Hunter S. Thompson

[monkfromhavana]

I was a big fan of him in my teens and 20s, but probably haven't touched any of his works now in about 15 years at least. Obvious diminishing returns, but his political writings from the late 60s to late 70s were great and his letters er...compendiums? are really good and entertaining.

But then, he was a bit of a cunt as a person. Someone I think who couldn't write the level of serious fiction he aspired to, the Great American novel of it's time, etc who was left a bit bitter and backed into a corner of his own making and becoming a caricature of himself. The only time he touched the level he aspired to was, IMHO, that bit in Fear & Loathing where he talks about the wave of the 1960s coming to an end

What do other people think? Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas and The Great White Shark Hunt (the fishing competition version of the F & L) were laugh out loud funny, and I did find him thought provoking, but maybe for me now it's case of the person ruining the art.

[The Mollusk]

I was obsessed with him in my late teens/early 20s. Haven't read anything by him in years and he's one of those who I'm a little apprehensive to revisit lest I realise he was actually an objectionable tit, though I've little doubt at all that the scathing and unflinching takedown stuff is no less sharp and brilliant now than it ever was, comparable probably to someone like Jello Biafra in that regard (though I don't think JB is that much of a tit).

My concern is that I have an overriding memory that he wasn't a particularly pleasant person towards the women in his life, as I'm pretty sure he was a boorish and demanding person to his partners and IIRC didn't he sorta downplay or wilfully lean away from the abuse of women he encountered while hanging with the Hell's Angels? I'm sure I remember even in my youth being a bit miffed about how skewed he was in favour of the Angels' alibi that women who initially filed rape claims against them eventually conceded that they were actually very sexually charged and drunkenly consented to having sex with multiple unwashed blokes in a fuckin abandoned factory lot or something. I may be ludicrously misremembering this and am happy to be corrected!

Also always found it amusing in some documentary there's footage of the original directors who were pegged for the Fear and Loathing film consulting with him about the direction it should take. They proposed an idea for the classic "high water mark" speech where a cartoon version of him is literally riding a wave that crashes off the side of something (think the idea was one of the big American landmarks), and Hunter is like NO, FUCK OFF, THAT IS AN INSULT TO EVERYTHING I STAND FOR YOU GODLESS BASTARD HOOLIGANS as if the actual Gilliam film didn't turn out goofy as all fuck anyway.

[Shaxberd]

IIRC didn't he sorta downplay or wilfully lean away from the abuse of women he encountered while hanging with the Hell's Angels? I'm sure I remember even in my youth being a bit miffed about how skewed he was in favour of the Angels' alibi that women who initially filed rape claims against them eventually conceded that they were actually very sexually charged and drunkenly consented to having sex with multiple unwashed blokes in a fuckin abandoned factory lot or something. I may be ludicrously misremembering this and am happy to be corrected!

His Hell's Angels book is the only Thompson I've read - as a wonderfully battered paperback I found in an Oxfam shop - and unfortunately you're remembering correctly, there's a fair bit of "well what do these women expect if they hang out with guys with a reputation like theirs" type downplaying of sexual assault. A typical attitude for the times, really, 60s/70s counterculture literature is riddled with that kind of thing (it certainly hit me hard when I realised years after first reading it that the hero of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is in there for sleeping with an underage girl and that I'd ignored it because of how it's downplayed), but it put me off trying anything else of his.

Might give Fear and Loathing a crack one day, with a suitable sense of detachment from any expectation that I should view him as an admirable figure.

[The Mollusk]

Ahh, yes, I was afraid of that! Thanks for clarifying.

[extraordinary walnuts]

I did a big reread of all his books a couple of years back, working through the 2 volumes of his letters at the same time. Very much a case of diminishing returns and tbh I was thoroughly sick of the cunt by the time I'd finished even the letters, which only go up to '76.

The best of his stuff is still thrilling and unique. I'll be rereading

The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

for the rest of my life, I'm sure

[jfjnpxmy]

Never really bought all the shite about him being some hard living gun toting chemical golem, especially since whenever he was interviewed he was as mild as milk and a bit of an awkward sort. A lot of his writings smacked of l'esprit d'escalier to me. Entertaining, though.

[non capisco]

The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

Yeah, they're the big three aren't they? Campaign Trail I remember loving, this caned dingbat flailing about in the middle of the political maelstrom and yet capturing everything with hawkeyed clarity while railing against the hypocrisy of mainstream political coverage and the slimy links between pundits and candidates. From a historical perspective you've also got to appreciate a book that's so romantically excited about a fax machine, sorry, "mojo wire".

The Hells Angels stuff mentioned upthread is gross and I've no doubt more of that shite lurks within his oeuvre but I really only know the big hits. Not his fault but he birthed a lot of shite imitators. I remember the early online music press being lousy with terrible Hunter S Thompson impressions, only about hanging out with I dunno The Bravery and saying "bubba" a lot rather than biliously tracking the re-election of Nixon. 

[Wet Blanket]

I might be misremembering, or have them mixed up, but I thought in Hells Angels Thompson's wrote with obvious disgust at the Hell's Angels behaviour at that party, in contrast with Tom Wolfe's giddy 'wow look at the hippy bacchanalia' take on the same event in the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.

I feel the same about Thompson as I do about Charles Bukowski or any of your elegantly wasted artists and writers: he was probably a total arse and tiresome to be around but he writes very entertainingly.

I do get the impression that he burnt himself out attempting to live up to the myth of his own creation, and that he was pretty much spent as a creative force by the turn of the 80s.

[Queen Peach]

big baldy ledger

[monkfromhavana]

I do get the impression that he burnt himself out attempting to live up to the myth of his own creation, and that he was pretty much spent as a creative force by the turn of the 80s.

Yeah, the collection of newspaper articles, "The Generation Of Swine" is not that great. Ralph Steadman's book "The Joke's Over" is also a pretty good read and shows how difficult a person he could be to be around.

[The Crumb]

His Hell's Angels book is the only Thompson I've read - as a wonderfully battered paperback I found in an Oxfam shop - and unfortunately you're remembering correctly, there's a fair bit of "well what do these women expect if they hang out with guys with a reputation like theirs" type downplaying of sexual assault. A typical attitude for the times, really, 60s/70s counterculture literature is riddled with that kind of thing (it certainly hit me hard when I realised years after first reading it that the hero of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is in there for sleeping with an underage girl and that I'd ignored it because of how it's downplayed), but it put me off trying anything else of his.

This clip is a window into the attitudes of the time. Just after 3 minutes in, the Hell's Angel talking about beating women to the jolly approval of the crowd. Thompson at least tries to mount some sort of objection, albeit not particularly forceful.

[Deskbound Cunt]

I did a big reread of all his books a couple of years back, working through the 2 volumes of his letters at the same time. Very much a case of diminishing returns and tbh I was thoroughly sick of the cunt by the time I'd finished even the letters, which only go up to '76.

The best of his stuff is still thrilling and unique. I'll be rereading

The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

for the rest of my life, I'm sure

Yep. Those are the ones. Angry, perceptive, funny, vicious skewering.

Shame he was a cunt.