Sunday, June 20, 2010
Reading Response - Fear and Loathing
I absolutely enjoyed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. When I entered the class I assumed we would be reading classics that I already read in high school, and I am thrilled that I was wrong. I had heard of the movie "Fear and Loathing" but I had no idea what it was about. I ended up really enjoying reading it, although in the beginning of the novel I was a bit confused. Was there really a sting ray in the middle of Sunset Boulevard? Of course not, but Thompson's hallucinations were giving him these crazy images. It took me awhile to get used to the flow of the novel, with the way he incorporated his hallucinations as if they were reality, and also the way Thompson would go into flashbacks for pages at a time without warning to the reader. Once I looked up what some of the drugs were I started to get more into the story, understanding how seriously these drugs took over Thompson's world. I kept expecting some trip to be his last, always forgetting it is a nonfiction novel and he clearly could not have written it if it ended in his death. It just shocks me that individuals can live their lives in a constant haze, having no real grasp on reality and always endangering their own lives. While I enjoyed the novel and it certainly kept me interested, it almost made me feel dirty to imagine such a lifestyle. I wanted to take a shower and go to confession after reading it, and I'm not a Catholic.
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I am glad that you enjoyed the book! It just didn't do it for me. I didn't like how confusing everything was. I can't agree with you more on how happy I am that we are not reading the classics, that can be a little boring! It is hard for me to believe that someone can have such hallucinations as Thompson did!
ReplyDeleteThompson is all about telling it how it is...whether is happened or not! His feelings and expectations, and ideas, and outcomes are all a part of his journey. By letting us into his mind we see how crazy chasing a dream can be!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about The Story started off slow and started to pick up as it went on. Also, It was hard to tell if he was hallucinating or not. Also how you said how people can live like that when they can find reality. I wouldn't have ever read that book if she didn't choose it.
ReplyDeleteCourtney, I liked the book as well! It was so interesting to read about the hallucinations and reality, all blended together, because that is what was really happening to him. Some people might say,"Wow, what a lifestyle." But if you think about it, he did what he wanted, not caring so much about laws or other people. Sometimes I believe people today don't do enough things that they want, and they care tooo much about following rules, that they don't have fun.
ReplyDeleteI can’t say I enjoyed the book, but I believe that is only because I was so confused the entire time. I love how you said it made you feel "dirty" reading it, because I did as well. I was talking with my grandmother about having to get my homework done and read Thompson's book, and when she asked me what the book was about I felt almost embarrassed telling her about it. She is a Hard Core Catholic. =) All in all I think that if I sat down and reread the book in the future I feel I may actually enjoy it. It makes it so much easier to understand after watching the movie because it allowed me to visually see what was real or not and what was a flashback or a present rant.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how you would have felt had I assigned The Unbearable Lightness of Being as I did the first semester I taught his class. It's classified as erotica, what I usually refer o casually as literary porn. It's deemed a classic. Most "Literature," most art for that matter, doesn't deal with happy tales of people who follow the rules. Most art delves into the dark side of human existence, digging through the bile until it finds something beautiful or until the artist can make something beautiful out of the grotesque. Other classics include Lolita, whose protagonist (or hero) is a pedofile. His obsession sickens you, but you also feel sorry for him because of the events in his childhood that made him the man he became. No person is simply the superficial exterior of what we see and hear. They are much more complex than that. And so is any work of art.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the book was hard to read but loved the fact that we are not reading classical novels. I love to read books that I can get into and this book was one of them. The movie was off the hook. It really let me understand what we read more. Cant wait to read more great books.
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