Bill Kelly points out that Hunter S. Thompson coined his immortal phrase “fear and loathing” on the day of JFK’s assassination. In three words, the gonzo journalist had captured a mood that would never go away.
In a letter to novelist William Kennedy, Thompson wrote,
I suppose you will say the rotten murder has no meaning for a true writer of fiction, and that the “real artist” in the “little magazines” are above such temporal things. I wish I could agree, but in fact I think what happened today is far more meaningful than the entire contents of the “little magazines” for the past 20 years. And the next 20, if we get that far.