017. Fear and Loathing in LAS VEGAS (1971).

Fear and Loathing in LAS VEGAS by Hunter S. Thompson (1971).

        

Drugs create MADNESS.

and

MADNESS creates one of the most extraordinary journalism you’ll ever find in your life.

This incredible book is insanely entertaining.

         

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layers. – Hunter S. Thompson.  What do you get if you mix every possible drug that is known to humans (marihuana, cocaine, LSD, speed, etc.. plus strong liquid as a spice ) with a really brilliant mind?

HUNTER S. THOMPSON!!!

He has been high ever since he finds his first drug in early 20’s.

He only sleeps when he runs out of drugs. Which means once every two, three days?       

 In this book, he seems like totally forget about sleeping. I don’t know how his internal system works, but the fact that he survives till late 60’s ( 67yrs, exactly. Suicide)  with all the abuse he put on his body is a miracle to me.

This is purely my guess, but I think he probably records all his dialogue or whatever comes out of his mouth to tape recorder so that later when he is less-high, he can just transcribe his recording into journalism.

His Hallucination and Paranoia are so unique and insane you either get blown away by them or laugh like crazy like I often do. There is one scene in hotel where he gets attacked by his dead grand mother crawling under his feet with knife in her hand trying to stab him. He kicks her away or thinks he did. Hilarious, just incredibly hilarious.

One more true episode.

When one Hollywood actor accepted a job portraying Thompson for his new film, the studio set up the meeting for both in the one of those fancy out door café. But Thompson never showed up. When finally two hours later he came to the restaurant, he didn’t just walk in. Instead he ran into the place with two stun guns wildly swinging, defending himself against some kind of man eating flying monsters only visible to himself, of course.

The name of the actor is Johnny Depp and the film is “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) ” by Terry “Brazil” Gilliam, another master of high.

Dr. Gonzo.  Thompson’s lawyer. Simply, the best name I’ve ever read on any kinds of books. 

He is apparently a legitimate lawyer with a license and is probably doing well with his business judging by all his vacation and connections and high end drugs. This just tells you how crooked US Justice system is. Druggie lawyer is doing better than most hard working workers.

Being lawyer just doesn’t make any sense cause he is higher than Thompson ALL THE TIM!!!

He often starts his sentence with “ as your lawyer, I advised you to do this, that…blah blah…”. Absolutely insane and hilarious. He is funnier than any of the stand up comedian I’ve ever seen and he doesn’t know it. Drugs. It’s all because of drugs.

In the film, he is portrayed more like a milder version of Thompson, but in here, he is crazier and meaner than Thompson.

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lace. – LAS VEGAS. Where else in the world you can get high 24 hours a day for non-stop week and you won’t be stand out as weirdo? Not to  mention, treated like normal humans by people around you?

VEGAS is a perfect place for their unstoppable MADNESS. 

But after what they have done to the place, I am not sure they could ever go back to VEGAS without getting shot by police or gangs.

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lot. –Some sports publisher with money to burn (remember, this is 70’s), decides to hire Thompson and Dr. Gonzo to cover the MINT 400, the richest off-road race for motorcycles in LAS VEGAS.

So, Thompson and Dr. Gonzo do what normal junkies would do if they suddenly find large sum of cash in their pockets: They max out their credit card to buy a convertible with proper power and fill its huge trunk with every possible, extremely dangerous drug they can find in the street and drive to LAS VEGAS, HIGH!!

In VEGAS, they completely trash the hotel room, order ship load of stuffs they have absolutely no use for the room service, piss off almost everyone they meet and fleet the town within a few days. During those few days, Thompson completely forgets to take a sleep

Because they are always high, their conversation jumps around from topic to topic without coherence, their mood is shifting every minute, making it impossible to take your eyes off of this book.

Even better, Thompson is always suffering from drug-induced paranoia in which he thinks everyone is out there to get him, including alien and mutated bugs, not to mention FBI, CIA, and all the law enforcement departments in L.A., New York and VEGAS.

Why better? Because Thompson is absolutely sure that he is a fugitive from the law (Paranoia), he is in war zone, constantly looking for enemies and fighting off all sorts of creatures only he can see all the time. All the time!! Everywhere he goes!! Pure Entertainment!!

It gets better with every chapter. After running away from VEGAS ( Dr. Gonzo actually flies away from VEGAS by himself before it gets messy ), Dr. Gonzo finds another job for Thompson, sending him right back to VEGAS to cover the four day seminar of, get this, "Drugs and Dangerous Narcotics"  by The National Conference of District Attorney and Prosecutor.

Thompson, who is 24hrs-paranoia of being fugitives, is now surrounded by cops all around him!! For four days! This drives him crazy and that of course drives him to take more drugs and drink excessively and makes a great story much more insane. I love this book.

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erdict. – This book is so incredibly hilarious, you wouldn’t believe what you are actually reading. 

For example, during his first visit to VEGAS for the Mint, he has NOT sleep for four days just because he has enough drugs to keep him awake. Absolutely MAD.

What is truly amazing about Thompson is that even if he is high and wasted all the time, he can still pull out great piece of writing.

This book is TRUE-PAGE-TURNER.

Just because you can never guess what is coming next.

Thanks to everything he takes.

Please, do yourself a favor and buy this book.

This book is one of my treasures and you will love this or at least, 

you will have something to talk about for the rest of your life.