Limerick - Fear and Loathing

There once was a man in Las Vegas

He took drugs and was utterly shameless

He called it the dream,

Went completely extreme

Always thinking he was totally blameless

He even had an attorney best friend,

Even though it was mostly pretend,

Far from reality,

Even farther morality,

His life was a downright dead end

As he slumped on his bed in the city

Waiting to go to a narcotics committee

Tripping on acid,

And entirely blasted,

And even a little bit tipsy

He left the hotel in a mess

With only the maids to asses

Feeling half-dazed

Eyes fully glazed

He knew he would never confess

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold” (3).

Man Disregards Paying for Hotel:

Leaves Behind One-Hundred Thousand Dollars in Damages

An older looking man, later found out to go by the name of “Raoul Duke” leave a disconcerting mess in his hotel room at the Flamingo hotel. The manager describes the mess as looking like “a narcotic exhibit,” and it seemed as though “there was evidence, in the room, of excessive consumption of almost every type of drug known to civilized man since 1544 A.D” (188). After further scrutiny, the maids found “shards of broken glass embedded in the wall plaster,” and the bathroom floor was “six inches deep with soap bars, vomit and grapefruit rinds.” The rug, “mottled,” was “so thick with marijuana seeds that it appeared to be turning green,” and the broken mirror had “smears of mustard that had dried to a hard yellow crust” (188).

One maid finally gave privy to seeing Mr. Duke as well as his attorney, Dr. Gonzo before they left, saying that they looked “like cops” and that they seemed to be“here for the convention.” The two were in a “drug-induced dazed” as they harassed her. Finally they told her that they would “put her on the payroll,” and she would get “a thousand dollars on the ninth of every month” but “the first time she said anything about this, she would go straight to prison for the rest of her life” (183). We officers assured her that they she was not going to prison -- we also vindicated her suspicions of Mr. Duke and Dr. Gunzo being criminals as well as lying to her.

In this day and age, many citizens are becoming part of the “counterculture” - a culture that advocates for a transcendence of societal norms. Many of these “counterculture” advocates are convinced that by acting in such an imbecilic and unnerving manner they are pursuing their own American Dream. Some examples of this movement are manifested in the outrageous indulgence in LSD and marijuana, as well as a large antiwar sentiment. We, as officers, believe that this situation is a microcosm of this counterculture, and that this movement should be annihilated immediately.

“The room looked like the site of some disastrous zoological experiment involving whiskey and gorillas” (180).

Counterculture: Not so fun after all

Hunter S. Thompson’s novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, highlights the experience of a journalist, Raoul Duke, reporting in Las Vegas in the 1960's. Raoul Duke tells the story from his perspective; however, because Duke is always high, the perspective perpetually switches between Duke’s internal feelings and his outward sentiment, giving the audience a sensation of nausea. Thompson’s exaggerated writing through elaborate details help illuminate his views criticizing the counter-culture of American in the 1960's.

Raoul Duke and his attorney are given a boatload of money to report on a motorcycle/buggy race in Las Vegas. At one point, in the very beginning, Duke is looking all over Vegas to find drugs, and a  “Vincent Black Shadow,” an unnecessarily attractive car, when he tells his attorney, “...Just one hour ago we were sitting over there in that stinking baiginio…when a call comes from some total stranger in New York…expenses be damned...I tell you man, this is the American Dream in action! We’d be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way out” (Thompson, 11). Duke regarding himself having a conspicuous “Vincent Black Shadow,” exorbitant marijuana/mescaline/LSD/cocaine, and hundreds of dollars as being the “American Dream in action” reflects the American feeling in the 1960's. Thompson is satirizing the perverted sense that counter-culture advocates had of the American Dream. Kronenwetter describes the American counterculture as being “people who rejected the tastes and values of mainstream America” by “experimentation with psychedelic drugs” (Kronenwetter, 1).  In this statement, Duke is epitomizing this belief. Duke himself is not actually part of the counterculture because he is more individualistic that the countercultural; however, Thompson uses Duke to denounce the movement in America.

Duke alludes to the countercultural history a multitude of times throughout the novel. At one point, Duke chastises Timothy Leary, a leader of the movement, stating, “...selling ‘consciousness expansion’ without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in it for all the people who took him too seriously” (Thompson, 178). Leary was a martyr for the movement, who “embraced psychedelic drugs and an unconventional lifestyle as the means for discovering one's true relation to the universe” (antiwar movement, 1). What’s ironic about Thompson’s writing, is that Leary was an earnest man, with truthful intentions. The idea of people “taking him too seriously” is conceivable, because Leary was serious. Thompson accentuates this idea further by stating, “This is the same cruel and paradoxically benevolent bullshit that has kept the Catholic Church going for so many centuries. ...a blind faith in some higher and wiser “authority...Pope, General, all the way up to ‘God’” (Thompson, 179). Thompson is suggesting that Leary had authority in the movement, much like the “Pope” has authority for the Catholic Church. At the same time, however, Thompson satirizes that Leary was given too much authority, because he compares him to “God,”  as if proposing that Leary was thought to be omnipotent.

Vietnam also plays a part in the countercultural movement, and in the novel as well. At one point, Duke and his attorney are in a hotel tripping on acid and the phone rings. Duke answers, stating, “What do you want? Where’s the goddamn ice I ordered? Where’s the booze? There’s a war on, man. People are being killed! The room clerk responds, “almost whispering”, and says “Killed?” Duke retorts, “In Vietnam! On the goddamn television” (Thompson, 123). The irony of the scene is that Duke doesn’t seem to actually care for the soldiers in Vietnam, he is using it as an excuse to get off the phone. Furthermore, Duke is stating this as he is tripping on acid. The idea that Duke would care so much about the soldiers in Vietnam, yet have an utter lack of care for his own well being (because he is tripping on acid), is ludicrous. Not only this, moments before Duke’s attorney raped a woman. The further emphasizes an absence of ethics his attorney has. As stated before, Duke and his attorney are not part of the countercultural movement; Nevertheless, Thompson is using this to make a social claim about the the hypocrisy of the movement. James Kirkpatrick describes the countercultural anti-war movement as  “attracting many young Americans, who began to have a vision of a world without violence, hatred, or prejudice;” yet these same Americans were taking harmful drugs (Timothy Leary, 1).

Duke describes the 1960's as a time where “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” (Thompson, 68). Thompson is satirizing the countercultural movement as being “invincible” and “untouchable.” Throughout Thompson’s complex exaggerated writing, Thompson is able to mask - but yet make perceptive - his antagonistic views of American countercultural in the 1960's.

Works Cited

1. Kronenwetter, Michael. "counterculture." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 19 May 2015
2. "antiwar movement." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 19 May 2015.
3. "Timothy Leary." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 19 May 2015.
4. Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. New York: Random House, 1971. Web. 19 May 2015

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