[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 31 KB, 400x400, hunter-thompson-3.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3892948 No.3892948 [Reply] [Original]

So i've started Fear and Loathing on the Campaign trail, and I don't want to sound like an ignorant asshole, but Hunter S. Thompson is ACTUALLY a very good writer. I love his style, his frantic, disjointed pacing, his imagery is weird and twisted (which is to be expected for someone who love psys as much as he did) but he seems to have such a firm, vice-like grip on reality for some drug-crazed outsider. Which he wasn't, but, as I said, I was ignorant.

Did/does anyone else find this surprising?

>> No.3892963

It's not bad. He deserves acclaim.

>> No.3892982

Agreed. He just has a shitty fanbase b/c drugs.
>DAE bat country here lol?!

>> No.3892986

mfw

he is my hero and Im even smoke pot

>> No.3893047

I like his style, but I've only read Fear and Loathing. Anything else he wrote worth checking out?

>> No.3893063

>>3893047
I liked the Rum Diaries. Sue me. It's not a masterpiece but there are far worse things I've devoured in a few trips to a bookstore than that.

OP isn't referencing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but rather a collection of pieces that appeared in mostly Rolling Stone in the '70s about Tricky Dick's reelection campaign. If you like his style, you'll enjoy them. If you don't know much about Nixon, American politics and history, etc., you'll probably take a lot less out of it though.

>> No.3893072

>>3893047
Hells Angels

>> No.3893112

>>3893047
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is also really good.

>> No.3893115

He wrote this absurdly prescient piece right after 9/11. It's really good.
http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1250751

>> No.3893136

Kingdom of Fear is decent.

>> No.3893174

Thompson was a damn good writer. He's only ever frowned upon on /lit/ because most of his fans have only seen the film of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and totally failed to comprehend anything beyond "le uppers, downers, screamers, laughers!"

>> No.3893236

>>3893174
OP here, I agree, and its actually (sadly) the reason I never read any of his work, because I assumed that it must just be pleb-tier drug ramblings that inane teenagers ate up because YOLO smoking pot is KEWL MAN.

It sounds stupid but there was that one speech in the film with Depp, when I watched it a second time, that was so well written I just KNEW it had to be directly copied from the book and it gave me this... THIRST for more Thompson.

I bought all of his stuff, and I am now binging on it- which is rather fitting to how it was written. I have finished Fear and loathing in Vegas in about 4 hours and Im midway through Fear and Loathing on the Campaign trail, and for some reason I feel like i've never heard a more sane american speak, even though he's such a misfit.

>> No.3893249

>>3893236
You're talking about the wave speech I assume. I had the same misconception about Kerouac when my friends told me about On The Road, but then I realized it was about Kerouac's struggle to fit in, not his yolo 420 adventure. Both are now a classic and both I pick up frequently to read.

>> No.3893264

>>3893249
of course

>> No.3893307

>>3893063
> If you don't know much about Nixon, American politics and history, etc., you'll probably take a lot less out of it though.
I can confirm this. I went in with a decent (for a European) knowledge of the aforementioned but it was still a pain when Thompson made a casual reference to some political event or politician. I ended up dropping the book because I didn't have the time to do the additional research.

>>3893072
Seconded. Great stuff.

>> No.3893314

>>3893236
Get drunk and rewatch the film soon. It'll have a more coherent narrative if you've read the book, and will be even funnier.
>>3893115
He did a similar radio interview after 9/11 that's on YouTube now. I think he elaborates the thoughts of that article.

>> No.3893338

>>3893115

Brilliant.

>> No.3893456

I admire his style a lot- and I don't do any drugs. I watched the movie Fear and Loathing and there was one monologue that's lifted from the book, I think it was him writing on a typewriter remembering something then bam, holy shit here I am.

>> No.3893525

He was an excellent stylist. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

>> No.3893990

>>3893063
I liked The Rum Diary too. It's interesting and full of alcohol, and there's nothing wrong with that.

>> No.3893992

>>3893314
I disagree. I watched fear and loathing on mescaline and it was the craziest funniest movie ever.

That movie was meant to be watched while on mescaline/LSD

>> No.3894003

Thompson is one of my literary heroes. I wish he were still around, we could certainly use someone like him who could cut through all the bullshit rhetoric.

>> No.3894263

>>3893992
Mescaline and LSD were some of the most-used drugs in F&L. The cinematography evokes Duke and Gonzo's experience of whatever drug was influencing them in each scene, and so F&L would definitely be better and funnier on mescaline and LSD. Alcohol just intensifies the slapstick.

I senvy your acquisition of both drugs because of '''''my situation''''.

>> No.3896464
File: 45 KB, 300x459, the-great-shark-hunt.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3896464

The Great Shark Hunt is my favorite. One of my favorite articles in it is calledThe "Hashbury" Is the Capital of the Hippies
http://en.convdocs.org/docs/index-6303.html?page=39


"from the Gray Line, which recently added "Hippieland" to its daytime sightseeing tour of San Francisco. It was billed as "the only foreign tour within the continental limits of the United States" and was an immediate hit with tourists who thought the Haight-Ashbury was a human zoo. The only sour note on the tour was struck by the occasional hippy who would run alongside the bus, holding up a mirror"

>> No.3896514
File: 45 KB, 460x337, 1018053_460s.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3896514

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a must, but would also say The Rum Diary and Kingdom of Fear.
That would be a good starting point in my eyes.

The kitchen readings is about him, filled with lots of fun and crazy stories from his life.

>> No.3896540

>>3896464
Most definitely. I think Thompson's at his strongest when he's got his journalist's hat on.

>> No.3896564
File: 15 KB, 300x400, cowboy89.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3896564

Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

this one

>> No.3896592

>>3896540
Sadly there isn't that much, I mean there is but I've read it all.

>> No.3896612

>>3896564
his best work to be honest,great prose style and journalism.

>> No.3897350

>>3892948
I did at first, but he is a good writer.

>> No.3897806
File: 2.39 MB, 1237x921, HST collection.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3897806

Hunter S. Thompson? Never heard of him.

>> No.3897881

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is one of my favorite books. I think it's a shame that his legacy as a writer gets tainted by his fanbase and the mediocre films made of his work.

>> No.3897898

>>3897806
None of those books have been read.

>> No.3897912

>>3897806
The cases of those movies aren't even ripped wtf did you even watch???

>> No.3897921

>>3897898

I'm not that guy but when I have author i particularly like I will look for a used and new version, one for the shelf and one to carry/knock around.

>> No.3898536

>>3897921
... you are whats wrong with this board... you have a shelf full of unread books? Just for...what? Showing off, beautifully?

>> No.3898543

>>3898536
Dude that's kind of weird. I can understand having a book that you don't mind tossing into your back pack and taking camping or something and then one for your desk, but keeping one just to sit on your book shelf is a little weird

>> No.3898548

>>3898536
it's to demonstrate to the other books the loveless and barren fate that could await them if they're not any good. personally i do it to all my russian editions after 1930. this system has yet to fail me.

>> No.3898549

>>3898543
Ooops, meant to quote >>3897921 not >>3898536