"Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run ...but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant ... history is hard to know, because of all the hired b******t, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened."
An excerpt from the famous "wave speech" in chapter 8 exemplifies the reality of experience. This passage is believed to be Hunter S. Thompson's favorite piece of his writing. He has read it during multiple interviews and other things of the sort. It also rationalizes the main characters' extensive and unorganized stay in Las Vegas. The feeling he describes here, I think everyone experiences it at one point or another in their lifetime; looking back, it's an incredible feeling to know that you were there. No matter the time and place. Whether it be Las Vegas, San Francisco, Philadelphia, or any other place-- to know you were part of something that will never happen again. It is interesting to understand something that some people never will.
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