Riffin' On the Gonzo Logo

Sporting what appears to be a double thumbed, clenched fist, the palm of which is bearhugging a lone Peyote button, the Gonzo logo features a right arm intersected just below the wrist by the title of the form itself, “Gonzo”. Above the intersection, we have an arm flowing into a wrist, and then the double thumbed, one on each side, closed-fist hugging the Peyote button. Above the intersection, we have not an arm, but the blade of a dagger flowing downwards into the tip.

We have in this logo a rather succinct blueprint for the writing machine that was the Gonzo, a form that Hunter would tap into more than engineer in any meaningful sense, an accident he stumbled upon in his recreational escapades, which, admittedly, were overt and desperate forms of spiritual seeking despite being also the benchmark displays of heathenism. He was just that kind of guy…

At the very “core” of the image, I’d argue that we find ourselves in the very focalization point, the middle of the clenched palm. Here, we find a Peyote button, which is a simple symbol for an action which somehow ushers in a meaningful experience of eternity while entirely within the constraints of a finite form…a magical bean that somehow calls the mystery down, that escapes the chain of recycled causation whenever necessary to simply…create…to breathe new energy and meaning into this existence, a bridge to worlds and phenomena that are inherently beyond our very faculties and yet can play the more exotic tunes of this existence in such a fashion as to strongly insinuate as much.

The button is in many ways a very accurate depiction of truth in that it conveys that truth is a symbol for something sentient, Something that acts across time and can change how it acts across time. It is somehow the objective from which truth and consensual reality eventually arise, and as thus it’s the only reliable point of reference for consistent journalistic integrity/meaningful work (the source of the Muse as well as the source of Meaning in general).

Clenching this portal to all things pure and simultaneously, badass, is a hand very similar to the Eastern mystical symbol of the Hamsa hand, except instead of having the thumb and the pinky point outwards as in the Hamsa, the Gonzo hand has an extra thumb (2 thumbs, four fingers) and both thumbs are on opposite sides, curving in to face one another/point inwards towards the Peyote button.

Just below the wrist, the arm is intersected by the label “Gonzo” which is a form journalism that Hunter used to avidly tout. Apparently Gonzo journalism is a type of journalism that is written “without claims of objectivity” and often times the writer is included in the piece, as if it’s a first-person narrative rather than simply some sort of form of reporting/relaying information. You can see already the potency of the move… suddenly we are living vicariously through this character and it becomes very easy for the writer to conscientiously explore the more powerful questions surrounding the topic…what is the personal significance of this topic being written about to the average Joe in the here and now today…through this frame the psychological effects of pieces arguably grow far, far richer in detail, or at the very least this is a lovely format with which to exaggerate them, as Hunter characteristically did. I digress.

The interjection of the Self into the stories of Gonzo journalism makes utter sense in the context of the Peyote button. A Peyote ritual, as wildly colorful and weird as it is, is ultimately, rather simply, about an exploration of Self. It’s a ritual which forces you to redefine Self, to conscientiously come to terms with the Universal truth that there is some sort of sentient force that is a part of you that is a meaningful part of your “Self” but that is not limited at all to you, and that this force is the one and only Creator.

If people tell you they use psychedelics in a ritualistic fashion, this is pretty much the only ritual. The others are like nuanced executions of this one mono-ritual…whether you are overcoming a fear of death, or past psychological traumas, or are perhaps trying to kick some sort of physical addiction that is really rough….the rituals derive their medicinal nature from this process of redefining Self in such a fashion that the Creator can come into your life in some way, shape, or form, more in the immediate future.

Anyways, after the intersection of the word “Gonzo” the continuity of the arm seems to continue, at first place, but then you quickly realize that instead of an arm leading to an elbow, it’s now a sword shaft leading to its tip. Bearing in mind that this is in regards to writing, I interpreted that as meaning let your writing hand be your weapon. Grip the core of Truth/the Social Mission/Spiritual Lucidity feverishly, in fact, grown an extra thumb to do so, because that there button is the reason evolution ever existed. It was there to somehow serve that, which in the process serves us.

And that’s what Gonzo really was about. Somehow feverishly grasping onto that which seems as if it should mostly elude us by sheer magnificence alone, and sharing it in such a way that it does keep this whole America thing progressing in a way that America in and of itself is also just like the Peyote button, a symbol of some sort of potential rapturous adventure that appeases the accolades of self-esteem and personal pride. Eerily enough, how it seemed to do this is by following the template of the Peyote ritual experience in a very stripped down fashion, one which brings the Self rather conscientiously into the fray, operating on an unspoken assumption that to think is to be influenced in some fashion. Hunter seemed to understand that sensibility is about as much of an object as a living psychedelic cactus that houses within its tough green folds, many microcosms of many Esher-esque universes, and so he raw dogged that first person harddd.