No greater example of dudeness ever existed. This man did it right.
Yeah he was way cool.
Not sure I'd call him Dude.
A lot of Walter in there.
He wasn't about chill.
He was about pushing to beyond the limit.
But certainly way cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkWupnH8Uvs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSWZTsLGcVU
Quotes
"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
- Hunter S. Thompson
"The Wave" has always been my favorite HST quote.
"Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
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."
? Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUgs2O7Okqc
Dammit. Writing like this, whenever it's written, convinces me that I've missed a very special time in this world. I wasn't around in the 60s, but I wonder if it wasn't our last, best, chance to turn back the tide and retake the world. Or, maybe, that's just projection on my part. It could have been just as fucked then as now. I dunno.
Quote from: jgiffin on July 24, 2018, 12:27:00 AM
Dammit. Writing like this, whenever it's written, convinces me that I've missed a very special time in this world. I wasn't around in the 60s, but I wonder if it wasn't our last, best, chance to turn back the tide and retake the world. Or, maybe, that's just projection on my part. It could have been just as fucked then as now. I dunno.
And what is the most demoralizing is how it's been misinterpreted and co-opted for some progressive bullshit "movement".
The wave was great but today I feel myself saying "get a job sir"!
This is just like my opinion, man; I think Hunter S. Thompson embodies both elements the Dude and Walter.
Thoughts, dudes?
Quote from: DigitalBuddha on July 27, 2018, 12:29:28 AM
This is just like my opinion, man; I think Hunter S. Thompson embodies both elements the Dude and Walter.
Thoughts, dudes?
I'm with you Dude.
He was a non-conformist in the extreme.
He loathed authority figures like Nixon.
But he was extreme in his way of expressing his beliefs.
And he famously worshiped guns.
He was very much both extremes.
Which I take as a valuable lesson in relation to the Dude / Walter / Donnie holy trinity.
The individual is meant to find their place on the scale.
Not be a pure expression of Dudeness of Walterness.
But that's just like my opinion man.
HST did a good job of taking the pure essence of the Dude nature (at least the "this will not stand" part) and bolstering it with a good amount of Walter.
Imagine placing HST in the place of the Dude in the same story line.
I'm thinking that the rug pissers might have had a rougher experience.
HST certainly would have been packing.
He always did.
"Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio."
? Hunter S. Thompson
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"
? Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
"We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness."
? Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
"A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance."
? Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
It depends, in my opinion.
Hunter in-person is crazy like hell, I've heard stories that tend to bizarre, his new style of journalism is way fucking cool.
If you say Hunter played by that other guy from Secret Window and Jack Sparrow I can't remember the name in the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, that can be a dude-like figure; in most moments.
Quote from: EsmagaSapos on August 13, 2018, 05:20:06 PM
It depends, in my opinion.
Hunter in-person is crazy like hell, I've heard stories that tend to bizarre, his new style of journalism is way fucking cool.
If you say Hunter played by that other guy from Secret Window and Jack Sparrow I can't remember the name in the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, that can be a dude-like figure; in most moments.
Well I take your point if you are speaking of the Rum Diary. Which was a semi autobiographical novel.
Paul Kemp is a fairly well intentioned character.
But his other works were works of "gonzo journalism".
The Raoul Duke character more closely resembles the actual HST in real life.
It's just that HST has been associated with wild behavior primarily for so long that it's difficult to imagine him doing a lot of Abiding.
But yeah there is a bit of a gray area.
Taken from Wikipedia
"I'm never sure which one people want me to be [Thompson or Duke], and sometimes they conflict... I am living a normal life, but beside me is this myth, growing larger and getting more and more warped. When I get invited to Universities to speak, I'm not sure who they're inviting, Duke or Thompson... I suppose that my plans are to figure out some new identity, kill off one life and start another."
But even his normal life is fraught with a lot of gun play and wild behavior.
Shot up his neighbor's house.
Covering the America's cup yacht race he spray painted "Fuck the Pope" on one of the boats and set several others on fire with a flare gun.
That was HST and not Duke.
Oh yeah, I remember watching 'The Rum Diary' a while back. I just don't remember the movie.
I like 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', first I didn't understand it, like 'The Big Lebowski', then I watch it again and Boom!... that's why I did a search on HST in the first place, he dresses the same, walks the same, talks the same, but have some wild tendencies that don't show him performing in the movie, just expresses that his capable of those things.
Quote from: robriggle on July 19, 2018, 10:40:23 PM
No greater example of dudeness ever existed. This man did it right.
"Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards, to absinthe and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and contraceptives... and to the "good life", whatever it is and wherever it happens to be."
HST
Quote from: robriggle on July 19, 2018, 10:40:23 PM
No greater example of dudeness ever existed. This man did it right.
April 22, 1958
57 Perry Street
New York City
Dear Hume,
You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal? to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself.
I am not a fool, but I respect your sincerity in asking my advice. I ask you though, in listening to what I say, to remember that all advice can only be a product of the man who gives it. What is truth to one may be disaster to another. I do not see life through your eyes, nor you through mine. If I were to attempt to give you specific advice, it would be too much like the blind leading the blind.
?To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ?tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles ? ? (Shakespeare)
And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives. So few people understand this! Think of any decision you?ve ever made which had a bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I don?t see how it could have been anything but a choice however indirect? between the two things I?ve mentioned: the floating or the swimming.
But why not float if you have no goal? That is another question. It is unquestionably better to enjoy the floating than to swim in uncertainty. So how does a man find a goal? Not a castle in the stars, but a real and tangible thing. How can a man be sure he?s not after the ?big rock candy mountain,? the enticing sugar-candy goal that has little taste and no substance?
The answer? and, in a sense, the tragedy of life? is that we seek to understand the goal and not the man. We set up a goal which demands of us certain things: and we do these things. We adjust to the demands of a concept which CANNOT be valid. When you were young, let us say that you wanted to be a fireman. I feel reasonably safe in saying that you no longer want to be a fireman. Why? Because your perspective has changed. It?s not the fireman who has changed, but you. Every man is the sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective.
So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to accomplish anything other than galloping neurosis?
The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all, or not with tangible goals, anyway. It would take reams of paper to develop this subject to fulfillment. God only knows how many books have been written on ?the meaning of man? and that sort of thing, and god only knows how many people have pondered the subject. (I use the term ?god only knows? purely as an expression.) There?s very little sense in my trying to give it up to you in the proverbial nutshell, because I?m the first to admit my absolute lack of qualifications for reducing the meaning of life to one or two paragraphs.
I?m going to steer clear of the word ?existentialism,? but you might keep it in mind as a key of sorts. You might also try something called Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre, and another little thing called Existentialism: From Dostoyevsky to Sartre. These are merely suggestions. If you?re genuinely satisfied with what you are and what you?re doing, then give those books a wide berth. (Let sleeping dogs lie.) But back to the answer. As I said, to put our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. So we do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors. WE STRIVE TO BE OURSELVES.
But don?t misunderstand me. I don?t mean that we can?t BE firemen, bankers, or doctors? but that we must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal. In every man, heredity and environment have combined to produce a creature of certain abilities and desires? including a deeply ingrained need to function in such a way that his life will be MEANINGFUL. A man has to BE something; he has to matter.
As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES. In doing this, he is fulfilling a need (giving himself identity by functioning in a set pattern toward a set goal), he avoids frustrating his potential (choosing a path which puts no limit on his self-development), and he avoids the terror of seeing his goal wilt or lose its charm as he draws closer to it (rather than bending himself to meet the demands of that which he seeks, he has bent his goal to conform to his own abilities and desires).
In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important. And it seems almost ridiculous to say that a man MUST function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life? the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.
Let?s assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And let?s assume that you can?t see any real purpose in any of the eight. THEN? and here is the essence of all I?ve said? you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH.
Naturally, it isn?t as easy as it sounds. You?ve lived a relatively narrow life, a vertical rather than a horizontal existence. So it isn?t any too difficult to understand why you seem to feel the way you do. But a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.
So if you now number yourself among the disenchanted, then you have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else. But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life. But you say, ?I don?t know where to look; I don?t know what to look for.?
And there?s the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look for something better? I don?t know? is it? Who can make that decision but you? But even by DECIDING TO LOOK, you go a long way toward making the choice.
If I don?t call this to a halt, I?m going to find myself writing a book. I hope it?s not as confusing as it looks at first glance. Keep in mind, of course, that this is MY WAY of looking at things. I happen to think that it?s pretty generally applicable, but you may not. Each of us has to create our own credo? this merely happens to be mine.
If any part of it doesn?t seem to make sense, by all means call it to my attention. I?m not trying to send you out ?on the road? in search of Valhalla, but merely pointing out that it is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that? no one HAS to do something he doesn?t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that?s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You?ll have lots of company.
And that?s it for now. Until I hear from you again, I remain,
your friend,
Hunter
One of my favorite pieces of writing, ever. HST was my guy. He is missed, but fortunately he left us plenty of gems like this one for the ages.