Podcast: The Daily Stoic
Episode: Timothy Denevi on Hunter S Thompson and the Art of Journalism
Here’s a list of all the books mentioned in this episode, complete with an Amazon buy link and quotes from the episode.
Brotherhood Of The Grape
Buy on Amazon"Yeah, and then the other writer that I'm slightly more fanboyish about than Didion is John Fante. I just read 'Brotherhood of the Grapes.' It's about Roseville?"
Ask the Dust
Buy on Amazon"No, I'm going to read 'Ask the Dust.' I have that in the story; it's one of the great novels of all time. Uh, crazy story which we should talk about; he has a bunch, maybe '1933 was a Bad Year,' 'The Road to Los Angeles.'"
1933 was a Bad Year
Buy on Amazon"Uh, crazy story which we should talk about; he has a bunch, maybe '1933 was a Bad Year,' 'The Road to Los Angeles.' He has a couple of books about his journey; he's seen as an LA writer, but he's from Colorado, and so it's just a weird snapshot to have the Italian-American experience from Colorado to LA, then Northern California."
The Road to Los Angeles
Buy on Amazon"Uh, crazy story which we should talk about; he has a bunch, maybe '1933 was a Bad Year,' 'The Road to Los Angeles.' He has a couple of books about his journey; he's seen as an LA writer, but he's from Colorado, and so it's just a weird snapshot to have the Italian-American experience from Colorado to LA, then Northern California."
Mein Kampf
Buy on Amazon"And that same year, Stackpole, which was also more of a military publisher, they did a lot of books in military history, they published an unauthorized edition of 'Mein Kampf.' Oh wow, Hitler being...then like it'd be like if Putin had written a book and they felt like people should read it."
Ask the Dust
Buy on Amazon"And the legend, it's true and not true; but the legend is 'Ask the Dust' sells out its first printing or is selling through its first printing in a good clip. It would have been a huge book; this distracted the publisher, sucks up its marketing budget, which they spend on legal fees, which they then lose, and 'Ask the Dust' is then forgotten until, yeah, 1970, whatever, when Charles Bukowski discovers the lone surviving copy in the Los Angeles Public Library."
Full of Life
Buy on Amazon"Um, his short stories are good; um, he wrote this book—'Full of Life,' um which was his most popular book; it wasn't a popular book, but it gets turned into a big movie that basically pays for everything. He once—so basically what happens is once 'Ask the Dust' is destroyed, he is sort of heartbroken and then just becomes a well-paid but little-known screenwriter; he has a nice house in Malibu paid for by movies that were never made, and was a frustrated novelist and sort of a drunk and a tortured dude as a result of this experience."
Dreams from Bunker Hill
Buy on Amazon"And then after—this is way nerdier than people listen to—but after, after Bukowski rediscovers 'Ask the Dust' as Fante is dying of diabetes, they’re like chopping off his limbs as blind; he dictates to his wife the sequel of 'Dreams from Bunker Hill.' How's that, 'cause that's done; it's not done writing out; he told his wife the novel while he was…"
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Buy on Amazon"I think about that Hunter Thompson speech all the time for people who haven’t read 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.' Maybe you've seen the movie; you think it's this book about debauchery and partying and craziness when really it's this sort of elegy and a sad meditation on the failure of all the idealism of the 60s."
The White Album
Buy on Amazon"And I mean, it reminds me of, in kind of a tangential way, but you know the passage in Didion's The White Album where she’s with, uh, Jim Morrison? Yeah, you know, and you know how she writes about it. It’s, she goes to the recording session, they’re waiting for Jim Morrison, he shows up, he doesn’t talk to anybody, you know?"
The Great Influenza
Buy on Amazon"So that’s why I loved your book; so like I have found like, okay, the best book I read during COVID was John M. Barry’s book, The Great Influenza. Oh wow, right? So you’re reading about the Spanish flu and you’re like, okay, here’s everything that’s true."
It Can't Happen Here
Buy on Amazon"Right, the best way I understood Trump was Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. And I feel like your book actually, which comes, which is basically the generation right after that book, like you’re talking about, no longer does the fascist movement look like Mussolini or Hitler. It’s figured out how to dress better; it’s figured out how to co-opt certain kinds of speech and language."
The Greek Way
Buy on Amazon"Think about two years later, on the night that Martin Luther King was shot, Bobby Kennedy—who was a Philistine for most of his life—began to read the Greeks and read 'The Greek Way.' I have the book in the bookstore, by Edith what? Edith Wharton."
On Immunity
Buy on Amazon"Thereâs a great book, 'Immunity' by Eula Biss, and it was the first time I began to understand immunity is not about you; itâs about participation. She articulated that while she was writing it, especially during her pregnancy in the 2010s, and it was the first time I understood immunity is about how participation and how we come together to get a different outcome than we would individually."
The Wasteland
Buy on Amazon"There’s a book titled 'The Wasteland' about Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, which came out recently, analyzing the deterioration of Ezra Pound's mind as he fell into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Anti-Semitism may be the oldest virus; it infects different Romans and emperors at various times, different leaders at different times."
Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays
Buy on Amazon"I teach 'Shooting an Elephant' today by George Orwell. I love 'Homage to Catalonia,' but there are parts of it where he talks about what it was like as a colonial administrator, knowing colonialism was wrong. It’s a lot like Thompson—he was caught up in enforcing it, and it shows how it destroys him as a way to argue against it."
Homage to Catalonia
Buy on Amazon"I love 'Homage to Catalonia,' but there are parts of it where he talks about what it was like as a colonial administrator, knowing colonialism was wrong. It’s a lot like Thompson—he was caught up in enforcing it, and it shows how it destroys him as a way to argue against it. Thompson does a very good job at illustrating this."
Stories I Tell Myself
Buy on Amazon"His son wrote a great book called 'Stories I Tell Myself,' which tries to encapsulate Thompson's struggle. I attempted to conclude with Nixon leaving, but the years after were really tough because they reflect our current understanding of alcoholism, coupled with how Thompson would take Dexedrine. There was a price to be paid later, and his son writes about getting hooked on the substance."