Quick Synopsis (Spoiler Free) Road sign outside of Barstow, CA. Fun fact, this book just turned 50 years old on Jul 7, 2022. None of them are able to be posted here but the drawings and artwork are all over his website. One of my favorite aspects of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” are the illustrations done by Ralph Steadman.
He is able to offer insights on the “American Dream”, journalism and one of Thompson’s favorite topics, Richard Nixon.
His perspectives offer a distorted and often terrifying view of Las Vegas and America. In Thompson’s book, “ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, he is the protagonist, reporter, drug fiend and agent of chaos throughout the entire narrative. I am not proficient in media history, but his efforts to create gonzo journalism, a style written without objectivity usually set in the first person perspective, is one of the more chaotic approaches and critiques in journalism’s history. Thompson was a radical mainstream journalist, at least in American culture. Sometimes this isn’t an inherently bad thing, as we are able to have more “objective” reporting through outlets like AP News.
Sure there is a ton more equipment and technology to capture new types of media and perspectives, but the grime-y corporations in charge of pumping out the central perspective of what a country’s culture is and should be remains the same. Journalism hasn’t changed much in the past 50 years.
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