Thompson Wannabe

Amid the banter of my hostel mates, there was one voice that captivated us all. That voice was like a grandfather telling an important tale to his grandchildren. Everyone was all ears and this neo-hippie American, while puffing away on his weed bong, was amusing us with the tale of Hunter S. Thompson.

Something about that name struck a chord with me. Hunter S. Thompson, I repeated that name a couple of times inside my head. I questioned where I heard those but I also wondered if the way this neo-hippie guy said it, quite fanatical and as if he wanted to convert us to be a part of Thompson fan club.

The night after that conversation, I started researching about Thompson. I quickly fell into this rabbit hole where a new world and possibilities opened up before me. I heard a couple of reviews of his book from youtube and learned a new term, Gonzo Journalism. It was the moment of enlightenment.

There it goes, this was the style that I wanted to write for my travelogue or my upcoming 30 days of Cappuccino. It is descriptive, hyperbolic, based on facts but also evocative. it fits on everything i wanted to convey in my writing, I wanted to grab people’s hands and take them through my life journey, not quite literally but figuratively as they read my writings.

Then, I questioned and hesitated if I regretted the time spent studying the works of Fitzgerald and trying to emulate his writing style. The same with Kerouac writing style that was equally wild and exudes rebelism in them. Were they just a thing of the past?

I was simply immersed into Thompson's writing style and started to emulate the way he writes. This freewriting one was one of them. My lousy attempt trying to emulate Thompson’s writing. Let me know if you find this horrendous!

What you all have to know is that most importantly, I wanted to find my own voice or perhaps regain the old voices I had. I liked my previous writing better than what I wrote lately. In recent time, my writing has been repetitive, dreary and unsatisfactory. They were written like fast-food workers preparing the order without a damn care; efficiency was the only thing that mattered.

Another thing that seemed to be a concern of mine was that, writing evocatively, descriptively, and carefully crafted prose took time. I was not born in the land of so-called freedom. I was born ocean apart but I learned the language early in life and as much as dozens of people remarked my extensive vocabulary, sometimes, there were still synonyms that I had to research, look up, and many times poorly fitting them into my prose.

Then another matter that bothered me was, would it be worth it? would people simply skim and move on to the next thing? These questions just added up to even more frustration. But after researching about Thompson, I felt like I could drop all expectations about everything and live my life dangerously.

My writing may not fit the SEO boxes and whatever the hell boxes there are. All I wanted was once again, enjoy writing. As a therapy, as a story-telling, as a way to exercise my writing skill. and eventually melting all these inspirational authors writing style into one voice, my own voice.