PunBB

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to paraphrase the al purdy line...

"and moved by the demonstrable effect of great art, and the brotherhood of people in art... i was sad, for i am a sensitive man"




his last column...

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was the last book I read.
I may have to go on a bender tomorrow.

I saw that when I got up this morning. Should be an interesting day in the English department.

-Jenna

That truly is sad.

"Anytime there's a big sporting event, go to either the winning or losing town; there'll be riots in both of time. Riots are fun." (Hunter S. Thompson, advice on 'adventure' in Men's Journal)

"Avoid being seized by the police. The cops are not your friends. Don't tell them anything." (Hunter S. Thompson, advice on 'adventure' in Men's Journal)

"Ether is the perfect drug for Las Vegas. In this town they love a drunk. Fresh meat." (Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)

"Events of the past two years have virtually decreed that I shall wrestle with the literary muse for the rest of my days. And so, having tasted the poverty of one end of the scale, I have no choice but to direct my energies toward the acquisiton of fame and fortune. Frankly, I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me." (Hunter S. Thompson, to Mr. Arch Gerhart, January 29, 1958)

"Get out of control, but appear under control. It's not bad to alarm other people, though - it's good for them." (Hunter S. Thompson, advice on 'adventure' in Men's Journal)

"Gonzo journalism is a style of reporting based on William Faulkner's idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism - and the best journalists have always known this. Which is not to say that fiction is necessarily 'more true' than journalism - or vice versa - but that both 'fiction' and 'journalism' are artificial categories; and that both forms, at their best, are only two different means to the same end." (Hunter S. Thompson)

"Groveling is wrong for the soul, like grappling with whores in a drugstore." (Hunter S. Thompson)

"Have an objective to give your bender a theme. For instance, stalking and killing a wild pig with a bowie knife." (Hunter S. Thompson, advice on 'adventure' in Men's Journal)

"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." (Hunter S. Thompson)

"I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me." (Hunter S. Thompson)

"I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it's a bit like fucking, which is only fun for amateurs. Old whores don't do much giggling." (Hunter S. Thompson, on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)

"In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity." (Hunter S. Thompson)

"Register at a hotel under a pseudonym, and then rent two convertibles - a Porsche and a green Cadillac - so you can switch cars when things start to go bad. Be sure to launch one of these cars off a steep hill." (Hunter S. Thompson, advice on 'adventure' in Men's Journal)

"Some may never live, but the crazy never die." (Hunter S. Thompson)

"Stay naked as much as possible, but do not impose your orgiastic will on others. Don't have sex in the lobby - it's usually awkward." (Hunter S. Thompson, advice on 'adventure' in Men's Journal)

"The Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing on Saturday night if the Nazis has won the war. This is the Sixth Reich." (Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)

"The city's frightening now. That's the basis of my reaction to Las Vegas. It's not the city I wrote about. It's not the same place at all. You'll notice that even the - what do you call them? - milestone or trademark casinos are now gone." (Hunter S. Thompson, on "modern" Las Vegas, when compared to the Las Vegas of the early 1970's)

"The Edge...There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." (Hunter S. Thompson, Hells Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga)

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." (Hunter S. Thompson)

"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world - bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are whores for power and oil with hate and fear in our hearts." (Hunter S. Thompson, on America)

Rex Murphy's obit on CBC was good. Check it out at http://http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/20...50221.html, video link on the right.

Normally, Murphy is a pretentious snot whose delivery is improved by the mute button, but he did a good job on this.

Since he lived in CO, the Rocky Mountain News is providing waaaaaaaay to much coverage about this (much like all the Ward Churchill crap).

Anyway, Thompson's son and daughter-in-law are quoted as saying this was a "courageous" act, and the RMN even mentioned "heroic."

Huh!? He friggin' killed himself! Why is that "courageous" or "heroic"?? Isn't that selfish? His family is left with a hole and his grandson won't really get to know him. That sucks. I think this was just a person afraid of growing old and being forgotten by the masses.

This "Courage" must be an imposter. I don't think it's the same one that is always late.

My opinion. Feel free to disagee (flaming optional).

Why is the suicidal death of this drug abusing hack journalist receiving so much attention, while I hear nothing of Arthur Miller's death last week? Truly one of the major literary figures of the 20th Century.

chicagoblackhawks77 Wrote:Why is the suicidal death of this drug abusing hack journalist receiving so much attention, while I hear nothing of Arthur Miller's death last week? Truly one of the major literary figures of the 20th Century.

i agree on the Arthur Miller comment, but this board seems to have more of a "gonzo" theme than an "established playwright" theme. However, in honour of the late Mr. Miller, i'll also give him the Al Purdy line:

Quote:"and moved by the demonstrable effect of great art, and the brotherhood of people in art... i was sad, for i am a sensitive man"

why does this "drug abusing hack journalist" receive so much attention in passing as compared to Arthur Miller? I would say it is not so much for his body of work, but for

(1) how he helped shift the idea of journalism and reporting on the world and one's culture towards the subjective, which is really a fundamental part of the whole blogging phenomenon of late. And for that matter, whether drugs are part of one's subjective view in expressing opinions (as was the case for HST), it is only relevant insofar as he was expressing these views through the lens of his culture (or counterculture, if you will)

(2) the loss of what could've been a valuable voice in today's cultural climate of what looks like a return to the Vietnam and Nixon era of American culture (i.e .the Republican phenomenon of late). Whether Thompson's voice was actually still providing new insights to his previous work or whether he had just become a caricature of his past is up for debate, but the fact is that he still had a presence in contemporary culture (thanks, most recently, to Johnny Depp).

This is not to say that Miller couldn't have continued to have a valuable voice in today's "state of the nation", given his experiences with both McCarthyism and celebrity marriage, but his social and political commentary though his plays come through much less directly than Thompson's antagonistic gonzo journalist voice. Yet, maybe this indirectness will provide longevity to Miller's work, while Thompson will continue to have all those great soundbites that go over so well in today's media land.

Whether by self-inflicted or by natural causes, the fact is that the voices of both Hunter Thompson and Arthur Miller are now officially "history". Whatever that means...


[see followup post]

-Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Lothing in Las Vegas, 1972

Quote:
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 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 and at the time - and never explain, in retrospect, what really 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 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour, wearing L.L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherders'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 and as I was.

No doubt about that.

Continued...

Quote: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 some 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.

chicagoblackhawks77 Wrote:Why is the suicidal death of this drug abusing hack journalist receiving so much attention, while I hear nothing of Arthur Miller's death last week? Truly one of the major literary figures of the 20th Century.

Because he was a pop-culture icon, which has nothing to do with who's a major literary figure and who isn't.

That same iconic stature is what enables people to write him off as a hack, because it prevents a serious assessment of his work as a writer.