Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Everyone has heard of Gonzo Journalism and the fact that it began with the 1971 publication of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Pioneered by Hunter S Thompson and unfortunately bastardised since, this semi-autobiographical novel was based on Thompson's own experiences with taking a trip to Las Vegas with his attorney (a fictionalised version of his doomed friend Oscar Acosta). He was meant to cover a story for Rolling Stone Magazine and yet, he never actually completed it. Instead, he wrote a surreal narrative, a book formed out of chaos which blended fact with (very clearly) fiction. It was a brute critique of American society, a cultural shift which pointed the finger at the looming presence of the 60s which poured over into the next decade.

The wild and rambling prose, the subjective viewpoint and the countercultural statements - this was definitely a defining book of its time. It captures all the hedonism of the nosedive that was once the American Dream. The unravelling of the want for stability, the relentless need for adventure echoing the message of Jack Kerouac's On the Road in a way which would have scared the Beatnik King himself. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was the birth and death of the disillusionment movement which allowed those who fought for Civil Rights and personal freedom to become devoured by their own dreams. They were dragged into drug culture and consumerism - with many never finding their way out.

Plot

The novel follows Roaul Duke and his attorney, Dr Gonzo as they travel through Las Vegas to cover a story. But unconventionally they of course, do the worst thing imaginable whilst traveling through the desert in a convertible - they take a whole host of drugs and drive under the influence nearly all the way. I think that to a teenager this could look pretty rebellious and cool, but when you become an adult it looks rather stupid and yet again, that is the whole point of the book.

Duke narrates the story in first person and begins describing this journey as a blurring of the lines of fact and fiction. The fine line on which reality teeters is often blown away by drugs and paranoia that comes from doing them over and over again. They engage in a whole host of reckless behaviours whilst also making conversation with a series of strange and freakish characters.

They check into the Mint Hotel and their reality becomes even more distorted. Duke sinks deeper into madness whilst also not doing the one thing he came to Vegas to do - write the story. He obsesses over Vegas and its decadence. But the one strange thing is that they attend the Mint 400 Motorcycle Race but because they are massively intoxicated and generally acting like assholes, they miss the even entirely. Duke is confronted by the police, they have strange interactions with the staff and of course, the other more reserved tourists of the city - but whilst this is happening, they both become more and more paranoid. They are definitely over the edge, through the looking glass or whatever they would have called it then.

Duke has this running internal narrative that shows us how he's spiralling and after the trip is over, there is something of a catharsis to the whole thing. There is a deep and rather horrific failure of their 'American Dream' and thus, they go through a disillusionment only Duke's final lines to the book can really reflect. It's a massive regret of both of the characters, leaving it all behind and achieving nothing. The ending to the film may reflect some sort of release, but the book leaves us with nothing but loss. They flee the aftermath of their trip. The article that needs to be written is never written. Instead we end up with this. Nothing is realised.

Into the Book

The Disillusionment with the American Dream:

One of the big themes of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the disillusionment with the American Dream. Throughout the novel, Duke reflects on the collapse of the ideals that once shaped the American psyche. In the 1960s, the American Dream symbolised the pursuit of freedom, prosperity, and individualism. But by the early 1970s, this ideal had begun to rot, and what remained was a hollow version of consumerism and excess.

The very name “Las Vegas” evokes images of bright lights, neon signs, and the promise of a good time, but for Duke, it’s a symbol of the decay of the dream itself. In one key passage, Duke comments, “This is the weirdest country in the world, man. They sell you the American Dream...then you can’t get to it.”

As Duke and Gonzo spiral into their reckless behaviour, the book suggests that the countercultural movement, which had sought to reclaim the American Dream through ideals of freedom and individuality, has failed. This is only heightened by the final lines of the text.

Instead of providing a route to personal fulfillment, it led to a sense of aimlessness, shown by Duke’s inability to find purpose in his Las Vegas adventure. This sense of futility, where dreams collapse into nightmare, reflects the disillusionment that characterised the early 1970s in America.

“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.”

- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Addiction:

Addiction is a key theme in the novel, not just as a physical dependency on drugs, but also as a psychological escape from reality. Duke and Gonzo use drugs as a way to disconnect from the world around them, entering a hallucinatory state where they believe they can avoid confronting the chaos of their pretty meaningless lives. But the novel also paints this picture that addiction is no game, it only leads to a deeper and deeper entrapment, spiralling into paranoia and impossible to leave.

For Duke, drugs are not just a form of recreation, but a means of survival. The intoxicating substances offer temporary relief from the alienation and disillusionment he feels with the world. It quickly becomes a cycle of dependency. The only realisation, if any, in the book is that escape is futile and that to mean something means to face up to your own realities. In a rare moment of clarity within the book, he notes, “We can't stop here...this is bat country,” showing the paranoia that fuels his actions and the complete breakdown of rational thought. This is something addiction often does. It clouds thought with paranoid nightmares.

Through this, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas suggests that addiction, whether to drugs or escapism itself, is not a path to freedom. Rather, it’s a means of avoiding confronting reality, a journey that ultimately leads to destruction.

“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-coloured uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”

- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Paranoia:

The author's depiction of paranoia is possibly one of the deepest themes in the whole book, reflecting the collapse of the countercultural American Dream - one that thrived on personal freedom. This is seen best through the reactions to various situations throughout the text. Everyone becomes a danger, even when they aren't. Conspiracies exist where there are none and at times, Duke's paranoia can appear funny to the reader, even though it is something very real to him. It is an extended metaphor for what would become of the American Dream to his generation - an existential crisis for something that should have existed but doesn't. It never did. In his pursuit for freedom he has lost his purpose. But from not having purpose for so long, he has become fearful of the very stability he was once against. It is a fractured back-and-forth which relies on irony in the person's own existence to survive.

The book's treatment of madness is closely linked to this idea. The want to achieve a greater sense of self and personal freedom ended up in emotional and mental dissaray, it ended up crash landing before it even started. The novel's entire style reflects this from the structure to the dialogue to even the illustrations that run many, however crude, in the book.

"So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Why It's a Masterpiece

It critiques American society and its reliance on the consumption of drugs to escape, to produce and to free itself. But another thing it does is it shows us what we fear the most: the actual requirement for purpose and stability. We all want to be free, we all want our own liberation from the slings and arrows of life's milestones and requirements - but then what? Is this where we end up? It may have brought about Gonzo Journalism, but it also brought about some of the most existential questions you would even encounter in modern fiction. I have always believed that this book was not a road-trip text in which two male friends try to find themselves on an adventure that probably isn't the best idea. I have in fact, always believed that this book was a warning against the want for excess.

Conclusion

And so, the American Dream falls flat on its back once again. I personally love this book no matter how much I may trash talk it. It is one of those strange books that you acknowledge is awful but is also brilliant because of how horrifically original it is. We will never see anything like it again. I know we won't.

Next Week: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett