Hunter S. Thompson

The first author who came to mind when writing this was Hunter S. Tompson. Why wouldnt he ? In my mind, he is an extremely interesting author. Thompson is the creator of gonzo journalism. He is well known for his incident with the motorcycle gang Hells Angels. Thompson is one of very few who would spend a year riding and living with this gang for a story. Thompson has an outrageous lifestyle. His type of lifestyle is known by many as you can see from this statement "He is also known for his promotion and use of psychedelics, alcohol, other mind-altering substances, firearms, and his iconoclastic contempt for authority" (wikipedia 1). You can tell how outrageous hislifestyle is through his writing. The reading " Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" definitly showed readers how crazy his life is. In this reading he talks about a drug crazed trip to vegas with his attorney. It is amazing how much drugs and alcohol Thompson consumed on the incredible trip. In the reading it says " We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full odf 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 budweaiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls"(Thompson 4). This is enough drugs to last an addict atleast a couple of months and they did in a few days. Its hard to believe he can do all of these drugs and still be such an amazing writer.He says " I was so wired that my hands were clawing uncontrollably at the bedspread, jerking it right out from under me while he talked. My heels were dug into the mattress, with both knees locked . . . I could feel my eyeballs swelling, about to pop out of the sockets"(Thompson 133). Although this statement is most likely exaggerated it is still good proof to show the extent of his lifestyle. Just to make sure you understand how crazy this trip was here is another quote from Thompson" I was a babbling nervous wreck, flapping around the room like a wild animal, pouring sweat and unable to concentrate on any one though for mor than two or three seconds at a time"(134). After reading something like that how can you pick any author to write about besides Thompson ? I know I couldnt. Thompson's work is very interesting and I enjoyed " Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".

Works Cited

Thompson, Hunter. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Random House. NewYork: Vintage, 1971.

Wikipedia. 30 November 2008. 1 December 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter S. Thompson

Friedrich Nietzsche

For this critical analysis i chose to write about Nietzsche. One reason for choosing him is he is by far the most open author we have come across so far in the class. He does not hold back anything in his writing. Nietzche clearly wasnt worried about others opinions and/or beliefs when writing "Twilight of The Idols or How to Philosophize With a Hammer." In this writing he expresses his opinions and feelings on Christianity as well as Buddhism. He was very blunt with his opinions say the least.An example of this is one of his works which was titled "The Anti-Christ" In this foreward he starts by saying "This book belongs to the very few. Perhaps none of them is even living yet"(Nietzsche,114). This quote shows that he knew this wasnt going to be the most popular and liked writing he was going to make however he still felt the urgency to put his opinion out there. Nietzsche also states "Moral judgement belongs, as does religous judgement, to a level of ignorance at which even the concept of the real, the distinction between the real and the imaginary, is lacking.."(55). Nietzsche says here that moral and religous judgement lack the distinction between the real and the imaginary. This statement alone can cause plenty of confrontation and anger. these are just two of many statements made by Nietzsche that show how open of an author he really is.

Frank J. Sulloway

The author I decided to write my critical analysis about is Frank J. Sulloway. Sulloway is the author of the most recent reading in class called "Birth order and sibling competition."I chose Sulloway because I enjoyed his work the most so far. I felt I can relate to his topic the most out of all the readings we read . His topic was Birth order and the affects it has on humans as well as in the animal kingdom. There were many points that I agreed with as well as many that i disagreed with. He says that first borns tend to be "conscientious , more deliberate, organized, dutiful, and self discipilined." Being a first born myself , I happen to agree with this statement. I feel that I possess these attributes far more than my younger sibling. Howevere , one point that Sulloway makes which I disagree with is when he states younger siblings tend to be more excitement seeking and " laterborns were 1.6 times more likely than firstborns to engage in dangerous sports.." My reason for disagreeing with this is I feel laterborns tend to take more physcial abuse growing up than firstborns do therefore they would want nothing to do with a sport like football or rugby when they are grown up. I also disagree with laterborns being more excitement seeking because in today's society young children rarely even play sports because of the technology we have. In my family whenever we have a family party , the younger siblings are inside playing video games and the firstborns are the ones playing athletic sports. Even though I disagree with a couple of Sulloways points I still enjoyed reading " Birth order and sibling competition" and would definitely recommend it to people because I found it very interesting.