...Fear and Loathing Postmodernism Postmodernism is a philosophical term that describes an era or movement in American culture marked by attitudes of skepticism which challenges many of the ideals of Modernism. As an opposition towards the modern era, Postmodernism can be identified in art through its related terms such as fragmentation, hyper-realism, deconstruction, pastiche and ambiguity. Specifically, postmodernism refutes such concepts as reality, the ability to reach perfection, absolute truth, the structures of capitalism, ideals represented within popular culture, political values and other core concepts related to the structures of American culture. The concept is often criticized as a truism for its ambiguity in its very definition. Ironically, ambiguity in relation to truth is as much a description of the term as it is a concept practiced within the cultural movement. For this reason, the term is perhaps most simplistically exemplified and defined through media texts which encode its ideologies. One such media text includes Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a film adapted from Hunter Thompson’s 1972 novel. In the following essay, I will define the concept of postmodernism through Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The media text uses humor to challenge modernistic ideas of one’s ability to achieve the Utopian “American dream,” which is often defined as the realization of ultimate happiness and success. Specifically, Fear and Loathing’s satirical refute of the existence...
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...Out of this week’s readings, I much preferred the short story, Fear & Loathing in America to The New York Times article. I found myself rather bored reading the article about the many sporting events being called off, immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I will admit that I am not much of a sports fan - especially not American sports teams – however I tried to read the article with an open mind. Litsky and Williams (2011) wrote the article in a very fact-based, typical news story way, which meant that if the reader is not at all interested in the subject matter, the narrative style does nothing to make the reader interested in reading on. Even the title sparked little interest; I was surprised they did not use the words, ‘terrorist attacks’ in the title, as most media like to grab the reader’s attention immediately. Thompson (2011) on the other hand, wrote a completely different kettle of fish that did not focus so much on sport, but more about the shocking 9/11 attacks. Thompson (2011) aptly described, “Football suddenly seemed irrelevant, compared to the scenes of destruction and utter...
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...Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl, 1973, PG 607 This article was written by Hunter S. Thompson in January of 1973 about this event that took place in Houston, Texas. Hyatt Regency Hotel is where Thompson stayed. Unlike some other bard, Hyatt Regency’s bar closed at 2a.m. Drunks, hookers, gamblers, and more crowded together in the lobby. He hadn’t planned to be there at all. He doesn’t know what made him want to preach a sermon from the Book of Revelations on Super Sunday. For thirty minutes, he spent his time saying how criminals should be thrown into the lake of fire. The people didn’t have much of a reaction, except for sleepiness and boredom. While sitting alone, he felt something heavy going up his back. His first thought was a huge leech. He felt it was a sign to deliver the sermon and to write his lead for the Super Bowl story before anything happened to him. In online research, I found that Hunter S. Thompson started his journalism career after he served for the air force. He was a very good known writer and he covered more ground in four paragraphs then most writers could in many books and he penned what many people call “Gonzo Journalism.” Thompson had some health problems and at the age of 67 he committed suicide. Honestly, I only understood some of the article. Thompson must have been a great writer. When I was looking up information on Thompson, I was hoping to find out more about him talking about the sermon, but I couldn’t find anything. If someone was preaching...
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...L.L. Bean, Inc. SINGH Varun M1, GR21 L.L. Bean is a privately owned mail-order, telephone, retail and online catalog company with headquarters in Freeport, Maine in the United States. It was founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean, and is currently worth US$1.5 billion. The major problem faced by the supply chain of the firm is the over reliance of initial forecasting on estimates and speculations. 1. How does L.L. Bean use past demand data and a specific item forecast to decide how many units of that item to stock? The forecasting team at L.L. Bean decides how many units of an item to stock using the following methodology: i. Divide the past demand data by the forecast demand to compute historical forecast errors, expressed in the form of A/F ratios, for each individual item. ii. The frequency distribution of these errors is compiled across items. iii. The frequency distribution of past forecast errors is used as a probability distribution for future forecast errors. iv. The cost of understocking an item is calculated by subtracting the cost price from the selling price. v. The cost of overstocking an item is computed by subtracting the liquidation price from the cost price of the item. vi. The critical ratio CU / (CU + CO) is calculated, which gives the optimal order size as the quantile of the item’s probability distribution of demand. vii. The commitment quantity is calculated as the product of the critical ratio quantile...
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...L L Bean: Corporate Strategy L.L. Bean: Past Success For many years, L.L. Bean has proven itself as an increasingly successful company relative to its core competitors within its outdoor clothing and recreation equipment industry. The success has driven the company to its current position as the “largest mail order company in the specialty outdoor business.” Leon Leonwood Bean drove his company towards success and maintained this status through innovation and his progressive attitude within his community. Throughout its history, various critical factors have contributed to the success of L.L. Bean. Leon Leonwood Bean created a strong corporate foundation which has been strategically expanded since his passing. Presently, the company has achieved strong brand equity with an identifiable and relatable heritage that helps retain and maintain existing and prospective customers. Success can be attributed to the company’s core value, which is to treat each customer with respect. For this reason, the company has strived to maintain excellent customer service (i.e. fast and accurate), competitive prices and delivery time. These values have resulted in high customer loyalty and satisfaction, high employee morale, and an overall positive reputation as a provider of high quality products. External or environmental factors have created great opportunities for the company, many of which were projected by and capitalized on through LL Bean’s management team. For example, customer...
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...Maria Blanco Period 2 The Crucible Essay Draft Fear and loathing can overpower all senses of reason. A doctor conducted that the children were suffering from the effects of witchcraft. Some people were actually innocent and they still hanged them because they thought that they were witches. Salem Reverend Parris attempted to capitalize on fear when he preached about the witches that abounded in Salem. Arthur Miller, in his drama “The Crucible”,illustrates fear through the actions and reactions of several of his characters. In Act III the characters show lots of fear. For example, Abigail William for instance, fears discovery of her deceit in the town of Salem and commits all sorts of heinous acts to prevent herself,regardless of the harm done to to others. Marry Warrens is innocent and she's trying to save herself from Danforth because he thinks that she is lying when really she isn’t. Proctor is scared because he doesn’t want his wife to be killed and because he had an affair with Abigail. Abigail shows many of her “acts” in many of the scenes to prevent herself from getting hanged. For example, in Act III page 1307, Abigail says “ A wind,a cold wind,has come. Her eyes fall on Marry Warren.” While Marry Warren pleases Abigail to stop lying . Proctor then says “They’re pretending” Abigail acts as if a soul went inside of her, but it is all pretend. In Act III Proctor,Marry Warren, Abigail, Hathorne, Danforth, and the girls are in the court room. This Act shows...
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...The first device I noticed in Fear and Loathing was enumeration when he wrote, “The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid”. It is certainly the most memorable example of enumeration I have ever come across. Most people my age recognize that quote within seconds from the 1998 film adaptation. I attempted to emulate it when I imitated, “The backpack was void of foodstuff. It had all manners of scribblers, scratchers, scribers, one eraser, a broken calculator”. In Thompson’s writing, this device would let readers know that things were about to get weird; unfortunately, mine may not have had the same effect because school supplies are not nearly as interesting as a pile of...
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...context of your critical study of Hamlet, to what extent does your response to this section of the soliloquy inform your judgment of this play as a whole? In your response, make detailed reference to Hamlet. The third soliloquy primarily explores Hamlet’s struggle to take action and avenge his father’s death. This inner conflict creates a dramatic tension that is sustained throughout the play and contributes to the textual integrity. The themes of Hamlet’s self-loathing, his resistance to action, and revenge, dominate this soliloquy and recur consistently for the duration of the play. They reveal Hamlet’s weak and procrastinating character which only changes towards the very end when he overcomes his cowardice and takes revenge for his father’s death by finally killing Claudius. The audience’s attitude towards Hamlet develops through the third soliloquy as they are informed to a large extent about what the core of the drama is about. This in turn shapes their judgement of the play as a whole. Hamlet’s self-loathing arises from his frustration in not having avenged his father’s death. This is constant throughout the play because it is the character’s prime focus. His inner conflict of feeling he is incapable of killing Claudius, and then hating himself for it, begins in the first line of his soliloquy, when he uses direct speech to the audience, referring to himself as a ‘rogue and peasant slave’. This juxtaposes the image of his position, the Prince of Denmark, with the powerlessness...
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...Literary Analysis In a perfect world, friendship and true friendship would be synonymous. Unfortunately, this is not the case. For children, friendship can be simplified to enjoying eachother’s company and playing with one another, whereas true friendship may be taking the blame so the other can avoid the cruel and unusual punishment of timeout. No matter the age, true friendship exists where selflessness thrives, meaning one must seek out another’s highest good before even considering their own. In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Amir’s childhood friendship with Hassan is one plagued with underlying jealousy and manipulation, but Amir’s transformation from selfish child to selfless adult helps him to overcome his own self-loathing and become the true friend that Hassan deserved all along. From the beginning of the novel all the way through his death, Hassan maintains an unchanging good-heartedness that shines through him and his actions. His loyalty, selflessness, and forgiving nature are just what make him a true friend to Amir. Hassan’s loyalty to Amir is made known early in the novel in one of Amir’s flashbacks. The two sit up in a tree, causing mischief, when Ali comes to reprimand them. Amir recalls “[Hassan] never told on me. Never told that the mirror, like shooting walnuts at the neighbor’s dog, was always my idea” (4). This flashback tells us a lot about the boys’ relationship. First and foremost, we see that Hassan’s loyalty goes to the...
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...Uzair Sumra Robert Guffey English 100 30 November 2015 What Is The American Dreams? Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a book written by Hunter S. Thompson published in the year 1971. The book is a reflection of American politics during Thompson’s time. It is written with the author (Thompson) as the main character, but he uses a fictional name to avoid repercussions and allow for more artistic license. The book takes place in the early 1970s and the main character, Raoul Duke, is sent to Las Vegas to write an article on the 4th annual “Mint Race 400” buggy race. Under the advice of his lawyer (Dr. Gonzo) both drive out to Las Vegas on a nonstop LSD and mescaline trip. Unfortunately, Duke and Gonzo engage themselves in an adventure of the lifetime. Somehow things go berserk and both of them end up abandoning work and engaging in an experience that involves disparaging everyone around them. The obvious theme of the book is The American Dream. Thompson wrote a lot about the American Dream and just like most people, he believed in the American Dream. Hunter S. Thompson portrays the American Dream as illusionary, as there are some places where he says that the American Dream is about money. The American Dream is a phrase which is heard, at some point, by most people today and the meaning has been understood since the founding of America. The definition of the American Dream appears to be different for most people, depending on their views. Probably the most accepted explanation...
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...hurting everyone in the end. Depression can occur at a very early age in childhood and can even be carried on years into adulthood as well. Depression can be stemmed from the acts of ignoring, rejecting or verbally abusing a child and a pattern of this behavior from the parent can lead to the child's poor self image ("Child Neglect"). By constantly being treated with this behavior, the child begins to think that through the words and actions of the parent that they are worthless and believes it. Parents may try to compensate for the lack of emotional relationship with the child by giving material items they think the child will enjoy and think will gain the affection of the child (Tudoran, Bugolt, 2015). Depression can lead to severe self loathing, self harm, low self esteem, and suicidal thoughts....
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...ratings of the South African economy. They are watching the dynamics between finance minister Pravin Gordhan and Zuma closely. If Gordhan isn’t given the political space to execute his budget promises, a downgrade to junk status is inevitable. There was huge relief all round last week when other rating agency, Moody’s, stuck to their rating, just adding a negative outlook. Moody’s has left no doubt that Gordhan’s budget and his behaviour since then were key to its decision. And just as Fitch and Standard & Poor’s were about to arrive, the Sunday Times reported that the Hawks were threatening to arrest Gordhan and charge him with espionage, a charge related to an investigations unit at SARS formed when Gordhan was its commissioner. Fear and loathing This threat of the arrest of a Cabinet minister isn’t new; Hawks officials also threatened to arrest Gordhan in February. The charge then, as now, is completely bogus. The presidency can deny as much as it wants, there is an established pattern of the Hawks and state security operatives leaking such...
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...The Importance of Hamlet’s Soliloquies In the Shakespearian tragedy Hamlet, we see the main character, who shares the name of the play, process many of his thoughts and evaluate many different options before he makes each of his decisions through the soliloquies he delivers throughout the play. From the first soliloquy in act 1 to the final one in act 4, many of major events in the play that involve Hamlet are decided through his trains of thought, as well as his opinions on various matters and his methods of dealing with his emotions. In the play, Hamlet’s soliloquies reveal his character by showing three of his most important traits; his indecisiveness, his nobility and his apparent self-hatred. Although Hamlet has many different character traits, and is perhaps one of the most complex characters in any of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the most prominent one is his indecisiveness. He contemplates every one of the major decisions he makes and makes sure that what he is doing is what he thinks is the right thing, and he rarely acts without thinking about it beforehand. Much of this thinking is described in his 7 soliloquies, for instance in the third soliloquy he delivers, he mentions “The spirit that I have seen may be the devil, and the devil hath power T’ assume a pleasing shape. Yea, and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholy, as he is very potent with such spirits, abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds more relative to this” (2, 2, 577) which shows that although the...
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...The Sandwich Factory analysis The novel is written in 2007 by Jason Kennedy and tells the story of a nameless production line worker, in an industrialized world. The narrator is 1st person, and the story unfolds through the narrator’s point of view. The novel use high style language, the narrator uses a lot of irony, which makes it quite humorous to read at times. For an example “Dot lived in the Midlands, as she would’ve been an excellent pirate, giving blow jobs on the high seas” (L.36-37, p.2). His literal knowledge far exceeds the normal human being with no higher education. “In keeping with my station in society, and having been rejected by the bowling alley, I took a low-paid job at a sandwich factory.”(L.1-2. p.1.) The narrator has taken a job at a sandwich factory, where he is putting together the sandwiches. The narrator has possibly lost his old job, and therefore he seeks a new job. The “Bowling alley” rejected him, when he applied for a job there. Therefore he got a low paid job at the sandwich factory. He thinks highly about himself, and indicates that he holds a high status in society. His thoughts philosophize on many subjects regarding the factory and the people working there. His thoughts intertwining with his literary knowledge, creating strange metaphysical scenarios in this mind. “A whole factory full of workers who would bite your arm off to push a rock up a hill for eternity (so long as you gave us €4.50 an hour and the weekends off). I entertained...
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...Throughout the play Miller uses certain factors the place all sorts of characters in the struggle to do what is morally right. These struggles are affected by social exclusion, self-loathing and regret intertwined with fear. The struggles that particular characters also go through is effected through their morality and their sense of right and wrong which also impacts several others in the short and long term effects of individual horrors most characters go through. In this essay I will be evaluating the struggles to do what is right through Mary Warren and John Proctor, I will also evaluate other factors causing struggle such as relationships both old and young and other characters that affect struggle. Throughout the play Miller presents Proctor as a character who is constantly guilty for his sins, the most prominent sin being his affair with Abigail. The audience is made aware of Proctor’s lingering feelings when he admits “I may have looked”, the use of the hedging “may” amplifies how Proctor’s guilt does not only come from the destruction of his marriage with Elizabeth but also because of his constant feelings for Abigail. These feelings are further reinforced from Abigail’s “and you must”, the use of the stronger, more imposing word “must” then enforces how Abigail is willing to give herself to Proctor no matter what the consequences. The ever so slight “and you must” likewise presents to the audience that Abigail has taken hold of her sexual prowess in order to use...
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