Book Review: 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' by Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Thompson gained some degree of attention in the media landscape when, in 1967, he published 'Hell's Angels,' a first-person account of his hanging out with (and getting beat up by) the Oakland Hell's Angels motorcycle club. He was able to parlay 'Angels' into articles for mainline publications, such as his January, 1967 piece 'Life Styles: The Cyclist,' for Esquire.
But it was his series of articles titled 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' published in Rolling Stone magazine starting in November of 1971, that turned Thompson into a pop culture icon. Using the pseudonym 'Raoul Duke,' Thompson related a drug-and booze-fueled trip that resonated with the counterculture-affiliated readers of the magazine. Thompson became a pervasive personality, with his writings, and writings about him, occupying considerable space in the public consciousness.
The Las Vegas articles, and the accompanying illustrations by Ralph Steadman, later were compiled into a best-selling book published in 1972. A Warner Books paperback edition was released in December, 1982.
Regarding 'Fear and Loathing,' the story goes that in March 1971, accompanied by Oscar Zeta Acosta (who Thompson refers to as 'my attorney,' in the book), Thompson went to Vegas to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race held just outside Vegas. Thompson's visit was funded by a $300 advance from Sports Illustrated magazine.
Thompson did a cursory appearance at the race (nothing really could be seen of the event, as it's entirely off-road and visually, consists of clouds of dust sprouting in the desert). Sports Illustrated rejected his manuscript, so Thompson and Acosta wound up getting hired by Rolling Stone to return to Vegas in April to cover the National District Attorney's Conference on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
The Mint 400 and District Attorney's events occupy most of the contents of 'Fear and Loathing,' along with what may, or may not be, true accounts of Thompson's confrontations with law enforcement in the Nevada desert. The prose of 'Fear and Loathing' has a rushed, hallucinatory quality intended to impart to the reader the sort of creative paranoia that was Thompson's stock in trade.
It's easy to see why early 70s hipsters took to Thompson. His constant bragging about doing all manner of illicit drugs, his snarky observations of political and social mores, his adoption of an existential, live-wildly-because-you-can-die-at-any-moment ideology, and his relentless promotion of himself as an iconoclast beyond all measure, resonated with the dawning of the 'me' decade. It didn't matter to his fans if some (or almost all) of what happened to Thompson and Acosta in Vegas was fictional or sensationalized, because it was all part of Thompson's carefully composed enfant terrible persona.
As the decade progressed, Thompson would use the formatting of his Las Vegas article to launch an entire franchise of 'Fear and Loathing' pieces for Rolling Stone.
However, Hunter S. Thompson yet retains his iconic status in the popular culture; witness his appearance, as 'Jack Hunter,' as an NPC and 'gonzo journalist' in the 2018 video game Fallout 76 (below) !
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