The Five Ghosts discussion

So I got caught up in a conversation with Alanna earlier on, and a book came up in the going ons that I think would be an awesome and interesting read for next month.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, by Hunter S. Thompson.

Now, a loose summary, as follows from Wiki... I say "loose" because the story really has no linear path.

"The novel lacks a clear narrative and frequently delves into the surreal, never quite distinguishing between what is real and what is only imagined by the characters.

The basic synopsis revolves around journalist Raoul Duke and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, as they arrive in 1970s Las Vegas to report on the Mint 400 motorcycle race. However, they soon abandon their work and begin experimenting with a variety of recreational drugs, such as LSD, ether, cocaine, alcohol, mescaline, and cannabis. This leads to a series of bizarre hallucinogenic trips, during which they destroy hotel rooms, wreck cars, and have visions of anthropomorphic desert animals, all the while ruminating on the decline of culture in a city of insanity."


Basically it's a giant TRIP, in more ways than one. But it's an important read because it really satires the "go-good" feeling of the sixties and the subsequent crash during the seventies, and really puts a play on the so called "american dream", and the escapes from the harsh reality that, in essence, is our life.

And again it's just a morbidly fascinating read. You don't know if half of it is actually happening, or if the narrator is just imagining it, but it's certainly something that'll make you think while giving you some impressive imagery.

On top of that, it's not a huge read, and also has some pretty cool illustrations. C:

So what do y'all think? I'll be reading it regardless, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to toss them out.

Just remember...

We can't stop here!

This is BAT COUNTRY!

:3Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

You know, I like LSD (Jimi Hendrix had some wild trip, I gotta see this one :D), and I like destroying hotel rooms. I'd be down for that if my opinions matters--but I'll read anything, say it, and I'll read it!

You know you guys can just link to the goodreads page by hitting that add book/author button at the top of the text box? XD I know some people don't, or don't care. But it would have saved you the wiki copypaste.

I have this on my nook already. So, I'll read it.

I don't really have a suggestion this month.

Sounds like a good read to me

Ha, so I just downloaded a PDF of the book, and the person who put it together had a note at the end. "I have endlessly been sickened by coming across file after file of jumbled, typo filed crap...I have gone through this document faithfully to make it, both, legible and a pleasure to read."

...The PDF was in comic sans.

Gotta love irony.

Meri wrote: "Ha, so I just downloaded a PDF of the book, and the person who put it together had a note at the end. "I have endlessly been sickened by coming across file after file of jumbled, typo filed crap......"

At least it wasn't papyrus.

Argh, school's been holding me up.

Same here, but I did finish the book... SO, any particular thoughts on it? XD

I'm about 40% through....really....bizarre.

Bizarre... in a good way?

ok, I finished it the other day. I still stand by what I said before. Never really knew what was going on. I still can't decide whether or not I liked it. I started watching the movie this morning...definitely not what I expected.

One thing to take in mind is that the book is the defining piece of Gonzo Journalism, which is a form of journalism where pieces are usually written in a very subjective first person point of view. Exaggeration, sarcasm (and satire), heavy language, and the blurring of fiction and non-fiction is pretty apparent.

So the events are semi-true, and that's what I like to chalk up to the seemingly... 'pointless' direction of the book. Life doesn't always have a point. Just because you take an epic trip somewhere doesn't mean it's going to have a clear moral, direction, or defined plot. Sometimes people don't change. Sometimes there is no evolution of the characters within.

With that in mind, Fear and Loathing is a recollection of events, rather than the telling of a story. Plot takes a backseat and you're merely THERE. It's a trip, a pointless trip, but a trip nonetheless.

However, if you want to take something from it, the idea of the 'American dream' Duke is constantly chasing throughout Fear and Loathing is a nice point to bring up. Almost every action and happening is justified by the American Dream, which I feel is being heavily lampooned. Almost like... being called out. It's like, 'Hey! I'm chasing the American Dream. I'm in a trashed motel room with no memory of the night before, but it doesn't matter. I'm chasing the American Dream. I can't fail!'

But, ultimately, it does fail. Or maybe a more accurate thing to say is that it never happened. There wasn't really an attempt to catch or succeed in any dream. It was just the act of going about the American Dream. So, it's almost as if it was failed from the start. The main character couldn't not fail.

Duke is still the same disillusioned and displaced man he was when the book started. His reminiscence of the generation before is an important bit that adds to all of this. It's almost like Duke is trying to salvage the sense of belonging he had in the Sixties through a haze of drugs that had him so high those few years earlier.

But he can't. He can't keep that same high. He can't get back to that peak of his life where, as he describes, "...there was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning..."

And isn't that sort of the heart of the American Dream? Doing right, winning the race, changing the world? But what happens when that moment is gone?

That's what I think this book is about, the chasing of something that is no longer there. Whether that something is a dream, a cause, or just that high you used to always get, it doesn't matter. It's gone.

This line sums the feeling of that moment pretty well...

"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 —that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

The moment's there, the moment's gone.

Or... something like that. That's just something I got out of the book. Sorry for the long rant. :p

I felt like the book was trying to say that the American Dream was a joke, that it never really existed. When they were in the diner (bear with me if this isn't completely accurate...it was one of the more confusing parts) and talking to the waitress and the cook about where they could find it and how it was supposedly in this random building which turned out to be burned down, I think that was saying something about how no one really knows or cares what the "American Dream" really is. Everyone is pretty fucked up and that is all that really becomes apparent. It doesn't matter what you're chasing or what you are doing something in the name of because you're still going to give in to the psychological breakdowns and be completely immoral.

Yep yep. It was a bit of an obvious jab, I thought, but it may have been necessary given the haphazard circumstance of the rest of the book.