Okay. So for this episode we're going to be discussing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a Savage Journey to the Heart of the American dream by Hunter Thompson and Ralph Steadman. Well, Ralph Steadman did the illustrations, right? Yeah. What do you think about the illustrations?
Oh, I love the illustrations. They're pretty cool. Oh, yeah, and you got them in your Audible version? Yeah, my Kindle. Excuse me. Yes. So how do they come through? Did you get him as you're going through the book? Yeah, it's the same. It's the same as hook. Yeah. Yeah it’s all black and white, right?
And they for me in the print version. They didn't always line up to what the story was talking about. Like sometimes the illustration was a little ahead or behind. I think they kind of just fit in right where they could know that it was like that. Yeah. Yeah, but the style of it kind of complimented the story well because it's very like out there and interesting.
I don't know. Oh, yeah, very surreal and added another dimension to the story, right? Yeah, but why'd you pick this book? I thought it would be an interesting book to read. Something that I wanted to read for a while. I've heard bits and pieces of his quotes from essays or letters and things like that.
And I know he's a good writer like I like his style. So, I thought I would just read this. It's kind of a classic, modern classic I guess, I mean I think you're right there, modern classic. Yeah but you haven't read anything else he did before…I know he's done like Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. This is kind of like his right tagline now, but what were impressions of the book?
I liked it. I liked it a lot. Once I gave in to the drug-induced, rampages they go in the middle there with that stuff about Lucy, that artist from Montana or whatever. I didn't get the point of that and that's when it bothered me like, I think the speaks to a larger drug culture whereas, if a person is hallucinating and they're just doing it to themselves or just experiencing themselves. I think that's one argument that the drug people have is that like, I'm just doing it to my own body, but then like but with drug addicts or you know, people who are on drugs it always affects other people. And then that's where I was conflicted because these two guys were just being crazy on these drug rampages, but then all of a sudden there's another girl and they're kind of stringing her along as well and I didn't really like that. But what that did is it help me suspend like, okay. There's no story to this. But like what did you think of this story?
I would say my first impression of the story itself. I didn't love it. I didn't think there was much of a story but that's kind of the point right is that it's all about the drug outbursts and things like that. But I agree with what you're saying. I thought they were kind of assholes throughout the book to various characters. Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it went too far.
Right? But he wasn't trying to like glorify himself. He didn't paint himself in a great light. I don't know what he was going for exactly. But no. Yeah. I did not feel like if this was Hunter S. Thompson being himself and just like kind of taking on a pseudonym for the hotels and being in Vegas or whatnot.
He doesn't sound like that great of a guy but I don't think that's the point, not the point but like that's part of the story is that these guys aren't that there's more just for the experience and along for the ride and just explain the drug effects, side effects of the drugs that they're taking.
Yeah, but it's a little wild. I wonder how much of it was autobiographical. I think a fair amount. It seems like it. I don't think you can make some of the stuff up. I mean that one of my favorite parts was the drag race with white car. First of all, I liked how they call it.
The first car they got was a red convertible called the shark, the second one was a white Cadillac called the whale. I like that, but then when they're drag racing with these Oklahoma cops and his attorneys puking out the side streets along the side of the car tearing down the Vegas Strip. I thought that was entertaining. I enjoyed those types of stories. But as far as substance of a story throughout the whole book…
So the overall story, just in like a sentence is basically him, Raoul Duke, which is Thompson and his attorney. Dr. Gonzo or whoever he really is, goes to the desert there covering stories.
The first one is like a motorcycle race right now. The second one is a drug conference with a bunch of cops, district attorneys, in Las Vegas. Which I think is an ironic place to hold a conference about drugs with the District Attorney's America in Las Vegas, right? He had some line like I thought the drug culture should be represented here.
Yeah, and this book is kind of broken down into little stories about they take this drug or they're in this hotel and they do this or that or whatnot. He's always on the quest for the American dream, but one thing I like, well I found entertaining was Dr. Gonzo his attorney in the bathtub of like green water with a knife and then he like attacks him or goes to attack him, and he wants like Jefferson Airplane and played on the tape cassette player and is just bugging out right? Just freaking out Hunter S. Thompson or Raoul Duke. I thought that was very sharp with the visualization. I can picture that in my mind very well.
Yeah, they kind of showed the good bad and ugly. I guess of the drug. Like they showed the fun kind of silly parts, but also this dark side where they're like get violent and unpredictable and pretty weird. And so that mix and then and then it just kind of you know each so it goes to cover this motorcycle race, then goes to cover this drug conference all the while tripping on all these pills and drugs and stuff that they have in their cars.
And then he just kind of leaves Las Vegas, right? There's what's the end. He goes to Denver like covering something else in Denver. I didn't get they left it open-ended. Yeah, I mean it didn't have a narrative so too much so it didn't have to follow a logical conclusion at the end.
It was funny though. He wanted to like just buy a dog like a Doberman. Randomly, and he was trying to buy a gorilla towards the end. Remember that? Or like an ape. He was trying to like by an ape. Oh, I haven't fly home with him, but did the monkey like bite up? Yeah, like attack somebody it was violent, but he was just talking about trying to bring it on the plane and then just pretending it was like his son or something just like, oh, he's sick don't mind him.
Those parts are entertaining to me like. How crazy he was. Yeah, I mean so that yeah that definitely held my interest and it was a quick read, shorter book, because I don't think they had much substance to make it longer. But, I mean did it make you want to do drugs?
Uh…no, I don’t think so. It’s too much, the characters are just too much. Oh, yeah. I mean like he talks about like not sleeping for like 60 hours at a time straight or something like that. It's crazy. I never want to experience that right? They get into some funny situations, right? But what's the cost you know, to there bodies. Or their eternal souls!
Yeah, all right, but just in general, I thought his style of writing was really good. Like he had these pretty poetic sentences that just had a nice flow to them almost like just a bouncing cadence or something. Yeah. He's definitely a good writer. Yes. I can appreciate him for that and just that unique style.
Like I can't think of someone who's quite like him in terms of how we wrote or what he wrote about. This work is very original and I think especially when it was a published.... I want to say late 60s early 70s, maybe well you talked about something about the 70s.
Oh, yeah in the story. I don't know exactly when the book was published. I think the events might have happened in the early 70s. Okay, and I feel like there. I mean, I didn't grow up during that time. But I feel like this would have spoken to people it was I think it was a very contemporary book and that's why it's held up, because at that time I think it was very relevant and very original. I think that was the big thing about the 60s, originality and being hip.
Well a big theme in this book, it felt like was the end of the 60s and transitioning into the Nixon era because he mentions Nixon quite a few times and he just hates him and I like I looked up have a couple interviews with him and he just says like Nixon stands for everything he just hates so, it's interesting to see the contrast between the 60s culture and the 70s kind of mentality coming.
What did you think about the chemistry between Raoul Duke and his attorney? I thought it was I thought it was entertaining and I thought you know, it seemed to kind of go back and forth like I said, the attorney was in the bathtub then he appeared with a knife. He was going crazy andattacking.
Raoul Duke another time all Duke was driving through a fence and cross the runway to get them to the airport or something like and so he was freaking out. I mean, in causing his attorney to the flip out. So I feel like it was a good give and take where depending on who is on what drug at any given time one person was more crazy than the other.
I did have a very clear picture of when he talked about the attorney in the closet vomiting and his shoes and being caught by the maid that walks in the door. Like I thought that was an entertaining scene as well. You just feel bad for those poor people who get caught up in the crosshairs, but they like pretend to be cops or something and pretend they go into this whole like scenario about how they're undercover and like trying to do a drug bust when they're the crazy people.
It's pretty entertaining how creative they can be. They talked about like people now they were cutting off heads, decapitating people. That was so funny though! Because they're kind of messing with this cop at the conference and they're saying people on drugs are crazy.
They're cutting each other's heads off or cutting other people's heads. And then the guy is from like Georgia and he's freaking out, and then he's like so what are you guys doing to like fight this crime, and like well, we started cutting the criminals head totally fucking with him. It's really funny.
But I like how the attorney would preface so many of us sentences with “As your attorney…” and then just like give some advice that had nothing to do with anything. Yeah. I thought that was entertaining and they were eating like a bunch of grapefruits. They have like 10 grapefruits with them
Yes. think they also did that with a soap from the first hotel. They left and all this soap. Yeah, or whatever packed in the car and the grapefruit think every time they were hotel service. They have grapefruit. Oh, yeah rum and grapefruits or something like that.
Yeah, and then yeah when he's on the airplane going to Denver at the end of the. book The stewardess is alarmed by him cutting the grapefruit with this large hunting knife. Yeah, he's like, oh don't worry. This is just a grapefruit, gonna be healthy. In the movie, I never saw the movie, but Johnny Depp is I'll Duke and Benicio del Toro.
Yeah, it's a good cast. I mean, I would be curious how it is. I mean, I feel like they could be pretty true to the book and the movie might be good, but I haven't seen it. But I watched the trailer after reading this and it looked like they had done a good job. I know it's gotten mixed reviews and I think it's sort of a cult movie just because it's like Johnny Depp and because of the subject matter.
I don't know if it's actually a good movie. But I like the cast it seem like they've played the parts one.
Oh one thing I thought was interesting was his chapter titles. They were kind of like long and rambling, I guess like a lot of us style but you know, like most people's chapter titles in books are just like a short brief simple description, but his kind of had these, I don't know, chaotic nature to them, right?
It was just kind of schizophrenic almost like we just pick a couple phrases and mash them together, but then. They were what the chapter was about like I would go back out of a chapter and go back and read the title and like oh the title makes sense now right now, it's this this and this, you know, yeah, but yes, it was very cool.
I like when people label their chapters, I don't like just the one and the two… I mean most books, like 99% of books through the just the one and then two and whatever. Oh, it depends on the author and the style. Like it's just a small thing that makes him original I think and said he does this sort of thing, but yeah in general his tone was very like manic and crazy. But then also that poetic side to it too. Like I don't think there are a lot of people like this in history, who are that eccentric and like out there but still pretty good writers, stylistically.
Very good. I think I think it's tough to maintain that being so out there and eccentric, but still come up with some very precise sentences. That really are good literature. Yeah, like he saw things in a certain way and he captured them in a unique way.
I saw this documentary about him way back and I remember him talking about reading like Hemingway and loving that style, which a lot of his books were like kind of autobiographical to and he did these sort of crazy interesting things. But he talked about even just like typing his books, Hemingway's books on a typewriter just to feel how it felt to write something that good which I thought was interesting because you're kind of internalizing that physical motion of typing something.
That’s interesting. I would have no never thought like almost like playing the notes of a musical piece. You're typing the words of Hemingway trying to train your brain. I mean it makes sense because people practice piano practice instruments, but nobody like types. It feels weird but it kind of makes sense.
Yeah, he's from Louisville Kentucky, you know that. Yeah, he like grew up here and it's just like a trouble k-kind of I think and then moved out West or something.
I would think he would have a trouble but yeah, no offense to the Thompson family. I'm sure they're lovely people but I'm sure Hunter S. did have some problems with authority... I like how he was friends with like Bill Murray throughout his life Bill Murray played him in some movie one of his books.
I think a while ago Buffalo something. but I remember in the documentary. Bill Murray was telling Johnny Depp before playing him in this movie. you got to be kind of careful because once you kind of take on that persona of Hunter, he never really goes away.
Yeah, I thought that was interesting because when you think about Bill Murray, I mean he's definitely his own person and very like, unique but he you can kind of sense he draws maybe a little bit from Hunters personality. If not directly. He kind of respects it. Were they similar in age?
I don't know. I think Hunter S. Thompson was older though. Probably he died a few years ago. I think there are videos of him on YouTube just like shooting guns with Conan O'Brien and stuff. Did you see that? He would like shoot guns at his neighbor's and just like do these wild things.
Yeah and as much as he hated Nixon and authority he still kind of loved America. For some reason, I just remember him saying like I don't think there are that many places where I could be myself like this and have people like him. I mean that's just it like he is looked at as total, you know anti-establishment and you had all those cops in that district attorney convention in this book were you know, the quintessential square model citizens that respected the law and authority, and all that stuff was the complete reverse of all what those district attorney stood for.
But yet the District Attorney's would assume that that person is despicable. He's not what America stands for really. They both are. Both of them are exactly what America stands for… It’s the fact that you can be opposite ends of the spectrum and coexist and do your own thing, you know, and as long as you're not, harming others you can live your life in America.
So I think that spot on that Hunter S. Thompson I don't think could be Hunter S. Thompson in another country, right? Or another time, another era… I feel like the 60s and 70s were kind of what made him him as well. Yeah, he would probably offend too many people today.
But this book is classified as counter-culture. But in a lot of ways, it's just like American culture. Like you said these two ends of the spectrum. and I think Las Vegas is an interesting setting for this too because they talked about it a lot and it highlights a lot of parts of American culture too. You have these people trying to just get rich gambling and then he kind of comments on everybody looking the same and just kind of greedy looking for money and yeah.
Have you ever been to Vegas? I’ve never been, no. Does this book make you want to go to a little bit? I mean, I wouldn't say that he paints it as in the best picture. On one hand he'll say like as long as you tip big then you can be whoever and do anything, you know, so he's saying they're welcoming if you kind of respect the place, but then it's like, you see that crazy side to it. You see the violence and the greediness so part of me wants to go but what about you?
Oh, I've been to Vegas one time and it's fun. but like I didn't feel like this book was about Vegas per se. I think it was more like he said the counter-culture of the time and I think Vegas was just the environment in which his antics took place this time that he told the story. I feel like Hunter S. Thompson could easily have written this and been in like San Francisco or LA or Miami or yeah. I don't know. I feel like it's not about Vegas, but I think he used the city itself and its unique culture to kind of highlight some of his themes or messages. Sure, yes, I agree with you there.
You're right. You're right the fact that people are trying to get rich and gambling at all hours of the day and just it's nonstop…and he talked about the American dream so much in this book, right? And what is the American dream? It's such an abstract concept when you think about the traditional version.
It's like get a house and car and kids or whatever. And the way he describes it, it’s more like that sense of freedom and just doing whatever you want. I guess that rugged individualism type of thing. So it's a broad concept. But I like when he was talking about California in general - he would talk about just driving along the coast and how it was like a special time and you go to any city and anything could really happen.
I mean you had like a very. Special set of people living there at the time the artists and the musicians and things like that. I did like his references to pop culture and I found myself Googling different people. He just mentions in passing, you know, like oh so-and-so type character and I'm like, who is this? So many boxers..
Yeah like fighters. Yeah. Many quotes, songs from the day and even like a guy that was an actor on some Crime TV show on at the time. Yeah, I mean just like obscure little things like that. I dug it because it helped take me to that place in time, right? it helped create the context of the early 70s and where those obscure references for the time.
References of the day, talking about the music especially and I think people reading it when it was published would have known exactly what he was talking about.
One interesting part too towards the end: he talks about like the Hells Angels and stuff for a bit which he joined at one point, right?
I did know that. Yeah, so there's that whole side of his life and those stories, but he talked about how it was kind of a shame that the hippie culture and the Hells Angels didn't really join forces… like the whole left was just too disorganized and that kind of paved the way for Nixon in his eyes.
I didn't pick up on that paving the way for Nixon but I definitely heard his lament in the fact that yes the hip, what did he call them, the long hairs? And the yeah Hells Angels. couldn't come together because they ultimately did agree on a lot of core principles. But I'm sure that was something that was very relevant in that time and that would have struck a chord with a lot of people.
Yeah, they had these leading figures like he mentioned Allen Ginsberg and famous authors and poets and things trying to like rally people together, but one more thing about the transition from the 60s to the 70s. He talked about the rise of downers drugs. Yes, instead of psychedelics and things that they were doing. It was very weird. I think it's sort of a big thing because the downers are really about pacifying people, and I don't know that much about drugs, but like they make seem like with psychedelics..that people think of them as like mind-expanding and eye-opening and things like that. And of course there's a dark side…
Yes, I thought that was very interesting how he put it he saw the evolving use of drugs and even said like, these people at this conference drug conference District Attorneys are clueless there 10 years behind the time. They're still focusing on just marijuana when there's all this other stuff and like you said he was talking about how people are doing more downers and the psychedelics are fading out.
I thought that was very interesting how maybe that has led to where we are today with opioids and heroin. Painkillers. where it started back in the 70s? Okay, we're due for resurgence and like psychedelic drugs. it seems like there are some pretty high-profile people, like I hear a lot on other podcasts today, interviews with scientists and researchers saying that these can help treat addictions. They can treat PTSD with something like shrooms and, I don't know peyote or something. I don't know. I don't know things like that. Yeah, I know we are not up on our drugs.
Yeah forgive us. But I think there are benefits but I think you're also right there because I think everything is history cyclical. Right? So I think Millennials are coming around to the more mind-expanding drugs to kind of you know. Open their minds eye and get a broader perspective of the world and humanity and all that stuff. You know that the hippies would have been all about and I think you're definitely right that I think we're going to be in a resurgence for the psychedelic drugs, going forward, which I don't think is a bad thing. Well, we'll see what happened now. I think we can get lessons from the past to not take it this far.
But when you think about like Nixon and his War on Drugs and those effects still come today like decades later and people are recognizing that that was like…like they just decriminalized marijuana possession in like New York and they're just slowly evolving and yeah, and that's just, I think this would have been very hard book to write at any other time.
I feel like it was one of those where history and author kind of just…like I always wonder what I would be like if I was born in a different place or time, you know? Yeah but Hunter Thompson was born in the right place and the right time.
That's like even though the story isn’t great. It almost doesn't have to be because he did these entertaining things and he captured something special and wrote it well, and didn't dwell on anything for too long like he was beating a dead horse...Yeah, I felt like it moved at a good pace.
It flowed from one thing to the other the chapters were quick. But yet still, carried, the overall story whatever how loosely the story there was of this in this book, it still carried from chapter to chapter and just I felt like it was well done without being too descriptive or to mundane, he kept its sharp with good allegories yeah, he had a good energy to it.
And yeah good pacing everything like that. And just a fun way of writing about the world like you said about the cars being sharks writing the red shark through the desert, it's just a very poetic sort of think about your life or something. I think right off the bat because he was right in the rich shark through the desert like he said, but then like he was he was the driver and then also in these bats come out of nowhere and like I need to pull over so you drive.
Somebody said I thin. It's like, okay, this is gonna be, this is gonna be trippy because pick up a hitchhiker and he's like yelling at him. And yeah, it sets a tone early and I think I like that it set the tone early. You knew what you're getting into and it maintained it throughout the whole story without getting boring or monotonous or without dragging.
Yeah. They just dive right into. It's almost like we're The Hitch-Hiker and we're joining them on this journey, not to get too deep. No, no get deep! Yeah because we're just joining them on that journey but…
So this was a movie with Johnny Depp. Yeah, and then there was another movie called The Rum Diary I think was based on another book right?
That was the first book he wrote. Yes, and Johnny Depp played him. He was in Puerto Rico. Yeah. I actually saw them movie. It was good. I didn't read Rum Diaries. Yeah, I imagine for the movie wouldn't be as zany as this one, but it's definitely, it's interesting.
I really like how he wrote this book but judging Hunter Thompson as a person I may not. You know and it's that point where you have that with art or with sports you have people that you may admire their work but not like the man or woman. Yeah, how do you feel about that? That conflict you have…
I'm torn a little bit. On one hand I respect it. I mean like my personality. I'm sort of a people-pleaser. So I think when you see someone who just doesn't really care. It's a little. It's entertaining to see like in that interview. I watched him online. He was sort of like not putting on any airs or trying to connect with the people filming him.
He thought they were being he thought it was inauthentic to have the cameras and things like that, and he just kind of said what he felt so he didn't try to be a different person like he wrote with his own unique voice and he didn't apologize for it, right? Yeah true. I guess that is admirable and I think I can take it at face value that I just like.
His writing and not have to worry about whether I actually like him as a person. Did you like dislike him as a person? Well, I don't know much about him. Right? I mean just based from this book. I don't think so. Yeah, I mean no offense to Hunter S. Thompson. I mean, I enjoyed the book, but it doesn't sound like he was the nicest person.
Yeah, and but they don't try to be likeable, like I said…Yeah, I think that's good. I don't want them to I don't think it's the same book if they try to be likeable .
But it was just like a lot of abuse on your body to take all those drugs. I can't imagine like one of the first passages in the book is just we have 75 pellets of mescaline and they just name like drug after drugs.
No, I'm like oh LSD marijuana everything. Oh, man, so it's a lot but it's fun. It's a fun read. What would you rate it? You wanna do the rating right now? Let's do it. I would give it a 4 out of 5 Stars. I would too. Yeah, I agree 4 out of 5 Stars. I liked it. Yeah, once I suspended my expectation of a story and was along for the ride, which would happen early on.
I enjoyed it was it was a fun read. I think you just got to go into this with an open mind not take it too seriously and just try to appreciate the adventure of it, right? And some social commentary sprinkled throughout. It's good.
Do you want to take turns reading quotes? So just how we talked about the starting off the book that first quote to open the first chapter says “he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.” was a quote by. Dr. Johnson whoever that is, but I thought that set the tone well - how they kind of go crazy throughout the book and they're not trying to meet any societal expectations or something. They just kind of use the drugs to lose themselves and see what happens.
Towards the beginning as well, “But our trip was different. It was a classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the National character. It was a gross physical salute to the Fantastic possibilities of life in this country. But only for those with True Grit and we were chock-full that.” I felt like that was a good launching point, you know, I mean wasn't the very beginning but it was like the second or third chapter. That's a good one.
Going off that he also says “Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only real cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas.”
That one is a good one. I forgot about that one.
Do you have more quotes? Oh, yeah. I mean, I love this one. When they go to check in the hotel for the first time in Las Vegas. And I think takes some drug before they go into hotel and then, Raoul Duke, the narrator, “Right next to me a huge reptile was gnawing on a woman's neck. The carpet was a blood-soaked sponge impossible to walk on it. No footing at all. Order some golf shoes, I whispered. Otherwise we'll never get out of this place alive.”
That cracked me up. I just had that visualization of a blood-soaked sponge as a carpet and his rationale when he's high on drugs is like, okay, we need golf shoes or else for knocking out of here.
I remember he had to wear shoes when he went to the bathroom because it would just have like, glass, drugs and vomit.
So I have fun quotes than I have kind of deep ones. It's just sort of a mix. Mix them up! All right, I think this book is very quotable. Yeah, it really has it has a lot of good little one-liners and also paragraphs where I didn't quite know what all to highlight because I felt like it was all pretty good.
Yeah, and you could have a sentence that would go like five lines just one. It would be really well-written.
So one thing he said was “San Francisco in the middle-60s was a very special time in place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something maybe not in the long run but no explanation. No mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world, whatever it meant.”
Yeah. I mean, I think the hippies ate that shit up. All right? No they did. That's like that's exactly what I mean. Like it's not about material possessions or our social status, it's about being. And what was the acid? Uh, Timothy Leary saying drop in tune out, uh to turn on tune in and drop out.
Yeah. That's what to do that just exist right here now in space and time and enjoy yourself. I think that hurt them though in terms of like organizing, and that's why they lose elections can't organize something. Oh, yeah too much dropping out turning on. Uh, yeah. Yeah, if you're in the moment, you don't plan ahead right?
Right, then you’re just like “Fuck Nixon got elected.” Yeah, you’ve got to find a balance. Yeah, when they actually do get in the Las Vegas. They go to the Circus-Circus Casino. I like that casino with like everyone gambling on the floor on then net above them and trapeze artists are going haywire up above, but then he talks about just he's on drugs again, then he says, “We will close the drapes tonight. A thing like that could send a drug person careening around the room like a ping-pong ball. Hallucinations are bad enough, but after a while you learn to cope with things like seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth. Most acid fanciers can handle this sort of thing.”
I mean, I just saw that and then a paragraph later. He says “No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs, reality itself is too twisted.”
See Vegas, he talks about Vegas a lot, you're right. All right. Yeah, but no I like his vivid imagery. Yeah, I'm literally picturing my grandma Priscilla crawling up my leg with a knife in her teeth, you know doing what I don't know. But yeah, you shouldn't do LSD probably.
Well did you know have favorite picture? A favorite picture? I mean off top of my head, I'm not sure. There was the one of the attorney like vomiting in shoes in the closet, which is pretty good actually. Yeah, but my favorite one was when he sneaking out the hotel the first time it's real simple just him with a suitcase and like tiptoeing with a hat and a hat on and a cigarette.
Oh, I feel like that's one that you don't need context for, just purely as a picture. I like that. Yeah, even though the pictures are kind of few and far between and not always right after a logical place, I feel like they do add a lot to the story because they're so original - and the book is so original so they go together well, Right.
Okay, and here's another one when he's in a casino and. On drugs, of course. “All right now off the escalator and into the casino big crowd still tight around the crap tables, who are these people these phases where do they come from? They look like caricatures of used car dealers from Dallas, but they're real and sweet Jesus. They're a hell lot of them, still screaming around these desert city crap tables at 4:30 on a Sunday morning, still humping the American dream that vision of the big winner somehow emerging from the last minute pre-dawn chaos of a stale Vegas casino.”
I love that passage. Yeah humping the American dream right?
And you can just kind of picture those people in there desperately doing slots, slot machines and trying to get the big win.
You're right Vegas was very much a part of this book…Well, that's but it's like a microcosm of America. Yeah, right. So it's not like it's not always specifically Vegas, but just representing the country
This one's pretty good. I don't know if I'll read the whole thing, but he just talks about how the 60s were coming to an end with Tim Leary as a prisoner and Bob Dylan clipping coupons and Greenwich Village, the Kennedy's murdered by mutants and just naming these icons as symbolizing the fall the 60s.
Oh, yeah. I can't imagine living through those times, you know, my parents did but, it just seems chaotic look back and see what went on in the late 60s, right? Turning over into the 70s and you think about all of these icons who just died drug overdoses: Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, or like with alcohol or whatever.
That's a part of it. That's part of the culture, or like a reason that it kind of started coming to an end. it wasn't sustainable right? You got another one. Yep, I think this is when his attorney leaves the first time and he's left with the red shark and all the contraband in it. And then he's getting paranoid about having all the illegal drugs in his car. He says “sympathy not for me, no mercy for criminal freak in Las Vegas. This place is like the army the shark ethic prevails. Eat the wounded. In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves. The only final sin is stupidity. Yeah l liike that one.
Yeah, that's a good stuff. It's sort of like this wild-west culture and you think that was reflective more of Las Vegas or more of that time period. I mean that idea of freedom being first and foremost is an element of the culture. Right but also the setting of being in the desert and being Las Vegas is highlighted more too I think. I agree.
I did like the part where they were on the way he was on his way to take the attorney back the airport and he was talking about running through the Peruvian airport and getting. Like tackled by the cops there and they were yelling like stop the crazy Gringo or have any proceeds to drive his car through the fence and down the service road and drop off his attorney as he basically kicks the attorney out of the moving vehicle.
Yeah, okay, this I feel like this will sum it up. So you want me to, or you got anything else? You guys know, I'm good.
Okay. history is hard to know because of all the hired bullshit. But even without being sure of History, it seems entire.
Let me start everything at all. Right. So just to preface this club. It kind of sums up the book in general and his views on the 60s coming to an end, um and all that so.
“History is hard to know because of all the hired bullshit. But even without being sure of History, it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head and along fine flash for reasons that nobody really understands at the time and which never explain in retrospect what actually happened.”
I mean, right. It's like we can pick out pieces here and there to kind of think about the hippie culture and it's good parts, the bad parts why it didn't last - but at the same time it's like no one can really summarize everything and it was a very unique time and who knows all the factors that went into it.
Right? And I would say that it's one of those things where you can cherry pick certain things to come up with a narrative if you want to come up with one. But I think what he's saying is exactly what you said. It's so broad and it's kind of like lightning in a bottle it just kind of happens and you don't really know what caused it or can explain, its effect on society at large but it's just, just enjoy it.
Yeah, and maybe that's why he wrote the book in such a non-narrative style is because he's trying to say that this is just a chaotic time and. Nothing, is that simple as like this, straightforward linear thing, right? I dig it. Good book Tim. Cool Choice. Yeah. I liked it. So next one.
I'm choosing the next book: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Have you read anything by him by phone? I have I have read the road and No Country for Old Men. I read The Road a while ago. Yeah, so looking forward to. Yeah, I started it. You didn't start it yet. I'll be ready. Better be. Alright. Good episode.