Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Ratings283
Average rating4
I've heard countless tales of teenagers reading atlas shrugged and the fountainhead and it twisting them to be selfish assholes and call themselves libertarians for a while. This book was like that for me but instead I was inspired to go on a many drug fueled adventures as possible and collect crazy memories.
Aside from that, this book and f&l on the campaign trail are incredible snapshots into the counterculture view of Nixonland and just how horrible it was. It also made me really sad at the complete lack of interesting drugs available to me when I was young.
"The only hope now, I felt, was the possibility that we’d gone to such excess, with our gig, that nobody in a position to bring the hammer down on us could possibly believe it."
I've always meant to read this book (and meant to watch the 1998 movie adaptation starring Johnny Depp), yet I didn't get around to until my Great Books Book Club chose it for July 2024.
There were parts of this book (unfortunately, I turned in to the library and can't quote exact passages), which were absolutely outstanding. The moments where the Duke pulls back and observes how the people in Vegas represent what Americans have become, gambling and consuming, chasing the unattainable American Dream. Other parts were totally over the top, but that was the point, right?
It was really interesting to consider both “On the Road,” “The Great Gatsby,” Hemingway in general, and “The Armies of the Night;” our book club has read all of those since 2008 and they all come up in this book.
So, am I glad I read this book? Yes, most definitely. Do I want to read a few other books by Thompson, such as “Hells Angels” and “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ‘72?” Yes! Do I enjoy Gonzo Journalism? Jury is out.
Discussion Questions from 07/20/2024 Meeting
1. How do the Steadman illustrations affect the narrative?
2. Were the cultural and political references enjoyable/helpful or baffling (i.e Martin Borrman, Fatty Arbuckle)?
3. Is the narrator reliable? How valuable are his perceptions? How does external violence (assassinations, the Vietnam War) influence his internal state?
4. How does the narrator describe psychedelic drugs and what is their function in the story?
5. Thompson quotes William Faulkner: “the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism.” What is Gonzo journalism and how is it different from New Journalism? Is this book a novel or is it journalism or something else?
6. What is the author's view of police and authority and how did they play a part in the story? Can you compare the discussion in Part 2, Chapter 7 that the Duke and his attorney have with the DA from Georgia to the 1980's War on Drugs?
7. What is the author's view on the 1960's counterculture movement (looking back at it from 1971)? How about the Beats?
8. What do the Great Red Shark and the White Whale reflect about American values? What is the meaning of all the rides that Duke and his attorney go on and what are they looking for?
9. Why does Duke refer to the Las Vegas hotel Circus Circus as “the main nerve of the American Dream.”
10. The book's subtitle is “A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.” The author stated in interviews that he used F. Scott Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby” as a template for this novel. What was the American Dream of the 1960's vs the 1920's? Why does Duke fixate on Horatio Alger?
11. How would you interpret the “Wave Speech” at the end of Chapter 8, Part I? How would you compare it to the last page of The Great Gatsby?
1998 Movie clip of the “Wave Speech:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUgs2O7Okqc&t=103s
Sources and Further Reading:
“A Rare Recording of Hunter S. Thompson” on Hoopla: https://www.hoopladigital.com/my/hoopla
https://www.beatdom.com/fact-fiction-fear-loathing/
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/vleb1b/breaking_down_fear_and_loathing_in_las_vegas_long/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson
Rest in peace Hunter S. Thompson u wouldve loved skibbidi toilet
I don't doubt that this book is a cult classic, edgy, and captured a generation's feeling of discontent with the status quo. But in 2024, this drug fueled adventure in Las Vegas just concerned me.
I used to live in Las Vegas, so I found some of their shennanigans par for the course and darkly funny. I kept hoping to understand the deeper meaning of this book, unfortunately I never found it.
“There are some you go into—in this line of work—that you know will be heavy. The details don't matter. All you know, for sure, is that your brain starts humming with brutal vibes as you approach the front door. Something wild and evil is about to happen; and it's going to involve you.”
So, this book is an awesome piece of gonzo journalism! What I've pieced together from reading + research is that gonzo is more just about subjectivity of the author and capturing a feeling than the real event? This book is an extremely personalized depiction of drug abuse & hallucinogenic drugs. However, most of the events (especially the theft, assault, etc.) here are entirely fictionalized. The book feels like a gust of wind that drags you away with it, all the time. You never know what's going on fully because the characters jump from one objective to another in a flash, and it kind of makes you feel like you're on drugs too. After reading this, I def want to explore more of HST's books, + other works of gonzo!
5 stars
Even though the subject matter of the book is quite superficial, the story and prose make up for it tenfold. For someone who has only an outsider???s perspective on drug use and wild partying (at least as wild as you can get, without a car boot full of drugs and alcohol), it was a sublime trip to walk a mile in the shoes of Raoul Duke and his attorney in the search for the real, unrefined, untamed and unrestrained American dream.
I???d recommend reading this if you like insane stories, that will still make you sweat out of anxiety and laugh at the same time, were you the one remembering said stories afterward.
Mostly left me underwhelmed. I didn't hate these guys, despite the obvious jackassery. I didn't really find them that funny, either. This book felt more historically important than compelling. I preferred Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly.
It's my introduction to the Duke and it's proving difficult to live up to the advance hype. Could something like this even exist today or would he be dismissed as nothing more than another James Frey? Unfair, as it's more than just a drug fueled neon blaze across Vegas but an examination of the drug culture and the clarion call of gonzo journalism. This appeared as a two part feature in Rolling Stone and even today would be a savage swipe in a publishing world that tends to favor a grade 5 reading level. Still, I read this and think about the subsequent legion of narcotics taking, wannabe burnouts celebrating their own excesses and shudder.
Is there anything I can say that hasn't already been said about this book? It's hilarious, eye-opening, and a little alarming - remind me never to huff ether. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person over 16 who hadn't read it, but hey, I finally did and it was awesome.