39 pages 1 hour read

Hunter S. Thompson

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1971

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Part 1, Chapters 7-12

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary: “Paranoid Terror… and the Awful Specter of Sodomy… A Flashing of Knives and Green Water”

Raoul and Gonzo return to their room at the Mint Hotel after the evening at the Circus-Circus Casino, gripped with paranoia. Gonzo claims that their photographer, Lacerda, tried to “steal” and sleep with a woman he liked. This was someone, Raoul remembers, Gonzo had talked to and frightened in the hotel elevator. Raoul goes to check on their car and put it in the parking lot. When he returns, Gonzo is in the bath with a hunting knife and a radio plugged into the electric razor socket. While listening to the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane, Gonzo tells Raoul to throw the radio into the bath when the song reaches its climax. Gonzo has his eyes closed, and as “White Rabbit” reaches its peak, Raoul throws a grapefruit into the bath instead, which momentarily makes Gonzo believe he is being electrocuted. Raoul then protects himself from the crazed Gonzo by wielding a can of mace and putting a chair in front of the bathroom door.

Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary: ‘“Genius” ‘Round the World Stands Hand, and One Shock of Recognition Runs the While Circle ‘Round’”

Raoul reminisces about the 1960s and how he first came to take LSD. Initially, he tried to get some in the mid-1960s in San Francisco from a doctor who made it nearby, but the doctor refused to sell it.

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