Why no one should try to write like Hunter S. Thompson

Well Mr. PsyGrunge, I would say that you've gone through the whole list of excuses people have for taking drugs. Instead of taking drugs because you're bored and pleasure-seeking (the truth), you're doing it for some 'great, important spiritual reason' which of course cannot be articulated (the lie you tell yourself in order to justify what would otherwise be very apparent as irresponsible decisions, rooted in despair).

'Understanding what's going on'? What does that even mean? Do you even know? You mean those people who are automatically suspicious of all kinds of authority, often based on their own drug-induced delusions of persecution? Blind faith in our institutions is never a good idea, but even worse is blind antagonism.

I have absolutely nothing against free thinking, or creativity, or caring about the planet... but those things are often separate from being a hippie, which is an image the same as any other image, and even worse guides people towards aimless lives of sex, drugs and irresponsibility. Drugs do not help creativity... if anything, they destroy it.

Look at what most of the stories posted here are about. Pictures of nothing happening, of stagnation, and despair... where the only salvation is getting high and fucking.

In some ways, it's refreshing that at least the whole 'Britney Spears' lifestyle is honest.

 

Obviously you've never read or watched 'one flew over the cuckoo's nest'; and even if you have - you obviously lack comprehension of it's creative background. In Ken Kesey's own words 'I could not have written that book without LSD'.
The amount of PsyTrance that's been produced as a direct result of psychedelic experimentation by various artists all over the World is vast.
I myself have produced so much in Audacity, FruityLoops Studio 7 and Ableton !Live which probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for the creative aftermath that lsd delivers to the user.
Psychedelics have done so much for my music writing on acoustic instruments, too.
Back on topic, what do you make of the guy named in the title of this thread? Reknowned for dabbling in drugs and alcohol; he's had published more creative writings than you'd find in an autistic person's diary.
I can't believe you think that psychedelic use is incapable of improving the creative streak. True words of the inexperienced. You sound like you share the typical media viewpoint.
Do you want some examples or do you want to do your own research?
You might want to check out Steve Jobs. Open your mind a bit and think about where the computer industry would be today without Apple innovation; and then how Apple came to be.

I take it you have no experience with psychedelics, and if so it sounds like they were abused instead of used.
You wouldn't be so close minded to the creation aspect if you had any (first person) idea of the possible outcomes...

 

...and just 'psygrunge' is fine, thanks.

 

An obituary on Thompson, written by James Adams and published in the Globe and Mail on 21 February 2005. reads in part as follows:

Thompson's artistic reputation ... is going to be based on a very thin body of work -- most notably Hell's Angels from 1966 and 1972's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Whatever came afterwards, such as Songs of the Doomed, Generation of Swine and Kingdom of Fear, was largely postscript. The drugs weren't working and they hadn't been working for a very long time. Indeed, a few friends of Thompson yesterday were saying that they feared he might take his life and that of his wife, Anita...

Style-wise, the vitriol came to ring hollow, the humour, forced, as Thompson found himself unable to find a perch from which his outrage could have some effect...

Last year, Thompson declared that the looming re-election of George W. Bush was "the darkest hour that I have seen in my long experience as an American. This is evil." Over the next few weeks we'll see just how big a role the Republicans' triumph played in Thompson's decision to take his own life... Thompson had been cannnibalizing his past and his life for decades, and when you're feeding on yourself, there comes a point where there's nothing much left. "When the the going gets weird," Thompson once remarked, "the weird turn pro." Either that, or they turn out of this world all together.
​

 

Psygrunge,

Well, since we're playing the name game, have you ever read James Joyce? Homer? Immanuel Kant? Socrates? Tolstoy? Aristotle? Faulkner? Hemingway? Milan Kundera? How about most of the great writers that have ever been alive? Most of them did not use LSD, or any kind of drugs, ever.

If you are creative and you have an experience, any kind of experience, it will probably inspire you. Giving credit to a drug is absurd. You can't take drugs and become a great writer. You can have a lot of experiences, gain a perspective, and if you can articulate them well, maybe you can become a great writer.

Also, it's really pompous of you to label me 'typical' or ignorant, especially when your viewpoint is probably even more mainstream than mine. How cliched is it to say that drugs are responsible for great works of art? Is there ANY notion that's been more mainstreamed than the guy who takes drugs and experiences a creative revelation?? Heaps of young, narrow-minded kids who want to be artists of some kind end up turning to drugs every day, looking for an easy answer. It's not like you're special, or a rebel, or doing something that no one has ever done before. You are just as mainstream as I am, in fact probably more, because while I'm having all kinds of experiences in other countries, thinking clearly all the time, and doing things every day that expand my mind, you're locked in your drug haze, staring at your naval, letting the drugs make your lowest thoughts seem like the profoundest revelations, slowly losing your ability to be self-critical.

Perhaps the reason the 'drugs destroy you' stance is the predominant viewpoint is because it's completely true??

In fact, I have more in common with the writers of your 'great drug books' than you do, in that most of your 'great drug books' are written by people who end up warning people not to do what they did. Most of those people were creative long before they tried drugs, slowly started to lose it upon doing so, and ended up regretting it. More than that, the 'trippy' theme has been completely and totally done to death, and it's really difficult to imagine anything new being brought to it.

 

Very well put, couldn't of said it better myself.

 

I'm not arguing with 'drugs destroy you', as I am in complete agreement. I am saying psychedelics can help with the creation process of a final outcome - from EXPERIENCE not from what I've fucking read. The 'name game' held no ground as I was giving an example of how lsd and natural tryptamines have been effective in creating - something you can't really deny seeing as it's been done and apple's staring you in the face with technological advancements by the month (as one example).
From my own experiences; others I have met who have broadened their perspectives with psychedelics are generally humble, well spoken and very thoughtful people. They don't fuck around, or hang about craving their next fix. Life doesn't stop still for them if they can't get a joint or whatver.. they are as creative as the next man, if not more so. They think before they speak and don't run their mouth for the sake of breaking the silence. When questioned, they'll compose themselves and often reply with a productive answer. They're some of the most thoughtful, conscious and aware people I have ever met.
I wasn't 'giving a drug credit' exactly - I was simply disagreeing with your 'Drugs do not help creativity... if anything, they destroy it' in the case of psychedelic inebriation. I agree with it for the most part, but when it comes to lsd I draw a fine line. I and many others are proof that this statement doesn't hold much truth in the instance of psychedelics.
I agree with acid bringing out more of what already is inside you - so initially, creative people will become more creative.. and that's the point. Acid turns people into what they would be anyway; a speed up in psychological 'evolution' and progress. A key to what lies behind the next corner.
I agree that people taking drugs to find solice or in hope of turning into a creative person is not just absurd - it's FUCKING absurd. A tragedy in the making.. but I'm not talking about these kinds of people.
I'm merely giving examples - and quite good ones, I think - of how lsd has taken certain developments further, even speeding up the creation process. Ken Kesey and Steve Jobs were just two examples of where you are wrong in saying 'Drugs do not help creativity...' - as Kesey and Jobs obviously have been helped by LSD in the creation processes. - I don't care for your name games. That's not the point of my posting.
Most of my great drug books?! What?!! Ken Kesey's work is brilliant, Steve Jobs isn't a writer and HST is loved by a hell of a lot of people, both pro and anti drug.. and when did I claim to have things in common with them? I've already highlighted the areas psychs have helped me: Music technology and instrumentation..
I'm not disagreeing with the corrupt personalities of certain people through drug use.. but have you took into account the issues of fame, fortune and publicity, and how these issues could easily of had dramatic consequences on the newly formed mindsets of certain artists?!
It sounds like you've been reading too many stories of trips gone wrong and the aftermath in which the user may feel trapped in (which, in all fairness, accounts for the majority of lsd stories you'll read on the internet - or examples displayed in the media world). It doesn't sound like you have been through the black hole that is the acid trip and come out the other side with a first person opinion on the subject.
Maybe you're afraid that there's something behind the psychological doors that lsd inevitably opens. Something you don't want to experience, something even extensive research won't teach you, something you are in denial to, something that will contradict everything you've taken for granted so far in life and believe in.
Plus it's not just creation. Acid literally allows us to pick up more via our senses and initially learn more about the environments we inhabit.
..of course the trippy theme is now going to feel like it's been done to death and it's hard to imagine anything new being brought to it.. probably because you were never there to begin with and have always been on the outside looking in; therefore obtaining no actual knowledge on psychedelics (especially seeing as they are an extremely personal, individual thing) so the only information you have on the subject is second hand and irrelevant to yourself, and incidentally should have nothing to do with what you think about them. If anything, it's the people that fuck up on psychs (setting examples on the 'dangers') you should be judging - not the key to conciousness itself.
I am far from mainstream and care not for such accusations.
....and I never said drugs were RESPONSIBLE for great pieces of art.. I merely said they helped with the creation process - in some cases remarkably well, too.

 

How about this: you write about what you know, and let others write about what they know.

 

Hemingway was an alcoholic.

 

If you want to talk about great writers such as myself, you'll find many of them (Mailer, Hemingway, Kerouac, Brautigan, myself, Thompson) had substance abuse problems. But we didn't all blow our brains out (just Hemingway, Brautigan, Thompson in the above list). Kerouac died at age 47 from cirrhosis.
Now where's my gun?

 

Right on! This is about the best post that's been made.

 

heywood floyd,

Your view on drugs does seem fairly close-minded at face value, what drugs (if any) have you had experience with?

I wouldn't say drugs give rise to creativity, any more than love makes someone creative or artistic, but certainly these life-experiences can give inspiration to artwork. They can be both positive and destructive.

Psychedelics can and have helped people incredibly within their day-to-day lives, to deny this is to deny a massive body of research, artwork and living testimony. Are you aware of how many recovering alcoholics have been helped by Mescaline?
It is one of the reasons they have been used (and are still used) in religious practices the world over.

 

I'd like to recommend that Hunter S Thompson shouldn't try to write like that Hunter S Thompson. But I guess I left it a bit late.