Quote:
Originally Posted by cockerpunk
i mean, i have a hard time separating an obviously political thing from its obvious politics. yup.
so you can just seperate off all the politics and just be entertained by it? how does that work? did you watch the clip i posted? all the jokes (presumably the entertaining parts) are about how mainstream white america doesn't understand anything, and can't understand anything, and still feels hypocritically superior in its judgement. thats the joke. it also has a side of making fun of cops, so thats great for the back the blue types, mocking cops is kinda a running gag throughout the entire book/movie really.
what is funny/entertaining about the above posted cut from fear and loathing for a conservative?
|
There are several things for a conservative to appreciate in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The first and foremost of which is, the absolutely crystal clear sanity of taking your personal attorney with you at all times and following his legal opinions as all manner of shenanigans occur. To paraphrase Dr. Gonzo, as your attorney, I highly recommend you to take your attorney with you and follow his advice whenever you decide to make a public spectacle of yourself. If for no other reason than it will be fun for your lawyer to ride along, and your lawyer's entertainment is paramount.
Second, HST was a libertarian. Libertarians and conservatives are close cousins, although there are lines which we (and Walter Lebowski) do not cross.
Third, the stories in Fear and Loathing are all outrageous to the point of parody, but no one is ever really hurt. Hunter does all kinds of crazy stunts, all of which are hilarious from his (and the reader's) point of view, but no real person gets physically injured. A lot of property gets destroyed, but only in a way that it's cheap and easy to replace, and nothing happens that can't get cleaned up with a bit of money, an apology, and a quick coat of paint.
Fourth, he's funny. Politics aside, HST is pure comedy gold. If you can't laugh at humor when humor is funny, you're wound too tight.
Fifth, HST was an individualist. Conservatives believe in personal freedom and liberty as the cornerstone to our political beliefs. No one was more into personal liberty and freedom than HST.
And finally, it's the language, dude. Robert Penn Warren perfected long form stream of consciousness prose in All the King's Men, but HST took that to the (il)logical extreme and then put an exclamation mark on it.
“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five 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... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. 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.”
Robert Penn Warren can only dream of prose like that.
Oh, and by the way, HST's ramblings are made all the more palatable with the knowledge that he's writing a cartoon, like Tarantino filming gore, and that HST actually consumed nothing more potent than untold cases of Wild Turkey as he was refining his drafts over years' of hard labor. The drugs and antisocial behavior were a metaphor, not an aspiration.
But late at night, we can all dream of what could be if we took to the freeway at 3 am in a rented Chevy convertible, loaded down with illicit substances, accompanied by a truth-speaking Samoan lawyer as we race toward our date with infamy. . .
I suspect that upon successful completion of our odyssey we would be met by a mythical figure who bears a striking resemblance to . . . TAB's.
Tab's relationship to HST, Vegas, and Garry Trudeau have never been fully explained. As it should be. Some mysteries should remain mysterious.