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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

No point mentioning those bats, I thought.

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive….” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming “Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?”

Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. “What the hell are you yelling about?” he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. “Never mind,” I said. “It’s your turn to drive.” I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.

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Hunter S. Thompson

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.

Categories
Hunter S. Thompson

Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?

So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Old elephants limp off to the hills to die

Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars.

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

To relax as it were, in the womb of the desert sun.

There was also the socio-psychic factor. Every now and then when life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only real cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas. To relax as it were, in the womb of the desert sun. Just roll the roof back and screw it on, grease the face with white tanning butter, and move out with the music at top volume, and at least a pint of ether.

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

A constant speed is good for gas mileage- and for some reason that seemed important at the time.

One toke? You poor fool! Wait till you see those goddamn bats. I could barely hear the radio … slumped over on the far side of the seat, grappling with a tape recorder turned all the way up on “Sympathy for the Devil.” That was the only tape we had, so we played it constantly, over and over, as a kind of demented counterpoint to the radio. And also to maintain our rhythm on the road. A constant speed is good for gas mileage- and for some reason that seemed important at the time. Indeed. On a trip like this one must be careful about gas consumption. Avoid those quick bursts of acceleration that drag blood to the back of the brain.

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can’t control it

This is the main advantage of ether: it makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel … total loss of all basic motor skills: blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue- severance of all connection between the body and the brain. Which is interesting, because the brain continues to function more or less normally … you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can’t control it.

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted.

But nobody can handle that other trip- the possibility that any freak with $1.98 can walk into the Circus-Circus and suddenly appear in the sky over downtown Las Vegas twelve times the size of God, howling anything that comes into his head. No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted.