Adore and Loving 'Fear and Loathing' -- by Matty Jacobson

Matty Jacobson fears nothing
and loathes everything. So
it's only natural he would
love Hunter S. Thompson's
"Fear and Loathing."

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT - If you're going to write a book about nothing, then at least make it entertaining.

I could wax annoyance eternally on how Gregory Maguire managed to fill four books with almost nothing. However, genius by the name of Hunter S. Thompson managed to fill a book with nothing, but managed to make it worth my while.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is Thompson's semi-autobiographical account of a two-day drug riddled stint in Las Vegas under the guise of a journalistic endeavor. The story follows Raoul Duke and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, as they drive from Los Angeles to Vegas with myriad drugs packed in their red convertible.

The 48-hour account of Duke and Gonzo running amok in Vegas is hilariously stupefying. There literally is no point to the story. There's really not an end game in mind. However, since the story is about two men on a psychedelic trip, then I was more than satisfied that no goals were accomplished.

I especially love that, no matter where the two go, they are always making up stories on the spot as to who they are and what they are doing. Most of the time, the explanations are unwarranted. For example, near the beginning of the book, the two go to buy a tape recorder. They arrive late at the store and have to be let in by one of the employees. As they're leaving, the attorney basically tells them all to go to hell and that he'll be back to blow up the store.

Genius.

After reading the book, I had to do some research on Thompson. If you haven't seen the movie adaptation to this book, then you're missing out. I think the film captures the essence of the story almost exactly. And as for Johnny Depp's rendition of Thompson? Well, let's just say that Depp toned it down.

I looked up a few interviews with Thompson from the '70s and '80s. He's so outrageous that he's literally a caricature of himself. I just pictured Thompson reading the book aloud. I could almost hear his rambling, stuttering speech lifting off the pages of the book.

"Fear and Loathing" is a wonderful read for those times when you're just a little sick of those hoity-toity look-at-how-learned-I-am authors who string together unending sentences that, without the aid of a thesaurus, would be nothing but second-grade jibber. See the previous sentence for a small example.