Before Hunter S. Thompson became a drug-addled caricature of himself in the 70s, he was a masterful free lance journalist throughout the mid-to-late 60s. Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, stemming from a HST article in The Nation, was the book that launched his literary career in 1966:
At any bar full of Hell's Angels there will be a row of sleek bikes lined up on the curb outside. At a leather bar there are surrealistic renderings of motorcycles on the wall and perhaps, but not always, one or two huge, accessory-laden Harleys parked outside---complete with windshields, radios and red plastic saddlebags.
The difference is as basic as between a professional football player and a rabid fan. One is a performer in a harsh, unique corner of reality; the other is a cultist, a passive worshiper, and occasionally a sloppy emulator of a style that fascinates him because it is so hopelessly remote from the reality he wakes up to every morning.
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