Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas | | | Many reprintings of the book cover, such as this, are ripped from the poster for the film adaptation. | | Author | Hunter S. Thompson | | Illustrator | Ralph Steadman | | Country | USA | | Language | English | | Genre(s) | Gonzo Journalism | | Publisher | Random House | | Released | 11/11/1971 and 11/25/71 | | Pages | 204 | | ISBN | 0-679-78589-2 | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is a novel by Hunter S. Thompson, illustrated by Ralph Steadman. The story follows its protagonist, Raoul Duke, and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, as they descend on Las Vegas to chase the American Dream through a drug-induced haze. The novel first appeared as a two-part series in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author. ...
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalistic reporting. ...
Random House is a publishing division of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann based in New York City. ...
Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ...
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author. ...
Ralph Steadman (born May 15, 1936) is a British cartoonist and caricaturist. ...
Raoul Duke was the pseudonym used by Hunter S. Thompson for the character based on him in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. ...
Dr. Gonzo is a name invented by Hunter S. Thompson, as a nickname for himself (although in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it became the pseudonym for Oscar Zeta Acosta); hence, the phrase gonzo journalism. ...
Flag Seal Nickname: The Entertainment Capital of the World Location Location of Las Vegas in Nevada Coordinates , Government County Clark Mayor Oscar B. Goodman Geographical characteristics Area City 113. ...
Historical American flags in Washington, DC: the Betsy Ross flag hangs on both ends and the classic Old Glory is to each side of the current 50 state version. ...
// History John Lennon - RS 1 (November 9, 1967)How I Won the War Film Still Founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner (who is still editor and publisher) and music critic Ralph J. Gleason, Rolling Stone was initially identified with and reported on the hippie counterculture of the...
1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...
Plot
Journalist Raoul Duke and attorney Dr. Gonzo travel from Los Angeles, California to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1971 to cover a motorcycle race for a sports magazine and enjoy a haphazardly planned vacation. The vacation turns highly irresponsible and reckless as the two consume copious amounts of illegal drugs, commit various acts of fraud, and generally wreak mayhem upon the citizens of Las Vegas. Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area Ranked 3rd - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²) - Width 250 miles (400 km) - Length 770 miles (1,240 km) - % water 4. ...
1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...
Set in Las Vegas, a symbol of American consumer and tourist culture, during the height of the Vietnam War and the closing of the 1960s counter-cultural movement, Duke and Gonzo find themselves as outsiders in a unique position to analyze the present state of America and chase down the “American Dream”. Combatants Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand the Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~420,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead: 230,000 South Vietnamese wounded: 300,000 US dead...
The outrageously crowded Woodstock festival epitomized the popular antiwar movement of the 60s. ...
Historical American flags in Washington, DC: the Betsy Ross flag hangs on both ends and the classic Old Glory is to each side of the current 50 state version. ...
Origins The book is largely a fictionalized account of Thompson and attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta's actual trip to Las Vegas around the same time period. In real life, Thompson was to cover the Mint 400 motocross race for Sports Illustrated magazine in 1971, for which he was contracted to write photo captions. Coincidentally, he was also commissioned to cover a Las Vegas law enforcement convention for Rolling Stone magazine. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
The Mint 400 was an annual desert off road race for both motorcycles and four wheel vehicles [buggies, cars and trucks] sponsored by Del Webbs Mint Hotel and Casino. ...
A rider cornering during a motocross race in Australia Motocross is a form of motorcycle racing or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits and is widely considered the worlds most popular form of motorcycle racing. ...
The first issue of Sports Illustrated, August 16, 1954, showing Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Matthews at bat in Milwaukee County Stadium. ...
A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. ...
1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...
Before being asked to cover the race, Thompson was in Los Angeles, reporting on the murder of Reuben Salazar and the race riots that resulted from his death. Acosta was a prominent figure in the Chicano community and therefore a natural source for Thompson's story. Finding it difficult for a Hispanic to talk openly to a white reporter in L.A.'s tense atmosphere, Thompson and Acosta decided that Las Vegas would be a more comfortable place to work on the story. Thompson later wrote the majority of Fear and Loathing in a hotel room in Arcadia, California during his spare time while he finished writing the Salazar story for Rolling Stone (later published as Strange Rumblings in Aztlan) [1]. Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ...
Ruben Salazar was an American journalist. ...
A race riot or racial riot is an outbreak of violent civil unrest in which race is a key factor. ...
Arcadia is a U.S. city in Los Angeles County, California that is located about 20 miles Northeast of downtown Los Angeles It is the site of the Santa Anita Park racetrack and home to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. ...
Strange Rumblings in Aztlan is an article published in Rolling Stone #81, dated April 29, 1971 and written by Hunter S. Thompson. ...
What was intended as a 250-word photo-captioning job/road trip snowballed into a novel-length feature for Rolling Stone magazine in November 1971. The text was eventually published as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The novel was heralded as the "best book on the dope decade" by the New York Times and a "scorching epochal sensation" by author Tom Wolfe. // History John Lennon - RS 1 (November 9, 1967)How I Won the War Film Still Founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner (who is still editor and publisher) and music critic Ralph J. Gleason, Rolling Stone was initially identified with and reported on the hippie counterculture of the...
Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...
The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
In the book The Great Shark Hunt, Thompson refers to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as "a failed experiment in gonzo journalism," a guerrilla style of reporting that Thompson championed and publicized throughout his career. Allegedly based on William Faulkner's idea that "the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism — and the best journalists know this," it blends storytelling, fiction, and traditional journalism. The Great Shark Hunt is a book written by Hunter S. Thompson. ...
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalistic reporting. ...
William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was a Nobel Prize-winning novelist from Mississippi. ...
As is true with most of Thompson’s writing, much of the book is based on actual events, however Thompson altered the details to such a degree that the work could easily be considered fiction. For example, the novel describes Duke attending both the motorcycle race and the narcotics convention within a few days time. In real life, both events did indeed take place in Las Vegas 1971, although they took place almost a month apart. [2]. For Thompson to have attended both, he would have likely had to leave Las Vegas for a number of weeks and then come back, severely compromising the frenzied premise of the novel.
Themes The book was an attempt to place the radical activism and drug culture of the 1960s into the context of the (then) present-day mainstream American experience. It explores the idea that 1971 was a turning point in hippie and drug culture in America, the year that the innocence and optimism of the late 1960s turned to cynicism. The outrageously crowded Woodstock festival epitomized the popular antiwar movement of the 60s. ...
1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...
A singer dresses in a stereotypical hippie outfit. ...
The outrageously crowded Woodstock festival epitomized the popular antiwar movement of the 60s. ...
Throughout the novel, the main characters go out of their way to degrade, abuse, and destroy symbols of American consumerism and excess. Much of Las Vegas is used to symbolize the ugliness of mainstream American culture, to which the characters give little respect. In the DVD commentary of his film version of the novel (See Below), Director Terry Gilliam characterizes these actions as a theme of anarchism. Terry Gilliam at Cannes 2001. ...
Anarchism is the name for both a political philosophy and manner of organizing society, derived from the Greek αναÏχία (without archons or without rulers). Thus anarchism, in its most general meaning, is the belief that all forms of rulership are undesirable and should be abolished. ...
Some have suggested that the book's themes resemble those of The Great Gatsby, which deals with the state of the American Dream and the lives of the rich and careless. Others have surmised that the white Cadillac the pair drive (referred to as the "White Whale" in the book) is an allusion to the white whale in Moby Dick, symbolically representative of good and evil and a metaphor for elements of life that are out of people's control. The cover of the Scribner Paperback Fiction Edition, 1995. ...
Cadillac is a brand of luxury automobile, part of the General Motors Corporation, produced and mostly sold in the United States and Canada; outside of North America, they have been less successful. ...
Moby-Dick book cover Moby-Dick — the hyphen in the title is present in the original edition — is a novel by Herman Melville. ...
In language, a metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. ...
The "wave speech" The "wave speech" is an important passage that takes place after much of the chaos has subsided. Thompson considered the "wave speech" to be "probably the finest thing I've ever written." The wave speech describes 1971 as a turning point in the hippie sub-culture. "There was no point in fighting -- on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. 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 -- the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
ISBNs Paperback may refer to a kind of book binding by which papers are simply folded without cloth or leather and bound - usually with glue rather than stitches or staples - into a thick paper cover; or to a book with this type of binding. ...
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
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