About book Kingdom Of Fear: Loathsome Secrets Of A Star-Crossed Child In The Final Days Of The American Century (2003)
“The brutal reality of politics would be probably intolerable without drugs.” -Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of FearSince I caught sight of the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas poster on my older brother’s wall when I was in high school, I knew I had to get my hands on everything HST wrote. It’s taken me longer than I would have liked, and I’m still working on it, but I kind of have that take-your-time-with-the-good-stuff outlook on literature, and I love that I have saved some of this stuff – HST, Kerouac, Cohen – for a time when I can really get lost in it. I’ve read Fear and Loathing, The Rum Diary, and have seen their film-adaptations, which are both amazing (thank you, Johnny Depp). My ex-husband is not much of a reader, which I couldn’t have in my household, obviously. So when I started to ease him into Palahniuk and stuff (ha, does anyone really ease into Palahniuk? is that a thing?) he found this and practically yanked whatever book I had in my hands and replaced it with this one.“I knew a Buddhist once, and I’ve hated myself ever since.” -Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of FearI could honestly write this entire review in quotes and it would be meaningful and tell you exactly what you need to know, because that is exactly what makes HST as great as he is, but someone already did that, and, well, I once wanted to write a book sans punctuation, but my name wasn’t Cormac McCarthy, so.Hunter S. Thompson cared about this country. The title is so fitting for this novel that is a work of art because he was a star-crossed child in the final days of America as we know it, as he knew it, and he was a star-crossed child in his final days, but not because America was failing him and everyone else – which it was, and still is – but because he felt he was at the peak of his career with perfect friends, and that suicide in that moment would not be a dishonorable thing.“If he quit now, he would feel he was a champion.” -Anita Thompson, to CBS, five days after Hunter S. Thompson committed suicideAnd that is the point. Hunter S. Thompson was a creator. He was mysterious and he was unpredictable and he made it appear that he didn’t care so that he could, genuinely, be one of the last artists that could, actually care. I imagine that such a contention would make the man himself vomit, but to me, what HST created was art, because it made you feel something. I know that to be true because the reviews of this book and all other works of HST are at every end of the spectrum from love to hate to brilliant to genius to idiot; his works are controversial, and therefore Hunter S. Thompson is controversial, and if that’s not art, I don’t know what is. And, Kingdom of Fear, HST’s ‘Memoir’, is the epitome of that, because it’s not really a Memoir. I mean, on the surface, it is; Kingdom of Fear tells the painfully entertaining story of the most loved (and hated) journalist of our time from the mouth of the Gonzo himself, but, in his revered style and dark, lyrical flow, HST tells of the ways of this country (and of the world) through his witty childhood, hilarious adventures, and ridiculous endeavors with Johnny Depp.“Sane is rich and powerful. Insane is wrong and poor and weak. The rich are free, the poor are put in cages. Res Ipsa Loquitur, amen. Mahalo.” -Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of FearEveryone is a writer, or everyone’s mom is a writer, or everyone knows a writer, it would seem, but there are very few who find the opportunity to use their intelligence to hide an underlying meaning beneath a veil of hilarious, ridiculous stories tied together with a transparent thread, but Hunter S. Thompson did it, and he did it well. In Kingdom of Fear and everything he writes, he is brilliant, not because he says he’s brilliant, but because he resonates with humanity from all walks of life, and they say he’s brilliant. His satire mind and his literary couldn’t-give-two-you-know-whats heart come together to dance in the middle of the most violent hurricane you have ever seen, and, like in some sick, twisted Cinderella story, it is magic.“I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on Fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. My father taught me that, along with a few other things that have kept my life interesting.” -Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear
As usual, HST is smart, hilarious, and undeniably intelligent. The book is like most of his work—a semi-autobiographical interpretation of his life, presented in a way that reads like fiction. This was published in his last days before he realized he couldn't sustain the fast lane anymore, and as a result permanently ended his life. A lot of the passages are disturbing, foreshadowing windows into what's to come. Knowing his fate, it was sad to watch his progressive spiral into grave cynicism as opposed to playful cynicism—this is especially disconcerting when you compare this with the imaginative and adventurous prose he churned out in his youth. My favorite parts are when he looks back to the past and explains how it shaped what he became: king of the weird. "Sane is a dangerous word. It implies a clear distinction, a sharp line between the sane and insane that we all see clearly and accept as a truth of nature. The only real difference between them is the sane have the power to have the insane locked up.""There is no such thing as paranoia. Not in the 21st century. No. Paranoia is just another word for ignorance.""I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. Even your worst fears will come true if you chase them long enough. Beware son. There is trouble lurking out there in the darkness, sure as hell. Wild beasts and cruel people, and some of them will pounce on your neck and try to tear your head off, if you're not careful.""It never got weird enough for me"
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This is, in essence, the last real, unconstrained output from an American master wringing what he had left from the cultural fabric of a world bent, in his eyes, horribly beyond the faintest hopes of repair. Ostensibly a biography of sorts, the novel pieces together distant recollections with pre-existing notes, letters culled from the periods which he is recollecting, and observations on the twists of an immediately pre-and-post 9/11 American landscape. Pretty much the end of the road for Thompson's literary career. After this it was the so-so musings of "Hey Rube" and an untimely end that might not surprise many once they get a chance to investigate the contents of this true and final work. Poignant as cast in that light, the work nonetheless contains adequate vestiges of Thompson's trademark outrage and horror. Essential for completists, and perhaps also important as a eulogy on the death of American Idealism.
—M. Cornelis van der Weele IV
"We live in dangerous times. Our armies are powerful, and we spend billions of dollars a year on new prisons, yet our lives are still ruled by fear. We are like pygmies lost in a maze. We are not at War, we are having a nervous breakdown." (p.27)"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world- a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us...No redeeming social value. Just whores." (p.66)"Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If a government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." (p.110)"Anybody who can do one thing better than anyone else in the world is a natural friend of mine." (p.272)
—Rachel
one of the easiest things to forget about hunter thompson is that he was s.m.a.r.t. really smart. the exaggerations and drug tales and violent fleur-de-lis are a lovely bonus, but at the heart of my love for hunter thompson is his straight-arrow sense of right and wrong, his personal sense of outrage at the evils of the world, and his ability to stay sharp in the face of the low level, grinding mediocrities that pave the road to hell.this collection of essays is more personal than some of his other work, and it spans his career from beginning to end. most affecting and chilling for me are his ruminations on the current bush administration. but all of it is compelling. it's vibrant, passionate, funny, bitter, and true. which is everything i really need.
—Amy Leigh
