Halloween Double Feature: The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham, by Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene

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Blogoween, Blogtober, Book, Book Review, Brian Keene, Cthulhu, Fear and Loathing, H.P. Lovecraft, Halloween, Horror, Hunter S. Thompson, Nick Mamatas, Politics, Reading

Welcome to my second annual BeerRantsAndBooks Halloween Double Feature!  I had so much fun with this last year that I decided to do it again. Just like last time, my first post of the day is a book review and later on this evening I’ll share a beer with you.  I don’t recall exactly how I came across this title, but once I saw it I knew I found my Halloween book. Written by Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene, described in-world as an “avowed communist” and “vicious libertarian,” respectively, the story is an occult homage to Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that drops everyone’s favorite Doctor of Journalism into the universe of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Set in the early months of 1972, the book opens with our fictional Hunter Thompson holed up in his Colorado compound furiously typing away into the night and cursing the fame and attention drawn to him by that “Las Vegas book” and “comic strip” (Doonesbury) that borrowed his likeness.  Inspired by strange noises outside his door and the realization that the American Dream has died, he assumes the alias Uncle Lono and sets off on a new journey in search of the great American Nightmare.  Among the forces standing in his way are nothing less the the cults of Moloch and Cthulhu, the Nixon youth, mutant townies, J. Edgar Hoover, the Deep Ones themselves, and some really powerful hallucinogenic mushrooms from Yuggoth.  And then things get weird.

I had a fantastic time reading this!  A big part of this experience was surely based on the authors doing an excellent job channeling Hunter’s voice and running monologue.  They were clearly familiar with his works and heavily referenced a wide range of things he had written by the time the story takes place.  My one criticism here is that they were maybe a bit over reliant on a few of his sayings throughout the book, but on the whole I’d say they nailed it.  The book was packed full of amazing quotes and rants, almost all of which were unfortunately too long to suitably excerpt here. Another highlight of this story for me was seeing Lono’s infamous attorney burst into the scene right as the Lovecraftian references started to really pick up.  He brought with him an entirely other level of energy and intensity to a book that, despite some really dark and bizarre moments, was a hilariously wild ride that more successfully merged these two worlds than one might think possible.

Again, I can’t say enough just what an incredibly entertaining read this was and don’t think I could have asked for a better book to review on Halloween!  I would definitely recommend it to any Hunter Thompson fan looking for a bit of a twist.

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Fear and Loathing in the NFL

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Donald Trump, Fear and Loathing, Football, gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, NFL, Politics

Although I am not much of a football fan, it would have been pretty hard to miss coverage of the displays of protest and solidarity that swept the league this Sunday.  Since I don’t have much time tonight to really dig into this topic (and I’m sure the internet is already flooded with hot takes from people way more invested in the league than myself), I’ll keep my own commentary brief.  First and foremost, congratulations to the players for their courage and solidarity in using their position to make a statement.  Secondly, shame on Donald Trump and anyone who continues to either support him or enable his dangerously petty ignorance, penchant for child-like tantrums, and overall boorish behaviour.  Having said all that, I am reminded today of a section in Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail that didn’t make the final cut in my post last year.  As with so many things from that book, it seemed rather relevant today so, without further ado, here’s an extended cut:

This happened to me on the last Sunday of the regular NFL season when two slobbering drunk sportswriters got me thrown out of the press box at the Robert F. Kennedy stadium in Washington.  I was there as a guest of David Burgin, sports editor at the Washington Star…

…We were halfway down the ramp to the parking lot before I understood what had happened.  “That gin-soaked little Nazi from the Gazette got pissed when you didn’t doff your hat for the national anthem,” Burgin explained.  “He kept bitching about you to the guy in charge of the press box, then he got that asshole who works for him all cranked up and they started talking about having you arrested.”

“Jesus creeping shit,” I muttered.  “Now I know why I got out of sportswriting…I barely even remember the national anthem.  Usually I don’t even stand up…(54)”

Book Review: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72, by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

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Book Review, Books, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Fear and Loathing, George McGovern, gonzo, Hillary Clinton, Hunter S. Thompson, Politics, presidential election, Reading, Republican Party, Richard Nixon

This book ranks among my all time favorites and has been an election year tradition ever since I found my copy at a San Francisco antique store back in 2003.  Told through a series of articles, field notes, diatribes, and ultimately taped conversations with his editor (following a nervous breakdown in November), Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72 is a narrative of Thompson’s experiences and impressions covering the 1972 Democratic primaries and Presidential election for Rolling Stone magazine.  True to the author’s style, it contains a lot of colorful language, strong opinions, and several misadventures.  Frank Mankiewicz, campaign director of eventual Democratic nominee George McGovern, once called the book “the least factual, most accurate account” of the process; which given Hunter’s huge emotional investment, not to mention penchant for wild tangents and exaggeration, sounds about right.  If you’re at all interested in American politics or government this book is a must read.

For a general overview, the story begins in December 1971 and follows the path of South Dakota Senator George McGovern en route to winning the hotly contested 1972 Democratic Presidential nomination.  By appealing to the more liberal wing of the party and mobilizing an enthusiastic following among young voters, his campaign’s superior grassroots network allowed him to defeat a pair of old-guard establishment favorites while fending off a surprise challenge posed by a far-right demagogue.  After surviving an “Anyone But McGovern” challenge at the party convention, he seemed poised to deny Richard Nixon a second term in office.  Shortly following the nomination, however, the wheels began to fall off the campaign.  A scandal over an unpopular Vice Presidential selection with a history of shock therapy and lukewarm support from the defeated party establishment killed enthusiasm among new-found supporters and traditional Democratic voting blocs alike.  As a result McGovern suffered a crushing defeat, winning only in Massachusetts and Washington, DC, as Nixon cruised to reelection following a historically low voter turnout percentage.

Reading this again made me wish that Hunter was still alive to give his thoughts on our current political situation.  Having boasted of writing “some of the most brutal and hateful caricatures of Richard Nixon ever committed to print, in this country or any other (399),” what would he have to say about this year’s crop of Republicans?  Would he have felt the Bern despite his misgivings about the Democratic Party?  With these thoughts in mind, I will close with a few quotes that struck me as particularly relevant this year.

Speaking to my own Fear and Loathing about the candidates we’ve been offered for this November, the specifics might be different, but the sentiments are eerily similar:

How many more of these goddamn elections are we going to have to write off as lame but “regrettably necessary” holding actions?  And how many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?  (55-6)

How long, O Lord. . .How long?  Where will it end?  The only possible good that can come of this wretched campaign is the ever-increasingly likelihood that it will cause the Democratic Party to self-destruct.  A lot of people are seriously worried about this, but I am not one of them.  I have never been much of a Party Man myself. . . and the more I learn about the realities of national politics, the more I’m convinced that the Democratic Party is an atavistic endeavor – more an Obstacle than a Vehicle – and that there is really no hope of accomplishing anything genuinely new or different in American politics until the Democratic Party is done away with. (125)

As for Donald Trump, these next few lines instantly made me think of the Republican nominee.  Again, the names may be different, but the personality disorders are apparently nothing new:

…it is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise.  Our Barbie doll President, with his Barbie doll wife and his box-full of Barbie doll children is also America’s answer to the monstrous Mr. Hyde.  He speaks for the Werewolf in us; the bully, the predatory shyster who turns into something unspeakable, full of claws and bleeding string-warts, on nights when the moon comes too close… (416-7)

The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy-then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece.  (127)

The root of the Wallace magic was a cynical, showbiz instinct for knowing exactly which issues would whip a hall full of beer-drinking factory workers into a frenzy – and then doing exactly that, by howling down to them from the podium that he had an instant, overnight cure for all their worst afflictions…The ugly truth is that Wallace had never even bothered to understand the problems – much less come up with any honest solutions…(275)

Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President? (414)