Anyone read 'fear and loathing in Las vegas' by HS Thompson

[Zuni]

I actually read the book last weekend while i was on vacation in the mountains. It is a lot like the flick. I loved it. I have another Thompson book of essays and stories that i just started. He is...interesting.

[Richardo]

1. long long time ago - I remember liking it a lot, but not much else...

Except the Samoan lawyer starting every sentence with "As your attorney,..."

[Zuni]

6. As your attorney

I advise you to eat some of that blotter acid....
stuff is too funny

[Richardo]

10. That's it!

:D

[arcane1]

2. interesting indeed

Loved the book, and Depp was awesome in the flick, as usual

[donotpassgo]

3. one of my favorites.

The FLICK is a lot like the book.

[Zuni]

9. we're gonna need golf shoes in this muck

how much for the ape?
too weird man. The sad thing is that I understand what he was talking about.

[Gman]

4. Read Thompson's stuff on ESPN Page 2

"I have never had much faith in our embattled child President's decision-making powers. He comes from a long line of Losers ... I know that is not what you want to hear/read at this time, especially if you happen to be serving in the doomsday mess that is currently the U.S. Army.


I take no pleasure in being Right in my dark predictions about the fate of our military intervention in the heart of the Muslim world. It is immensely depressing to me. Nobody likes to be betting against the Home team, no matter how hopeless they are.


I have done that, from time to time, and it never fails to leave me feeling guilty and confused, even if I win. Winning is vitally important in the gambling business, but it is better not to publicize your most shameful and predatory bets. How many red-blooded Americans really want to go down in history as having voted for George Bush and Military disaster in 2000? (My emphasis)


Not me, bubba -- but I feel the pain, anyway. Any failure of this magnitude is a shared experience, like it or not. Not every passenger on the good ship Titanic voted to hit that iceberg. Of course not; it was the Captain's decision -- and the Captain went down with it, just like his father."

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/031014.html

[Zuni]

8. he is a sports/politics addict

a major civil libertarian and a solid democrat.
He loves shooting guns and watching sports.

[Gman]

18. Not just shooting guns, but...

shooting GUNS! The biggest, loudest, most "blow a big hole in it" type guns!

gotta respect that.

[dolo amber]

5. "As your attorney,

I advise you to buy a motorcycle." ;)

7. 72

If you really want to have some fun, read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Thompson was all over Nixon's corruption before a lot of other folk caught on.

[Kat45]

11. We all passed the book around when I was in college in the 70s

Since we were also passing joints around all the time back then, we really loved that book!

Edited to add: And I agree with 56kid's comment about his "...Campaign Trail" book. I would have loved to have seen that assigned in my political science classes.

[RandomKoolzip]

12. Hell, yes, back in high school, that book was my bible...

I must have read it about 50 times....I love HST. If you like that book, there's a few wonderful pieces in "The Great Shark Hunt", like "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved," which compare favorably to "Fear and Loathing..."

[davsand]

13. I love that book!

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "'I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive. . . .'" And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "'Holy Jesus! What are thse goddamn animals?'"

- the opening paragraph of:
"Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson

From the very beginning I was hooked. I enjoy Hunter S Thompson whenver I can lay hands on his stuff, and I can't imagine NOT liking him if you have even a trace of a sense of humor.

There is a cool webiste that has a lot of info on Thompson, as well as a lot of odd facts and photos: http://www.gonzo.org/books/fl/

Well worth looking at if you are even remotely close to being a fan of the book!

Laura

[Droopy]

14. I liked the movie, but I haven't read the book

[slackmaster]

15. Ether is the perfect drug for Las Vegas

Every time I go to LV I make a pilgrimmage to the rotating bar in the Circus Circus to contemplate the scene where the "Samoan" attorney (actually Mexican Oscar Z. Acosta in real life) asked the waitress "How much do they pay you to screw that bear?"

[bif]

16. Read it when it first came out

many years ago. Very entertaining--Thompson is a nut, that's for sure.

[WilliamPitt]

17. Oh man

Read 'Hells Angels,' and then 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail,' and then 'Generation of Swine,' and then 'The Great Shark Hunt,' and then 'Better than Sex,' and then 'Screwjack.'

That's a good start.

[Zuni]

21. My brother has Generation of Swine

I am gonna borrow it. I would love to read about him living with the Hells Angels---that has gotta be really wild.
There is a newer book, it came out in 2002---it has a picture of him naked on the back shooting a rifle and him smoking a ciggarette infront of a no-smoking sign on the front---I checked that out from the library and I have it at home---I am getting ready to start in on that.

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. If you like HST, there's a comic book you oughta check out.

Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis. The main character is, essentially, Hunter in the 23rd century. With tattoos. And a two-headed cat. And a weapon called a "bowel disruptor", which he uses on the President at one point.

Oh, and try and see if you can find Thompson's obituary for Richard Nixon, too. It's a classic. Probably on the Web somewhere...title is "The Death of Richard Nixon", if I remember correctly.

[Bridget Burke]

20. Ask & ye shall receive

"Richard Nixon is gone now, and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing -- a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that 'I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon.'

"I have had my own bloody relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together."

www.theatlantic.com/unbound/graffiti/crook.htm

I read "Fear & Loathing" when it appeared in Rolling Stone. Probably ought to buy copy. Most of his other stuff is highly (heh heh--she said "highly") recommended. The film is, of course, excellent.

[5thGenDemocrat]

22. Oh, yeah -- several times

My mom (b 1930), of all people, turned me on to it.
John
I have two or three paperback copies of it upstairs.

[mitchum]

23. Next read his "Hell's Angels" It's even better!

That and Capote's "In Cold Blood" are the two finest full-length examples of literary non-fiction.