Hunter S. Thompson and American Counter culture Essay

Hunter S. Thompson and American Counter culture - Essay Example Thompson a representative of the American counter culture. This question is answered and information and current literature is presented to support the answer. Hunter Stockton Thompson was born in Louisville Kentucky in 1937. Thompson grew up in the Cherokee Triangle neighborhood. and attended Louisville Male High School there and lived with his parents, Jack and Virginia and two brothers, Dawson and James. His father's death left the three boys to be brought up by their mother. Thompson's mother was a heavy drinker and Thompson experienced a troubled youth. He was a troubled boy and even had problems with the law at any early age. "Thompson's difficult youth, and its influence on his behavior and the development of his misanthropic worldview, has not received significant literary exploration." (Wikipedia 2005) It has been said of Hunter S. Thompson that he was a 'bad' influence of the best kind. Ernest Hemingway said a writer needs a BS detector and Thompson had one of the most finely tuned BS detectors of all time. Hunter continued to write until he took his own life in February of 2005. 193. He had several nicknames including Doctor, Gonzo and Raoul Duke. The name Raul Duke spawned from the character of Duke in Gary Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury that was modeled after Thompson. Thompson changed the world of journalism and his unique and subjective style of writing was coined Gonzo journalism. In fact he is routinely mentioned with the age of new journalism due to his unique and abrasive style of writing. It is also extremely rare to see Thompson's name and not see it credited with American counterculture. There I nary an instance where you will see Thompson's name and not see Gonzo or counterculture. That is how influential and powerful his writing style was and how strong his messag es were conveyed in his writing through his writing style. Thompson had more than a unique and one of a kind writing style. His persona was eccentric and his trademark look was that he always had a cigarette holder in his mouth, with yellow/orange aviator glasses and Hawaiian shirts with khaki or camo pants. Everything about Thompson from his writing style to his character set him apart from everyone else. His biography describes him as "The American journalist". This is due largely to his contribution t American counterculture He was known as one of the best examples of "Gonzo" journalism because of His political and cultural criticism of the United States in the 1970s was largely a series of tales flowing from his eccentric personality and adventures. (Bookragsd.com 2005)It was after his troubled youth that he joined the Air Force, where the two major tendencies in his life were soon revealed: writing and outrageous behavior. (Bookrags.com 2005) Stationed in Florida, he became a sports reporter for the base newspaper. In 1958 he received a dishonorable discharge after an officer claimed his disregard for military dress and authority was having a bad influence on other airmen. After being fired from jobs with a small New York newspaper and TIME magazine, Thompson went to Puerto Rico and wrote briefly for a bowling magazine." (Wikipedia 2005) Thompson and everything he wrote epitomized American counterculture. "Thompson lived, wrote, and ultimately died of his own terms. " (Gaudette February

To what extent do David Hockney and Chuck Close adopt traditional and Dissertation

To what extent do David Hockney and Chuck Close adopt traditional and digital processes in their Fine Arts practice - Dissertation Example Therefore, it is important to understand how a piece of work becomes a piece of art, and to what purpose that label provides to society. One of the first tools that provided this narrowing of the gap between the artist and the crafter is the camera. Photographic art is defined by parameters that society has set in order to assign value to one photograph over another. However, people from all walks of life and with a variety of intentions have cameras and take photographs, some sharing aspects of artistic quality of those taken by people whose work is considered art. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to create definitive separations between those who use the same types of equipment and create the same kinds of work. Two artists that can be used to discuss the development of digital art are Chuck Close and David Hockney. Chuck Close imitates the digital form, his paintings recreating the digital world through painstaking techniques that create startling realism. One of the finest ex amples of digital art that can be seen through the manipulation of photographic images is in the work of David Hockney. The narrative that is created through his form of collage he called ‘joiners’ creates a reflection of cubism, the individual pieces of the work creating a sense of communication. Defining Art The digital world is a place where the amateur has been given the opportunity to create work that is as expressive as the professional, artistic creations being made with the need for technical skills, at least in the way of tangible elements being put into the works, eliminated and replaced with user friendly tools. Most people have embraced the use of computer technologies, meaning that now almost anyone has the capacity to create art without having to brush paint, form clay, or construct true form. The virtual world is a malleable place which recreates the imagery of three dimension or allows for the manipulation of elements and forms. This means that not only the concept of a true artist is in contrast to a crafter has been permanently blurred, but it means that much of the physical needs of the artist can possibly be replaced with a medium that strips away the need for physical skill, replacing it with intellectually learned skills, the medium diminishing the need to know how to manipulate the real. A digital environment abstracts the fallibility of the human stroke against the canvas and replaces it with an opportunity for perfection. Creating art in a digital world can allow the artist to bypass some of the frustrations that can occur when the creation isn’t reflecting the vision so that the intent of the work can more easily and readily come through to the viewer. Digital art can also allow the artist to take what could not be rendered to perfect expression and refine it to reflect the intended vision. When the human mechanics can not create something that has the nuance that a digital work has, then the artist must consider t o the use of digital enhancement to create what is envisioned. The artist is given a broader number of tools in which to manipulate his expressions, those tools requiring a different type of technical knowledge that was not in previous history available. The artists skills are relevant in a different way, not through his or her expertise with simple tools, but with his or her ability to use common tools of the technical age. What will define the artist