Thinking of American Dreams

The ending quote from the previous blog entitled "American Dreaming" sparked a lot of "literary" thoughts in my mind, and many along the lines of what we've been introduced to through the world of H.S.T.

"There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning….Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail."

Throughout that era within the 60s, what made H.S.T. stand out then and what has helped “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” maintain relevancy is that idea of energy, which was perhaps the perhaps new sense of energy. He helped infuse into the 60s a sense of radical activity that touched the masses on a personal level rather than by an untouchable celebrity figure. The novel is perhaps the most interesting that I’ve read this semester, or in a couple at least, because not only the eccentric nature of H.S.T. but also through the removal of American ideals from their typical domestic place in New York, until the wild terrain of Las Vegas. Thankfully the book wasn’t as muddled down by eccentric images such as the different exaggerations we saw from film clips and was able to still express the central ideas of a shift from the hipster image and the removal of the American dream from picket fence houses to open terrain and open standards of living.