Was this book based on facts, ie did Hunter S Thompson dream the story up or experience it first hand? There must be some truth to the story but highly exaggerated?
I’ve always interpreted “Gonzo journalism” as being an actual event remembered much more interestingly than it really was. Lots of drugs helps one do this. I think “highly exaggerated truth” sums it up pretty well.
I’ve also read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (Which IMO is a much better book if you’re interested in the subject matter) where you can compare his description of events with other media coverage. Basically its the truth as interpreted through his drug-addled brain with some fictitious events thrown in (adrenochrome?) to spice it up.
Hunter S. Thompson was a real wild man in his day. Read his account of his life among the Hell’s Angels in Northern California.
It always seemed to me that he was sort of looking for destruction and never quite found it, not just among the Angels but in his life in general. He kept himself on the edge for a long time.
Crystalguy
In one of his other books, he explains sort of what led up to the writing of F&LLV. He was good friends with Oscar Acosta, a Hispanic lawyer and radical community activist in Southern California. HST was covering Acosta’s involvement with some protests over a police shooting in a Hispanic bar. One thing led to another (I’m being vague here, because I’ve forgotten the details), and the heat from the police got quite intense on Acosta. Eventually, I believe, there were credible threats made on his life.
So he and HST decided to cool it for a while and they split for Vegas. HST had received the offer to cover the Mint 500, and they used that as an excuse to go off for a much needed rest. They generally did the actual acts portrayed in the book, which really aren’t that shocking: go to a motorcycle race, go to a Police Detective’s conference, go to diners, etc.
When they returned, HST went to work on another piece, and said that after a few hours, would write about the trip to Vegas to just “unwind” a little from the more serious writing he was doing. (HST’s straight journalism pieces, mostly in Gonzo Papers 1 & 3 are quite perceptive and insightful.) Over time, he found himself working more on the Vegas story and less on the serious piece, and he eventually worked it up into a series of columns for Rolling Stone, which later were consolidated for the book.
So, to make a long story short, the underlying events are genuine, to a degree. As someone else has stated, HST writes some pieces with varying degrees of exaggeration. It seems unlikely to me that their hotel room was quite the disaster that he portrays it as, or that he actually drove onto the runway of the airport to drop Acosta off. But it is not too difficult to imagine that experienced drug users could perform most of the acts discussed in the book while under the influence, and HST was certainly known to use drugs frequently. Remember also that HST is very good at creating a feeling with his word choice and pacing. His skill as a writer goes a long way towards creating the feeling in the book that the events were much more frantic than they probably were in real life.
Don’t talk about Thompson in the past tense. Amazingly, given his lifestyle, he is still alive! Will the horror never end? :eek:
Is Cecil’s writing style influnced by Thompson? HELL YES!!
You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment."-Bill Hicks
“You should tell the lies, live the truth and expose yourself.” - Bill Clinton