R.U. Sirius interviews B. Duke

By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:49 pm Thursday, May 31

The RU Sirius Show recently had a great show where he interviewed a writer/performer who evokes Hunter S. Thompson in a theater piece called "Gonzo: A Brutal Chrysalis." A text version of the interview has now been posted on 10 Zen Monkeys.

RU: Is this writing, basically, you trying to do the voice of Hunter S. Thompson? Are you incorporating his stuff? Is it all him? How does it work?
BD: I had originally intended to take certain passages from Fear and Loathing in America : The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist and kind of knit them together. I quickly abandoned that. I knew it wasn't going to work. Also, we would run afoul of copyright issues with the estate and I don't really care for his widow. She's done several stupid things that I really detest. So I didn't want to pour more gasoline on that fire. And unlike Johnny Depp or Bill Murray, I didn't have the luxury of moving into Thompson's house and getting the Hunter experience.
So I did more research and it was the political stuff that he did that really caught my attention. And at that time, I live alone. So I had a great luxury of time to myself to do this. And I really kind of absorbed him through his letters, and went back and re-read things that I had read before, in the context of the letters, to get the complete effect. And I really allowed him to take me over. I spent a lot of time with my eyes closed imagining the world as he would see it.
And it's very easy to translate elements of his frustration -- the Vietnam war to the Iraq war; spineless, useless Democrats to spineless, useless Democrats; vile Republicans to vile Republicans. Oil companies fucking everybody.