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/lit/ - Literature

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17545347 No.17545347 [Reply] [Original]

What do you guys think about Hunter S. Thompson?

>> No.17545405

I enjoyed Hell's Angels a lot

>> No.17545406

>>17545347
He has that much hair before. I’m starting to worry I might go bald.

>> No.17545420

>>17545347
I hope to imitate his gonzo lifestyle and have these words on my tombstone

"There he goes, one of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production...too weird to live, too rare to die"

>> No.17545590
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17545590

>>17545420
>on my tombstone
>too rare to die

>> No.17545609

>>17545590
YWNBAW

>> No.17545893

He definitely had the most energetic and strange rhetoric of the 20th century.

I frequently recommend Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas to my friends who hate reading and they tend to like it.

>> No.17546038

I love em, not every hits but when he's on hes fucking on

>> No.17546062

>>17545347
Hes a fucking LEGEND, and anyone who's disagrees should kys

>> No.17546087

>>17545347
I've found most of what I've read incredibly boring. Hell's Angels was interesting if only for the snapshot of a very specific period of 50's Cali biker culture.
I've got The Great Shark hunt here unread - hoping it might change my mind to some degree.
Fear and Loathing isn't worth a mention.

>> No.17547091

>>17546087
The Great Shark Hunt has plenty of gems to change your mind.

Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is a masterclass in political journalism. If you didn't like Vegas you either didn't get it or you're a square.

>> No.17547759

>>17545420
His "gonzo lifestyle" was a caricature his fans expected him to constantly live up to and the tension it created caused him immense suffering. Don't live your life following a version of a man that probably never existed.

>> No.17547831

>>17545347
The only good journalist

>> No.17548890

>>17545420
yeah when i was 15 i thought this would be cool too

>> No.17549788

>>17545347
>Me me me me me me me me me me me me me
the author

>> No.17549953

>>17549788
Even if this were correct, there is literally nothing wrong with this (Mishima was the same and was a legend.)
But, Hunter's so diverse, so eloquent, and so offbeat that it's impossible to read him without seeing at the very least a super rich portrait of mid-late 20th century America. He should be required reading for texture alone-- but when you read between the lines you see a thorough critique of American materialism and shallowness. He cuts like a knife, and correctly pinpoints that the hope America could drive humanity into the future died within his lifetime.

>> No.17550029

I lost interest when I found how much he "embellished" his stories

Also he just seems like a self absorbed shithead

>> No.17550085

>>17545347
I really enjoyed Hell's Angels and what I've readed of his articles up to the 72 campaign and watergate.
Somewhere he bought too much into his own myth.

>> No.17550099

>>17550085
The moment you're looking for is the Rumble in the Jungle. That was when the image/ego overcame him and it was over. He had a handful of decent articles (His post 9/11 one comes to mind) after that but for the most part the fire began to fade after Africa.

>> No.17550673

>>17550029
>I lost interest when I found how much he "embellished" his stories
Where did you read this? I'd like to know before I start reading

>> No.17550679

>>17545420
I've been there in a type of fashion, and while it's alright, the drugs and pointless drug-fueled excursions really upset your center of being. He squarely captures the strangest and darkest sides of humanity, but at a price.

>> No.17550699

>>17545347
>Hunter S. Thompson
The most based and red pilled leftists the planet has or will ever know. As a conservative I enjoy his style, integrity and journalistic savagery. Highly recommend

>> No.17550709

>>17547759
>probably never existed
Except he really did live a life as wild and excessive as people believe, just not every minute of every day

>> No.17550719

>>17550029
>>17550673
He didn't though, there are dozens of friends and family and acquaintances and associates that have attested to the stories of his life. I think many people may have trouble believing them because if they were to accept these stories as true then they would feel a need to compare them to their own life which most people would have trouble doing

>> No.17550731

>>17545347
The beginning of the end of american journalism. Narcissistic and opinionated, a perfect prototype for later generations. His lifestyle should have been considered a warning, a canary in the coalmine, not a template to be emulated and commodified. Fear and Loathing was kinda okay when he talked about the failure of the counterculture of the 60s, otherwise it wasn't particularly interesting.

Culture really ought to have moved on from the 60s by now, but it seems that for lack of any contemporary culture whatsoever we're stuck replicating the stereotypes of the past. Guess we can't do much else but wait out until we're done circling the drain.

>> No.17550838

>>17550029
>writer is a self-absorbed shithead
Gee, you don't say?

>> No.17550883

>>17545347
litteral femboy
butt agape for Nixon's cock.

>> No.17550903

>>17550731
>capitalist realism: the post

>> No.17551099

I loved Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, both the book and the movie.

It's the quintessential druggie movie to watch when you're toasted on something but it also, and to a much, much greater extent the book, has a much deeper and sobering meaning behind it all.

I think the quote he includes about "he who makes himself a monster rids himself of the pain of being a man" or whatever in the beginning really underlines his entire schtick, at least for that book.

It's an exploration into the death of the American Dream, or at least what was left of it after the collapse of the youth culture in the 1960s deteriorated into the degenerate, excess-laden drug decade of the 1970s and its continual mutation into the consumer culture that defines this country today.

But everyone knows that. The important part relating to Hunter S Thompson as a person is that (if even a fraction of his exploits were true) he was able to capture this theme and essence so brilliantly precisely because he was a part of it- in order to get the clearest picture of the whole situation he adopted the degeneracy and excess and making it a part of himself. He became the monster that was the American cultural credo of excess and lavish indulgence, and was in a position able to illuminate it in all its ugly features (and make it very entertaining in the process).

That's what I think, anyway. Although I think it's easy to worship him I'm not yet onboard with his notion of living life to its limit. I'm not entirely decided what I think about HST as a person or his philosophy, but I definitely like the work that I've read by him.

>> No.17551104

test if still banned

>> No.17551113

Good writer. Flawed guy.

>> No.17551122

>>17545347
shitdick

>> No.17551177 [DELETED] 

>>17545347
.gg/xFbgVnvcjp