Fear and Loathing

One toke over the line, sweet Jesus

I love Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hunter S Thompson is a genius. Fact. You can look that up in the dictionary. Turn to "genius" and underneath Albert Einstein and all those lot you'll find a picture of Hunter S Thompson. Well, maybe not, seeing as I've never had a dictionary that has pictures in it (pictionary?) , but all the same, I do deem him to be somewhat of a legend for creating what he has created and sharing it with us all. And the brilliant thing is that many people that I know, familiar with the film quite amicably, have decided to read his book as well!

I admit it, I read the book after watching the film. Obsessively. Well, maybe not quite that far, but I have seen it a fair few times. The first thing that strikes you though is that you start reading the book in Johnny Depp's Raoul Duke voice, from the first line. Pretty much the word GO and that film starts playing through your head. Except it's in words as well! In front of you! How excellently written. Very well played as well to Mr Depp for making such a memorable job of it all. I will actually write a smiley face now. :)

However, as you would expect any book that is mere memoirs of a drug fuelled rampage in an arrogant and obnoxious city, some parts are rather odd. Of course, I must find this having never experimented with psychedelic drugs, and certainly not to the extent that Duke and the Samoan have. Of course, I wasn't really about in the 60s, or the 70s, or even the 80s, so of course have very little experience of their drug habits and public attitudes towards them at the time. But there are some things that are a bit funny.

Like the dwarf with the phone. Why do you need a dwarf to carry a Bakelite phone around whenever you wish to call someone from the middle of a hotel bar? Of course a mobile phone would be an outrageous idea because the world wasn't ready for them in the 70s. But why did a dwarf have to bring them a phone on a platter? Why a dwarf? True, they did a good job in dressing him up in a little suit and all. He looked very suave. Was a normal person not capable of carrying this phone over to them whilst they drank cocktails and ate mescal on the side? I don't know. Might be a dwarf activated phone.

Whilst we're still on wildlife, why were they so adamant about obtaining this chimpanzee? What use would a chimpanzee be to anyone? For the lengths that Duke bargained in order to try and obtain this beast, what use would it be anyway? For one, they're not even pretty. They are fat and ugly and have wrinkly faces. And blow raspberries a lot. Not my sort of companion. But not only that, where would the mad fools keep the beast? Duke and his attorney get up to too many chimpanzee-unfriendly adventures that Mr Chimp would be left out or in the wrong place at the wrong time. And people would stop and stare if it were trying to be like people and its masters. Its masters would be out of their minds all the time, and would set a very bad example to it. Also, what would it eat? Where would it sleep? The valets always take the cars, so certainly not in the trunk of a car, nor the backseat. And it couldn't eat the stuffing from the seats either, because it is highly lacking nutrition. Best they didn't get that beast.

I also never realised how health conscious they were as well. SO MUCH GRAPEFRUIT. GRAPFRUIT ISN'T EVEN THAT GREAT. so why have so much of it?

That book is crazy. That's why I like it. But it doesn't really do Las Vegas many favours as a tourist destination. If I ever go, I'll bring golf shoes.