<P> In any event, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas became a benchmark in American literature about U.S. society in the early 1970s . In Billboard magazine, Chris Morris said, "Through Duke and Gonzo's drug - addled shenanigans amid the seediness of the desert pleasure palaces, it perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the post --' 60s era". In Rolling Stone magazine, Mikal Gilmore wrote that the novel "peers into the best and worst mysteries of the American heart" and that Thompson "sought to understand how the American dream had turned a gun on itself". Gilmore believes that "the fear and loathing Thompson was writing about--a dread of both interior demons and the psychic landscape of the nation around him--wasn't merely his own; he was also giving voice to the mind - set of a generation that had held high ideals and was now crashing hard against the walls of American reality". </P> <P> Cormac McCarthy has called the book "a classic of our time" and one of the few, great modern novels . </P> <P> In the book The Great Shark Hunt, Thompson refers to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as "a failed experiment in the gonzo journalism" he practiced, which was based on William Faulkner's idea that "the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism--and the best journalists have always known this". Thompson's style blended the techniques of fictional story - telling and journalism . </P> <P> He called it a failed experiment because he originally intended to record every detail of the Las Vegas trip as it happened, and then publish the raw, unedited notes; however, he revised it during the spring and summer of 1971 . For example, the novel describes Duke attending the motorcycle race and the narcotics convention in a few days' time; the actual events occurred a month apart . Later, he wrote, "I found myself imposing an essentially fictional framework on what began as a piece of straight / crazy journalism". Nevertheless, critics call Fear and Loathing Thompson's crowning achievement in gonzo journalism . For example, journalist and author Mikal Gilmore said the novel "feels free wheeling when you read it (but) it doesn't feel accidental . The writing is right there, on the page--startling, unprecedented and brilliantly crafted". Critics believe that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas should be considered a work of gonzo journalism because the characteristics of gonzo journalism are all characteristics seen in the novel . </P>

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