I have never been to Las Vegas and yet I could feel the adrenaline rush through the words of the authors. It is a shame that both writings did not come with images. That would have been it for me. My eyes were begging for them. The neon lights, the music, the heat, the sun, the girls, the limo and the glamour...my imagination takes me to scenes of Ocean's Eleven and 21, my only only experience of Vegas for now.
The first thing that struck me when going through Tom Wolfe 's piece was the absence of the notion of time among the characters. Yes, Wolfe mentions the time and day on several occasions but the feeling I get is that in Las Vegas, time does not equal money. Money is simply money or perhaps being high on adrenaline 24/7 equals money. They have no responsibility towards time. What they do on a Monday at 7am is probably what they would be doing at 3am on Saturday. Las Vegas is heaven. There at least they have more than 24 hours in a day.
On the other hand, Dave Hickey picks on Las Vegas on a slightly bigger scale. I can certainly identify with the idea of escaping home town for Las Vegas. Although, London might not be anywhere close to Vegas but the very idea of leaving home for a better life is not always true. What could be true is the excitement of living in a thrilling city. May be that is why it is the destination of the heart. Everything is possible in Vegas and it gives the average American hope. Interesting to note that the grass is always greener somewhere else even for Americans let alone immigrants. While Vegas provides not much option to progress in the social ladder, it makes almost no difference between societal classes. What you see is what you get.
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