Hunter S. Thompson

from what i've read
>book
campaign trail '72
>article
kentucky derby is decadent and depraved

Campaign Trail '72.
The Battle of Aspen.

>>9574864
his suicide note desu

>>9574972
>>9574987
>Campaign Trail '72.
Could you please elaborate before I have to go to Good Reads to see what makes this unique?

>>9575020
it's hst getting seriously emotionally involved in the idea that american politics could transcend the cynicism of nixon and be redeemed by the election of george mcgovern, a figure of radical honesty that upset both sides of the political spectrum with his desire for fundamental reform.

spoilers: mcgovern loses by a landslide

>>9574972
This

>>9575067
This as well,general unkempt cynicism slowly began to pervade his works after this,which in addition to his deteriorating brain, made his later stuff (and life in general) of much lower quality

Official Hunter S. Thompson Power Rankings:

10/10- Fear and Loathing
10/10 - Screwjack
10/10 - Gonzo papers 1,3,(Great Shark Hunt, Songs of the doomed)
9/10 - Curse of Lono
9/10 - Gonzo papers 2 (Generation of Swine)
8/10 - Hells Angels
8/10 - Rum Diary
8/10 - Kingdom of Fear
7/10 - Gonzo papers 4 (better than sex)
6/10 - Campaign trail '72

>>9575067
I am obviously now quite familiar with the American electoral system after the recent election but not too familiar with every President and his Vice President or whatnot and definetlynot with the losers of each years election.
It won't matter that I have fairly little but not null knowledge of Nixon and the general state of American politics.
He is very illuminative on the whole subject and the circumstances, right?

>>9575117
10/10 Thompson is 6/10 compared to the rest of literature. Adjust rankings accordingly.

>>9575020
also it contains some of hst's best bits of bonkers invention, like this one (about the imagined reaction of anti-mcgovern union leader george meany to mcgovern winning at the dnc):

>But how? George Meany, the seventy-seven-year-old quarterback of the “Stop McGovern Movement,” is said to be suffering from brain bubbles at this stage of the game. Totally paralyzed. His henchmen have kept him in seclusion ever since he arrived in Florida five days ago with a bad case of The Fear. He came down from AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington by train, but had to be taken off somewhere near Fort Lauderdale and rushed to a plush motel where his condition deteriorated rapidly over the weekend, and finally climaxed on Monday night when he suffered a terrible stroke while watching the Democratic Convention on TV.
>The story is still shrouded in mystery, despite the best efforts of the five thousand ranking journalists who came here to catch Meany’s last act, but according to a wealthy labor boss who said he was there when it happened, the old man went all to pieces when his creature, Hubert Humphrey, lost the crucial “California challenge.”
>He raged incoherently at the Tube for eight minutes without drawing a breath, then suddenly his face turned beet red and his head swelled up to twice its normal size. Seconds later—while his henchmen looked on in mute horror—Meany swallowed his tongue, rolled out of his chair like a log, and crawled through a plate glass window.

>>9574864
His suicide note

>>9575118
>He is very illuminative on the whole subject and the circumstances, right?

actually, he absolutely isn't. the book is compiled from his ongoing coverage of the election. this means that 1. you can watch his attitude change from chapter to chapter as the election year proceeds, which is great, but also 2. he was writing for people who knew what was happening, so he doesn't explain shit.

the right way to do this is to read perlstein's nixonland first, because the last quarter or so of nixonland is a detailed account of this very election. then you can read hst's intimate, subjective view of the same events. nixonland's a fun read anyway and reading hst without a knowledge of nixon would rob you of important context. the man was defined by his contempt of nixon and everything nixon stood for.

>>9575117
>f&l on top
>campaign trail on the bottom

i don't do reaction images but imagine something full of contempt and disgust

>>9575177
>nixonland
>near 900 pages
hm. I'll consider how truly interested I am tomorrow morning.
Thanks for the good and helpful info anyways!

>>9575194
i promise it goes down very easily, full of fun anecdotes and quotes. i was fairly uninterested in american politics until i picked that book up on a whim.

File: IMG_8974.jpg (159KB, 624x420px) Image search: [Google]

159KB, 624x420px

>>9574864
Unironically I can only cum when a guy has male pattern baldness since Thompson won me over

>>9575117
I did read screwjack, nice short read and now I don't even have to do mescaline.

Hells Angels and Kingdom of Fear were fun and interesting, but anything good he accomplished is outweighed by his trash gonzo 'journalist' imitators