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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 35 KB, 327x499, fear_and_loathing_in_las_vegas.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2674575 No.2674575 [Reply] [Original]

Hi /lit/!
I just finished reading this book, and to be honest, I didn't think it is as good as everyone says it is. Am I missing something; should I reread it?

>> No.2674581

Yes, probably.

Its wasn't ABOUT drugs if thats what you are thinking, even though they feature heavily. It was about the illusion of the American dream, and the futile quest to find it.

>> No.2674610

I'll be honest, OP, I didn't enjoy it at all either. I believe that I understood the illusory masses of America, the fragmentation of true ideals, etc. It's one of two books that I despised but continued with an open mind (the other was Catcher in the Rye, which I came to enjoy actually) but, ultimately, I found Fear and Loathing incredibly disappointing.

>> No.2674612

This excerpt sums up the central theme quite well especially the final line, the wave being the rise and fall of optimism, the counterculture and the total belief in hedonistic freedom:


"History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened. 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."

>> No.2674621

>>2674581
I've never read the book, but the speech he made in the movie, about how the wave broke and rolled back... it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.

>> No.2674629

>>2674621
>>2674612
That speech? Sorry I had to chop it up, I didn't want to post a wall of text.

>> No.2674637

I adored this book. Not my favourite HST book, but I could fully relate to it. There aren't enough books that give this type of honest social commentary.

>> No.2674639

>>2674612

Basically this. The book is about why something as seemingly awesome as the 60s turned into something as shitty as the 70s. And also about how much HST hated Nixon, because everything HST ever wrote is about how much he hated Nixon.

>> No.2674661

>>2674637
>There aren't enough books that give this type of honest social commentary.
The think I like is that it was only supposed to be a magazine article. and Thompson just sites down, writes fear and loathing, and casually tries submitting it as his article.

>> No.2674665

what really stuck out to me was when they were super high in the police conference, and it was about how the world perceived drug counter culture as a much more organised, dangerous tool then it really was. When faced directly with what it is they were supposed to stop, they had no idea.

That and the knowing somewhat "pointlessness" - though I haven't read the book in a year. I thought it was overrated too, and the movie bored me to tears.

>> No.2674682
File: 184 KB, 400x400, abogado.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2674682

>>2674665
>>2674665
Fun fact: Thompson named the guy giving the anti-drug speech L. Ron Bumquist. This was a little Jab at the sci-fi writer L Ron Hubbard, who Thompson hated. He was very anti-drug and had some bizarre views about how society should be run. Many years later L Ron Hubbard went on to found a religion called Scientology..

>> No.2674741

>>2674682
Yes. I made that connection when reading it too.

>> No.2674755

>>2674639
>60's
>awesome
I don't think so. Either way, I thought the book was mediocre as well. The only people who hold this book in high regard are too-cool-for-school cannabis addicts.

>> No.2674763

>>2674755
>Cannabis
>addict
pick one.

>> No.2676687

>>2674755

Cannabis addicts, lol. You're the kind of snot in nose kid I'd see crying about their "marijuana addictions" in NA. If not you're the nerdy, creepy aspie with horrible posture that'll never get laid. Either way, kill yourself.

>> No.2676710

>>2676687
I was a hardcore cannabis addict for about a year. I would even snort used cannabis syringes out of a burnt spoon. The whole experience was just as bad as the media said it would be.

>> No.2676845
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2676845

>>2676687
>implying you can't be addicted to cannabis

>> No.2676848

>>2676845
>Implying that it's not a psychological addiction.

>> No.2676882

>>2676848
>implying that isn't the most typical sort

>> No.2676893

lol you can't be addicted to gambling guys it's just a psychological addiction

>> No.2676913

>>2676882
>Implying that I'm implying

>> No.2676933

>>2674637
The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 based on
the teachings of an American author named L. Ron Hubbard.

>> No.2676987

>>2676933
L. Ron Hubbard was also a nutcase.

>> No.2676991
File: 66 KB, 800x600, 1338259086883.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2676991

>>2676987
L ron hubbard was a genius that managed to create a tax evasion system for the rich, by registering it as an un-taxable charity that most people don't want to join. Tom Cruise can donate 70% of his earnings to the church of scientology, who will later make a donation to him. Ultimately taking 10% as opposed to the 50% that the government would.

L run hubbard has managed to make millions of the backs of the rich, while saving them millions in the process. Nutcase?

>> No.2677251

>>2676991
Is that true? *Checks interwebs* Fuck, Scientology had me fooled all this time.

>> No.2677277

>>2676991
tax evasion is one of the benefits and incentives but i doubt it was the purpose. he wouldn't have written all those books about dianetics if that was the case. I was undoubtedly a nutjob, so is tom cruise, but they're nutjobs who have workd the situation to their advantage

>> No.2677295

>>2676987

Nah, just a con man.

>You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard

>> No.2677302

Saying that cannabis generates addiction it's like saying that reading, watching movies or listening to music generates addiction.
And if you believe that, then everything that generates pleasure is addictive.
One does listen an album more than once because it's enjoyable, exactly like smoking pot.
You are just playing dumb.