hunter thompson has many themes.he subtitle of that book is "a savage trip into the heart of the american dream." it is a complicated book, is a prominent example of gonzo journalism or fiction, where he puts himself in the story and makes himself central to what is going on. so it is disarming, it is not like a steinbeck book. brian: you mentioned this in your book, who gave him the name gonzo journalism? tom: i think it was an editor at the boston globe. i don't know which one it was. in boston, the last person standing at a drunken beer party was referred to as a gonzo for some reason. so this editor described him as gonzo journalism, gonzo writing. thompson liked it and appropriated it. and there were others who put themselves in their narratives earlier. walt whitman and jack kerouac talked about themselves. but i think in our time, in the recent generation or two, hunter thompson becomes known as the godfather of gonzo writing. brian: we started talking about your time as a white house fellow in the johnson whi

brian: why hunter thompson? tom: i met him a few times and we would watch monday night football at the jerome hotel bar in the mid-1970's. he was a character. that movie was a total flop, although johnny depp had a pretty good performance. but the movie had too much juvenile pranksterism. in las vegas. vegas road trip. but my students put me onto hunter thompson. kept urging me. you have to read it. they read it with me. it took me three times to read that book to find there is -- and my publisher encouraged me to include that book in it because it's a cult favorite. there are political themes in that book. he celebrates freedom and individualism. like rand and abbey and jack kerouac, they were all fierce proponents of freedom and liberation. one of the themes of american politics is rugged individualism and liberation, privacy. hunter thompson has many themes. the subtitle of that book "fear and loathing las vegas" is "a savage trip into the heart of the american dream." it's a complicated book. it's a prominen

she is also the author of 29 palms, los angeles times best book after the year, which hunter thompson called, quote, a strange and brilliant story by an important american writer. we have that important american writer with us todd so please gave warm savannah welcome to dean stillman. [applause] >> thank you so much, savannah. and savannah book festival, c-span, trinity united methodist church and my sponsors. really great to be here. so as you know i'm their talk about my latest book "blood brother" busy the strange friendship win sitting bill and buffalo bill, corollary appearance from annie oakley and i'm going to read a few excerpts and talk about my journey through this story, and then take some questions from you afterwards. so first i want to talk about how i came to write this. it's very strange story about a strange friendship. sometime ago, while working on my book mustang, the saga of the wild horse and the american west, i learned about a strange and heartbreaking moment that had transpired outside sitting bull's cabin while he was being assassinated during an ambush. a h

i think hunter thompson, he went from conventional to gonzo journalism, getting yourself involved in the story, that works in some mediums and magazines, it's not mainstream journalism and never has been put i hope it never will be. we are truth tellers. ibc as you grow up and you come from different backgrounds and have different perspective, you can call tobias or not a bias but everyone who reads the news has a different background and take things in a different context. as a journalist you are trained to look at both sides in question both sides and be the person who always says but what if, to play devils advocate. to try to gather information from as many different involved and engaged and informed voices and share that in a way that people can use for their own lives. >> i agree with them a little bit. so, because there are choices and what you cover and there are choices in the questions that you choose to look at those traces reflect the evaluation of what's important that the personal and sometimes organizational and political decision, and so, you bring that to your job, y

barometer of the culture of the pop culture the rock altar the youth culture and that's had like hunter s. thompson wrote for ling stone you write for rolling stone right p.j. o'rourke you're well positioned i think to to have a good insight into this the these social changes and and moves in the way we were talking about this there's two movements out there one is the what i would perceive as the reaction to the shooting in florida of a more of oh a serious post general post-millennial out of generations z. i don't even have a name yet. to come up with the term yet but it will right you should come up with the term we're all waiting for this interview. we're at the millennial is right in this post millennial so there without a term wrote you better than i could you will say yeah we're going to go with something maybe right now we'll think of something but so this generation i saw them on t.v. and they are serious that mean that they're their attitude is the n.r.a. is trying to kill us you know there were existentially threatened here. and so that is that movement and then there's the me too moveme

barometer of the culture of the pop culture the rock altar the youth culture and that's had like hunter s. thompson wrote for ling stone you write for rolling stone right p.j. o'rourke you're well positioned i think to to have a good insight into this the these social changes and and moves in the way we were talking about this there's two movements out there one is the what i would perceive as the reaction to the shooting in florida of a more of oh a serious post in general post-millennial lot of generations of the have a name yet. really come up with a term we will write you should come up with the term we're all waiting for this interview. we're at the millennium and then there's post-millennial so there without a term road you never think could you know what will yeah we're going to go with something maybe right now we'll think of something but so this generation i saw them on t.v. and they are serious that mean that they're their attitude is the n.r.a. is trying to kill us you know there were existentially threatened here. and so that is that movement and then there's the me too movement and ok

barometer of the culture of the pop culture the rock altar the youth culture and that's had like hunter s. thompson wrote for ling stone you write for rolling stone right p.j. o'rourke you're well positioned i think to to have a good insight into this the day social changes and and moves in the way we were talking about this there's two movements out there one is the what i would perceive as the reaction to the shooting in florida of a more of oh a serious post general post-millennial out of generations of the of the have a name yet. really come up with a term who will write you should come up with the term zero zero and we're always doing this interview. we're at the millennial writing this post millennial so there without a term road you never think could you know what will yelping we're going to go up with something maybe right now we'll think of something but so this generation i saw them on t.v. and they are serious that mean that their their attitude is the n.r.a. is trying to kill us you know there were existentially threatened here. and so that's that movement and then there's the me too mo

. >>> it's a shame hunter s. thompson isn't around to see his words come to life.gets weird, he wrote, the weird turn pro. today in the russia story things got very weird. sam nun berg became the first person to openly defy a subpoena from the mueller grand jury. he was supposed to produce e-mail conversations with ten people including candidate trump and go before the grand jury on friday. today, an hour after hour of phone and television interviews on multiple networks, he said a lot. he said no to mueller, then maybe yes to mueller. he said the russians wouldn't collude with donald trump because putin

>>> it's a shame hunter s. thompson isn't around to see his words come to life. when the going gets weird, he wrote, the weird turn pro. today in the russia story, things got very, very weird. former trump campaign aide sam nunberg became the first person to openly defy a subpoena from the mueller grand jury. he was supposed to produce e-mail conversations with ten people including candidate trump and go before the grand jury on friday. today, in hour after hour of phone and television interviews on multiple networks, he said a lot. he said no to mueller, but then he said maybe yes to mueller. he said the russians would never collude with donald trump because putin was too smart. he also said the candidate had advance knowledge of the trump tower meeting with the russians that donald trump jr. held even though he wasn't working for the campaign at the time. sam nunberg was pretty much all over the map today. earlier this evening, cnn's erin burnett sitting next to him on the anchor desk said she smelled alcohol on his breath and asked if he had been drinking. he

let's look at objectively, hunter thompson, noted journalist, with the possible exception of box scores, race results and stock market tabulation there is no such things as objective journalism. the brain itself is a contradiction in terms, do you agree or disagree and that journalists should aspire to objectivity? who wants to jump into this one. >> i disagree. hunter thomas went from conventional to gonzo journalism getting yourself involved in the stories. that works in some medium, but that's not mainstream journalism and i hope it never will be. we're truth tellers, we are, you know, obviously, as you grow up and you know, you come from different backgrounds and you have different perspectives, you can call it a bias or not a bias, but everyone who reads the news similarly has a different background and takes things in a different context. as a journalist, you're trained to look at both sides to question both sides, to be the person who always says, yes, but what if? or to play devil's advocate. you know, and that's our job is to try to gather information from as many different inv

he said and what he did not say and who came out to support him. >>> congressman mike thompson hosting a forum. hunter he supports the second amendment and the right to bear arms. however, following mass shootings, thompson says the u.s. has a responsibility to make schools and districts and communities safer. there is a public forum starting in a few minutes at 10:00 a.m. being held at the heritage presbyterian church at 1400 east second street and venetia and the mayor will attend. the monterey county teacher who fired a gun inside his classroom is publicly apologizing. dennis alexander is a city council member in the city of seaside and a reserved police officer -- a reserve police officer. he expressed regret but no explanation. alexander was about to demonstrate gun safety in his administration justice class when the weapon went off in the bullet hit the ceiling in three students injured by fallen debris and ricochet bullet fragments. >> first of all i want to apologize from the bottom of my heart. i can't find the words to say how sorry i am and i also want to thank all those who showed support.