[NutCrackerBoy]

Gonzo journalism is another name for what Tom Wolfe called "new journalism" which is basically personalizing a story by recounting not just the facts the journalist sought but what the journalist went through to get those facts...

It sounds like gonzo is just one type of personalized journalism. I don't object to putting a journalistic piece's narrative into first person. There's a diary style. But it has happened more than once that I find myself reading what kind of wine the writer ordered. A fatal violation, I won't continue reading it beyond that point.

[discostu]

Yeah, basically gonzo is a subcategory of personalized (aka "new"... although it's been around long enough that monicre should be dropped) journalism. It's personalized journalism by a nut job who really doesn't fit into the scene he's in, and if he does fit in there's probably something deeply wrong with the scene.

Like all things some folks take it too far. Many that try to use personalized journalism forget what the story really is. The story isn't them, it's the journey, they tell it through themselves to give the reader an anchor, a way to feel like they were there. It wasn't really even new when Thompson started doing it, he was just the first one to take it in the direction of "serious" things like politics.

[NonLinear]

It sounds like gonzo is just one type of personalized journalism. .... But it has happened more than once that I find myself reading what kind of wine the writer ordered. A fatal violation, I won't continue reading it beyond that point.

No, with HST you would not find yourself reading what kind of wine he ordered.

You would more likely find yourself reading about how twenty cases of wine and scotch found their way into to trunk of a car shortly before the lit stick of dynamite that was thrown out the window in a drunken delirium, found it's way into the back seat causing the vehicle occupants to disperse from the speeding car, watching it explode in the forest.
Fortunately a single bottle of scotch would remain unscathed and allow the further pursuit of the story.

It wasn't just first person journalism, it was ... oh never mind. It was insanity, but insanity at its very best.