Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas Summary

True Fear and Loathing

Hunter S. Thompson is well known today for writing “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” which inspired the cult classic movie by the same name. We catch a glimpse of who this man actually was in the following readings. Two narratives, one written by Hunter S. Thompson, himself; “Fear and Loathing in America” published in ESPN, reads as a reactionary rant about the terrorist attacks on 9/11. A second story, “Still Gonzo after all these years” featured in American Journalism Review, details Richard Keil’s drunken night of adventure with Thompson. From these two stories comes a lively depiction of who Hunter S. Thompson was, and what he stood for.

Keil’s story comes from 1996, well before the disaster of 9/11. He visits the famous author at his secluded Colorado cabin. It’s clear that Keil admires Thompson, and wants to make a good impression. He attempts, successfully, to win him over by bringing him home-made beer.(Keil, 1996) The encounter quickly descends into a bur of all night inebriation. Thompson is a rebel, and a man’s man.

That becomes evident in his 9/11 article. Like most of the world at that time, he feels driven to focus on the tragic event. And he does it with his classic grim, and sometimes nihilistic attitude; resignedly writing about the towers being,”...reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country.”(Thompson, 2001) Perhaps his age and rowdy life have taken it’s toll. Where Keil once wrote about a bouncing, exuberant recluse, ready to take on the world; at the turn of the century, Thompson seems to have lost his fight. Perhaps he has always been cynical, barking sarcasm at the world. But there is an angry, yet defeated tone when he writes, “It is ominous. The only news on TV comes from weeping victims and ignorant speculators.”(Thompson,