Seriously? I got stuck reading this Kerouac ripoff freshman year of college. I'm not sure why I was supposed to care about this bonehead and his never-ending quest to get high. And yeah I know those beat books all involve drug use, but it was never the focus. Waste of time.

I'll say this much for Fear and Loathing, it's single-mindedly aggressive in it's assault on the "spirituality" of drug culture and empty-headed American values. I laughed a lot reading it and was drawn in by a number of Thompson's images, but it grew a bit wearying after a while. Best taken in doses unless you can handle the relentless attack.

Why?

This is an excellent guidebook to surviving the straight world as a drug connoisseur. A lot of people write this off as some sort of nonsense drug rant. Those are usually the same sort of people Thompson is describing in the book. Naive, sheltered, invested in the illusion of the "American Dream". I think part of the reason this book is underrated these days is because it's style has been poorly copied to death.

I saw the movie a long time ago as an adolescent. I was expecting something as difficult to follow as Naked Lunch. I was surprised to find that this is one of the easiest books I've read all year. Thompson calls this book an "epitaph to the 60's". It is appropriate as that. He gets into the failures of Ginsberg, Leary, and Kesey.

The paranoia was real. You're talking about a time when the president has declared war on drugs. What does that mean exactly? This is also a time when United States Army soldiers had massacred unarmed white American college students for saying "war is bad" on an American college campus. Suddenly you're surrounded by people who want you locked in a cage because you happen to possess a few molecules that are arranged in a way that is not to their liking.

The drugs are just part of the picture. Thompson paints an un-romanticized portrait of American society in a place where it goes to be its vilest.

I'm glad I picked up the edition with the extra stories in the back. One is a much more solemn piece on the batos locos movement of East L.A. and the murder of Ruben Salazar by the LA County Sheriff's Department. The other is in the same vain as Fear and Loathing, set at the Kentucky Derby.

A really strange book that blends fact and drugged-out fiction together to leave you utterly confused. Also, I highly recommend everyone read the two smaller essays at the end, Thompson was really a phenomenal journalist and his gonzo voice in Fear and Loathing isn't his only one.

“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man”
-Dr. Johnson

Last week, while I was in Sin City, I read Hunter S. Thompson’s landmark novel ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream’. It was one of the best and most exciting reading experiences I’ve ever had.

‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ is the magnum opus of Hunter S. Thompson, an American journalist and author who became one of the most prominent literary figures of his time, capturing the ethos of a cultural era that was corrupted and disturbed in his heavily stylized and manic writing style. Thompson rose to fame with his 1967 book ‘Hell’s Angels’, a first-hand account of the infamous motorcycle gang which he wrote over the course of a year of living and riding with them across the country. In 1970 he wrote an article entitled ‘The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved’, covering the annual horse race in Louisville in a highly unconventional manner. Rather than focusing on the event itself, Thompson analyzed the race as a microcosm of American society at the time, painting a shocking portrait of a lewd and drunken celebration of debauchery and excess. This article marked not only the beginning of Thompson’s lifelong collaboration with British illustrator Ralph Steadman, but heralded the arrival of Gonzo journalism, a movement that Thompson himself would become the torchbearer for.

In Thompson’s own words, Gonzo journalism is “… a style of “reporting” based on William Faulkner’s idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism – and the best journalists have always known this”. Rather than attempting to be purely neutral and objective, Gonzo embraces the inescapably subjective nature of writing, positing that the only way to honestly approach a subject is to write from your own individual point of view. Thus, rather than remaining an impartial entity reporting on a story, Thompson chose to include himself as a part of the story, writing in an energetic, highly satirical first-person narrative style wherein he is not only a participant in the events but also serves as the protagonist and primary viewpoint character for the reader.

Pursuing his quest to use Gonzo journalism to tackle important stories, in 1971 Hunter Thompson found himself in LA working on a “very volatile & very complex” investigation into the murder of Mexican-American Los Angeles Times reporter Ruben Salazar by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Thompson’s main contact on the article, entitled ‘Strange Rumblings in Aztlan’, was his friend and colleague Oscar Zeta Acosta, a Mexican-American attorney, novelist, politician and activist who “was under bad pressure at the time, from his super-militant constituents, for even talking to a gringo/gabacho journalist”. In such a tense environment, Thompson found it difficult to talk with Oscar alone, and the two decided to take the work elsewhere. It was around this time that Sports Illustrated had offered to send Thompson to Vegas for a weekend at their expense in order to write photograph captions for the Mint 400 motorcycle race. Hunter seized on the job as “a good excuse to get out of LA for a few days, and if I took Oscar along it would also give us time to talk and sort out the evil realities of the Salazar/Murder story”.

And so, Acosta and Thompson set out in a flashy red convertible for Las Vegas, and what began as a weekend in America’s playground and a 250-word photo caption assignment turned into a 200-page beast about a drug-fueled road trip that would go on to become the preeminent Gonzo journalist’s most celebrated work.

‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ began as Thompson’s attempt to record the entire trip in his notebook as it happened, and his initial intent when all had been said and done was to send the manuscript off for publication without any editing. However, this didn’t pan out, as Sports Illustrated “aggressively rejected” the initial draft, Thompson was compelled to edit his creation and the project became, as Thompson described it, a “failed experiment in Gonzo journalism”. But Thompson did not give up on the book and, after making a return trip to Las Vegas to report on the National District Attorneys Associations’ Conference on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (and doing so while high out of his mind on a number of hallucinogens), he gathered more material and completed his novel. In 1971, the final result was released in Rolling Stone in two parts accompanied by frenzied illustrations from Ralph Steadman and, the following year, it was properly published in a hardcover edition.

Thompson’s writing style is so distinctive and engaging, and Ralph Steadman’s frightening and absurd illustrations perfectly capture the off-the-wall energy of Thompson’s prose. The words and images work together to give the reader a kind of out of body feeling that’s like nothing they’ve ever experienced before. There are few books which really can get you inside the head of someone the way this one does. While the main character of the novel is named Raoul Duke, it is crystal clear that you are really reading from the hazy point of view of Thompson himself, who continually blurs the lines between reality and surreal fiction throughout the entirety of the book. The characters are so vibrant, so completely dirty and real, and the entire time the reader feels as if they are watching a car wreck; it is terrifying, but you can’t look away because you want to see more.

What makes Thompson’s writing really connect with the reader, though, is its moments of earthbound contemplation, where the book comes down off its high and crashes into a state of melancholic and thoughtful meditation. This is best exemplified in perhaps the most famous passage of the novel, which also happens to be one of the best things Thompson ever wrote- the famous wave speech:

“Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something.

Maybe not, in the long run… but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.…

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda.… You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.…

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.…

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

Wow. I get chills every time I read that.

‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ is one hell of a ride. The whole thing is just frenetic and insane, and it never lets up, and I felt simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated at the end of it all. This is one of the best and most original pieces of writing I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. It is hilarious, horrifying, intense, shocking, violent, thought-provoking, deranged, captivating and thoroughly disgusting all-at-once. It’s something everyone should read at some point in their life. And, if you get the chance to, you should read it while you’re in Las Vegas. It will mess you up good.

A classic work of road fiction. A Man, a lawyer and a fast car travel to the heart of the beast and come back again to tell the tale. Drop dead glorious!

A rousing tale of the booze fuelled and drug induced adventures of Duke and Gonzo. I loved this book because of the journalist in Duke and it made me want to go on crazy adventures while covering news stories.

Thompson’s first book, Hell’s Angels, closes with a mesmerizing description of what it’s like to push a motorcycle to a speed where the rider can feel the machine begin to shake and unhinge as the tires spin so fast they can no longer grip the road. Thompson’s time with the Angels pushed him to the brink and the book’s conclusion left the reader to wonder whether he would ever make it back. Fear and Loathing provides the answer – nahhhh….not even close.

In Fear and Loathing, Thompson uses Las Vegas as the setting where he will examine whether its possibly important that he’s never returned from that brink. The stated thesis of the book is that it’s a “savage journey to the heart of the American Dream” but Thompson writes as a bitter, but wise 1970’s California hippy acutely aware that “the dream is over.” However, with Thompson, the “dream” was only ever an excuse and he poignantly laments that the moment “The Movement” ended was The Beatles odd alignment with The Maharishi. To Thompson, it was this decision that reminded everyone that The Movement, if it were ever a real thing, actually had to move somewhere and that that destination could only disappoint. This sentiment that the journey, a captured moment in time, is always more important than its destination is an poignant post-mortem of the 1960’s. It also somehow serves as the best and worst part of Thompson’s Fear and Loathing.

Like all crazy weekends, Fear and Loathing can only sustain so much momentum. In the first half, Thompson expertly draws out the distorted version of the American dream posed by a city like Vegas – a city built upon the allure and constant unfillment of every tourists’ dreams. Thompson makes frequent reference to Horatio Alger to make clear the overarching analogy but he’s too deft a writer to allow it to get ham fisted. Instead, he uses the city as a playground where a hyper-speed American dream can be pursued and lost in minutes. The insanity of tourists treating the city as such is of course contrasted by Thompson and his attorney – always on the brink of some sort of hallucinatory psychosis – as always being just a touch more sane and reasonable than their surroundings. This shtick is tried and true but Thompson pulls it off.

Unfortunately, the second half of the book is the hangover. It has moments of clarity and occasionally catches its second wind, but mostly its just filled with descriptions of Thompson and his attorney behaving reprehensibly as they freak out tourists and act like dirt bags towards a local Las Vegas waitress. Thompson’s ever-engaging prose saves some parts of the book’s latter half, but others make you wonder about your own moral character as you try to remain engaged in the depravity that you’re reading.

These more depraved parts – where Thompson pushes it too far – have likely limited the book’s legacy to dorm room posters for 20 year-old stoners who feel they can adopt Thompson’s charisma by proxy. In that sense, the book is underrated and has become a victim of its reputation. Like Nirvana, it gets remembered for all the wrong things and everyone forgets that Thompson can just flat out write. In the end though, even when the book isn’t great – it’s still pretty great.

February 12, 2023

obscenity, depravity, intensity, and the quest for the American dream. Written like a bizarre bbq story from your uncle about his schizophrenic friend, F & L is sporadic in its retelling. Set in an interesting time, in the transition between the 60’s and 70’s as the hippy movement began to fall apart. Hunters own prose and ramblings about this movement, its successes and short comings, and its relation to law and order.

I would put this at 3 to be honest, I only bumped it to 4 because I really liked the illustrations and I’m probably bias too because I saw the movie and loved it. At points the reading got a bit tedious I’d say, towards the second half. I liked the characters duke and the attorney. When I read other reviews, they talked about some grand critique about consumer culture. I didnt really pick up on any of that to be honest. I just thought it was a fun ride, the paranoia, absurdity. real groovy

Although this book came highly recommended and does have its literary moments, it is hard for me to totally appreciate it as others do. There seems to be no real point besides portraying two semi-depressed, drugged out, lying crazys in the already twisted city of Las Vegas and how they systematically destroy their health with a wide assortment of illegal substances and cheat death repeatedly. This book is in itself a psychedelic twisted journey through the drug crazed head of one of America's most famous journalists Hunter S. Thompson, and perhaps a sad commentary on the plight of the Amercian Dream during the early 1970's.

My opinion about the book hasn't changed now that I have finished it. You get the sense that Hunter S. Thompson is trying to make a point about the American dream and how messed up American society really is. I felt like he pointed a lot of fingers at the government, at Nixon, at what was happening during Vietnam, and all of those things did contribute, just like Bush, the war in Iraq, and the overall apathy of the average American contributes to the "messed up" American society today...I believe it is ultimately the individual that lets themselves get brainwashed by Big Brother or lets themselves feel stifled by The Man. So, all in all, I just didn't totally dig this book because of my personal differences and beliefs. Also, maybe because I am an English teacher, but it was really hard for me to get over the fact that the main characters didn't learn anything, they didn't change, nothing got resolved, there was no real major conflice, no plot (although Thompson tried to make you think there was one by throwing in the hunt for the American Dream near the end)...it was pure Gonzo journalism, and I'm only a marginal fan.