Some final thoughts on Hunter S. Thompson

Note: Before we move on to Spalding & Annie, I thought it time I chimed in on Fear & Loathing. As I was reviewing the posts of my peers, I noticed that we all have a lot of the same things on our minds, which gave me cause for both revelation and apology. While thinking about the American Dream as I read F&L, I dog-eared many of the same pages to which several of my illustrious classmates have already referred. I realized that I need to get on top of this blogging so my posts aren't redundant, and consequently I apologize if this one seems to be.

Prior to writing about F&L, I need to state the obvious and mention how the American Dream's ultimate manifestation can have very different definitions for people from diverse backgrounds and with varying ideologies. We can talk about stereotyped white-picket fences and 2.5 children, but the immigrant, the kid from the projects or the suburbs, the born rich, and myriad others likely all want something different. Nevertheless, I think we can at least crystallize the overreaching sense of the AD to a sense of security. Whatever that security means to whomever it means. Thus, it is fascinating that Hunter S. Thompson should attempt to locate the AD in Las Vegas where nothing is certain except chance.

Although he subjects other notions of the AD to more overt scrutiny near the end of the book, I think that HST gives us his own personal take most clearly in the third chapter of Part One. As he first contemplates the kick of drag racing along the Strip—before they've even arrived in Vegas—he states that “old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars.” Then, after a full line-break, he continues: “But our trip was different. It was a classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character. It was a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country—but only for those with true grit. And we were chock full of that” (18). (Aside: In my opinion the most laugh-out-loud funny part of the book is when he finally does drag race along the Strip in Part Two, Chapter 8 as his attorney hangs out the window shouting obscenities at the “two hoggish looking couples.”)

Clearly, HST doesn't identify with the old version of the AD, yet he recognizes the tremendous significance of the possible in forming any conception of an AD. Furthermore, he concedes that you've got to have a big set of balls to make it happen here. Indeed he and his attorney do. So I think, that in a sense, his drug-fueled escapades and ripping of norms are his way of living his own idea of the AD: to be free, which essentially it what's “right and true and decent in [our] national character.” HST just had a unique way of going about it. It's his right to f- things up, get into outrageous circumstances, and provide biting commentary on those people who don't even consider the possibilities of the possible because that's what he does. And he does it well. And he's productive. Well, at least he was. This particular time was just right for someone like HST to come along and shred old perceptions, to highlight various notions of how Americans conceive of the American Dream and then sh*t on them. He was able to do this on the campaign trail in the Seventies as well, but as time progressed and society changed, the HST brand didn't seem to fit so well anymore. Nevertheless, as we said in class, that brand had become so indelible that HST couldn't do much else. And well, we know how that ended.

Lastly, I also wanted to note that I do agree with Luis and those classmates who pointed out how HST did bemoan the failure of the Sixties counter-culture despite their destiny to fail. It's clear in the “high water mark” passage quoted in Gonzo and when he notes “that downers came in with Nixon” (202). Moreover, it's brutally realized at the end of Part Two, Chapter Nine (the transcripted section) when upon finally locating the old Psychiatrist's Club, which might or might not have been the AD, HST remarks, “The owner of a gas station across the road said the place had 'burned down about three years ago'” (168), which would have been in 1968.