does not impose any ideals upon the reader, but merely states the facts, leaving the reader to judge on the blatant simplicity of the words while highlighting the absurdity of the violent acts that occur daily in America. In this instance it is also ironic that the lamb symbolises purity and Christian morality regarding the value of life, while the gun typifies the cost of American freedom. Vonnegut’s own illustrations serve to give his points an extra resonance – a cow on one page, a burger on the next, or a drawing of a chicken proceeded by a bucket of chicken wings (soon followed by a picture of a body bag, drawing parallels between the two without actually hinting with the text). This juxtaposition shows how carefully we serve up an animal for our own consumption, but how soullessly and unceremoniously we discard humans. Vonnegut focuses on the death of a nation and its dream, a similar theme to that of another celebrated American author – Joseph Heller. Heller tells the story of the dissolution of a generation; those who not only risked their lives in World War Two, but managed to survive to the final page of Catch-22 and for whom it is now ‘closing time’. The well of post-war euphoria has run dry, leaving a forgotten generation that is now all but extinct. Closing Time, however, has its own unique style. Although chaotic at 1 heart, Closing Time communicates the same themes through Heller’s trademark dialogue. Despite the novel dealing primarily with the ageing of Catch-22’s Yossarian it also incorporates his disillusionment at the country he lives in. It moves from lament to chaotic humour within a heartbeat, and like Breakfast of Champions Closing Time is a very sombre tale dressed up in Jester’s clothing. However, Heller takes a more conventional approach to the narrative; language, rather than tone or layout, is his strongest weapon. Closing Time’s dialogue is undoubtedly the snappiest of the three, and by using characters the reader is already familiar with from Catch-22 the book gains a sentimental resonance, creating empathy towards the central cast. But whereas Vonnegut and Heller are widely believed to be two of the finest American writers of the last century, their fan base is surely not as fevered or loyal as Hunter S. Thompson, who passionately believe he is a valuable literary commodity to be treasured and the one true hero of Gonzo; a breed of 60’s ‘New Journalism’ that would spawn a bible for the disillusioned sixties – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Fear and Loathing follows Rolling Stone journalist Raoul Duke’s (Thompson’s shield-like pseudonym from the relevant authorities) search for the American Dream. Although a journalistic piece, Fear And Loathing was published in book form after appearing, in two instalments, in Rolling Stone in November of 1971. Although regarded by many as Thompson’s opus, the author himself describes the book as a ‘failed experiment in ‘Gonzo Journalism’. Gonzo is a kind of ‘grass-roots’ journalism, unedited and written as though the journalist themselves is a key character in the events unfolding. A better explanation would be to say Gonzo is written in the style of Rock n’ Roll, punctuated by literary riffs. Indeed, Kurt Vonnegut himself once said of Thompson’s work; “It is the literary form of Cubism: all rules are broken: we are shown pictures such as no mature, well-trained artist ever painted before, and in the crazy pictures we somehow see luminous new aspects of beloved old truths”.
Approximate Word count = 4203
Approximate Pages = 16.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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