Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Have you seen it? Based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, the film/book follows a journalist and his attorney to Vegas where the dynamic duo degrade and demolish symbols of American consumerism and excess, while the city itself serves as the symbolic backdrop of mainstream America’s crude and commonplace ugliness.
Rolling Stone Cover
Set at the conclusion of the 1960’s era of countercultre, peace (and orgy)-loving hippies, beatniks and anarchists, the characters take you on a psychadelic journey to dystopic nothingness oftentimes begging the question, “what is this movie about, again?” The film wallows in a blurry haze of disconnected ocurrances because the narrorators are on a constant high provided by a cocktail of LSD, weed, cocaine and who-knows-what-else. The scenes sometimes jump between fear and paranoia, leaving the audience wondering what is real and what is insanity. The fall to oblivion amidst acid trips, titty grips, bright lights on the strip only leave our characters in a self destructive darkness.
The reason I saw this as a great piece of literature is because, like all well written and notable fiction, it has been applicable to every cultural era thereafter.
NYC – 2008
New York City has become a place where twenty-somethings (mostly, Caucasian) from everywhere else in America come to lay the foundation of what they want their lives to be…their road toward the so-called “American Dream.” For big money gigs they trade day-to-day happiness ( their souls) for the promise of future suburban perfection and early retirement. They prance and parade their best appearances at work and in the social scene, oftentime driving themselves to narcissistic depression. Most women, as I have observed, are hoping to find the (rich) man of their dreams who will pay for their big house, credit cards and plastic surgery while the men hope to party-hard with model chicks, drive a sports car and settle down with a trophy wife whenever their age expectations call for it (think, Patrick Bateman in American Psycho). Our dependency on anti-depression medications, in all its variations, is definitely out of control–as a generation, many of us are numbing our brains through our stresses and problems rather than to seek foundational solutions (think, Garden State or Prozac Nation). And for those not on behavior-altering meds, we definitely have those who can’t function effectively without alcohol and/or drugs…
After all, would LiL Weezy have dropped such a shotta fire album if he WASN’T on lean/sizzurp & coke?
The point is, ladies and gentlemen, is we need to periodically evaluate our mental, pyhsical and spiritual health…and determine if how we are living and if the things that drive us are fundamentally self-destructive.
