Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone(21)
The fact that I blame you for this is probably unjust in the long run—but of course there was never any real question of “the long run.” All I wanted to do was pay off my card, and talk about “Fiscal Responsibility” later.
Which is neither here nor there, for now. The deed is done. I am now naked of credit. And this ugly fact is going to put a bad crimp in my working-style for a long time to come. Selah . . .
As for Vegas, it’s coming along very slowly. Silberman thinks it should go in the AmDream book, but I disagree. The Vegas stuff is too twisted, I think, to anchor a serious book. But what will probably happen, now, is that I’ll have to pursuede [sic] Silberman of that and then trade him book rights on “The Battle of Aspen—An Epitaph for Freak Power?” for the entirety of Vegas. And this dealing will be subject in a lot of ways to The Schedule—my planned departure for Siagon [sic] on Sept 1.
So we’ll have at least this to ponder when you get here. Sandy says you called Sunday & then today. I was far into madness on Sunday—[Hunter’s friend and writer] Lucian Truscott showed up with a huge bag of mescaline—and today I was too cosmically pissed off to talk about anything. Especially money—which you seem to have indicated would be the subject under discussion. I had a terrible scene with the dentist earlier today: One of the side-horrors of Vegas II was that I bit down on something that cracked three of my teeth—a problem I was unaware of until I went in a few days ago for my routine 6-month cleaning.
Shit, I’ll call you tomorrow. I’m vaguely concerned, among other things, about that “Jesus Freak memo” from the Sports Desk ... if there’s any possibility that it might be published, I want to talk about it first. (Meanwhile, I’ve prepared Sports Desk Memo #2—On the subject of “drug Lyrics in Rock Music.”) The very nature of this format makes the writing a bit heavy. #1 began as a joke—and perhaps it ended that way. I can’t be sure. Whenever I belch out my bias that strongly, it takes on an element of craziness ... and I want to be careful of this. In the past two weeks I’ve received copies of two different books that used “selections” from “Hell’s Angels,” and in both cases I was shocked at what happens to my stuff when it’s printed out of context. All it takes is a few cuts on the Humor to make the rest seem like the ravings of a dangerous lunatic.
Anyway, we can deal with these things when you get here. It’s possible that Noonan will be gone, and if he is you can stay in his house—which would probably be preferable, from your end, to using the guest room here. Which is definitely available—complete with White Sound. But I’ll talk to you tomorrow, before you get this, and get a fix on your travel dates.
OK for now . . .
HST
Letter from HST to JSW, July 30, 1971
7/30
Owl Farm
Woody Creek, Colorado
Jann/
Vegas is emerging from a bad case of stomach flu, combined with a water war that went a lot closer to the edge than I planned on.
It took me 2 days to bring the fucker under control—which included the croaking, tonight, of a “takeover bid” on the Owl Farm by M. Burns. (with [producer Bob] Rafelson)
Plenty of action out here—about 40 defecations a day & 20 vomitings, along with all the rest.
I feel very weak.
Ciao/
H
Undated letter from HST to JSW
Jann . . .
Vegas Two took a great leap forward yesterday; it finally developed a plotline. Only one big chunk still needs to be done—the Drug Conference itself. (Oh yeah—& there’s also the ending.) Last week was totally consumed by the Water War. I won, but it cost me six full days of time & energy.
I figure Vegas will take another week, but let me know if you smell any deadlines I haven’t been told about. October is a long way off, but I want to finish the fucker and get done with The Battle of Aspen.
I also want to decide, very soon, about this Washington gig—mainly because I have to know whether or not my house will be for rent this winter. I’d like to stay here as long as possible, but October 1 would probably be the deadline for getting it rented. In other words, I’d probably have to be out by then. There’s a chance I could stretch that until Xmas by putting the tenant/family in the Iguana house, temporarily, but I haven’t checked this out. Ideally, the Washington thing should be a one-year contract of sorts, from November to November. That would be the most convenient for a house/hq. lease in DC, and also from most other aspects. (Hell, I see where this kind of thing presents infinite complications, so I’ll leave it alone for now) ... but if you give it any thought in the meantime, keep in mind that my main considerations are: