Hunter S. Thompson

[R-V]

Can't seem to find a thread on him. Currently reading The Great Shark Hunt, a great collection of his articles from the 60s and 70s. It includes several articles about his favorite punching bag, Richard Milhouse Nixon. For my money it doesn't get much better than an extended Thompson rant about that rotten waterhead. Here's an excerpt just for you, Gil.

Nixon's entire political career - and in fact his whole life - is a gloomy monument to the notion that not even pure schizophrenia or malignant psychosis can prevent a determined loser from rising to the top of the heap in this strange society we have built for ourselves in the name of "democracy" and "free enterprise." For most of his life, the mainspring of Richard Nixon's energy and ambition seems to have been a deep and unrecognized need to overcome, at all costs, that sense of having been born guilty - not for crimes or transgressions already committed, but for those he somehow sensed he was fated to commit as he grappled his way to the summit.

Looks like there are 3 more volumes of the Gonzo Papers - planning on reading all of them, but any one that's particularly good? Other Thompson favorites I should check out? I'm a moron, so the only other book of his I've read is Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

[Bort]

Hell's Angels is actually pretty damn good.

[flannj]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas his probably his best known book and definitely worth reading.

My favorite is The Curse of Lono.
It's full of great illustrations by Ralph Steadman.
The combination of Thompson and Steadman is very, very twisted.

[Gilgamesh]

Can't seem to find a thread on him. Currently reading The Great Shark Hunt, a great collection of his articles from the 60s and 70s. It includes several articles about his favorite punching bag, Richard Milhouse Nixon. For my money it doesn't get much better than an extended Thompson rant about that rotten waterhead. Here's an excerpt just for you, Gil.

Nixon's entire political career - and in fact his whole life - is a gloomy monument to the notion that not even pure schizophrenia or malignant psychosis can prevent a determined loser from rising to the top of the heap in this strange society we have built for ourselves in the name of "democracy" and "free enterprise." For most of his life, the mainspring of Richard Nixon's energy and ambition seems to have been a deep and unrecognized need to overcome, at all costs, that sense of having been born guilty - not for crimes or transgressions already committed, but for those he somehow sensed he was fated to commit as he grappled his way to the summit.

Looks like there are 3 more volumes of the Gonzo Papers - planning on reading all of them, but any one that's particularly good? Other Thompson favorites I should check out? I'm a moron, so the only other book of his I've read is Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

Meh.  I've heard worse.

Also, Nixon's health care plan was more liberal than Obama's.

[Oleg]

Can't seem to find a thread on him. Currently reading The Great Shark Hunt, a great collection of his articles from the 60s and 70s. It includes several articles about his favorite punching bag, Richard Milhouse Nixon. For my money it doesn't get much better than an extended Thompson rant about that rotten waterhead. Here's an excerpt just for you, Gil.

Nixon's entire political career - and in fact his whole life - is a gloomy monument to the notion that not even pure schizophrenia or malignant psychosis can prevent a determined loser from rising to the top of the heap in this strange society we have built for ourselves in the name of "democracy" and "free enterprise." For most of his life, the mainspring of Richard Nixon's energy and ambition seems to have been a deep and unrecognized need to overcome, at all costs, that sense of having been born guilty - not for crimes or transgressions already committed, but for those he somehow sensed he was fated to commit as he grappled his way to the summit.

Looks like there are 3 more volumes of the Gonzo Papers - planning on reading all of them, but any one that's particularly good? Other Thompson favorites I should check out? I'm a moron, so the only other book of his I've read is Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

Start reading them all.  Some of it, as you may suspect, is haphazard and is just weird.  But a lot of it is a pretty rivetting look at society during whichever period he's writing in.  Generation of Swine, about the '80s, is cool as shit dick.

Also, check out Kingdom of Fear.

Hell, just read it all.

[Wheezer]

Start reading them all.  Some of it, as you may suspect, is haphazard and is just weird.

Remind me to give you my copy of the December 1961 Rogue magazine.

[Internet Apex]

Intrepid Reader: Paul

Meh.

[Internet Apex]

Great Shark Hunt is my favorite, Campaign Trail of '72 comes second. I think that era was the height of Thompson's power and relevance. I think he will always be important reading for anyone intersted in politcal and/or literary journalism. But at that time he was really out stomping on the terra, getting in where the action was and giving us a dose of his completely unique perspective. This is in sharp contrast to his later work, in which he was holed up in his compound at Woody Creek destroying his mind and body with drugs and drink and stewing in his own bitterness. Anything after 1980 is optional in my opinion, though I read all of it. Every single god damn word I could get my eyes on.

Don't sleep on The Proud Highway, collection of letters... fuck am I talking about? Has anybody reading this thread not read all of Thompson's books yet? Well, get crackin', dipshit.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Great Shark Hunt is my favorite, Campaign Trail of '72 comes second. I think that era was the height of Thompson's power and relevance. I think he has and always will be important. But at that time he was really out stomping on the terra, getting in where the action was and giving us a dose of his completely unique perspective. This is in sharp contrast to his later work, in which he was holed up in his compound at Woody Creek destroying his mind and body with drugs and drink and stewing in his own bitterness. Anything after 1980 is optional in my opinion, though I read all of it. Every single god damn word I could get my eyes on.

Don't sleep on The Proud Highway, collection of letters... fuck am I talking about? Has anybody reading this thread not read all of Thompson's books yet? Well, get crackin', dipshit.

I've never read anything by him.

[Bort]

Great Shark Hunt is my favorite, Campaign Trail of '72 comes second. I think that era was the height of Thompson's power and relevance. I think he has and always will be important. But at that time he was really out stomping on the terra, getting in where the action was and giving us a dose of his completely unique perspective. This is in sharp contrast to his later work, in which he was holed up in his compound at Woody Creek destroying his mind and body with drugs and drink and stewing in his own bitterness. Anything after 1980 is optional in my opinion, though I read all of it. Every single god damn word I could get my eyes on.

Don't sleep on The Proud Highway, collection of letters... fuck am I talking about? Has anybody reading this thread not read all of Thompson's books yet? Well, get crackin', dipshit.

I've never read anything by him.

That's because all you ever read is that one Royko column about ketchup on hot dogs over and over and over...

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Great Shark Hunt is my favorite, Campaign Trail of '72 comes second. I think that era was the height of Thompson's power and relevance. I think he has and always will be important. But at that time he was really out stomping on the terra, getting in where the action was and giving us a dose of his completely unique perspective. This is in sharp contrast to his later work, in which he was holed up in his compound at Woody Creek destroying his mind and body with drugs and drink and stewing in his own bitterness. Anything after 1980 is optional in my opinion, though I read all of it. Every single god damn word I could get my eyes on.

Don't sleep on The Proud Highway, collection of letters... fuck am I talking about? Has anybody reading this thread not read all of Thompson's books yet? Well, get crackin', dipshit.

I've never read anything by him.

That's because all you ever read is that one Royko column about ketchup on hot dogs over and over and over...

Royko wrote multiple columns on that, man.  Multiple.

[CT III]

Great Shark Hunt is my favorite, Campaign Trail of '72 comes second. I think that era was the height of Thompson's power and relevance. I think he has and always will be important. But at that time he was really out stomping on the terra, getting in where the action was and giving us a dose of his completely unique perspective. This is in sharp contrast to his later work, in which he was holed up in his compound at Woody Creek destroying his mind and body with drugs and drink and stewing in his own bitterness. Anything after 1980 is optional in my opinion, though I read all of it. Every single god damn word I could get my eyes on.

Don't sleep on The Proud Highway, collection of letters... fuck am I talking about? Has anybody reading this thread not read all of Thompson's books yet? Well, get crackin', dipshit.

No mention of his work with OSI or SPHINX?

[Oleg]

Great Shark Hunt is my favorite, Campaign Trail of '72 comes second. I think that era was the height of Thompson's power and relevance. I think he has and always will be important. But at that time he was really out stomping on the terra, getting in where the action was and giving us a dose of his completely unique perspective. This is in sharp contrast to his later work, in which he was holed up in his compound at Woody Creek destroying his mind and body with drugs and drink and stewing in his own bitterness. Anything after 1980 is optional in my opinion, though I read all of it. Every single god damn word I could get my eyes on.

Don't sleep on The Proud Highway, collection of letters... fuck am I talking about? Has anybody reading this thread not read all of Thompson's books yet? Well, get crackin', dipshit.

I've never read anything by him.

This is the worst sentence you've ever written.  You are, literally, worse than Hitler.

[Internet Apex]

Great Shark Hunt is my favorite, Campaign Trail of '72 comes second. I think that era was the height of Thompson's power and relevance. I think he has and always will be important. But at that time he was really out stomping on the terra, getting in where the action was and giving us a dose of his completely unique perspective. This is in sharp contrast to his later work, in which he was holed up in his compound at Woody Creek destroying his mind and body with drugs and drink and stewing in his own bitterness. Anything after 1980 is optional in my opinion, though I read all of it. Every single god damn word I could get my eyes on.

Don't sleep on The Proud Highway, collection of letters... fuck am I talking about? Has anybody reading this thread not read all of Thompson's books yet? Well, get crackin', dipshit.

I've never read anything by him.

That's just not smart. Because I'm pretty sure you'd enjoy the shit out of most of it.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Great Shark Hunt is my favorite, Campaign Trail of '72 comes second. I think that era was the height of Thompson's power and relevance. I think he has and always will be important. But at that time he was really out stomping on the terra, getting in where the action was and giving us a dose of his completely unique perspective. This is in sharp contrast to his later work, in which he was holed up in his compound at Woody Creek destroying his mind and body with drugs and drink and stewing in his own bitterness. Anything after 1980 is optional in my opinion, though I read all of it. Every single god damn word I could get my eyes on.

Don't sleep on The Proud Highway, collection of letters... fuck am I talking about? Has anybody reading this thread not read all of Thompson's books yet? Well, get crackin', dipshit.

I've never read anything by him.

That's just not smart. Because I'm pretty sure you'd enjoy the shit out of most of it.

I'm not in any danger though, am I?