Replies

Yeah, and as a gen-X-er, I don't see much glory in Fear either...

"This was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him too seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody-- or at least some force-- is tending that Light at the end of the tunnel."
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Haven't read Electric yet, but looking forward to it. Slogged through On the Road, loved Fear (the movie was outstanding, and IMO, had the only decent role Johnny Depp ever played), even hacked through Naked Lunch and part of Ah Pook before I wearied of Burroughs' overweeningly scatophilic brainrot...

I guess to hit all the bases I should get around to Ginsberg at some point or 'nother, but can't bring myself to it...

You might want to read Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels as well. That book was his first, elevated the Angels' prominence, and is one of the few books to look at (not necessarily glorify) a tradition of "outlaw culture" in America. These were people who didn't want to partake in the American dream. There is also a passage near the end where some high school kids plan a massacre on the preps and jocks in the school (shades of Columbine). Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it and our hypoberlic media are only too ready to say "nothing like this has ever happened before".

I also read Timothy Leary's autobigraphy "Flashbacks" and the book by the men who financed the first Woodstock festival (not the con artist who has been connected to every major festival debacle).

There are plenty of interesting things to read in these books even if you do not agree with the subject or author.

For example, Leary admits that there were subversive communists (as well as subversive government agents) in some of the social organizations he joined in the 1950s.

I wearied of Burroughs' overweeningly scatophilic brainrot...

Give Junky a shot: the only thing I've found worthwhile from Burroughs. Avoid The Lost Boys like the plague.
Kerouac? Two words: Dharma Bums. On the Road is for white guys from the suburbs who want to snag artsy freshman chicks.