It’s probably blasphemous to say, but I couldn’t finish the movie Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.
I know, I know. It’s a cult classic.
I tried to watch it a couple of years ago when I began to develop a fondness for Hunter S. Thompson. But as you probably know, Fear And Loathing is, umm, different.
Thompson’s book by the same name, though I have not read it, is debatably not that wonderful either. Nothing personal if you’re a fan.
So what is it about Hunter S. Thompson that’s so fascinating?
For starters, the guy was known to redefine the act of “abusing” substances. He had a daily routine that reads like a joke:
3:00 p.m. rise
3:05 Chivas Regal (whiskey) with the morning papers, Dunhills (cigarettes)
3:45 cocaine
3:50 another glass of Chivas, Dunhill
4:05 first cup of coffee, Dunhill
4:15 cocaine
4:16 orange juice, Dunhill
4:30 cocaine
4:54 cocaine
5:05 cocaine
5:11 coffee, Dunhills
5:30 more ice in the Chivas
5:45 cocaine, etc., etc.
6:00 grass to take the edge off the day
7:05 Woody Creek Tavern for lunch-Heineken, two margaritas, coleslaw, a taco salad, a double order of fried onion rings, carrot cake, ice cream, a bean fritter, Dunhills, another Heineken, cocaine, and for the ride home, a snow cone (a glass of shredded ice over which is poured three or four jiggers of Chivas)
9:00 starts snorting cocaine seriously
10:00 drops acid
11:00 Chartreuse (French liqueur), cocaine, grass
11:30 cocaine, etc, etc.
12:00 midnight, Hunter S. Thompson is ready to write
12:05–6:00 a.m. Chartreuse, cocaine, grass, Chivas, coffee, Heineken, clove cigarettes, grapefruit, Dunhills, orange juice, gin, continuous pornographic movies.
6:00 the hot tub-champagne, Dove Bars, fettuccine Alfredo
8:00 Halcyon
8:20 sleep
Crazy, right?
I have heard many famous writers (songs and books) who have said they created what is acclaimed as their best work while drunk or high. Of course, they are now sober and preach that the stuff they create now is just as good if not superior.
Poppycock!
Stephen King comes to mind. Four decades after the fact he claims he barely remembers writing Cujo. But is that a bad thing? Yes, drug and alcohol abuse is bad. Bad-bad-bad. But technically there’s nothing bad about creating something while abusing your body with cocaine or booze.
Ernest Hemingway famously said:
“Write drunk, edit sober.”
Ironically he, of all people, did not write while crocked. But his quote is the key in all of this.
I can admit from my own experience that there’s something to be said for writing while under the influence. There have been sections of my fiction that I have written while drinking that I set aside for weeks, came back to, and had almost no recollection of writing it.
When that happens the material is often good and just needs some work. So I give it some more attention, sober. Or I give it to my editor. Or both.
If you don’t write or create things you might not understand where I’m coming from. But being able to release my brain from the anxiety and stresses of my day-to-day is essential to focusing on the other aspect of my being.
I don’t always have to drink to write, but hey, it sure does help.
Now, to bring this all full circle I want to mention that my favorite thing is not to read Hunter S. Thompson’s work, but to listen to it being red in the style of Hunter S. Thompson’s voice and personality.
The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved came out last year on audio and it cracked me up so much I had to listen twice: