Customer Reviews

Generation of Swine

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

What we have here are over 100 op-ed pieces (about 2 1/2 book pages each) that ran in the San Francisco Examiner over a three-year period, December 1985 thru November 1988 and are now compiled in Gonzo Papers Volume 2 (Volume 1 was The Great Shark Hunt). These were originally meant to be read at the rate of one a week, but of course you can increase your speed on this compilation. However, I read them in a handful of sittings and suffered from severe overload. First of all, at this fast rate you get a good deal of duplication that waters down the overall affect Thompson was trying to create in his weekly column. Thompson reminds me of the famous Groucho Marx line: "Whatever it is, he's against it!" Just picked at random: "Any baboon with a healthy heart and good diction... could do Neil Frank's job (director of the National Hurricane Center). President Reagan: "...seems to be dumber than three mules." Frank Sinatra: "...is said to be smart, but he was fired and cut off from every casino in New Jersey when he tried to play blackjack by rules he learned in Nevada...They chased him out like a wino. It was an ugly thing to see." And these quotes all come from just one article. Pick a name or event from the headlines of these three years and you'll find a bombastic opinion from Thompson aimed directly at it. It is a fun and funny read. You'll find yourself thinking and speaking in the Thompson style. It's addictive. But, too much at one time can put you over the top. For more reasons than one, this would make for good bathroom reading material.

This is another in a series of collections of Hunter's columns. The other compilations are:

The Great Shark Hunt (Gonzo Papers Vol. 1) about the 70's, mostly post Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail,

Better than Sex (Volumen 3) about the 90's, and his final release before his untimely death,

Hey Rube (about the early 00's).

I should mention here that I'm only in my 20's, and the first administration I ever really paid attention to was the second Clinton term.

Reading this book and the other Gonzo Papers books, along with Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, gives you a perspective on the past 30 years that is hard to find elsewhere in this context. Since these columns were written as critiques on current events, you get a feel for what was going on in the 70's, late 80's and early 90's. You find that for everything that has changed over the past 30 years, that politics is quite static. Corrupt presidents, sex-scandal plagued politicians, and more.

There's not too much to dislike about this book, assuming you enjoy Hunter's writing style. And it is valuable to those who can't get enough of Hunter's style.

I read this book when it first came out and thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, it helps if you are a political junkie.

The surprising thing, though, is how I think it holds up, even though so many of the anecdotes and columns are topical of the era in which it was written. I picked this up the other day at the book store, on a whim, and sat down to revisit it. I was laughing so uncontrollably, and for such a period of time, that a lady sitting nearby asked me what I was reading, went and got a copy for herself, started perusing it and ended up buying it.

Nobody...NOBODY is as perfectly vicious and insanely funny at the same time. He is like an impressionist political commentator. His portraits of George Bush Sr here aren't quite accurate...but something about the way he exagerates the man's traits captures his essence more clearly than any attempt at objectivity could hope for.

If only he were still covering politics...

I read this book right after "The Great Shark Hunt," and it was a bit of a let down. The articles are all around two to three pages in Generation of Swine, so none of them are as intricate nor as detailed as some of the masterpieces found in Shark Hunt.

The first half of the book is the most relaxed writing I've read of Thompson, lots about gambling, shooting and life around Woody Creek. When the Iran Contra scandal starts to heat up Thompson comes alive. He's back to his acid spitting deconstruction of the American political engine. His attacks become ever more frenzied until Bush Sr. escapes the noose for his involvement in the whole affair. This seems to cool Thompson down he seems resigned to fate; 15 years earlier he would have written 30 page rallying cries, like "The Scum also Rises," but he's an older now and he takes it in stride.

It's an interesting book, and fantastic journalism. The 80's weren't half as dynamic as the 60's or 70's and as such it's not the place to start with Thompson. However, it might very well be the place to end.

I found this book to be quite entertaining. He writes on getting late night tattoo's, the Iran-Contra affair, Gary Hart and what was the 1988 presidential campaign, and racing jeeps outside the legendary Woody Creek Tavern. The book is not the best, but neither was the '80's and Hunter covered it like only he could cover them. He seemed interested in the book of revalations more than ever, but that was because president Ronald was a devoute bible reader himself and always said the people of the '80's will be the generation to see the "apocolypse." So between the book of revelations and talking about the generation of swine, Hunter is not quite his old self, but still sharp as a razor!

Fear & Loathing on the campaign trail is probablly the good doctor's masterpiece but pretty much any of the gonzo papers books are well worth a read. It might have been interesting if a younger, angrier HST had been unleashed on the 1980s but this is a mellowed Thompson. But not too mellow. What you get is often hilariously funny stuff about Reagan, drugs, gambling, Iran and inevitably, Richard Nixon. Not a major work and it is slightly inconsistant, but every so often the doc's depraved mind slips into a higher gear and you're glad that the old bugger isn't dead yet. In fact, when he does finally peg out, someone should white the last few paragraphs of the introduction on his tombstone: Hunter's almost serious take on heaven and hell which is worth the price of admission alone.

I have read this book several times and I always laugh my butt off over a few of the stories in it. There is one story about a pig's head early in the morning that hurts my abdomen. If you find humor in human suffering and stupidity as HST does then this work will never cease to amuse you.

The 80s must have been a tough decade for Hunter S. Thompson, and the writing shows it. Easy access to drugs, as well as a rising tide of Republicanism and Conservatism to rail again. On the the surface, this would make for great writing. In reality, this is not his strongest work. Great columns, as well as some of his legendary lucid lines, are interspersed with nominally coherent rants against the political powers that be. Perhaps that is to be expected from him in an anthology of his newspaper writings.

This is an important read for those very in tune to his genre. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a better start if you haven't read anything of his before. It will also provide better context to his mindset in the 80s.

This review was originally used to comment on Hunter Thompson's Songs of the Doomed. Since most of the points I made in my review of that book apply here I will let that review stand in here. Obviously each book is formatted differently but whether Thompson was skewering the Nixon era, the Reagan era or the Bush eras the song is the same. And it aint pretty.

Generally the most the trenchant social criticism, commentary and analysis complete with a prescriptive social program ripe for implementation has been done by thinkers and writers who work outside the realm of bourgeois society, notably socialists and other progressive thinkers. Bourgeois society rarely allows itself, in self defense, to be skewered by trenchant criticism from within. This is particularly true when it comes from a known dope fiend, gun freak and all-around lifestyle addict like the late, lamented Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Nevertheless, although he was far from any thought of a socialist solution and would reject such a designation we could travel part of the way with him. We saw him as a kindred spirit. He was not one of us- but he was one of us. All honor to him for pushing the envelope of journalism in new directions and for his pinpricks at the hypocrisy of bourgeois society. Such men are dangerous.

I am not sure whether at the end of the day Hunter Thompson saw himself or wanted to been seen as a voice, or the voice, of his generation but in any case he would not be an unworthy candidate. In any case, his was not the voice of the generation of 1968 being just enough older to have been formed by an earlier, less forgiving milieu. His earlier writings show that effect. Nevertheless, only a few, and with time it seems fewer in each generation, allow themselves to search for some kind of truth even if they cannot go the whole distance. This compilation under review is a hodgepodge of articles over the best part of Thompson's career. As with all journalists, as indeed with all writers especially those who are writing under the pressure of timelines and for mass circulation media these works show an uneven quality. However the total effect is to blast old bourgeois society almost to its foundations. Others will have to push on further.

One should note that `gonzo' journalism is quite compatible with socialist materialism. That is, the writer is not precluded from interpreting the events described within himself/herself as an actor in the story. The worst swindle in journalism, fostered by the formal journalism schools, as well as in other disciplines like history and political science is that somehow one must be `objective'. Reality is better served if the writer puts his/her analysis correctly and then gets out of the way. In his best work that was Hunter's way.

As a member of the generation of 1968 I would note that this was a period of particular importance which won Hunter his spurs as a journalist. Hunter, like many of us, cut his political teeth on one Richard Milhous Nixon, at one time President of the United States and all- around political chameleon. Thompson went way out of his way, and with pleasure, skewering that man when he was riding high. Thompson was moreover just as happy to kick him when he was down, just for good measure. Nixon represented the `dark side' of the American spirit- the side that appears today as the bully boy of the world and as craven brute. If for nothing else Brother Thompson deserves a place in the pantheon of journalistic heroes for this exercise in elementary hygiene. Anyone who wants to rehabilitate THAT man before history please consult Thompson's work. Hunter, I hope you find the Brown Buffalo wherever you are. Read this book. Read all his books.

It's hard to believe that these columns are the work of the same author who wrote "Hells Angels" or some of the articles in "The Great Shark Hunt." While "Shark Hunt" was often uneven (and had one of the worst editing jobs in modern publishing-his article on the NFL is still screwed up),it also contained some of the finest satire written during the 20the century.Like William Burroughs,Thompson was capable of writing which was insanely,savagely funny. Thompson's refusal to compromise,with life, with his drinking, with his drugs, led to the almost complete destruction of his talent and career, and the man whose work was a huge draw for Rolling Stone (they serialized his Las Vegas book)was reduced to churning out a weekly column for a newspaper.His biographies are truly sad-Thompson was a supremely selfish man who left a trail of destruction and pain everywhere he went. His ability to write brilliantly and hilariously about the damage he'd done was what made his a success, but by the time of his pathetic suicide Thompson was finished. The articles in this book help document his decline.