Fear And Loathing Of Las Vegas : Journalism With Acidic Twists By Hunter S. Thompson

Around the time of the novels publication in the late 1960s, a new literary genre had begun to surface: New Journalism. New Journalism sought to combine the elements of news writing and journalism with the elements of fiction writing. Described as being a form of literature that “engages and excites”, it sought to challenge its readers not only “emotionally” but also “intellectually”. Typically, New Journalism consists of four major characteristics such as

John Hollowell's, critical analysis of Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood focuses on the way Capote used journalism and fiction to try and create a new form of writing (82-84).

It is not always easy to look someone in the face and address their faults. Yet, Clare Booth Luce’s introduction of her speech is straight to the point and effective through her appeals to ethos and pathos as well as various tones to do just that. The purpose of her speech is to criticize the tendency of the American Press to sacrifice their journalistic integrity in favor of the public demand for sensationalist stores. In a number of ways, Luce is successful in setting up her speech’s message and working towards cushioning her audience for her upcoming

Literature is considered a mirror of the society. The pool of content in literary writing stems from the environment in which the writer is placed. A writer will use this environment to advance his/her views of the society and at the same time drive into the audience/readers important information that he/she wishes to pass. Hunter S. Thompson has used his creativity in the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas written in the 1960s to reflect on American society with Las Vegas as the point of reference.

Readers naturally respond to credible authors when reading articles, autobiographies or novels; it is an channel for audiences to connect to their narrators. When famous actor and director Tom Hanks writes an article for “New York Times”, it will not be disregarded and will grip the attention of readers instantly due to his credibility. By Tom Hanks fame for his award winning movies and roles, his pieces of writings will be publicized and noticed by the public, demonstrating a key concept of ethos; appealing to credibility. Hanks’ article will be listened and analyzed deeply because of his status, especially since he was a student who attended a junior college for his first two years of higher education. Hanks states, “I couldn’t afford tuition for college anyway. I sent my final

Coined “mudrakers” by President Theodore Roosevelt, journalists wrote investigative articles exposing social, economic and political scandals. The writers detailed the many horrors of poverty, urban slums, dangerous factory conditions, and even child labor. No one was safe from the “mudrakers”, their articles took aim at the food and insurance industries, prostitution and political bribery and corruption. All which satisfied the American public’s appetite for scandal. Not unlike the sensationalism used by media today to help influence public

Journalists are infamous for their motivation to produce hard hitting editorials, twisting the truth for their own selfish benefit. Steve Chapman strays away from this stereotype by ensuring integrity in every article. Continuously, Chapman strives to present the public with his analytical opinions. Douglas Adams describes the drive of Steve Chapman; “To give real service, you must add something which cannot be bought of measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity”. Steven Chapman, who writes weekly op-eds for the Chicago Tribune, delivers insight into national headlines using suggestive rhetoric appeals to address the reader’s fears of uncertainty followed by accredited reasoning, a condescending tone targeted at the written subject, calling the reader for reformation within society, and dashes to separate general statements from definitive fact, shifting from a mission-based point of view to thought-provoking opinionated writing in order to spark motivation within his readers using his opinions so that they can take action to better their communities in hopes of improving future national development.

At the beginnings of the 1900s, some leading magazines in the U.S have already started to exhibit choking reports about unjust monopolistic practices, rampant political corruption, and many other offenses; which helped their sales to soar. In this context, in 1904, The Appeal to Reason, a leading socialist weekly, offered Sinclair $500 to prepare an exposé on the meatpacking industry (Cherny). To accomplish his mission, Sinclair headed to Chicago, the center of the meatpacking industry, and started an investigation as he declared“ I spent seven weeks in Packingtown studying conditions there, and I verified every smallest detail, so that as a picture of social conditions the book is as exact as a government report” (Sinclair, The

It was perplexing time for The New York Times; a chapter, in their long-run, of fabrications that are now consider fabulists and egregious plagiarism. Hard News by Seth Mnookin, recounts the time a narcissistic and pedantic executive editor, named Howell Raines took took charged of the steering-wheel of one of the most reliable and prominent newspapers in the nation. It is described how Raines and other high-profiled and important figures for the paper, such as managing editor Gerald M. Boyd, dealt with the Jayson Blair’s scandal. The Jayson Blair scandal is about the terrible repercussions when plagiarism and fabulism is committed by a reporter. It not only tarnishes the reporter’s reputation but the newspaper’s transparency as a whole. I

In, “One Man’s Rumer I Another Man’s Reality, Gregory Rodriguez, an author of the Los Angeles Times he argues about the power of broadcasting the truth and its effect on the people. As a result, “can false rumors and off-the-wall theories be corrected by broadcasting the truth” (Gregory Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times, September 28, 2009)?

Thompson also goes on the road. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, while a smashing success, is a two-fold failure. First, Thompson and his attorney (Oscar Zeta Acosta; the attorney is never named, except, some think, in the urgent speed letter as Dr. Gonzo) also fail to find the American Dream. With all its opportunities for sex, drugs, and money, they simply can't find it, no matter how hard they try. The second failure is one on part of Thompson; he edited the manuscript at least five or six times, destroying his goal of "buying a big fat red notebook and writing things basically as they happened". The book is not true gonzo journalism, as it had been tainted by editing as well as Acosta's threats of libel.

The story begins abruptly, as we find our mock heroes out in the desert en route to the savvy resort of Las Vegas. The author uses a tense hitchhiker as a mode, or an excuse, for a flashback that exposes the plot. An uncertain character picked up in the middle of the desert who Raoul Duke, the main character, feels the need to explain things to, to help him rest easy. They had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers....Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw either, and two dozen amyls. They were on

The turbulent societal changes of the mid-20th Century have been documented in countless forms of literature, film and art. On the Road by Jack Kerouac was written and published at the outset of the counter-culture movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This novel provides a first-hand account of the beginnings of the Beat movement and acts as a harbinger for the major societal changes that would occur in the United States throughout the next two decades. On the contrary, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a Hunter S. Thompson novel written in 1971 provides a commentary on American society at the end of the counter-culture movement. Thompson reflects on the whirlwind of political and social activism he experienced and how American society had

Moral power held by literature or art has often smashed against some form of material power and censorship. For instance, books against the ideas of the Nazi regime such as Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto” were burnt in the Nazi’s book burning of 1933 and The Bible is currently banned from North Korea. Authors have therefore been pressured into finding a method to avoid the strict restrictions forced by material power. In this paper, I will argue that Philip K. Dick was able to criticize the government and the situation of America in the 1960s, without suffering consequences, thanks to the generation of a time shift in his novel and the construction of a parallel between story and history hence manipulating the line between fiction and reality.

Taken at face value, Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night and Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test may seem very similar. They are both centered on a major author of the 1960s and his experiencing of historical events of the time, while set in the style of New Journalism. When examined closer, though, it becomes apparent that these novels represent two very different sides of New Journalism – Armies of the Night an autobiography with personal and political motivations, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test a sociological piece which tries to capture the essence of its subjects rather than the absolute facts. By looking at the form and style which the novels were written in and the motives behind Mailer’s Armies of the Night and Wolfe’s The