CONCLUSION
Kurt Vonnegut claimed that the New Journalists like Thompson practiced “the literary equivalent of Cubism.” By exposing the twisted nature of reality, they confronted readers with “luminous aspects of beloved old truths.” Reading Thompson’s cubist quest alongside Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling underscores three truths that, while not necessarily beloved, are pertinent nonetheless.
First, whether in God or America, faith is a lifelong quest. Kierkegaard mocks dilettantes who claim to achieve in a matter of weeks what for true philosophers has been “a task for a whole lifetime.” Thompson would concur. You can only take a weekend journey to the heart of the American Dream if you’ve spent your entire life preparing for it.
Second, a personal sacrifice is always political. Kierkegaard knows that Abraham’s sacrifice involves not just a son, but “all the generations of the world” which Isaac and his lineage would bless. Thompson knows too that the quest for the American Dream has political consequences, even if individuals must confront it alone.
And third, a political sacrifice is primarily religious. In this foul year of our Lord 2021, we take for granted that the personal is political, but Kierkegaard insists that any act of true faith begins with an individual’s confrontation with God, then with the body politic and its system of ethics and reason. Reading Thompson through Kierkegaard is a warning for MAGA Crusaders and Social Justice Warriors alike. We can’t access the heavenly kingdom through a redeemed America. First, we have to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.
How’s that for drug logic?
Experiments in Criticism 