Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

[bawbag]

Just read this book last week, thought it was great, really liked the film as well.
It was quite horrific but a great read.
Anyone else read this and have any thoughts on it?
Interested to hear what people think of it.

[Uncle Hank]

After you read the book, with a little bit of luck your life is ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of your favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things you'll never know.

[Woyzeck]

Ah the joys of the savage journey into the heart of the American dream...what a film and what an even better book. Truly phenomenal.

[9]

I know this is a wildly unpopular thing to say, but I thought the book was trash; I never have understood all the hype around it. It’s basically a terribly-written hyper-masculine wet dream which makes a generally unprofound, completely overrated commentary on the so-called “American Dream”. So what?
Having said that, I love the drawings Ralph Steadman did for it; that was the only thing I found even remotely enjoyable about reading the book.

[Woyzeck]

I know this is a wildly unpopular thing to say, but I thought the book was trash; I never have understood all the hype around it. It’s basically a terribly-written hyper-masculine wet dream which makes a generally unprofound, completely overrated commentary on the so-called “American Dream”. So what? Having said that, I love the drawings Ralph Steadman did for it; that was the only thing I found even remotely enjoyable about reading the book.

Different strokes for different folks. :)

[black magick hustla]

I know this is a wildly unpopular thing to say, but I thought the book was trash; I never have understood all the hype around it. It’s basically a terribly-written hyper-masculine wet dream which makes a generally unprofound, completely overrated commentary on the so-called “American Dream”. So what?
Having said that, I love the drawings Ralph Steadman did for it; that was the only thing I found even remotely enjoyable about reading the book.

i think thats why we like it. kindof like fight club. a bunch of hyper masculine losers doing wild and dangerous stuff and saying offensive things

[black magick hustla]

ill be honest here. i really like really reactionary literature with terrible people as protagonists. fear and loathing is awesome because it has a bunch of degenerates doing crazy stuff, saying crazy stuff, and keeping quasi concubines by feeding them acid. all of that is pretty bad i know, but i cant help it!!!!!

[9]

i think thats why we like it. kindof like fight club. a bunch of hyper masculine losers doing wild and dangerous stuff and saying offensive things

Actually Fight Club is one of my favorite movies. It isn't "hyper-masculine losers doing wild and dangerous stuff and saying offensive things" (uh?) that made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas bad IMO. It is the fact that it was limited to this - that it was terribly-written, boring as hell, and basically something that a talentless illiterate could have shat out after a night of heavy drinking. In any case, if I couldn't tolerate "hyper-masculine losers doing wild and dangerous stuff and saying offensive things", I'd probably have to be a hermit. But if I'm going to read a story about it, it should at least be creative and well-written and with some sort of content beyond some assholes chewing blotter and waving their dicks around.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I liked the book a lot when I read it - over 10 years ago. I have some problems with the movie but Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Torro are excellent.

There are some great lines in the book, fantastic hyperbole, and nice deadpan black humor often all on the same page. I think also what was appealing to me at the time was the "shock" aspect of it. I wasn't really a radical yet, but the book seemed to make fun of all the right people.

Today "shock-entertainment" often means just being generally offensive. "South Park" and "Family Guy" often "shock" their audience by making fun victims, the poor, helpless, and so on. "Fear and Loathing" as this quote from the comrade above illustrates...
Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of your favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things you'll never know. is about shocking what many people by the early 70s saw as a hypocritical and hollow bourgeois "normalcy" or "decency". He makes fun of the stupid fascist cops, right-wing vacationers, bigots, LBJ, idiotic establishment reporters, publishers, and so on.

Of course Dr. Gonzo also brutalizes women and terrorizes the staff at various hotels, but I think that's what separates that book from a Cheech and Chong movie... they aren't just on some wacky adventure in a corrupt society, there's a dark side of hedonism that's represented by Dr. Gonzo who is kind of a psychedelic monster in both the text and the illustrations.

[Uncle Hank]

Actually Fight Club is one of my favorite movies. It isn't "hyper-masculine losers doing wild and dangerous stuff and saying offensive things" (uh?) that made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas bad IMO. It is the fact that it was limited to this - that it was terribly-written, boring as hell, and basically something that a talentless illiterate could have shat out after a night of heavy drinking. In any case, if I couldn't tolerate "hyper-masculine losers doing wild and dangerous stuff and saying offensive things", I'd probably have to be a hermit. But if I'm going to read a story about it, it should at least be creative and well-written and with some sort of content beyond some assholes chewing blotter and waving their dicks around.
I think the book provides an invaluable perspective and narrative in the drug culture. Thompson, as someone who lived that era, had shown insights like this that help identify succinctly the feeling that many had as a reason for that time- as well as why so many were so reluctant to give up.

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. 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.
Not that I had anything to do with that time or anyone had conceived conceiving me, but it's from what I can tell a pretty damn good observation. The fact that he can live in an alternate reality and somehow survive in the real world is pretty fucking astounding... don't forget the context either. We know they love taking drugs blah blah blah, but it was the alternative. The cliché road from Woodstock to Altimont. The idea there was a way beyond bloody and violent revolution to vanquish the political powers that be. It may not have won the day but... that feeling. It was the shit, I guess. And it was worth keeping alive, recording, writing about, preserving.

Oh, and guys chewing on blotters and waving their dicks around can be a pretty fun time. Seeing the shenanigans they get into can be funny in the right context. And it was the right context. :)