Mimsy Review: Generation of Swine
Watching TV becomes a full-time job when you can scan 200 channels all day and all night and still have the option of punching Night Dreams into the video machine, if the rest of the world seems dull.
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| Recommendation | Possible Purchase |
|---|---|
| Author | Hunter S. Thompson |
| Year | 1989 |
| Length | 336 pages |
| Book Rating | 5 |
This one is categorized “nonfiction/journalism”, which must give Thompson one hell of a laugh at times if he even reads his own work, which he probably does.
Subtitled “Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ‘80s”, these are the Reagan years, the generation that faced Armageddon and decided that Oliver North was the man for the job. These are also the second volume of the “Gonzo Papers”, the first since “The Great Shark Hunt” back when Carter smiled his way into the Pig Palace. The Reagan Revolution was not a good time for the anti-Swine, what with the Republicans cranking out brown-shirts in the midnight hours and the Democrats falling all over themselves to co-opt the right wing.
And at the end of it, the Reagan empire devolving onto paid stooges and back-street bureaucrats.
The Reagan Revolution was beginning to look like a second-hand Studebaker with bald tires. The awkward truth is that three times in the last 20 years one of the two major parties has put forth presidential candidates who were so utterly crooked and publicly corrupt that they had to be removed from office for dark reasons... and two of them were re-elected to second four-year terms by massive popular acclaim.
It sounds like Bill Clinton, too--except that Clinton could not even manage popular acclaim for his second term, even against a Bob Dole.
The meat of this book is the 1987-88 presidential campaign, with vice president George Bush fighting for his life against Republican competitors like Al Haig, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson. While Michael Dukakis fought off the likes of Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson and won mostly by being the last person standing.
The story is also about television, about cable TV into every home (except Woody Creek) with a hundred channels, and satellite TV into Woody Creek with hundreds of channels, the porn pendulum swinging back from “the golden age of porn” in the seventies, going from “Deep Throat” and “The Story of O” to “Thunderthighs” and “Hot Nazis” playing 155 weeks in San Diego. And the rise of CNN, 24 hours of mainline news.
“Generation of Swine” is not one of Thompson’s best works. But it stands as a brilliant light beckoning through an otherwise Dark Age.
If you enjoyed Generation of Swine…
If you enjoy Hunter S. Thompson books, you might also be interested in A dark and bloody ground: Hunter S. Thompson, Better Than Sex, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972, Hell’s Angels, Hunter S. Thompson Dead, Songs of the Doomed, and The Great Shark Hunt
If you enjoy satirical books, you might also be interested in Being There, Better Than Sex, Dark Star, Doonesbury, Fahrenheit 451, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Mike Royko’s Opinions, Mike Royko: A Life in Print, Songs of the Doomed, South Park Volume 1 through 6, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Team America, Fuck Yeah!, Thank You For Smoking, The Complete Lewis Carroll, The Desert Peach, The Futurological Congress, The Great Shark Hunt, The Siege of Harlem, and Wag the Dog
- Buy Generation of Swine: Hunter S. Thompson
- “Generation of Swine” is not one of Thompson’s best works. But it stands as a brilliant light beckoning through an otherwise Dark Age. These are the Reagan years, the generation that faced Armageddon and decided that Oliver North was the man for the job.
- Hunter S. Thompson
- “Credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. He is also known for his use of psychedelics, alcohol, firearms, and his iconoclastic contempt for authority.”