Quote:
Originally Posted by MRM
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.
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i dont really have any commentary on #1. other than the whole "his lawyer" this is basically a joke. at the expense of rich *******s who actually do walk around with lawyers. like thats the joke. thats the gag. thats why its funny.
#2: He hated conservatives, and the folks who call themselves libertarians today. he was an actual libertarian, nothing like 99% of self-claiming libertarians today. hes often quoted as saying the worst human ever was nixon, and said similar things about trump (of course this was pre-trump presidency).
#3: You do understand that its not parody right? nothing in the book is parody. in fact, the drug effects are rather toned down IMO.
#4: His jokes are either aimed at conservatives directly, or liberals who are mainstream enough so as to make distinction between them is pointless. the punchline is always the failure of middle american culture to understand anything besides consumerism, purity, and authority.
#5: conservatives don't believe in personal liberty. thats why all the **** HST does is illegal ... because conservatives don't think you should be able to do it. who do you think made all those drugs illegal? who do you think supports the cops?
finally: HST did a LOT more than drink. dunno what your smoking, but please, pass it over.
fear and loathing is a pretty ****ing brutal commentary on the failure of mainstream american culture (dominated by conservatism) to understand, pretty much anything about anything. thats why my favorite scene is the one i linked. the punchline is cops are terrible, have no understanding of what they are trying to police, don't care that they dont know, and sit smugly there being massive hypocrites while they do far worse things than pot to there spouses. hell, he even makes a straight up joke that cops are inherently violent and to not even suggest violence to them because they will kill someone. like, its brilliant, and funny, but it would be insulting to anyone who espouses middle american values. never mind an actual conservative.
i don't really get how someone who spends there entire life vilifying hippy, drug using, sexually deviant, degenerates, and then turning around and thinking THE poster child for being a hippy, drug using, sexual deviant, degenerate is something great and a great writer, and funny.