Trigger Warning

Hunter S. Thompson died on this day in 2005. Literary Heist challenges you, in the style of Hunter S. Thompson, to write a short story submission.

Works

  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
  • Generation of Swine

Mentions

  • Author Tom Wolfe has called Thompson the greatest American comic writer of the 20th century.
  • Asked in an interview with Jody Denberg on KGSR Studio, in 2000, whether he would ever consider writing a book “like [his] buddy Hunter S. Thompson”, the musician Warren Zevon responded: “Let’s remember that Hunter S. Thompson is the finest writer of our generation; he didn’t just toss off a book the other day…”
  • Thompson appeared on the cover of the 1,000th issue of Rolling Stone, May 18 – June 1, 2006, as a devil playing the guitar next to the two “L”‘s in the word “Rolling”. Johnny Depp also appeared on the cover.
  • The Thompson-inspired character Uncle Duke appears on a recurring basis in Doonesbury, the daily newspaper comic strip by Garry Trudeau. When the character was first introduced, Thompson protested, quoted in an interview as saying that he would set Trudeau on fire if the two ever met, although it was reported that he liked the character in later years. Between March 7, 2005 (roughly two weeks after Thompson’s suicide) and March 12, 2005, Doonesbury ran a tribute to Hunter, with Uncle Duke lamenting the death of the man he called his “inspiration”. The first of these strips featured a panel with artwork similar to that of Ralph Steadman, and later strips featured various non-sequiturs (with Duke variously transforming into a monster, melting, shrinking to the size of an empty drinking glass, or people around him turning into animals) which seemed to mirror some of the effects of hallucinogenic drugs described in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
  • General Hunter Gathers in the Adult Swim animated series The Venture Bros. is a tribute to Thompson and derives his physical appearance from him.

Quotes

  • Buy the ticket, take the ride.
  • When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
  • I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.
  • Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.
  • The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
  • We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.
  • A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.
  • In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
  • I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.
  • For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.

Get more information about Hunter S. Thompson.

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