Does one have to be american to really appreaciate his works?
Not sure but I'm Dutch and absolutely loved Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
No, but you might have to be a teenager.
I'm not bashing him, he's still one of my favourite authors and the man who got me interested in politics when I was 16, but if I were introduced to him today I might be turned off by the overzealous focus on drug-use.
When you look past this surface impression you'll find an author that really was dedicated to his craft; to the great American virtues of freedom, humour, and truth. He is quintessentially American in this regard.
I'm English by the way.
>>7417895
Are his other works than Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas focused on drugs a lot?
>>7417915
The Rum Diary is largely about drinking. It's not a very good book.
Hell's Angel's is fairly objective and doesn't, as far as I can remember, involve a lot of drug taking on Thompson's part.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is not really about drugs at all.
I haven't read his other books.
>>7417915
Not that guy but fear and loathing if i'm not mistaken is a biography that hunter was completely against the making of. Probably because anything truthful said about his life makes him look like a complete piece of shit.
>>7417915
Not really, no. The Raoul Duke persona, which killed Thompson, isn't that prevalent outside of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and some of his Rolling Stone articles. Hell's Angels is a fine piece of writing. Among my best reads this year. Check this out:
>“California, Labor Day weekend...early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Fricso, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur...The Menace is loose again, the Hell's Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and ninety miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by inches...like Genghis Khan on an iron horse, a monster steed with a fiery anus, flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughter's leg with no quarter asked and non given; show the squares some class, give em a whiff of those kicks they'll never know...Ah, these righteous dudes, they love to screw it on...Little Jesus, the Gimp, Chocolate George, Buzzard, Zorro, Hambone, Clean Cut, Tiny, Terry the Tramp, Frenchy, Mouldy Marvin, Mother Miles, Dirty Ed, Chuck the Duck, Fat Freddy, Filthy Phil, Charger Charley the Child Molester, Crazy Cross, Puff, Magoo, Animal and at least a hundred more...tense for the action, long hair in the wind, beards and bandanas flapping, earrings, armpits, chain whips, swastikas and stripped-down Harleys flashing chrome as traffic on 101 moves over, nervous, to let the formation pass like a burst of dirty thunder...”
>>7417882
You probably have to be American to appreciate his political related works, but for the simply fun ones - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, The Great Shark Hunt, Mescalito etc. - which are pretty much just about him getting fucked up and doing crazy things is entertaining regardless of your nationality.
>>7417952
Nice
Not really. Fear and Loathing was insane from my point of view, and I'm American
In a sense
Nah - I'm American and I think he's shit, and one of my best friends worships him and he's Irish
it helps if one is a teenager with a tendency to romanticize the idea of drugs
Best bike review
>>7417882
Nopw. I'm not American and loved all the stuff, F&L in the campaign trail 72 included
>>7417895
>No, but you might have to be a teenager.
You are right if you just take his stuff at surface level also you need to go to the stuff past F&L in LV to see that a lot of his stuff is amazing
>>7417930
>Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is not really about drugs at all.
I B O G A I N E
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>>7420332
That's the best part of the book, though. He manages to convince EVERYONE that Muskie's an addict, and he has no evidence for it whatsoever except his own experiences as a junkie.
>>7417895
u shouldn't have said u were english, i can't subvocalize ur post anymore w/o an english accent
fuck
>>7417895
You realize the drug use was part of the story? He was a moralist posing as an immoralist, and how better to humiliate authoritarian swine than by schooling them whilst fucked up beyond belief.
>>7417882
bretty dumb question, but it's an excuse to talk about HST...so kudos
Fuck naw, Aussie here. Our cultures are very similar and his book about Hells Angels is fucking brilliant, just so gonzo man, so gonzo. Damn I wish he didn't blow is brains out - if America had stricter gun controls he'd still be with us.
>>7423831
He was assassinated because he was preparing to BTFO Bush about 9/11
