I am stunned and deeply saddened, but no one should be shocked that Hunter S. Thompson took his own life Sunday night with a gunshot at his Woody Creek, Colorado home.…
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Blogcritics On Hunter S. Thompson: Lost Gonzo - Comments Page 2
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26 - Mitchell G. Culver
Anyone who's reading these terrible, soul-bearing journals must be at the least affected, saddened, confused, and/or empowered all at once by the news. Sunday was a weird day.
The Doctor found me early on in life and has yet to let go. Thompson's words have become a dependant substance, in their own right, because of their subtle, bastardly wisdom, because of the fearlessness and criticism that comes out of them so effectively, so flawlessly clear and effective.
He grew old, though, as we tend to do. He was plagued by pain, plagued by abuse, plagued by his own vision, stuck in a battle between a world he despised and a world he longed for. With his own brand of terrorism he fought to keep it all at bay, or perhaps himself from the rest of it. He was as highly connected as journalists go, he loved football, he loved gambling and he loved guns. He loved Hemingway, he ended his life like Hemingway, with a gun, never enough Hemingway in Thompson. We, the young writers who secretly dream of following the Doctor, we, the proud ones who follow the Doctor, are as he would have been when Hemingway squirreled himself away in Idaho and ended his own Strange and Terrible Saga, way back before Hell's Angels, in the time of Rum, when Thompson slipped off into the cradle of the Carribean to follow the great fisher-king, the old man of the Sea and America...Thompson gave himself - and there is no need for Christ analogies here, God doesn't apply in these situations - Thompson gave himself as Hemingway gave up to him, a bitter, tired old man who'd long outlived his own reason for existence, and long deprived of anything feeling even remotely pure. When that happens, the only option is to find another world. He will be missed, hardly forgotten, perhaps far better known today. There were good obituaries and wire photos, they captured what the world might generally think of the man. He once said it was possible for anything to come across the press wire, and in the story of the twentieth century, he was one of the things you weren't sure how to handle, so you took it at face value and decided it was good enough to print, to read, to try to understand, for whatever reason. It was strange, it was fun, and now it is done, done done.
Goodbye, Dr. Thompson, thanks for all the fun.
27 - Mark Edward Manning
[Cross-posted to another post ...]
I suspected that he might have killed himself from the [sarcasm] ignamamy of living in Bush's America.[/sarcasm] Ever since Bush got elected, it was downhill for him. I did genuinely like HST, not because I agreed with more than 1% of what he wrote, but because he was simply a very interesting character. Any guy so willing to be a guinea pig has, by proxy, to be interesting.
But he was very self-indulgent and this was the final proof of it. Can you imagine killing yourself, doing this to your family, just because you cannot "endure" another four years of Bush? My oh my ... any shreds of respect I had for HST just faded away.
28 - Dan
Thompson finally did us all a favor. He had turned into a boring, sour, dopey old geezer. Obviously he couldn't even stand himself. God, what a loser.........
29 - Mitchell G. Culver
Thompson wouldn'ta done it for Bush. He would never give his life for such a worthless curd of spoiled milk; no matter how far he took himself with everything else, I'd buy the pain and agony story before I ever thought George Bush would drive him to death, unless he expected a far greater and more loyal following than he actually had to take his example and either run with it, or use it as a martyr-claim to the throne of American politics. He was far too humble a soul for that to have happened. Res ipsa-n peace.
30 - Lee Bloggins
Nice piece on Hunter Thomson.
I knew the doctor for years and have assembled some memories at:-
http://thecuriousblogger.blogspot.com/2005/02/remembering-hunter-s-thompson.html
31 - Vik
Le avvisaglie della Morte...
Dì Hunter,
no c'erano ancora di pagine da scrivere?
di manie popolari contro cui inveire?
di baaar donde sedersi e gustarsi una tequila nella penombra,
o arrischiarsi a controllare come preparano la margarita,
o ancora un altro viaggio all'inferno, " Una Divina Commedia alla mescalina",
no mas?
Another dead Hero.
Hunter S, Thompson, R.I.P
http://estrangedworld.iobloggo.com/
32 - Eric Olsen
thanks Lee, fascinating stuff; Vik, I'm sure HST would be happy to know he translates well
33 - Geo
He wasn't that special. I'm surprized he didn't bloodstain one of his precious .44 magnums. I wonder if it under the chin or some side shot. Why do I think things like this?
34 - Eric Olsen
curiosity
35 - William Drenttel
For another good piece on HST, check out the piece about his relationship with the illustrator Ralph Steadman at Design Observer by Michael Bierut: Fear and Loathing in Pen and Ink.
36 - Eric Olsen
with the "send-off" I thought I would put this up one more time.
Jim C's tribute is painfully poignant in retrospect