Fear and Loathing meets Clockwork Orange
October 3, 2020 2:26 PM Subscribe
Anthony Burgess was supposed to submit an article for Rolling Stone in 1973. But he didn't make the deadline and begged off. So editor Hunter S. Thompson wrote him a letter.
Hunter S. Thompson was an asshole, but he was my kind of asshole.
posted by East14thTaco at 2:35 PM on October 3, 2020 [13 favorites]
posted by East14thTaco at 2:35 PM on October 3, 2020 [13 favorites]
They used the term “thinkpiece” in 1973? I had no idea.
Hunter is one to talk, though. I guess maybe this was back when he was still a productive cokehead, rather than an unproductive one.
posted by atoxyl at 3:25 PM on October 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
Hunter is one to talk, though. I guess maybe this was back when he was still a productive cokehead, rather than an unproductive one.
posted by atoxyl at 3:25 PM on October 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
No "maybe" about it: the Vegas book was pubished in 1971 and Campaign Trail two years later.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:43 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 3:43 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
We know Anthony Burgess for having written A Clockwork Orange, but in total..he "published 33 novels...."
I read a few of his lesser-known novels, and they were excellent.
posted by thelonius at 3:58 PM on October 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
I read a few of his lesser-known novels, and they were excellent.
posted by thelonius at 3:58 PM on October 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
Never has the word "Sincerely" done so much work.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 5:12 PM on October 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 5:12 PM on October 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
I have to believe that was whatever we called the precursor to trolling, back in the day.
posted by goinWhereTheClimateSuitsMyClothes at 5:37 PM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by goinWhereTheClimateSuitsMyClothes at 5:37 PM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
The Burgess article was finally published in 2012. It’s excellent and quite pertinent for our times.
posted by njohnson23 at 5:41 PM on October 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 5:41 PM on October 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
Hard to read this without Bill Murray's voice as Hunter S Thompson in my head.
posted by geoff. at 7:04 PM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by geoff. at 7:04 PM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Hunter S. Thompson WAS an asshole. And many people liked that about him.
I was one of them, in my early 20s. But as with most people who are assholes, his shtick grew tiresome, and I grew out of it.
I’m glad to see in this case his being an asshole didn’t get him what he wanted. Because there are far too many people in this world for whom being an asshole does.
posted by darkstar at 7:52 PM on October 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
I was one of them, in my early 20s. But as with most people who are assholes, his shtick grew tiresome, and I grew out of it.
I’m glad to see in this case his being an asshole didn’t get him what he wanted. Because there are far too many people in this world for whom being an asshole does.
posted by darkstar at 7:52 PM on October 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
I once was channel surfing, (really rare) I was very tired, I want past something too fast but it had me half out of my chair, so I want back a couple of clicks to see what that was, oh, it was a grizzly bear catching salmon in a rapids. The fish was in his mouth. I still feel this way about Hunter S. Thompson, he is one of founding fathers of my personal freedom.
posted by Oyéah at 9:00 PM on October 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 9:00 PM on October 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
The letter reads to me like it was written with a different, and wider, audience than Burgess. It's a bit stiff and performative.
Thompson should have just got Burgess to review a handful of wildly inappropriate "counter culture" books. Self-righteously appalled Burgess was the best Burgess.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:12 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Thompson should have just got Burgess to review a handful of wildly inappropriate "counter culture" books. Self-righteously appalled Burgess was the best Burgess.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:12 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Y'know, perhaps I've been going a bit too hard in recent years on the post-irony New Sincerity thing, but I'm kind of over the Hagiography of the Asshole.
HST belligerently poking holes in square society or the likes of Kissinger or Nixon is a sharp wit taking on forces more powerful than himself. Being this kind of asshole to someone who otherwise is more like a peer or a colleague is the kind of assholery I'm pretty much over nowadays.
HST never grew the fuck up, and you know what? He robbed our culture of a Hunter S. Thompson who had grown into the fullness of his potential. He found a comfortable, shitty-curmudgeon rut and never bothered to go beyond it.
If I were a contributor to a magazine and their editor sent me shit like this, I wouldn't have produced my article either.
posted by tclark at 9:12 PM on October 3, 2020 [21 favorites]
HST belligerently poking holes in square society or the likes of Kissinger or Nixon is a sharp wit taking on forces more powerful than himself. Being this kind of asshole to someone who otherwise is more like a peer or a colleague is the kind of assholery I'm pretty much over nowadays.
HST never grew the fuck up, and you know what? He robbed our culture of a Hunter S. Thompson who had grown into the fullness of his potential. He found a comfortable, shitty-curmudgeon rut and never bothered to go beyond it.
If I were a contributor to a magazine and their editor sent me shit like this, I wouldn't have produced my article either.
posted by tclark at 9:12 PM on October 3, 2020 [21 favorites]
Thompson was a Real Asshole for real, but I don’t think I would have been terribly offended to receive this letter. It’s pretty put-on HST-ravings-voice.
posted by atoxyl at 10:09 PM on October 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 10:09 PM on October 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
HST never grew the fuck up, and you know what? He robbed our culture of a Hunter S. Thompson who had grown into the fullness of his potential. He found a comfortable, shitty-curmudgeon rut and never bothered to go beyond it.
For a long time I've been simultaneously sad yet also... not sad? that Bill Hicks died when he did. Maybe he would have continued to be a gadfly (and maybe he would have addressed the really seriously problematic aspects of some of his routines). Maybe he would have gone Joe Rogan.
posted by Lexica at 10:15 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
For a long time I've been simultaneously sad yet also... not sad? that Bill Hicks died when he did. Maybe he would have continued to be a gadfly (and maybe he would have addressed the really seriously problematic aspects of some of his routines). Maybe he would have gone Joe Rogan.
posted by Lexica at 10:15 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Hicks was a LOT smarter than Joe Rogan could even conceive of being. And for all of his problematic bits, I rreeeaallyy can't imagine Bill sitting amicably across the table from people like Mr. Proud Boys. But who can say.
posted by Dokterrock at 10:55 PM on October 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Dokterrock at 10:55 PM on October 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
Being this kind of asshole to someone who otherwise is more like a peer or a colleague
I'm not the least bit sure that Thompson would have thought of Burgess that way at the time. Burgess had been a prolific, widely read and deservedly highly respected author for nearly two decades by then; HST was a punk newcomer with two books under his belt.
I don't read that letter as assholery. I read it as sass.
posted by flabdablet at 10:59 PM on October 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
I'm not the least bit sure that Thompson would have thought of Burgess that way at the time. Burgess had been a prolific, widely read and deservedly highly respected author for nearly two decades by then; HST was a punk newcomer with two books under his belt.
I don't read that letter as assholery. I read it as sass.
posted by flabdablet at 10:59 PM on October 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
If I were a contributor to a magazine and their editor sent me shit like this, I wouldn't have produced my article either.
Exactly. Who would? This is HST letting Burgess completely off the hook.
posted by flabdablet at 11:02 PM on October 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
Exactly. Who would? This is HST letting Burgess completely off the hook.
posted by flabdablet at 11:02 PM on October 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
If I received this letter, I would think: do you really want my piece that much, or am I just a "dime a dozen" guy? If so, go get your thinkpiece from one of the other "dime a dozen" Burgesses out there.
posted by Termite at 11:13 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Termite at 11:13 PM on October 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
In one light, it could be read as a wink-and-nod letter from one professional writer to another.
In another light, HST always reserved a quieter writing style for when he wanted to have a serious moment with the reader, rare moments few and far between. This letter seems his typical, over-the-top style where he's just having a laugh.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:34 AM on October 4, 2020 [7 favorites]
In another light, HST always reserved a quieter writing style for when he wanted to have a serious moment with the reader, rare moments few and far between. This letter seems his typical, over-the-top style where he's just having a laugh.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:34 AM on October 4, 2020 [7 favorites]
Hicks was a LOT smarter than Joe Rogan could even conceive of being.
I overall like Hicks and am not a fan of Rogan, but I don't actually think Rogan is particularly stupid (the bro thing is a brand, from NewsRadio onward), and Hicks really did jump down an increasingly conspiratorial rabbit hole.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:09 AM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
I overall like Hicks and am not a fan of Rogan, but I don't actually think Rogan is particularly stupid (the bro thing is a brand, from NewsRadio onward), and Hicks really did jump down an increasingly conspiratorial rabbit hole.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:09 AM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
Forwarded this to my current publisher.
posted by doctornemo at 8:56 AM on October 4, 2020
posted by doctornemo at 8:56 AM on October 4, 2020
Is this just... self-consciously performative, cringeworthy, and not at all funny to anyone else? It makes Thompson seem like the prototype for the kind of person who thinks it's the screaming height of comedy to call a politician a 'cockwomble' on twitter.
posted by cilantro at 9:25 AM on October 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by cilantro at 9:25 AM on October 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
I've written a few letters like this to well-deserved recipients. Less cussing but deeper insults. It's cathartic. I deleted most of them (after sharing with associates for a laugh), and I regret most of the few I sent.
posted by hypnogogue at 10:03 AM on October 4, 2020
posted by hypnogogue at 10:03 AM on October 4, 2020
Bill Hicks was a Waco truther shortly before his death; there's a video of his last interview where he claims that a Bradley armored vehicle that the BATF or someone was using at the compound had a flamethrower mounted to it. There's a sad thread of truth to the joke that he faked his death and changed his name to Alex Jones.
As for HST, this sort of thing is pretty on-brand for him (and may have been a sort of inside joke, seeing as some of his own published "dispatches" were really just random babbling that he faxed in when he was in danger of blowing a headline), but ultimately that bit him in the ass, hard, and never really let go. His sort of thing was well-suited for the early seventies, which was chaotic in a way that's difficult to appreciate now (even in The Current Situation), but he lost hold of the zeitgeist after that and in general just seemed lost--I just pulled down Generation of Swine and in places he's openly nostalgic for Watergate:
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:31 AM on October 4, 2020
As for HST, this sort of thing is pretty on-brand for him (and may have been a sort of inside joke, seeing as some of his own published "dispatches" were really just random babbling that he faxed in when he was in danger of blowing a headline), but ultimately that bit him in the ass, hard, and never really let go. His sort of thing was well-suited for the early seventies, which was chaotic in a way that's difficult to appreciate now (even in The Current Situation), but he lost hold of the zeitgeist after that and in general just seemed lost--I just pulled down Generation of Swine and in places he's openly nostalgic for Watergate:
Kissinger was a monster, an arrogant elitist with a harsh German accent and a mean intellectual's contempt for the politicians he had worked for all his life. Kissinger was the man who hung around the White House at night, drinking Perrier water and taking notes while Richard Nixon drank gin and raved crazily at the portrait of Abraham Lincoln.On the other hand, Oliver North didn't bomb Cambodia. Unlike Hicks, HST probably lived too long.
But Henry Kissinger, for all his nasty faults, was a true prince among men, compared with the half-bright rejects, Marine vets and born-again Annapolis grads that Ronald Reagan hired to work in the White House basement and run the National Security apparatus like a gang of demented Hell's Angels.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:31 AM on October 4, 2020
The letter's dated August 17, 1973.
Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange premiered in 1971, and Burgess was under constant pressure to defend the film of his novel. From 1972-3, Burgess was a temporary professor at City College New York, where he gave a series of lectures about Shakespeare. He's also working on Napoleon Symphony (1974) and The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End (1974). Anthony Burgess has criticised judges who, in recent court cases, have attacked the film of A Clockwork Orange for spreading the cult of violence (The Guardian, August 5, 1973): The writer was in London to talk about his two major projects for ATV – "Moses – the Law-Giver", which will be ready for screening next year with Burt Lancaster in the title role, and his own look at the life of Shakespeare. He also saw his publishers about a sequel to "A Clockwork Orange", "The Clockwork Testament", his answer to criticisms of the original book.
Anthony Burgess, The Art of Fiction No. 48, Paris Review Issue 56 Spring 1973: Much of the interview [w/John Cullinan] was conducted through an exchange of letters from June 1971 until the summer of 1972. On December 2, 1972, a portion of the interview was taped at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies of the University of Wisconsin. Burgess’s schedule during his two-day visit had been backbreaking; there was scarcely a break in the round of class visits, Joyce readings, and interviews. Tired as he appeared after that routine, Burgess showed no tendency to curb the flow of his responses; and his spoken portions, when spliced with the previous exchanges, seem as polished as a written draft.
Thompson's angry and insulted Burgess honors obligations elsewhere [often for high-brow outlets] while making excuses to Rolling Stone.
Burgess, from the Review's spring issue: “If other writers can spend ten pages on the act of fellatio without embarrassing themselves, very good luck to them.”
Thompson, in his letter: "You lazy c***sucker."
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:43 AM on October 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange premiered in 1971, and Burgess was under constant pressure to defend the film of his novel. From 1972-3, Burgess was a temporary professor at City College New York, where he gave a series of lectures about Shakespeare. He's also working on Napoleon Symphony (1974) and The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End (1974). Anthony Burgess has criticised judges who, in recent court cases, have attacked the film of A Clockwork Orange for spreading the cult of violence (The Guardian, August 5, 1973): The writer was in London to talk about his two major projects for ATV – "Moses – the Law-Giver", which will be ready for screening next year with Burt Lancaster in the title role, and his own look at the life of Shakespeare. He also saw his publishers about a sequel to "A Clockwork Orange", "The Clockwork Testament", his answer to criticisms of the original book.
Anthony Burgess, The Art of Fiction No. 48, Paris Review Issue 56 Spring 1973: Much of the interview [w/John Cullinan] was conducted through an exchange of letters from June 1971 until the summer of 1972. On December 2, 1972, a portion of the interview was taped at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies of the University of Wisconsin. Burgess’s schedule during his two-day visit had been backbreaking; there was scarcely a break in the round of class visits, Joyce readings, and interviews. Tired as he appeared after that routine, Burgess showed no tendency to curb the flow of his responses; and his spoken portions, when spliced with the previous exchanges, seem as polished as a written draft.
Thompson's angry and insulted Burgess honors obligations elsewhere [often for high-brow outlets] while making excuses to Rolling Stone.
Burgess, from the Review's spring issue: “If other writers can spend ten pages on the act of fellatio without embarrassing themselves, very good luck to them.”
Thompson, in his letter: "You lazy c***sucker."
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:43 AM on October 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
Now I'm not saying this is what happened; I can't do necrotelepathy, and I wasn't there at the time. But if I received a letter from a writer I admired who could do excellent, transcendent work, and it professed to a struggle with writers' block, and it was accompanied by a half-hearted manuscript, I'd be hard-pressed to know what to do.
Accept it, and allow a wonderful writer to publish something even he didn't think was up to his standards? Something he was actively ashamed of, in a national magazine? Would that make him feel better?
Reject it politely, and wish him the best with his writers' block, let us know when you have something interesting, don't call us, that sort of thing?
Now, I definitely wouldn't have written the letter that Hunter S. Thompson did. But I'm also not dependent on writing like he was. He wrote to survive. He may have believed that Anthony Burgess wrote similarly.
There aren't a lot of things that would snap me out of a writing slump, but getting a letter from a writer I respected saying "Get your worthless ass out of the piazza and back to the typewriter" very well may be one of those things.
posted by MrVisible at 12:17 PM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
Accept it, and allow a wonderful writer to publish something even he didn't think was up to his standards? Something he was actively ashamed of, in a national magazine? Would that make him feel better?
Reject it politely, and wish him the best with his writers' block, let us know when you have something interesting, don't call us, that sort of thing?
Now, I definitely wouldn't have written the letter that Hunter S. Thompson did. But I'm also not dependent on writing like he was. He wrote to survive. He may have believed that Anthony Burgess wrote similarly.
There aren't a lot of things that would snap me out of a writing slump, but getting a letter from a writer I respected saying "Get your worthless ass out of the piazza and back to the typewriter" very well may be one of those things.
posted by MrVisible at 12:17 PM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
I don’t know what kind of relationship (if any) HST had with Burgess at the time, but after reading an entire book’s worth of Thompson’s personal correspondence, this letter appears to be in the same vein of mostly-good-natured, hyperbolic ribbing that he reserved for friends and/or people whose work he respected. If he addressed you as a “rat bastard” it was basically a term of endearment; if he implied you were a secret pervert (e.g. a peeping Tom, animal fucker, or voluntarily celibate teetotaler) that was usually the tell that he hated your guts.
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:30 PM on October 4, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:30 PM on October 4, 2020 [7 favorites]
Burgess thrived on disrespect. He was the Rodney Dangerfield of twentieth century English literature. His two volume autobiography is basically a list of entities he has a carefully tended grudge against - this includes the entire island of Malta.
He would have loved this letter. It would have nourished him.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 3:40 PM on October 4, 2020 [9 favorites]
He would have loved this letter. It would have nourished him.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 3:40 PM on October 4, 2020 [9 favorites]
I read one book by each of them, but then I'd also been suckered in by Heller, Golding and Updike. You might think I would've learned. I eventually did; now I'd rather play Tiddly-Winks, watch someone read Tarots, or read Jerry Falwell's official autobiography or anything on Buzzfeed.
posted by Twang at 4:22 PM on October 4, 2020
posted by Twang at 4:22 PM on October 4, 2020
Thompson being Thompson is what he did. Bagging on him for writing what he wrote shows me that the person doing said bagging has not read his more serious works. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is a seminal political diary. You may not like his style. You may not like him personally. Both are certainly acceptable ways of looking at him. But the book is a classic. Try reading it one day.
posted by Splunge at 4:54 PM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Splunge at 4:54 PM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
He would have loved this letter. It would have nourished him.
nah, Burgess didn't mention any thoughts about a nut-bar hate-mail from Rolling Stone in his memoirs, I think he might have shrugged and tossed it in the waste-bin with some of the other random copious hate-mails in his correspondence files.
HST was a genius, and often a total asshole when those negative feelings swept through his fevered brain. Burgess was a genius, and could also be an arsehole..
AB's late-reply/eventually-published essay (as noted by njohnson23) about free-will is interesting. His entire career is kinda like an ongoing conversation between St. Augustine & Pelagius. He doesn't reach a final conclusion about free-will. I'd be really curious to know what HST actually would've thought about that if he'd had chance to read it?
posted by ovvl at 5:15 PM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
nah, Burgess didn't mention any thoughts about a nut-bar hate-mail from Rolling Stone in his memoirs, I think he might have shrugged and tossed it in the waste-bin with some of the other random copious hate-mails in his correspondence files.
HST was a genius, and often a total asshole when those negative feelings swept through his fevered brain. Burgess was a genius, and could also be an arsehole..
AB's late-reply/eventually-published essay (as noted by njohnson23) about free-will is interesting. His entire career is kinda like an ongoing conversation between St. Augustine & Pelagius. He doesn't reach a final conclusion about free-will. I'd be really curious to know what HST actually would've thought about that if he'd had chance to read it?
posted by ovvl at 5:15 PM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
back in the Nixon-era, a raunchy exuberant writing style was a bracing tonic!
but at the end of the second decade of the 21st century, the Fuck-You style wears thin..
posted by ovvl at 5:30 PM on October 4, 2020
but at the end of the second decade of the 21st century, the Fuck-You style wears thin..
posted by ovvl at 5:30 PM on October 4, 2020
This entire year is in that style, and we are overwoke. Remember the halcyon days when we coped with hopeful boredom? HST was a good tonic, and still is for me. I would probably be an overwrought crybaby if I got a letter like that, oh well.
posted by Oyéah at 5:38 PM on October 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 5:38 PM on October 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
Cocksucker as an insult has not aged well. I love some of Hunter S. Thompson's writing but... kind of like Vonnegut's trans-phobic rant on the semicolon, it definitely affects how I view the author and it hurts and I don't know quite how to engage with the often brilliant and liberating material
posted by treepour at 5:59 PM on October 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by treepour at 5:59 PM on October 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
Sure, Burgess would have felt Thompson's letter wasn't worth recording. He usually got hate mail of the kind he got after returning to Manchester in 1989:
‘Speaking of death, I believe you once remarked that you were not sure if you should be buried in Moston [Cemetery] or in the Abbey. Don’t worry, the lads have prepared three graves: one for the body, one for the books, and one for the ego. Bad cess to you, Old Boy.’
Thompson was a petulant child next to whoever wrote that.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:58 PM on October 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
‘Speaking of death, I believe you once remarked that you were not sure if you should be buried in Moston [Cemetery] or in the Abbey. Don’t worry, the lads have prepared three graves: one for the body, one for the books, and one for the ego. Bad cess to you, Old Boy.’
Thompson was a petulant child next to whoever wrote that.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:58 PM on October 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
All this tells me is that Thompson was more of a weapons-grade asshole than I had previously thought.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 11:45 PM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 11:45 PM on October 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'm sorry, but Thompson was a complete dick and I don't get all the adulation. And more to the point, I find it kind of disturbing that Metafilter thinks this is ok behavior, or even worse, cute or clever or admirable or amusing. Being a "genius" (which Thompson wasn't anyway) doesn't give you license to abuse people.
posted by holborne at 10:33 AM on October 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by holborne at 10:33 AM on October 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
I feel the same about Bukowski, but it doesn't seem to have done any good.
posted by rhizome at 12:48 PM on October 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 12:48 PM on October 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
Being a "genius" (which Thompson wasn't anyway)
We shall agree to disagree. And I'm out of here.
posted by Splunge at 5:16 PM on October 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
We shall agree to disagree. And I'm out of here.
posted by Splunge at 5:16 PM on October 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
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