Contrast

Brian Huynh

I disagree with you about how the morals of the story are contrasting each other. Like how I said in my last post, I believe that the morals correlate each other quite well. I think that discovering the American dream also relates to you finding your voice because to succeed in one of these morals, you would have to succeed in the other one. This is why I believe that the morals of both of these stories is not a contrasting aspect, but a similar aspect. But there is one aspect which I agree with you, the way the two books were written were a completely different way of writing. You were right on how The Rum Diary was more of a "good guy, bad guy" sort of writing style. Kemp was portrayed as a "good-guy" because of he was trying to do and what he was believe was right. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in my opinion doesn't have any fancy writing style. This is what makes the book so unique. The writing style that this book has is just a memoir in a sort because these adventures that he had in Las Vegas was actually real and he could write about it in the first person basis.

Contrast Post 2

As far as contrasts go the biggest one would be the moral of the story, as different stories tend to have. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas the moral of the story or the goal of the story was to find out what the American Dream was. Although it took a while for the story to finally get to the main point, it was still a thoughtful moral to the story and almost had a “Wrap the story up like a present and top it off with a bow” feeling. For The Rum Diary the moral or the goal of the story was to find the protagonist’s voice, and in turn showing the reader that everyone has to find their voice at some point and without it one cannot reach self fulfillment in their life. He did this by finally sticking it to the “man” and finally just saying, “I’m going to write about what I want to write. I’m going to write about what’s really happening in the world and tell it to them straight.” Another difference between these books would be that the “problems” were different. For example for The Rum Diary the problem was the bad guys. So essentially the book was based off the classic good guy bad guy storyline with the good guys realizing their voice. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas the problem was cops… everywhere. Every second of the story was based on trying to avoid the authorities since they were either high out of their minds or just plain running away from their past crimes across the crazy town of Las Vegas.

Comparison

Brian Huynh

I agree with you about how the obvious similarity between these two books is the drugs that are being implemented on Thompson. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, like you said, almost every page was him either taking drugs, gathering more drugs, or his crazy altered reality and hallucinations due to the drugs. Also in The Rum Diary, instead of taking the hardcore drugs that are stereo typically labeled as the worse drugs, he takes heavy doses of rum. Another similarity that I think that these two books find in common is the moral and the theme of both. It may not seem like there are any moral or theme due to the wildness and craziness of the adventures that Thompson has but if you comprehend and analyze the story, you will discover that both of these books have similar morals and theme. The theme is discover what you really are behind all the smoke and figure out what you really believe in. In Fear and Loathing, the theme was to discover the American dream and in Rum Diary, the moral was to figure out your voice and doing what you think is right.

Comparison Post 1

The first thing you can tell between these books is the relevance of drugs in both novels. Both of the protagonists in the novels did drugs and alcohol along their adventure. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas it is shown throughout the novel and nearly every other page has a hit of mescaline or a line of heroin. In The Rum Diary it is, instead of hardcore drugs, massive amounts of alcohol and a couple drops of the “strongest drug known to man kind” (pg. 176). These massive amounts of alcohol also include the craziest rum I’ve ever heard: 460 proof rum. That’s insane! No wonder they called it The Rum Diary. Another similarity is that the protagonist always had a right hand man along side him doing the same things he did and that buddy ends up helping him achieve the goal he wanted to achieve in the first place (and often times that goal was the moral of the story). In Fear and Loathing he had his “attorney” and in The Rum Diary he had Sala. Another important factor in both novels was that both protagonists were journalists or writers. This is significant because the author got to portray his more personal and intellectual thoughts on the papers of the protagonists. This allowed for a nonsense book to start to dip into reality and start making some sense. Without it the books that we read would be meaningless and empty, just a story of some people off on an adventure doing drugs and stuff. 

The Rum Diary Post 4 Chapters 15-End

Brian Huynh

I believe that what you said about how Paul Kemp was trying to "find his voice" was a major theme to this book. I believe that this is the whole mission that Kemp was trying to complete throughout the whole book. Anyone could of gotten paid for doing what the newspaper company told him to do but he knew that the writing that he would of done was not writing that he would of meant. Just how you made the comparison to fog and smoke in mirrors is what the newspaper company did to the readers, is exactly what I would of said. What I think about the situation is that Kemp did the right thing. Not writing about the false topics and ideas that the newspaper company was the right idea because like I said earlier, this is not his voice and would of made him regret doing it. I believe that this adventure that he had ties in to all of his novels that he wrote as well. All of his novels are based on his real life adventures and situation and he isn't afraid to cover up anything he has done in the past. He takes in illegal drugs and writes about it. If that doesn't make for a great author then I don't know what is! I believe that since he writes so much with his voice is what really makes him unique. He provides us with a different perspective of life and doesn't cover anything up.

The Rum Diary Post 4 Chapters 15-End

In this section of the book I wanted to discuss and stress the event of Paul Kemp, aka Hunter S. Thompson in protagonist form, finding his “voice” as a writer. This moment I think is what the whole story was about, even though it wasn’t all too clear from beginning to end. What I think he meant by “finding his voice” was finding his style of writing. This voice was to write about the truth and fight for what he thinks is right, not for greed and writing with the intent of creating smoke and mirrors in front of the reader, or creating a façade to allure and channel the reader into different and biased thoughts. No. Although the drinking problem was a bad cover for a book, the story inside said that Kemp was an honest man and noticed what was right and wrong in the world and had an urge to tell everyone. This was of course kept inside of him because the newspaper chief told him to write about the good things of Puerto Rico, not the bad things in which Kemp wanted to write about so much. I still question why the newspaper chief didn’t let Kemp spill his guts with ink in the newspaper. He had plenty of articles he could have printed that would have caught the attention of the Puerto Ricans and allow them to take action in their community against the corporations. What do you think about this situation? What do you think about Kemp finding his voice and why is this important? 

The Rum Diary 11-15

Brian Huynh

I have noticed Kentaro, that your observation about how Hunter S. Thompson's novels has mostly a different perspective in life. In all the novels I have read by him was mostly just his altered vision in life influenced by drugs. I agree with you that his adventures in these places could of been without the influence of drugs but that is what makes it interesting. This is what makes Hunter S. Thompson so unique and such a good author. He supplies a different aspect of life that most people don't have any experience in which entertains his readers. Also, Puerto Rico is also a very currupt place like you said earlier which makes the adventure that he went through so much more intesting. Also, when Kemp went to jail and got bailed out I felt as if Sanderson actually cared about him which makes me wonder so much more about thisstory.