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submitted 6 months ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 60 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Every time I read the phrase 'the American Dream' I think of the part of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when, after spending the whole novel trying to find the American Dream, they're given directions, only to find the remains of a burnt-down nightclub, "a huge slab of cracked, scorched concrete in a vacant lot full of tall weeds."

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 31 points 6 months ago

Thompson rightly concludes that the American dream is already dead by the 70s.

If you look west you can almost see the place where the wave broke and rolled back....

[-] rwhitisissle@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Thompson rightly concludes that the American dream is already dead by the 70s.

Important context for that is that the novel is a famous, and relatively early, meditation on the failures of the 1960s counterculture movement and the intense, if ultimately unfocused vision for a better future for the nation that was central to it.

[-] Anise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 6 months ago

Fear and Loathing should be required reading in schools. A lot of the meaning gets lost in all of the drugs, but in the midst of that haze one can find a lot true things about America.

[-] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 10 points 6 months ago

Never read it because I assumed it was just a funny story about guys on drugs with his characteristic cool writing style, but if it had actual things to say about America, maybe I'll read it sometime. Or watch the movie lol.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago

The movie actually takes all of that out unfortunately and makes it much more of a funny story about guys on drugs. I still like the movie, but the book is so much deeper and more meaningful.

[-] toofpic@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

I liked the book and I was surprised how close to it was the movie, the part tgat got there. And yes, they left out many things, but it's understandable, because the movie was planned as a "funny movie", not a "socio-economical movie". So the book was like "drugs-capitalism-drugs-Vietnam-drugs", tgey cut out all the "boring" parts, leaving only drugs.
The movie is cool though, but It's just me always trying to appreciate what is shown to me, and not trying to compare with another media.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

It's definitely not a bad movie or even a terrible adaptation of a book. Like you said, it just had a different goal with the same story. That's fine.

[-] bss03@infosec.pub 21 points 6 months ago

I think of the Carlin bit... It's the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it.

this post was submitted on 20 May 2024
522 points (94.7% liked)

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