Favourite Quotes

Pride and hope and desire like crushed herbs in his heart sent up vapours of maddening incense before the eyes of his mind. – James Joyce  – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

There was in the 18th century an old sinner who stated that if god did not exist he would have to be invented. And the strange thing would not be that god really exists(but that) the notion of the necessity of god could creep into the head of such a wild and wicked animal as man- so holy, so moving, so wise a notion that does man such great honour. – Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov

People speak sometimes about the “animal cruelty” of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to animals. No animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel. A tiger simply gnaws and tears, that is all he can do. It would never occur to him to nail people by their ears overnight even if he were able to do it. – Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov

I think that if the devil does not exist, and therefore man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness. – Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov

With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as objective journalism. The phrase in itself is a pompous contradiction in terms. -Hunter S Thompson – Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72

Hear me people: We have now to deal with another race – small and feeble when our fathers first met them, but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil, and love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. –
Chief Sitting Bull, speaking at the Powder River Conference in 1877.

Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces- and as it gets older and stronger it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her! – Mrs Havisham speaking to Pip – Charles Dickens – Great Expectations

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable…There is another theory which states that this has already happened. – Douglas Adams – The restaurant at the end of the universe.

Prophet of evil, you have never told me anything to my liking. Always your hearts delight is to prophesy evil, and you have never spoken or brought to fulfilment any word of good. And now you declare in prophesy to the Danaans that this is the cause of the anguish the far shooter is bringing them, that I refused to accept the splendid ransom for the girl Chryseis – yes, because my wish is to keep her in my house: and indeed I prefer her to Klytaimnestra the wife of my marriage, as she is in no way her inferior in body or stature, or good sense or the craft of her hands. But even so I am willing to give her back, if that is for the best – I wish my people to be saved, not die. But you must produce another prize for me without delay, so I am not the only one of the Argives without a prize, as that would not be right – you can all see for yourselves that my own prize is leaving my hands. – King Agamemnon to the  Achaean assembly – Homer – The Iliad

Glorious son of Atreus, most acquisitive of all men, how are the great hearted Achaeans to give you a prize? We do not know of any stores of common treasure piled anywhere. What we took at the sacking of cities has all been divided, and it is not right that the army should gather it back again. No, you now let the girl go at the God’s will: and we will recompense you three and four times over, if ever Zeus grants that we sack the well-walled city of Troy. – Achilles to King Agamemnon – Homer – The Iliad

Great man though you are, Godlike Achilles, do not think you can cheat me like this – you will not trick or persuade me to it. Is it so you can hold on to your own prize, while I just sit by and bear the loss of mine, is this why you tell me to give back the girl? No, if the great hearted Achaeans will give me a prize, suiting it to my hearts liking, to be of equal value – then so be it. But if they will not, then I myself will go and take your prize, or Ajax’, or Odysseus’, and carry it away with me: and he will be angry, whichever of you I visit.  But this can be talk for the future. For the present, let us haul a black ship down into the holy sea, and gather a chosen crew, and place in it a hundred oxen for sacrifice, and put aboard the beautiful Chryseis herself. And some man of counsel must be the leader, either Ajax, or Idomeneus, or Godlike Odysseus, or you, son of Peleus, most formidable of all men, so that by due sacrifice you can win the far-shooters favour for us. – King Agamemnon speaking to Achilles – Homer – The Iliad

Oh, you, your thoughts are always set on gain, and shamelessness your very clothing! How can any of the Achaeans willingly follow your orders, to go on expeditions, or fight an enemy with all their strength? It was not the spearmen of Troy who caused me to come here and fight – I have no quarrel with them. They have never rustled my cows or horses, or ravaged the crops in fertile Phthia, nurse of men: because between us lie many shadowing mountains and the roar of the sea. No, it was you, you great shameless creature, you we came with, to give you satisfaction, and to win requital from the Trojans for Menelaus and for you, dog-face. You have no thought or regard for this. And now you even threaten to take away my prize yourself – I laboured hard for it, and it was awarded me by the sons of the Achaeans. I never have a prize equal to yours, whenever the Achaeans sack some well founded Trojan town. My hands bear the brunt of the battles fury. But when the division comes, your prize is by far the larger, and I come back to the ships with something small but precious, when I have worn myself out in the fighting. Now I shall leave for Phthia. It is a far better thing for me to return home with my beaked ships, and I have no mind to stay here heaping up riches and treasure for you and receiving no honour myself. – Achilles to King Agamemnon – Homer – The Iliad

Yes, run home, if that is what your heart urges. I do not beg you to stay for my sake. I have others with me who will show me honour, and chief among them Zeus the counsellor himself. Of all the kings whom Zeus sustains you are the most hateful to me – always your delight is in quarrelling and wars and battle. Strong man you may be, but that is the gift of a God. Go home then with your ships and your companions, and lord it over your Myrmidons. I care nothing for you, your anger does not touch me. But I make this threat to you. Just as Phoibos Apollo is taking Chryseis away from me – I will send her home with my ships and my companions – so I shall take the beautiful Briseis, your prize, going myself to fetch her from your hut, so that you can fully realise how much I am your superior, and others too can shrink from speaking on a level with me and openly claiming equality. – King Agamemnon speaking to Achilles – Homer – The Iliad

Drunkard with the eyes of a dog and the heart of a deer, you have never had the courage to join your people in arming for battle, or to go with the leading men of the Achaeans into ambush – that seems sheer death to you. Oh, far better to go the length and breadth of the Achaean camp stealing the prizes of anyone who speaks against you – a king who feeds fat on his people, with mere ciphers for subjects: otherwise, son of Atreus, this would now be your last outrage. But I tell you this, and will swear a great oath to it. I swear by this staff, which will never again put out leaves or branches, from the moment it parted from its stump in the mountains, and it will sprout no more, since the bronze stripped it of its leaves and bark all round. Now the sons of the Achaeans carry it in their hands when they give judgements, those who guard the ways of justice under Zeus: an oath by this staff has power to bind: I swear now that there will come a time when the loss of Achilles will be felt by the whole number of the sons of the Achaeans. Then for all your anguish you will have no power to protect them, when many fall dying at the hands of murderous Hektor. And you will tear your heart within you in remorse, that you showed no honour to the best of the Achaeans. – Achilles speaking to King Agamemnon – Homer – The Iliad

…Son of Peleus, do not seek open quarrel with the king, since there is no equality with the honour granted to a sceptred king, whom Zeus himself has glorified. You may be a man of strength, with a Goddess for your mother, but he is the more powerful, because his rule is wider. Son of Atreus, you must stop your fury. I beg you, put aside your anger for Achilles, who for all the Achaeans is their great defence against the horror of war. – Nestor appealing for peace between Achilles and King Agamemnon – Homer – The Iliad

Yes all that you say old man is right and true. But this man wants to be above all others, to control all, to rule all, to dictate all and there are some of us I doubt will obey him. The ever living Gods may have created him a warrior, but is that any cause for abuse to spring to his lips? – King Agamemnon responding to Nestor’s appeals for peace – Homer – The Iliad

Coward and nobody would be my names, if I defer to you in everything you care to say. Others can take these commands of yours, but do not give your orders to me, because I doubt I shall obey you now. I tell you another thing, and you mark it well in your mind. I will not come to hand-fighting over the girl, with you or any other – you Achaeans gave her, and now you take her away. But as for the other possessions I hold by my fast black ship, you will not take and carry away any one of them without my will. Come, try if you wish, to make it clear to all: in an instant your dark blood will drip from my spear. – Achilles to King Agamemnon – Homer – The Iliad

Son of Atreus, what is your complaint this time? What are you missing? Your huts are filled with bronze, and there are women enough in your quarters-choice girls, offered to you before all others by us Achaeans every time we capture a town. Or is it yet more gold you are wanting, that will be brought out of Ilios by one of the horse-taming Trojans as ransom for his son-a son bound and brought here by me or some other Achaean? Or some young woman, so you can twine in love with her, and keep her secluded all for yourself? You are the commander :it is wrong for you to lead the sons of the Achaeans on the road to disaster. My poor weak friends, you sorry disgraces, mere women of Achaea now, no longer men-yes, let us go back home with our ships, and leave this man here in Troy to brood on his prizes, so that he can see whether the rest of us are some help to him or not. Now he has even dishonoured Achilles, a much better man than he :he has taken his prize with his own hands and keeps it for himself. But Achilles has no fury in his heart, he lets things pass-otherwise, son of Atreus, this would now be your last outrage. – Thersites shouting at King Agamemnon – Homer – The Iliad

Thersites, you loud-mouth, fluent speaker though you are, stop this, enough of your lone attacks on the kings. I tell you there is no worse man than you among all the numbers that came to Ilios with the sons of Atreus. So we will not have you prating to us with talk of kings, and hurling abuse at them, while watching for your chance to get home. We cannot yet be sure how this business will end, whether we sons of the Achaeans will return home in triumph or failure. So you now sit here abusing Agamemnon, son of Atreus, shepherd of the people, because the Danaan heroes give him many gifts – your talk is nothing but insult. Well, I tell you this, and it will certainly be done as I say. If I find you again in this same foolishness, then may Odysseus’ head no longer sit on his shoulders, may I no longer be called father to Telemachus, if I do not take you and strip off your clothing, cloak and tunic as well, all that covers your shame, and send you blubbering back to the fast ships, flogging you out of the assembly with blows to shame you. – Odysseus to Thersites before beating him with a sceptre – Homer – The Iliad

Oh, this is a really agile man, a ready acrobat! I should think he would be good too if he was out on the fish filled sea – this man could feed a large number with the oysters he could find, diving off a ship, even in rough weather, to judge by the easy tumble to the plain from his chariot. Oh yes, the Trojans have their acrobats too! – Patroklos speaking over the corpse of Kebriones after killing him – Homer – The Iliad

Patroklos you must have thought that you would sack our city, and take the day of freedom from the women of Troy and carry them off in your ships to your own native land – poor fool! In their defence Hektor’s swift horses speed into battle, and I am renowned for my spear among all the war-loving Trojans, for keeping the day of compulsion from them – but you, the vultures will eat you here. Poor wretch, not even Achilles, for all his greatness could help you. – Hektor speaking over the dying Patroklos – Homer – The Iliad

Yes, make your great boasts now Hektor. You were given the victory by Zeus the son of Kronos and Apollo – it was they who overpowered me with ease: they took the armour from my shoulders. But if twenty such men as you had come against me, they would all have died where they stood, brought down by my spear. No, it is cruel fate and Leto’s son that have killed me, and of men Euphorbos – you are the third in my killing. I tell you another thing, and you mark it well in your mind. You yourself, you too will not live long, but already now death and strong fate are standing close beside you, to bring you down at the hands of Achilles, great son of Aikos’ stock. – Patroklos speaking to Hektor as he dies – Homer – The Iliad

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas – Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

It is true that more young people smoke marijuana than drink alcohol (except for wine and beer). They say it is obviously less harmful, and less harmful than tobacco. Most medical opinion agrees with them. The reason for the persecution by the State is that marijuana is impossible to tax. Anybody can grow it in a window box in a moderately dry and warm climate. But by very definition, a pleasure which is not taxable is a vice.

Do not talk to me about that, I am glad to have left it behind me and escaped from a fierce and frenzied master. – An aged Sophocles’ response to a question about whether or not he was still able to have sex – Plato – The Republic

It’s hard work the ascent to Golgotha. Hm… so then its finally been decided, you’re going to marry a man of business and reason, one who has capital of his own, who has two positions and who, “It would appear, is kind”, as Dunechka herself observes. That it would appear is the most wonderful bit of all! It’s because of that that Dunechka, It would appear, is going to get married!…Wonderful! Wonderful!…I’m intrigued though, as to why Mother should have written me that bit about “Our most recent generations”, did she have some ulterior motive: to coax me into taking a favourable view of Mr Luzhin? Oh, those cunning women! – Raskolnikov’s paranoid, selfish and malicious thoughts on reading his Mothers letter regarding his sisters imminent wedding – Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

“She’s lying!” he thought to himself, biting his fingernails in fury. “The proud bitch. She doesn’t want to admit that she has an ambition to be a benefactress…What arrogance! Oh, these base characters! Even when they love it’s as if they hated…Oh, how I…hate them all!” – Raskolnikov’s thoughts about his sisters explanation of why she is getting married – Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

Pain and suffering are inevitable for persons of broad awareness and depth of heart. The truly great are, in my opinion, always bound to feel a great sense of sadness during their time upon earth – Raskolnikov’s paraphrase of  Joseph Fourier’s remarks about Julius Caesar – Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

All night a black serpent of wounded self esteem had eaten at his heart – Describing Pytor Petrovich Luzhin – Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

And then it was that I understood, that power is given only to those who lower themselves and pick it up. – Raskolnikov’s raving attempts to justify his crime – Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment

We didn’t do anything wrong, were on a little vacation here guys, had a bit of an accident, calm down  You guys don’t got shit, you don’t have jack shit. There’s no evidence…nothing, I want your badge numbers cos im suein ya. If They think we’re goin to jail they’re fuckin dreamin…Im suein your family’s and your grandparents and your fuckin pets!…I need a cigarette here for fuck sakes – Ricky’s rant at the police while being arrested – Trailer Park Boys – Season 2 – “The Bare Pimp Project”

“And don’t you think there’s something low and mean about plundering a corpse, and a kind of feminine small-mindedness in treating the dead body as an enemy when the fighting spirit that fought in it has left it and flown? It’s rather like the dogs habit of snarling at the stones thrown at it, but keeping clear of the person who’s throwing them” – Socrates – Discussing the rules of war – Plato – The Republic

Thus, a strain of gentle music, or the rippling of water in a silent place, or the odour of a flower, or the mention of a familiar word, will sometimes call up sudden dim remembrances of scenes that never were, in this life; which vanish like a breath; which some brief memory of a happier existence, long gone by, would seem to have awakened; which no voluntary exertion of the mind can ever recall. – Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist

…those who to achieve their purposes can force the issue, and those who must use persuasion. In the second case, they always come to grief having achieved nothing: when, however, they have depended on their own resources and can force the issue then they are seldom endangered. That is why all armed prophets have conquered and unarmed prophets have come to grief…The populace is by nature fickle; it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to confirm them in that persuasion. Therefore one must urgently arrange matters so that, when they no longer believe they can be made to believe by force. Moses, Cyrus, Theseus and Romulus would not have been able to have their institutions respected a long time if they had been unarmed. Niccoló Machiavelli – Notes on seizing power and keeping it – The Prince

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore, if a prince wants to retain his rule he must be prepared not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need. – Niccoló Machiavelli – The Prince

““Mankind has grown too noisy and commercial; there is little spiritual peace,” One secluded thinker has complained. “So be it, but the rumble of the waggons that bring bread to starving humanity is better, maybe, than spiritual peace,”. Another thinker who is always moving among his fellows answers him triumphantly, and walks away from him conceitedly. But vile as I am, I don’t believe in the waggons that bring bread to humanity. For the waggons that bring bread to humanity, without any moral basis for conduct, may coldly exclude a considerable part of humanity from enjoying what is brought; so it has been already…” – Lebedyev discussing the spiritual drawbacks of progress – Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Idiot

“I do not want this life! If I’d had the power not to be born, I would certainly not have accepted existence on conditions that are such a mockery. But I still have power to die, though the days I give back are numbered. Its no great power, its no great mutiny.” – The consumptive ranting of Ippolit before his botched suicide attempt – Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Idiot

“Because you are an abject creature, because you worried people for half an hour, thinking to frighten them by killing yourself with an unloaded pistol, making such a shameful exhibition of yourself, you walking mass of jaundiced spite, who cant even commit suicide without making a mess of it! “ – Gavril Ardalionovitch berating Ippolit for inciting trouble – Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Idiot

Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy – one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure but turn out to have been the pleasure itself. – F Scott Fitzgerald – Tender Is The Night

They were still in the happier stage of love. They were full of brave illusions about each other, tremendous illusions, so that the communion of self with self seemed to be on a plain where no other human relations mattered. – F Scott Fitzgerald – Tender Is The Night

Dick got up to Zurich on less Achilles heels than it would take to equip a centipede, but with plenty. – F Scott Fitzgerald – Tender Is The Night

One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of the individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick, but wounds still. The marks of suffering are comparable to the loss of a finger, or of the sight of an eye. We may not miss them either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it. – F Scott Fitzgerald – Tender Is The Night

– Throughout this hotel there were many chambers wherein rich ruins, fugitives from justice, claimants to the thrones of mediatised principalities, lived on the derivatives of opium or barbital, listening eternally as to an inescapable radio, to the coarse melodies of old sins. – F Scott Fitzgerald – Tender Is The Night

The Rolling Stone Has Gathered Moss

The old proverb, accredited to Syrian born, Latin writer of the 1st century B.C, Publilius Syrus, states that “A rolling stone gathers no moss”. This means that, a person who moves from place to place constantly, has no real roots. A more modern definition is that a vagabond rarely develops any ties or responsibilities.

Both ancient and modern meanings of this maxim can be applied to the music magazine that derives its name from the expression. When Rolling Stone was first published on November 9th 1967, many thought it related to the Bob Dylan song “Like a rolling stone”, or the band The Rolling Stones. However, the magazine explained its title thusly, :”It’s not just about music, but about the things and attitudes the music embraces. To explain it any further would be bullshit, and bullshit gathers moss.”

How the old proverb relates to this publication is this, Rolling Stone has lost its roots. It is no longer the great bastion of alternative Rock and Roll music and culture that it once was. Basically it has gathered moss in the form of mainstream Pop, Hip-Hop etc. Lady GaGa, Kanye West and Justin Bieber on the front page being prime examples. The second way in which it relates to Rolling Stone is the fact that it has abandoned the people it had ties and responsibilities to. These people being fans of alternative music and “counter-culture”.

In this context, both modern and ancient meanings apply. In one way it is like a rolling stone, in that it has no roots, but in another way it isn’t, as it has gathered moss. There has been a steady decline since the hey-day of co-founder and editor Jann Wenner, when Dr Hunter S. Thompson and his alter ego Raoul Duke were running amok in Las Vegas, the 1972 presidential campaign trail and anywhere else he/they could run up huge bills with other peoples money(or no money at all). Since then Wenner has been turning into Rupert Murdoch, acquiring a monopoly of new publications etc. through “vertical integration”.

In the 2003 documentary filmed between 1996 and 1997, “Breakfast with Hunter”, about Dr Hunter S. Thompson, while exploring the Rolling Stone headquarters on the 25th anniversary of his cult classic “Fear and loathing in Las Vegas” which was first published by Rolling Stone, Thompson recalls the old days. “It is odd you know” he drawls, :”Here we are sitting in the Rolling Stone boardroom…it looks like some kind of a plastic cubicle out of 2004.” He then goes on to say: “25 years ago we were operating out of a loft in San Francisco…you know, shunned as…’Dope Creatures’. I guess that’s really what it was.” Moments later he sprays Wenner in the face with a fire extinguisher. You wouldn’t find the likes of “Fear and loathing in Las Vegas” in today’s modern Rolling Stone, These days you are more likely to see a feature about Eminem or Christina Aguilera.

They still feature content about the likes of The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, but to be fair, in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, Hunter S Thompson and his accomplice/attorney, Oscar Acosta(the 300 pound Samoan) actually laugh at John Lennon, Acosta says, :”That poor fool should have stayed where he was, punks like that just get in the way when they try to be serious.” John Lennon and “The Beatles” were never alternative rock and roll, they just jumped on the “Hippie” bandwagon. As for Hendrix, the reason Rolling Stone have latched on to him is due to the circumstances of his death, it’s all a status thing. “The Grateful Dead” and “Jefferson Airplane” were the true counter-culture bands of that era. This status obsession is evident in Rolling Stone’s “100 greatest guitarists list”, of course Hendrix is number one. He was amazing, but not the best ever, Chuck Berry is number six, which is ridiculous. He was a great innovator and entertainer but most of his riffs sound the same, “Johnny B Goode” and “Roll Over Beethoven” being very similar as well as, “School Days” and “No Particular Place To Go” being barely discernable on first hearing them. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana is number 12, which is just because of his status and death, Cobain had to speed up his solo for “Smells like teen spirit” on the turntables in the studio. He was average at best. Easily the top two Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton are number nine and four respectively. Further proof of the decline is the fact that in 2003, they were 2nd and 3rd respectively, and have not been replaced by any guitarist who wasn’t around then.

In his song “Like a rolling stone”, Bob Dylan constantly says, :”How does it feel?”, “Nice and thick” might be Jann Wenners response regarding his wallet. It’s not all that surprising that Rolling Stone has declined so much, it just got too big for its boots if you’ll pardon the cliché. It has become a hulking, stagnant mass. The rolling stone has gathered mould only 43 years after its birth. But this was inevitable, when a publication gets as big as Rolling Stone, it is hard to stay underground. For instance, Kerrang!, the British magazine, was dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock in the beginning, with the “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal(N.W.O.B.H.M)” in the late 70s/early 80s. Bands like Iron Maiden and Diamond Head were featured. These days they feature the likes of Slipknot.

Hunter S Thompson “Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail ’72” Book Review

Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville Kentucky in 1937, during the course of his colourful life he worked as a journalist in South America, ran for sheriff of Aspen Colorado on a “Freak Power” ticket and lost by a very small margin, participated in Ken Kesey’s first “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests” and is attributed with pioneering “Gonzo” journalism. Many of his books are Penguin or Harper Perennial modern classics including “Hells Angels: A strange and terrible saga”, cult classic “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” and “Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail ’72”. He took his own life in 2005 at the age of  68.

In 1972 Hunter S. Thompson travelled across the U.S.A  covering the democratic primaries and ultimately the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon and George McGovern. The man described by Guardian as “The first rock-star writer” gives us a savagely honest account of the campaign, laying bare all the shameful, treacherous realities of American politics. But the mood is not always so serious, Thompson’s trademark rants are a recurring mood lightener as are the very crude drawings of British sketch artist Ralph Steadman who has illustrated a lot of Thompson’s work including “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas“.

The overall theme of the book is corruption in politics with an underlying theme of the death of the American dream. The latter is the same as that of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas“. In 1966 Thompson, the first journalist ever to compare Richard Nixon to Adolf Hitler, was commissioned by publishers Random House to write a book on the death of the “American Dream”, after a couple of years of fruitlessly trying to write the book, things were looking dim. In 1971 Thompson travelled with his attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta, a Mexican-American “Brown Power” Lawyer referred to in the book as “a 300lb Samoan” to cover the “Mint 400“ dirt bike race and ultimately a narcotics convention attended by police from all over America for Rolling Stone magazine. They armed themselves with a suitcase full of drugs, among the collection was “Acid”, Mescaline, Ether and Adrenachrome. What came of the trip was not two articles but the book Random House had commissioned from him on the death of the “American Dream” an experiment in a form of journalism he coined “Gonzo”. It was originally published in Rolling Stone under the psuedonym Raoul Duke in two parts on November 11th and 25th 1971. What first earned Thompson notoriety was “Hells Angels: A strange and terrible saga”. He wrote “Hells Angels” after a year of hanging around L.A with the notorious motorcycle gang. Thompson maintained that these men were the last remnants of the old west,  which is what beat author Jack Kerouac said of the box-car “hobo’s” in his 1957 cult classic “On the road” The overall theme of the book is corruption in politics with an underlying theme of the death of the American dream. The latter is the same as that of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas“. In 1966 Thompson, the first journalist ever to compare Richard Nixon to Adolf Hitler, was commissioned by publishers Random House to write a book on the death of the “American Dream”, after a couple of years of fruitlessly trying to write the book, things were looking dim. In 1971 Thompson travelled with his attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta, a Mexican-American “Brown Power” Lawyer referred to in the book as “a 300lb Samoan” to cover the “Mint 400“ dirt bike race and ultimately a narcotics convention attended by police from all over America for Rolling Stone magazine. They armed themselves with a suitcase full of drugs, among the collection was “Acid”, Mescaline, Ether and Adrenachrome. What came of the trip was not two articles but the book Random House had commissioned from him on the death of the “American Dream” an experiment in a form of journalism he coined “Gonzo”. It was originally published in Rolling Stone under the psuedonym Raoul Duke in two parts on November 11th and 25th 1971. What first earned Thompson notoriety was “Hells Angels: A strange and terrible saga”. He wrote “Hells Angels” after a year of hanging around L.A with the notorious motorcycle gang. Thompson maintained that these men were the last remnants of the old west,  which is what beat author Jack Kerouac said of the box-car “hobo’s” in his 1957 cult classic “On the road”. In this time he went on “runs” with them, witnessed orgies and “stompings” and even received one himself by gang members for objecting to an “Angel” beating his wife and dog. The prose in all three of these books is more or less the same, savagely honest as well as very creative and amusing. The theme of all three can tie in together basically as the death of an old way of life looked at in a mournful and fearful way hence the catchphrase “Fear and Loathing”. Thompson illustrates this in many ways throughout the book. Some of the most prominent examples of this corruption are the Watergate scandal, drug abuse of democratic nominees, the Anyone But McGovern movement and Nixon selling out his own party. Also he discusses the fact that Nixon’s election in the 1968 effectively ended the sixties and also the “American Dream”.

The book begins with  an authors note on how it was lashed together in a 55 hour sleepless, foodless, high-speed editing frenzy. This is “Gonzo” journalism, the style of writing Thompson is accredited with starting. After this he discusses the biggest democratic nominees George McGovern, George Wallace, Ed Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, Scoop Jackson, John Lindsay and Shirley Chisholm as well  as the importance of the “youth vote“ and George McGovern’s talk of “new politics“. Each  chapter covers a month and each month there is a primary. Thompson also reveals the harsh and stressful realities of a presidential campaign and the need for some candidates to turn to speed and ibogaine to keep up their hectic schedule. The most important months of the book are March, April, June, July and December. In march democratic frontrunner Ed Muskie’s campaign begins to fall apart culminating in a drunken horror show as a vagrant Peter Sheridan armed with Thompson’s press credentials runs amok on the Muskie “Sunshine Special” campaign train, then claws at his ankles and screams at him for gin as he tries to give a speech in Florida. April features McGovern’s stunning upset in Wisconsin and his building of momentum while Muskie’s overcrowded bandwagon starts to go off the rails. In June some “Heavy Pol’s” take over the McGovern campaign, Humphrey(who Thompson describes as a treacherous, brain-damaged old vulture) threatens to give his state to Nixon if McGovern wins, Nixon comes from behind in the GOP race and the first signs of the “Anyone But McGovern” movement. In July McGovern “stomps” the A.B.M movement and wins the democratic nomination. December is in Thompson’s own words “A crude autopsy and quarrelsome analysis on why McGovern got stomped”. The epitaph is a great ending to the book featuring an analysis of how political journalism cripples the ability to go back to sports writing etc and some more amusing stories, like him introducing himself to Ed Muskie as Peter Sheridan saying “We met on the sunshine special in Florida…I was out of my head”.

Although Thompson may have been biased in the favour of George McGovern in the presidential race, he remains objective in his analysis of the campaign as a whole and the reasons for McGovern’s landslide defeat. The New York Times called “Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail ‘72” “The best campaign book ever published” and George McGovern called it “The most valuable book on the campaign”. In my opinion this book is excellent, it gives you all the important facts and information you need to understand the complexities of the American presidential campaign. Not only does it give you all the facts, it does so in an entertaining and amusing way as opposed to a lot of political journalism which reads like a computer manual. There are also many insightful observations throughout. Like the comparison of the last days of the democratic race when the “old bulls” like George Meany were desperately  trying to save their party, to that of the Roman empire, saying that everywhere you looked there was a prominent politician publicly “degrading themselves”. Based on the facts of this book and events that happened afterwards(Watergate etc.), I agree with the central theme of this book, that politics is full of lies and treachery. Especially in America were the corruption seems more sinister than the misappropriation of funds by our Irish politicians which seem almost trivial when compared to perverting the course of justice and burglary. On a scale of one to  ten I would give this a ten, which I do not feel is too generous due to the fact that all the information was there and it was entertaining, amusing, understandable and honest which is rare in politics.