Debate on Hunter S. Thompson

Not necessarily. Most authors have two characters, thier character as an author (in Hunter's case it would be Dr. Gonzo), and thier character in real life, being the person himself. Hunter may write wonderful things, but does he directly transfer them onto other people through his actions and words... no, he does not. Most people have an ideal of Hunter in their heads, in reality... he is just human. Ofcourse his writing is a part of him, but it is not the part that comes out in everyday life.

 

"just human"

no one is "just human".

I mean, really, nothing is "just" anything.

 

Well, Hunter was human enough to kill himself. He wouldn't consider him anything other than human, nor as a literate genius. He was an old fool, but that's why I admire him.

 

Yet everyone is just human. Let us not get relative on this.

I agree with L.A., Hunter was an old fool who knew how to have fun.

 

Someone told me once that his death was a cause of a conspiracy...Some people just arn't willing to accept an old man's last resort to end his life in a good way, rather than some pitiful man on his death bed.

 

dressing like bukowski might get you arrested...remember HST started out as, um, a sportswriter of sorts when he wrote for that puerto rican bowling magazine...as far as FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS goes, i'm always amazed at how young people think that the book is some kind of advocacy for getting wasted. the crux of the book is essentially that the counterculture FUCKED UP royally...they had all the power at their fingertips (remember "be clean for gene" in 1968?) but blew it, thanks in part to the streets being flooded with narcotics...try reading some of his earlier work, as collected in THE GREAT SHARK HUNT, for instance, and see his writing and insight at its prime (especially the piece he wrote in the early '60s as he traced the footsteps of Hemmingway trying to make sense of his SUICIDE BY FIREARM).
Incidentally, i met the man in boulder in august of '87 at a lecture at UC...he showed up 3 hours late and took the podium with his "notes"- a bottle of chivas, a bucket of ice, and a glass...he was, at the time, facing charges in denver for discharging a firearm within city limits. he apparently was dogging ed bradley from 60 minutes on a golf course and attempting to shoot his tee shots out of the sky with a 12-guage. he wouldn't comment on the proceedings (under advice of his attorney, of course, who i believe was a co-conspirator) except to say that a shotgun makes a louse putter...he then went on to talk about doing acid with the oakland raiders and some stunt that bill murray pulled in his swimming pool. he HATED "where the buffalo roam" and hated gary trudeau with a fucking passion. didn't like the "uncle duke" portrayal in Doonesbury...wow! i remember a lot 19 years later, considering i myself sat in the fourth row with nothing but a bottle of mescal...and threw up in the aisle at one point- AND NOBODY SAID A THING!!!

 

i think the alter ego might have been lazlo the attorney..."god's own prototype," the id of HST run amok...

 

I don't care what anyone says Fear and Loathing is still my favorite book he wrote followed by Generation of Swine. I don't know how much is truth or fiction but his writing is always a wild ride. I really love his encounter with the wanted man in the library bathroom in GoS. It made me laugh so hard I thought I'd soil myself.

 

I'm one of those kids ur talking about that has only read Fear and Loathing. i dont think of him as a drug writer though. I would love to get ahold of his other books but have yet to do so out of pure laziness. I probably wouldnt have known there was a Fear and Loathing book if not for the movie but I'm glad because otherwise i wouldnt have been introduced to his work. I dont think of him as a drug writer or any kind of writer. there are so many different catergories of books that he wrote. I wish i could have me the man. He did go out with quite a boom with that cannon though.

 

Yea, I wouldn't know of HST If it weren't for the Fear and Loathing Movie. I've seen the movie quite a few times before I decided it was one of my favorite movies. I didn'e really 'get it' till I watched all of the extras and behind the scene shit that was on my DVD. I haven't read the book yet, and I won't till I read a few of his other works. I just ordered "songs of the doomed." Hopefuly I picked a good one to start off with. If not, oh well. I'll just eat some shrooms and then read it.

 

Songs of the Doomed is a good book to start with. The political stuff is a little out dated, but the journal-like entries are a riot.

 

yea I'm about 120 some odd pages into it and it seems pretty awesome. Though its hard for me to decide when he's talking about himself or someone else. I take it that its a compilation of many of his books?

 

ummm nope sorry. the attorney is oscar acosta. and hes not samoan in case you were wondering, hes a chicano.

 

I read the book before I saw the movie and it only made the movie better for me. Johnny Depp played his part amazingly, pulling off scarily real impressions of the effect of certain drugs. Mind you, he was/is a drug user himself.
Hunter S. Thompson is a legend. I've read 3 of his writings and each left me enthralled.

 

It's mostly his daily writings and occasionaly an article.

 

Well a lot of it so far has been about a journalist named Something Kemp, it kind of sounds like its him though. Who's this Kemp charactor?

 

His name is Paul Kemp. They're hopefully making a film about the book he's in called "The Rum Diary". Depp obviously stars, but at the moment it's looking bleak..

 

Actually, Kemp is not based on him. He said himself that the character he resembles most is Yeamon.

Read the book, man, it's my favorite or second favorite of all time.