Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

by

Hunter S. Thompson

Blotter Acid/LSD Term Analysis

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), otherwise known as blotter acid, or simply acid, is a psychedelic drug. LSD causes intense hallucinations and a rapid heartrate, and it produces effects that can last up to twelve hours. Use of acid was central to the American counterculture movement in the 1960s, and Duke and Gonzo consistently take the drug throughout their Vegas trip.

Blotter Acid/LSD Quotes in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas quotes below are all either spoken by Blotter Acid/LSD or refer to Blotter Acid/LSD. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Related Symbols: The Great Red Shark , The Bag of Drugs
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 8 Quotes

Ignore that nightmare in the bathroom. Just another ugly refugee from the Love Generation, some doom-struck gimp who couldn’t handle the pressure. My attorney has never been able to accept the notion—often espoused by reformed drug abusers and especially popular among those on probation— that you can get a lot higher without drugs than with them.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker), Dr. Gonzo
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 11 Quotes

But what is sane? Especially here in “our own country”—in this doomstruck era of Nixon. We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled the Sixties. Uppers are going out of style. This was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America selling “consciousness expansion” without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him too seriously.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker)
Page Number: Book Page 178
Explanation and Analysis:

Not that they didn’t deserve it: No doubt they all Got What Was Coming To Them. All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create . . . a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody—or at least some force—is tending that Light at the end of the tunnel.

Related Characters: Raoul Duke (speaker)
Page Number: Book Page 178-9
Explanation and Analysis:
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Blotter Acid/LSD Term Timeline in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The timeline below shows where the term Blotter Acid/LSD appears in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part One, Chapter 1
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
The American Dream Theme Icon
Drugs and American Society  Theme Icon
News and Journalism Theme Icon
...drugs,” including “two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers,... (full context)
Part One, Chapter 3: Strange Medicine on the Desert…a Crisis of Confidence
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Drugs and American Society  Theme Icon
Violence Theme Icon
Duke and Gonzo decide it is time to eat some blotter acid, and then Gonzo takes out the salt shaker of cocaine, spilling most of it. “You’re... (full context)
Part One, Chapter 4: Hideous Music and the Sound of Many Shotguns…Rude Vibes on a Saturday Evening in Vegas
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Drugs and American Society  Theme Icon
News and Journalism Theme Icon
Violence Theme Icon
...and nine fresh grapefruit. “Vitamin C,” he says. “We’ll need all we can get.” Duke’s acid trip is beginning to wear off, and by the time room service arrives the waiter... (full context)
Part One, Chapter 7: Paranoid Terror…and the Awful Specter of Sodomy…A Flashing of Knives and Green Water
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Drugs and American Society  Theme Icon
...orders. “I want rising sound.” Duke notices that Gonzo has eaten an entire sheet of acid. “You evil son of a bitch,” Duke says. “You better hope there’s some Thorazine in... (full context)
Violence Theme Icon
...dare go to sleep with you wandering around in this condition—with a head full of acid and wanting to slice me up with that goddamn knife.” Gonzo shrugs and lights a... (full context)
Part One, Chapter 8: “Genius ‘Round the World Stands Hand in Hand, and One Shock of Recognition Runs the Whole Circle ‘Round”—Art Linkletter
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Drugs and American Society  Theme Icon
News and Journalism Theme Icon
Duke once lived down the road from a doctor, a famous “acid guru,” who had “made that long jump from chemical frenzy to preternatural consciousness.” Duke approached... (full context)
Part Two, Chapter 3: Savage Lucy…‘Teeth Like Baseballs, Eyes Like Jellied Fire’
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Violence Theme Icon
...fifth time in six months, and Gonzo didn’t realize until after he had given her acid that she has never even had a drink. “Jesus,” Gonzo says, “she’s a religious freak.”... (full context)
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Violence Theme Icon
...Los Angeles International Airport by some kind of cruel Samoan who fed her liquor and LSD, then dragged her to a Vegas hotel room and savagely penetrated every orifice in her... (full context)
Part Two, Chapter 4: No Refuge for Degenerates…Reflections on a Murderous Junkie
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Violence Theme Icon
...“those two men over there in the dock are the ones who gave me the LSD and took me to the hotel…” This can’t happen, Duke thinks. “No jury would doubt... (full context)
Part Two, Chapter 6: Getting Down to Business…Opening Day at the Drug Convention
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
...Dr. E. R. Bloomquist. He is talking about “the Drug Culture” and the danger of acid “flashbacks.” (full context)
Part Two, Chapter 10: Heavy Duty at the Airport…Ugly Peruvian Flashback…‘No! It’s Too Late! Don’t Try It!’
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
The American Dream Theme Icon
...eight days until his father wired him the money. He was in jail with some acid dealers who were arrested with $130,000 cash in their pockets. The drug dealers paid the... (full context)
Part Two, Chapter 11: Fraud? Larceny? Rape?... A Brutal Connection with the Alice from Linen Service
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Drugs and American Society  Theme Icon
Violence Theme Icon
...doubt they all Got What Was Coming To Them,” Duke says. Leary led “pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit.” Leary’s... (full context)
Part Two, Chapter 14: Farewell to Vegas…‘God’s Mercy on You Swine!’
American Culture and Counterculture Theme Icon
Drugs and American Society  Theme Icon
...Drug Culture” in “this foul year of Our Lord, 1971.” They are still talking about LSD, but the “popularity of psychedelics has fallen off so drastically” over the last couple of... (full context)