Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
by Hunter S. Thompson (1971)
2022 reads, 9/20:
This semi-autobiographical novel follows Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson) and Dr. Gonzo (Oscar Acosta), journalist and attorney respectively, as they attempt to cover two events happening in Las Vegas for Rolling Stone magazine. What resulted instead, however, was this book; a recount of their insane-yet-hilarious drug-addled journey to Vegas.
However, hidden between the hallucinatory imaginings of Duke and Gonzo (tirades of bats, reptiles, and trying to buy a gorilla) are grounded and real-world fragments of happenings occurring at the time in American history. Newspaper clippings, references to famous events, and commentary from other characters and their experiences, are all interspersed in this absurd recollection of events.
“A very painful experience in every way, a proper end to the Sixties: Tim Leary a prisoner of Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria, Bob Dylan clipping coupons in Greenwich Village, both Kennedys murdered by mutants, Owsley folding napkins on Terminal Island, and finally Cassius/Ali belted incredibly off his pedestal by a human hamburger, a man on the verge of death. Joe Frazier, like Nixon, had finally prevailed for reasons that people like me refused to understand – at least not out loud.”
The imagery of bright Las Vegas lights and having a ‘good time’ are juxtaposed with these types of references throughout the book. So I’ll retract my statement above, and say that this book has disguised itself as a drug-addled adventure, but in reality is about the end of an era and the beginning of new forces in America.
Regardless of what you think of the plot (or lack thereof), Fear and Loathing has cemented itself in American literature and popular culture. Once you read the book (and watch the movie as well, 4.5/5 stars), you start seeing references to it everywhere in popular culture (especially this music video from The Weeknd, and this album title from Panic! At the Disco).
“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.”