The persona of Hunter S. Thompson as some drug addled comedian trying to describe various elements of society was, I think, carefully crafted by the man himself. The point, to me, of his writings is that his allegedly inebriated comments make a whole lot more sense than other main stream sources. He captures the alien weirdness of events so acutely and with such brilliance I can still enjoy him thirty years after I first read "Fear and Loathing". Not many authors have that kind of staying power with me.
