Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (German title: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ; literally "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas") is a roman à clef by Hunter S. Thompson , who in the 1971 United States appeared. The plot of the book is based on two trips to Las Vegas that Thompson made in March and April 1971 with Oscar Zeta Acosta in the novel “Dr. Gonzo ”, undertook.

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“We had two bags of weed , seventy-five balls of mescaline , five sheets of blotting paper of extra strong acid , a salt shaker half full with cocaine and a whole spectrum of multi-colored upper, downers, howlers, laughs ... as well as a liter of tequila , a bottle of rum , a case of beer, half a liter undiluted ether and two dozen poppers . We'd gathered all that stuff together the night before, on a wild ride to hell through the entire Los Angeles district; from Topanga to Watts we grabbed everything we could get hold of. Not that we really needed all of that stuff for the trip, but once you get involved in a serious drug collection you tend to get extreme. "

- Hunter S. Thompson : Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Raoul Duke is a sports journalist and is supposed to report on the Mint 400 off-road race in the desert near Las Vegas . He is supported by his bizarre lawyer Dr. Gonzo accompanied. The two perceive their work only marginally, more important to them is their own massive drug consumption while they are looking for the American dream . The two stay under false names in Las Vegas (Raoul Duke is actually Hunter S. Thompson himself, Dr. Gonzo Oscar Zeta Acosta). In the second half of the novel, while intoxicated, they attend a district attorney's convention on drugs. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a radical reckoning with the "American way of life" and the naivety of the hippie generation and can also be considered a trip report . The author looks back on the thinking of the hippies and the desperate attempt to live in the "prime" of his life again. The real purpose of the drugs is to try to escape "the harsh reality of the 70s". That this attempt to escape - and its failure - constitutes the most important core idea of ​​the book is made clear by the motto which Thompson prefaces his novel:

"He who makes himself an animal frees himself from the suffering of being human."

- Dr. Johnson

filming

The book was filmed in 1998 by former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam , also under the title Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . As a leading actor playing Benicio Del Toro as Dr. Gonzo and Johnny Depp , who was a close friend of Hunter S. Thompson, in the role of Raoul Duke. Thompson himself can be seen briefly in two cameo appearances . He appears once sitting on a chair at the Matrix Club in San Francisco and once at the desert race while shooting.

Scenes from the novel were also used in the 1980 film Blast (a comedy about Thompson) with Bill Murray in the lead role.

reading

The German translation of the book was read in by Günter Amendt , Martin Semmelrogge and Smudo in 2002 and presented on an extensive reading tour through Germany. A 4-CD box with the read parts was released by Kein & Aber Records (which with a total playing time of 3 hours and 57 minutes comprise almost the entire book), the cover, labels and inner covers of which were illustrated by Ralph Steadman .

literature

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