Daily Dialogue — August 14, 2019

“Ah, devil ether. It makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel. Total loss of all basic motor skills. Blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue. The mind recoils in horror, unable to communicate with the spinal column. Which is interesting because you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can’t control it. You approach the turnstiles and know that when you get there, you have to give the man two dollars or he won’t let you inside. But when you get there, everything goes wrong. Some angry rotarian shoves you and you think ‘What’s happening here? What’s going on?’ And you hear yourself mumbling… ‘Dogs fucked the Pope… no fault of mine.’ Ether is the perfect drug for Las Vegas. In this town they love a drunk. Fresh meat. So they put us through the turnstiles and turned us loose inside.”

— Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), screenplay by Terry Gilliam & Tony Grisoni and Tod Davies & Alex Cox, book by Hunter S. Thompson

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Las Vegas.

Trivia: Terry Gilliam took over as director after Alex Cox (Sid and Nancy (1986)) left the picture due to creative differences. Gilliam re-wrote the entire screenplay in a matter of a few days to fit his unique creative vision and style, while staying true to Hunter S. Thompson’s writings.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Hunter S. Thompson and Las Vegas go together like… well… anti-sobriety and ether.