Re. Vegas, list trouble etc.

alice wellintown alicewellintown at gmail.com
Mon Nov 16 05:28:28 CST 2009


Some idiot has a theory that P's works are about labor. Maybe Walter
Benjamin's famous essay about slot machines would make a fool of her.

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 5:05 AM, John Carvill <johncarvill at gmail.com> wrote:
>> What happens in Vegas in IV?
>
> A question which deserves a thorough analysis. At the very least, the
> symbolism of that machine spitting out a wave of Kennedy coins is
> pretty dense. And suggests comparison with the Nixon bank notes, eh?
>
> << The novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas accounts for two trips to =20
> Las Vegas, Nevada, that Hunter S. Thompson and attorney Oscar Zeta =20
> Acosta ... The two needed a more comfortable place to discuss the story... >>
>
> Yes, that's what HST said afterwards. Fear & Loathing, though, was
> definitely *not* a 'novel'.
>
>> Bill Murray made a movie called "Where the Buffalo Roam" (1980)
>
> Not a very good film. Worth watching for Gonzo fans, but HST himself
> disowned the film (though he remained firm friends with Bill Murray).
>
> << The question is why take the action in IV to Vegas? and what happens =20
> in Vegas and how is it being Las Vegas important? >>
>
> Certainly an interesting question. String flavours of Fear & Loathing
> in Las Vegas throughout Inherent Vice. In a sense, both books address
> the same central question: "How did the Dream die?" Whether you view
> that Dream as referring to the Hippie Dream, or the American Dream, or
> both, depends on your political outlook. My guess is that Pynchon,
> like HST, sees the former as an incarnation of the latter.
>



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