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.

The Rum Diary Post 3 Ch. 11-15

I found out why they call this novel The Rum Diary. They call it this because… it has a lot of rum in it… obviously. Actually I wanted to point out that the crazy guy (Kemp’s roommate) actually made 460 proof rum. That’s insane! In fact, it was so crazily strong that just one swig from a bottle of that stuff made the alcoholic Kemp go cross eyed, get chased and nearly killed by natives, blow flames into a cop’s face, get thrown into jail, and get a court sentence for 4 years. Thank goodness one of the corporate people (Sanderson) paid the bail for him. So unfortunately since the way things work around Puerto Rico is pretty corrupt, Sanderson basically owns them now. This rum was so powerful that just after one swig, the next morning Kemp has the worst hangover in his life and swears, “I will never touch alcohol again” (Pg. 140). Of course, he doesn’t follow through with this vow. I don’t know if you’ve noticed Brian, but have you thought about the relevance of extreme alcohol and drug use throughout all of Hunter S. Thompson’s novels? I find it quite amusing and I wonder why he does it. All of his adventures could have been done (or at least the final product) without the use of any narcotics or alcoholic beverage. Then again, this is probably where Hunter would have referred to the old saying of: Its not where you’re going but the adventure or journey of getting there.

The Rum Diary Chapters 6-10

Brian Huynh

When this book talked about the American dream, it made me think back to our previous book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and how he was talking about how he found the American dream. At this part of the book I feel as if the people that are reading the newspaper aren't getting what they deserve. People should have the right to know about what is actually going on around them and not be hid from the truth. So for the newspaper to be treating their people like this is unfair and unworthy of their time and reading. What I think Kemp will do is that he will realize that what the newspaper is doing is not right and that he will do the right thing and secretly issue a newspaper that has all the bad news that is actually true and the people will rebel. The people then will feel like they were mistreated and lie to and then all chaos will break loose. The newspaper team will then try to hunt down Kemp due to his "treason" of the company. I agree with you that the American dream is putting time and effort into a dream of yours and at the long run you will succeed and achieve this goal. Then that feel good smile and feeling you have when you finally achieve the goal is part of the American dream. The American dream that the chief is describing is the "cheaters" version of the American dream. Achieving wealth by doing what they are doing will not get you the happiness that the real American dream would give you at the end.

The Rum Diary Post 2 Ch. 6-10

One section of this story perked my ears a bit. It was when Kemp and the Head Chief of the newspaper have a meeting and talk about what to write about in their newspaper. The Chief says to write about the good things of Puerto Rico and Kemp wants to write about the truth like about the sugar plantations and such. It was when the Chief mentioned that it was the American dream. All speculations aside… this is not the American dream. It isn’t right to hide what’s going on in reality and putting on a façade for the rest of humanity. That’s not the way things should work. The American dream is about working hard for your money, working hard for your dreams, and getting a payoff in the equal lands of America fair and square. Not by cheap tricks, smoke and mirrors, and a fake cover for what’s really going on. Most importantly the newspapers are supposed to write about the faults of America so the rest of us can fix it. But this cant happen because the newspaper is funded by sponsors who want to hear what’s good about Puerto Rico and will cut their budget if they write anything otherwise. This leaves the people of Puerto Rico without a voice and the corporations with all the power in the land. The chief even went as far as to say, “nobody cares who lost. Nobody cares. The only thing people ever want to read is about who won. Who won the bowl, who won the races, who won the jackpot at the slot machine. You’re not sleeping your wide awake… This is the America Dream”. Brian tell me, what do you think about this moment in the book? What do you think about the corporations in the story and how they are treating the people. What do you predict will happen to the people of Puerto Rico and what do you think Kemp will do about it?

The Rum Diary Chapter 1-5

Brian Huynh

I agree with you about what you said about the newspaper article. What you said about how this newspaper article only wants to publish news that is good and make the public happy isn't news at all. News is information that the people need to know and also informs the society about events that usually aren't that happy. I made an comparison on how that if you watch the news today all you hear is news about rape, murders, house fires, etc. These are depressing topics that most people don't want to hear about. But this information is vital to the community so they are warned of these events. My feelings about the beginning of the book is that it is a nice different from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. This book actually has some realism from what I can tell so far and that how this guy isn't completely high and some sort of judgement. Also I agree with you how the start of this book you can tell that there is a sense of a "company" feel and greed. It is shown when it talks about the newspaper company that Paul Kemp was "thrown into" in the beginning of the book. This book doesn't provide any prior knowledge so as a reader you feel as if the book starts off in a place that feels like the protagonist is thrown into a situation that has no background information as a reader.

The Rum Diary Post 1 Ch. 1-5

In the fiction “The Rum Diary” Paul Kemp, the antagonist is thrown into a newspaper business from the very start. He immediately realizes that news is really not news in his eyes. Which brings me to my first topic of debate. Brian, what are your thoughts on the newspaper company he is working for? In my opinion I don’t think their way of doing this is exactly right or just. Paul Kemp believes that news is news and you should tell it like you see it, which seems pretty straight foreword to the rest of society but probably not to the business side of this. There must be a reason why the head chief of the newspaper only wants to write about the bowling alleys and how great Puerto Rico is. When in all actuality people are rioting around the streets and everywhere you look people are homeless and starving. Kemp even states that “more money is going to the parking meters rather than being spent on food for these starving children in this pitiful country!” (pg. 48). Which brings me to ask another question. Brian, what kind of feeling are you getting from the beginning of this book? I’m getting a sort of “corporation run country” feeling with a touch of greed here and there. Almost like the people of the country are just pawns to the companies that own the land. To a point where it is like if the more land you own, the more people you own in the process (since there isn’t much land on Puerto Rico).  

Fear and Loathing Chapter 9 - End

I found the end of the book to be quite inspiring and surprisingly fitting to the end of the book. It was almost as if the story finally made sense after hundreds of pages of nonsense about a drug abusive author barely making it by. The time when I realized the story’s main point was in chapter 12 pg. 191, where Bruce asked Duke how he found the American Dream he was looking for. Duke replied with “‘we’re sitting on the main nerve right now. You remember that story the manager told us about the owner of this place? How he always wanted to run away and join the circus when he was a kid? Now the bastard has his own circus, and a license to steal, too.”’ Therefore in response to your question I believe the very short version of the moral of the story would be: The American Dream is exactly that, a dream. People dream of having their own business, doing something with their lives, achieve some great goal they have in mind that would make the whole of the their life seem worthy. But the reality of the American Dream is when people put pen to paper, hard work and sweat into the dream and pursue it to make it a reality. That hard work and ingenuity that has sprung up from a single idea, a single dream, is what makes America a sort of promise land. People can pursue their ideas without being held back by racial barriers or gender barriers. People are just treated as people and are given the same chance as anyone to make a change in this world, even if it’s the smallest of change. And sometimes, it takes a psychedelic drug filled adventure full of fear and loathing to envision the true American Dream. 

Fear and Loathing: End

Brian Huynh

The conclusion of this book has made me realize something...drugs can do some much more than I thought it could. Something that really stood out to me was when Duke mentions that he found the American dream. This is rather important to the book because the whole story is the author's pursuit to find the American dream. In my own words, prior to this book, the American dream is to be able to do what you want in life (i.e. work/play) and enjoy it. Also to make money off of something you love to do is also apart of the American dream. What Duke said the American dream was is quite similar to my prior knowledge of what the American dream is. He was rephrasing the story of how manager that followed his dream that he had ever since he was a little kid. So the American dream to Duke is being able to have a dream and making sure that you pursue then achieve this dream. What do you think is the American dream Kentaro? Also I have noticed something while reading this whole book. It correlates back to my first statement and it has to do with drugs. On the first page it is describing which drugs he has taken and which he has stashed in the car. Also, on the last page it also describes him taking more drugs. Just a speculation though.

Fear and Loathing Part two - Chapter 8

Chapter 2 (or rather the end of chapter 2) was a chapter worth noting with some hidden themes within. The incident about the hotel full of cops and Duke passing them all looking sluggish and getting the kindest treatment from the manager who had just turned down a chief sheriff and his wife.  I found this particularly interesting and a good view of America (or rather Las Vegas) through Duke’s eyes. In a hotel filled with policemen and anti-drug extremists comes this drug tweaked man with a brief case of every drug known to man. This man then jumps to the front of the line and gets the best service out of all of them and was sent away with a couple complimentary bottles of Bacardi and other luxuries. The book mentioned that the manager acted this way against all the policemen especially the police chief because he has had a bad past with police officers messing with him, and not it was his turn to return the favor. This type of situation I believe can only happen in America. If this happened in Korea lets say, things would be horribly different. America is the only place with free speech and free actions. It just gave me a different outlook about America and the basic concept of what goes around comes around. In response to your last post, I think throughout the book their goal was to sustain a sort of "perma-high" where they would be constantly high through their endeavors.  

Fear and Loathing: Part two

Brian Huynh

Oh Kentaro, I do agree with you that the passage was pretty heartwarming. It did remind me of a triumph of good and evil in a way. Part two of this book starts very similarly in setting wise as the beginning but it is kind of a status check. Again, Duke is driving in the desert in the "red shark" but this time he is heavily down on drugs. His inventory has been eaten up over the past adventures in part 1 of this book. "My attorney had eaten all the reds, but there was quite a bit of speed left...no more grass, the coke bottle was empty, one acid blotter, a nice brown lump of opium hash and six loose amyls." You can tell that over the expedition, Duke and his attorney has used up most of the drug stock that they had which is plenty enough. On page 100-101, I have noticed that he is worrying more about if he gets caught because he practices responses in his mind just in case he would of gotten caught. This could be foreshadowing to a later event in the future. Also I have a kinda practical questions...has he been high during the whole book? I realized that ever since the beginning when he has seen the bats until now with the slugs that he has been high the whole book. This makes me think of all the damage he is doing physically and mentally to himself. Also on page 101, he is buying more drugs so this makes me predict that knowing the past, he is probably going to remain high for the remains of the book, or run out of drugs and go crazy. What do you think?

Fear and Loathing Chapter 8-Part 2

This section of Fear and Loathing had a little bit of everything. A dash of paranoia, a handful of drugs, a teaspoon of high speed chasing and police work and even a little sprinkle of actual good literature. The main section that I really enjoyed and thought was the most deeply written thing in the book so far was near the end of chapter 8 on page 67 and 68. Within these last final paragraphs of the chapter Hunter S. Thompson takes a moment to reflect on the hippie zeitgeist. In a few hundred words the author captures the rise and fall of a movement. He mentions "You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning... The inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave..."(pg. 68). I believe this is the most heart felt passage Hunter has written so far in the book. Wouldn't you agree Brian? If you have anything else to say about this passage that hasn't already been said would you mind sharing it with me? and to answer your questions I am indeed enjoying the book. The only problems I have faced while reading is the fact that it is very hard to follow. Not in a vocabulary or complicated storyline sense, but just the plain old fact that there is no storyline to follow. Books like Freedom at midnight may be hard to read, but at least it has a story line and follows the basic graph of a normal novel (rising action, climax, falling action sort of stuff). This story is just plain everywhere, ups and downs, ups and downs. Just a bit confusing is all I have to say. Hunter S. Thompson has, to put it lightly, a very ... different ... way of writing.  

Possible Conflicts and Prediction

Brian Huynh

I agree with how you think this book is intriguing and humorous and find all of these qualities while reading the book. While I was reading the second section of the book, Duke was talking about how you can never trust a drug user. On page 56, "One of the things you learn, after years of dealing with drug people, is that everything is serious. You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug." I know this is a real life story but I can't help but think that this could be foreshadowing. I predict that maybe some kind of event is going to happen when either Duke or the "attorney" turn their back on each other and someone is going to get hurt. Like what Duke said, drug people take everything seriously and this is what might cause some major conflict in the future. From reading the book so far, you can tell that the attorney and Duke both mess with each and call each other foul names but what I predict is that in the future one of them is going to take it seriously and retaliate. Also on page 55-56, the attorney is talking about his girlfriend which just got introduced in the story. I think that in the future readings of this book, she will support a bigger role to the story. I can relate to how the attorney is think about how Lacerda has his girlfriend and the jealousy factor. It is easy to relate to the emotion of jealousy when it refers to a loved one. Some questions I have for you is how are you enjoying the book so far? Do you have any comments about any of the characters or any questions about the "plot"?

Fear and Loathing Chapter 1-7

I agree with you whole heartedly that the mind of Hunter S. Thompson is a drastically different one than what other people in society would call... normal. As Duke and his "Attorney" go on a drug binge (specifically the one binge they were scared of, an Ether Binge) they roam Las Vegas and basically try to function like normal people while having a drug orgy. I find this intriguing and quite humorous at the same time. The action these guys are taking and the reaction of the people who they interact with is just a tell tale sign of what time period they are in. As it turns out the story takes place somewhere in the 1960's to 1970's, which would explain the mass drug use (The Hendrix Period just to give a visualization of what it would look like). I also found it humorous since even though he was a "professional journalist" he still found ways to have fun like going to the circus event wasted on Ether (which makes you act like the "village drunkard in some early Irish novel" (pg. 45)). To answer your question Brian about how the drug thing all started, I remember them saying on pg. 4 in the beginning of the book that they rounded up all the drugs "in a frenzy of high-speed driving all over Los Angeles Country--from Topanga to Watts, we picked up everything we could get our hands on. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can."I also think the Attorney is not really an Attorney. I think it might just be his friend.
To answer your second question I think they just chose to have a convertible simply because they wanted to. I dont know why the tape recorder was hard to find but I do know Duke needed it for his Journalism about the races and such. 

Point of View

Brian Huynh

The point of view just like Mr. Sav said was through a different "perspective" of a hardcore drug addict and what he notices of the world around. Throughout these first 7 chapters he has a bunch of hallucination and reacts corresponding to what is around him. I think this book is quite interesting so far because I have no idea what I really drug user would see around him and Hunter S. Thompson sets a good visual in my head using words and his pictures. On page 24, Hunter is talking to his attorney about all the lizards and the blood drenched floor and this offered a great visual in my head due to his description. Also, he was describing how he was immensely scared and I could relate to him if I saw a bunch of lizards around me, blood covered floors, and people getting eaten. I have a puzzling question for you though Kentaro. I am not really sure on how they got started on this whore drug adventure of there's to Las Vegas. I understand that Hunter was running from some kind of legal case, hence the attorney that he hired, but how did he get in this position in the first place. That is what is puzzling me. If you know the answer to this question that would be great. Another question that I have is the items that he need to take with him at the start of his expedition. On page 12 he listed that the items he needed were the drugs, the car, and the tape recorder. I would think that the drugs were probably there for the two's own self enjoyment. The car was probably a mode of transportation but why was it necessary that the car had to be a convertible? Also I have no idea on why they need a tape recorder and why it was so difficult to find one. Overall this book has bunch of tricky aspects to it but is also very intriguing as well.

Reading Schedule for QRD3

Kentaro Tourangeau
Brian Huynh

Books:
Fear and Loathing by Hunter S. Thompson
Rum Diaries by Hunter S. Thompson

We shall read 50 pages each week (give or take 4 pages)

Kentaro will post every Friday
Brian will post every Sunday

The postings will start this Sunday the 29th