Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

Byrnzie

Whose read it?

Possibly the greatest book of the 20th Century.

I first read it when I was about 15 years old. I've read it about 5 times since then. It's a true classic. And hilarious to boot.

eMMI

The book's been on my To Read-list for ages. :? One of these days I will pick it up.

Having said that, the film is awesome.

Byrnzie

eMMI wrote:

The book's been on my To Read-list for ages. :? One of these days I will pick it up.

Having said that, the film is awesome.

Yeah, Terry Gilliam did a great job. I saw it on it's opening night in London, and there was hardly anyone there. I went again the following night with some friends and we scored some ecstasy from a couple sitting in front of us. Suffice to say, night 2 was much more fun :P

Hitch-Hiker

Brilliant book alright. Absolutely hilarious. it's been a while since I read it so i can't remember it ingreat detail, but I remember enough to recommend it highly. The film is great too.

Byrnzie

'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 100 miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"

Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. "What the hell are you yelling about," he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to drive." I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.

It was almost noon, and we still had more than 100 miles to go. They would be tough miles. Very soon, I knew, we would both be completely twisted. But there was no going back, and no time to rest. We would have to ride it out. Press registration for the fabulous Mint 400 was already under way, and we had to get there by 4 to claim our soundproof suite. A fashionable sporting magazine in New York had taken care of the reservations, along with this huge red Chevy convertible we'd just rented off a lot on the Sunset Strip . . . and I was, after all, a professional journalist; so I had an obligation to cover the story for good or ill.

The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.

All this had been rounded up the night before, in a frenzy of high-speed driving all over Los Angeles County -- from Topanga to Watts, we picked up everything we could get our hands on. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station. We had sampled almost everything else, and now -- yes, it was time for a long snort of ether. And then do the next 100 miles in a horrible, slobbering sort of spastic stupor. The only way to keep alert on ether is to do up a lot of amyls -- not all at once, but steadily, just enough to maintain the focus at 90 miles an hour through Barstow.

"Man, this is the way to travel," said my attorney. He leaned over to turn the volume up on the radio, humming along with the rhythm section and kind of moaning the words: "One toke over the line . . . Sweet Jesus . . . One toke over the line . . ."

One toke? You poor fool! Wait till you see those goddamn bats. I could barely hear the radio . . . slumped over on the far side of the seat, grappling with a tape recorder turned all the way up on "Sympathy for the Devil." That was the only tape we had, so we played it constantly, over and over, as a kind of demented counterpoint to the radio. And also to maintain our rhythm on the road. A constant speed is good for gas mileage -- and for some reason that seemed important at the time. Indeed. On a trip like this, one must be careful about gas consumption. Avoid those quick bursts of acceleration that drag blood to the back of the brain.

My attorney saw the hitchhiker long before I did. "Let's give this boy a lift," he said, and before I could mount any argument he was stopped and this poor Okie kid was running up to the car with a big grin on his face, saying, "Hot damn! I never rode in a convertible before!"

"Is that right?" I said. "Well, I guess you're about ready, eh?"

The kid nodded eagerly as we roared off.

"We're your friends," said my attorney. "We're not like the others."

O Christ, I thought, he's gone around the bend. "No more of that talk," I said sharply. "Or I'll put the leeches on you." He grinned, seeming to understand. Luckily, the noise in the car was so awful -- between the wind and the radio and the tape machine -- that the kid in the back seat couldn't hear a word we were saying. Or could he?

How long can we maintain? I wondered. How long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family. Will he make that grim connection when my attorney starts screaming about bats and huge manta rays coming down on the car? If so -- well, we'll just have to cut his head off and bury him somewhere. Because it goes without saying that we can't turn him loose. He'll report us at once to some kind of outback Nazi law-enforcement agency, and they'll run us down like dogs.

Jesus! Did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me? I glanced over at my attorney, but he seemed oblivious -- watching the road, driving our Great Red Shark along at 110 or so. There was no sound from the back seat.

Maybe I'd better have a chat with this boy, I thought. Perhaps if I explain things, he'll rest easy. . .

PearlOfAGirl

I've never read the book, but I've seen the movie a bunch of times... :thumbup: Johnny Depp does is phenomenal playing Hunter Thompson...

http://www.slashcontrol.com/free-tv-sho ... itch-hiker

There are more clips below this one on that screen....

Byrnzie

You people who've seen the movie need to read the Goddamned book!

You owe it to yourselves as Americans!

eMMI

Byrnzie wrote:

eMMI wrote:

The book's been on my To Read-list for ages. :? One of these days I will pick it up.

Having said that, the film is awesome.

Yeah, Terry Gilliam did a great job. I saw it on it's opening night in London, and there was hardly anyone there. I went again the following night with some friends and we scored some ecstasy from a couple sitting in front of us. Suffice to say, night 2 was much more fun :P

Fancy. :P

Yeah, I love Terry Gilliam. I also love Johnny Depp, so what could go wrong?

PearlOfAGirl

Byrnzie wrote:

You people who've seen the movie need to read the Goddamned book!

You owe it to yourselves as Americans!

I know :oops: :oops:

Byrnzie

Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .

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.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. 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.

ZiggyStar

I bought this when I first started going out with my bf....around 1999 or 2000....I had to order it in from the States....waiting weeks for it....one of our friends 'borrowed' it while I finished the book I had already started....and then he never returned it....and I still haven't read it.

That's it! I'm going to buy it again tomorrow....or at least get it from the library if I can't find it.

ZiggyStar

Byrnzie wrote:

I went again the following night with some friends and we scored some ecstasy from a couple sitting in front of us. Suffice to say, night 2 was much more fun :P

Fuck yeah! How much fun would that be!! I've seen it twice...but just stoned.

I'd love to have some acid and see the new Alice in Wonderland 3D! Haven't done it in a couple of years....but fuck that would be worth dabbling in again just for that movie!!

theserialthrilla

i saw the film first...loved it .


then read the book....woow better ..i must re read it .

Cliffy6745

Actually just ordered the book and got it the other day, have been planning on reading it for years and am finally going to after I finish what I am currently reading. Have seen the movie a bunch of times.

Have you read his other books as well?

Byrnzie

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Have you read his other books as well?

Yeah. All of 'em.

The first thing I read was 'The Great Shark Hunt'. I bought it at Heathrow airport before my first trip to the U.S in 1984. I was 14. Never looked back.

Cliffy6745

Byrnzie wrote:

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Have you read his other books as well?

Yeah. All of 'em.

The first thing I read was 'The Great Shark Hunt'. I bought it at Heathrow airport before my first trip to the U.S in 1984. I was 14. Never looked back.

Thats awesome. I have heard nothinng but great things for a long time. I also just got THe Run Diary and Hells Angels. Planning on reading Fear and Loathing first though.

Byrnzie

These are also worth a listen:

http://www.thetripwire.com/reviews/2008 ... nzo-tapes/
The Gonzo Tapes, a five disc set of Thompson’s personal recordings, shines a bit of light into the depraved darkness. Spanning the Hells Angels years through Vegas and ending with Hunter’s time in the last days of Saigon, this set is a necessity for any diehard Thompson fan. From a literary standpoint, the recordings are a priceless record of Thompson’s development as a writer.

Disc One opens with a whisper: “It is July 4th weekend and I am on the Bass Lake Run with The Hells Angels. I’m recording in my car for fear that someone will freak out and smash the machine.” Thompson’s comments about Ralph “Sonny” Barger, founder of the Oakland Chapter of The Angels, show a deep respect for the man. “He is an amazing type. A natural leader; he gives no quarter and expects none in return.”

All of the first disc is dedicated to the Angels. There are interviews (Terry the Tramp talks about his rape charge in Monterey as Joan Baez blasts in the background) and dispelling the myth of the Hells Angels as a marauding, Viking war party tearing through the countryside on iron horses, plundering and taking the women of every town they encounter. He reveals the publicity loving, capitalist, conformist wannabe stars that they really were.

From there, the ride gets wild and random...'


Torrent: http://btjunkie.org/torrent/The-Gonzo-T ... 3a3e0ed3ee

Jo

Never read the book, but the movie was spellbinding.

A heap of us are doing a trip to Vegas from Australia, to cellebrate our 40th next year. We are calling our trip 'Fear and Loathing' in honour of the good old days. We have all agreed that what goes to Vegas, stays in Vegas. And that sounds like an awesome, once in a lifetime happening........

But you know what? They'll be going without me if I can get to spend all my money getting to the Pearl Jam 20th Anniversary THIS YEAR!

I'd rather cellebrate PJ than turning friggin 40. :?

helplessdancer

i bought the book back in the early 1980's. read it and laughed real hard. then lost the book somehow and bought it again years later. still laughed real hard. best 1st chapter ever. i bought the 25th year edition hard cover too.

love ralph steadman too

johnny depp did a killer hunter


love curse of lono as well...glad i held onto that book cause it's worth over $150 now :shock:

Byrnzie

shiningstar wrote:

i bought the book back in the early 1980's. read it and laughed real hard. then lost the book somehow and bought it again years later. still laughed real hard. best 1st chapter ever. i bought the 25th year edition hard cover too.

love ralph steadman too

johnny depp did a killer hunter


love curse of lono as well...glad i held onto that book cause it's worth over $150 now :shock:

I had a copy of 'The Curse of Lono' but lost it. I think I lent it to someone and never got it back. :x

sarah.p

Great book, read it a couple of times. Just started Hell's Angels.

I've read The Rum Diary and Kingdom of fear too, not sure what i'll read next.

Byrnzie

SP250509 wrote:

Great book, read it a couple of times. Just started Hell's Angels.

I've read The Rum Diary and Kingdom of fear too, not sure what i'll read next.

'Generation of Swine' is a good one.


Also, have you read 'The Dice Man' by Luke Rhinehardt?

sarah.p

Byrnzie wrote:

SP250509 wrote:

Great book, read it a couple of times. Just started Hell's Angels.

I've read The Rum Diary and Kingdom of fear too, not sure what i'll read next.

'Generation of Swine' is a good one.


Also, have you read 'The Dice Man' by Luke Rhinehardt?

No I haven't read 'The Dice Man', I'll give it a go. And 'Generation of Swine'.

Thanks

Newch91

Read it in 2007 the summer before my junior year of high school. Blew my mind out of the water! I watched the movie a few months after reading it. Loved that too.

I've read The Rum Diary four times, love that book. I've also read Hell's Angels and The Curse of Lono. My cousin gave me Lono for Christmas a few years ago and he said he had to track that one down. Lono was awesome. I'm going to be reading The Proud Highway once I get the 800 page Lennon biography done.

HST FOREVER!

marcos

I absolutely loved the book but have yet to be able to get through the movie. I'm sure the movie is good but I probably did not have the proper refreshments for viewing.

peacegirl

Hitch-Hiker wrote:

Brilliant book alright. Absolutely hilarious. it's been a while since I read it so i can't remember it ingreat detail, but I remember enough to recommend it highly. The film is great too.

same here...I read it around the time the movie came out so it's been about 10years ago. I liked the book but oddly enough I never watched the movie until a few years ago

samjam

Funny this was mentioned---this book was on the list of a bunch of books I have to choose from for a project in my Contemporary American Society class (im a senior in high school)
I'm fascinated by the '60s and it looks like a crazy, interesting read.

Another book I was thinking of choosing is 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert Pirsig-- has anyone read that one? Thoughts?

Cliffy6745

samjam wrote:

Funny this was mentioned---this book was on the list of a bunch of books I have to choose from for a project in my Contemporary American Society class (im a senior in high school)
I'm fascinated by the '60s and it looks like a crazy, interesting read.

Another book I was thinking of choosing is 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert Pirsig-- has anyone read that one? Thoughts?

Go with Fear and Loathing, Zen and the Art of Motorcylcye Maintenance is a requirement for a whole lot of college courses. I read in college and definitely want to re read it.

81

good book...didn't particurly care for the movie

rhcpjam1029

i've been meaning to read it for some time now. i saw the movie and was not impressed at all.

but i read the rum diary and loved it so i'll probably be picking up some more of dr. thompson's books soon.

CantKeepMeHere

I adore Dr. Gonzo

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Read the book a bunch of times but if you really want a whirl wind read the Great Shark Hunt or any of the other "compilation" books. They are all killer.
He reminds me alot of Eddie Vedder in the fact they both have this overwhelming sense of humor and whit that can cut you like a knife and while you come to them for music or literature you always leave with something else and it is always more than you expected no matter the level of your expectations.