Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '04

According to The Hill, Hunter S. Thompson will be writing a book about the 2004 presidential campaign. (Via Wonkette)

Comments

[Jade Monk]

About damn time he slowed down on the Jim Beam, cut the satellite TV, and did some writing, even if I'm sure to growl about it during and afterwards. Dude's been pissing away his life with the excuse that he's too famous to go outside for too long. Glad to hear he's doing something for VF too, if only because that's what he does best: writing for periodicals.

[Douglas Fletcher]

I'm afraid the only decent title for the book will be "Swan Song." Been a while since I found the man had anything interesting to say, unfortunately.

[Doug]

I've been rereading some of his old stuff. Turns out he was never very good. And he hasn't done anything even slightly worth reading since the 70s. Hearing this tired asshole give his worthless opinion on modern-day politics sounds like the must-miss even of the season.

[hqm14]

Love HST or hate him, he still writes better than both of you (and probably had a lot more fun in life, too).

Seriously, learn to respect a great author when you see him. You don't see me bashing Orwell because he was a filthy pinko, do you?

Thompson was, is, and will continue to be a great and prolific individual, and his dull critics will just have to live with that fact.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Uh yeah okay sure right. I'll run my opinions on omelettes by you next week, just to make sure I'm not dissing some formerly great egg-laying chicken on account of the green eggs she's been putting out lately.

[hqm14]

You know what? Your jokes suck, too.

Maybe you should try something not involving the internet, computers, or wit. Something where the skills you clearly excel in can be best applied as the market wills them, like the janitorial field!

Better yet, let me know when you have some legitimate literary or journalistic criticism, ok?

Now quit slandering a better journalist than yourself and get your mop. 🙂

[Erik]

You two can put your dicks back in your pants.

I for one will be looking forward to a new political book by HST. Even though he hates GWB possibly more than Nixon, he did an amazing job in F&L on the Campaign Trail. It is a long read and very involved, but to all those who think he is a hack, I would recommend this be the work you judge him by.

[Pavel]

Well it wouldn't be unfair to say that he's been out of touch with the world, especially compared to how he was in his prime.

And even if he has been recycling his work from '70s for the last twenty years, his involvement with and penetration of that time and place were deep.

It's still less like "journalism" and more like reading someone's memoirs and seeing how they compare to your experience of modern times.

[Douglas Fletcher]

"Now quit slandering a better journalist than yourself and get your mop. :)"

Okay, I'll take the mop, you take the toilet brush. And don't put it in your mouth this time--we want clean toilets, remember?

Oh by the way, did hear there isn't going to be a Beatles reunion? Sorry to have the be the one to break it to you, just thought you should know.

[Andrew Lynch]

Great, more noise from someone who's opinion doesn't matter.

[Jade Monk]

To the haters:

Thompson certainly peaked in the late 60s, early 70s. His weekly stuff for the SF Chron in the 80s was not very insightful, and "Better Than Sex," about the '92 election, was ridiculously stupid. Excluding all his memoirs, autobiographies, etc., I think that was the last real piece of nonfiction he's done in two decades; instead he's been recycling the bad, Kerouac-esque fiction he wrote in his 20s.

HOWEVER, I highly recommend his early nonfiction, like "Hell's Angels," "The Great Shark Hunt," and most of all his collections of letters like "The Proud Highway." Hilarious stuff.

I'm sure his new book will be along the lines of "Better Than Sex," but I'll read it anyway.

[joe]

"Thompson certainly peaked in the late 60s, early 70s."

Yes, he certainly did. :-)))

[Stephen Fetchet]

He has basically been all downhill since the Hells Angels kicked his ass.