According to espn.com, Hunter Thompson shot fatally shot himself today. I just checked cnn.com and no link there. Somehow I think he'd find it appropriate that a sporting news website would be the first to inform someone of his death. Anyone unfamiliar with his work should check him out, he wrote some really great stuff. I particularly enjoyed The Great Shark Hunt, a collection of his writings and essays. Farewell HST, you will be missed... link.
+++ Hunter S Thompson ESPN Page 2 article from last week: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=thompson/050216
The original 'gonzo' will be much missed. An overdose would have been much more appropriate, but dude went down the way he chose, and that is in keeping. Godspeed.
+ Damn, I really don't know what to say. I hope he finds some peace, enjoy the ultimate trip Dr. Gonzo.
HST quotes: "Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for f!ckoffs and misfits, a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo cage." "Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a b*stard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether." "I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours."
ESPN's Page 2 has a nice tribute to him with links to his first and last columns for ESPN, as well as a link to his archives. link.
Hunter Thompson was a one of a kind genius. Sad to see him go but glad he chose his way out. Rest in peace, Doctor.
I am not glad to see him go on his own terms at all. You just don't kill yourself, man! We obviously don't know the whole story, but this is devastating news.
It's devastating to me too, but I couldn't disagree with you more. HST was his own man. He decided it was time and he did it. He controlled his destiny like he did his entire life. I say more power to him. I really don't get this whole 'you just don't kill yourself' thing. I don't think there's any greater example of misplaced anger. HST was a smart guy. He knew it was the most serious decision he could ever make and he made it. Whatever it was that brought it on, for whatever reason, he decided he couldn't bear to go on -- and this was a guy that freaking loved living. Over the course of my life I've had four close friends kill themselves. Two when I was thirteen, two around two years ago. I miss them horribly and I wish they were still alive, but I would never question their decisions and I would never say they were wrong. Only they knew what it was like in their bodies and their minds. And, truly, nothing is more offensive or ridiculous to me than the idea that suicide is 'selfish.' What's selfish is wishing a person who was so down to the end he was ready to die would stick around for the benefit of friends and family. The decision to die is the most personal, most private, most serious decision a person could make. I find it appalling that anyone would sit in judgment of it.
Part of me is not sitting in judgement...I just feel horrible that he is gone, that his work will always be tainted by how he died- just like Hemingway, Plath, Cobain and Elliot Smith. I feel bummed that someone who had a credo that celebrated life and forging on ("When the going gets weird...the weird turn pro") could not take it and left. That *is* the selfish part of my argument. I relished his books, ideas and spirit. I'll cop to that. On the other hand, I *do* sit in judgment (generally) of suicide mostly because your life is not *only* about yourself. Your loved ones are the people who have to clean up your mess (literally), deal with the guilt and try to answer questions that are unanswerable. You are not just ending your own pain when you kill yourself, you are causing incredible damage and pain to others. The decision to end your own life with a gun *certainly* doesn't have the sound of a dignified, or smart decision making process. I would no more "respect" this kind of decision than I would empathize with Charles Whitman's anger management strategy. I would seperate what Hunter did to himself from the truly respectful and inspiring process that Dr. Kevoirkian's patients have had when they arrived at their decisions to end their own lives on their own terms. Maybe that's what Hunter did with just a little more bang on the way out, but it's hard to feel anything but sadness about this.
I don't feel anything but sadness about it either, B. I felt the same way about Spalding Gray, but this one hits harder. I get what you're saying about his family, I do. Like I said I have some experience with suicides and they were all very close to me. I was close to their families. I figure HST for a thoughtful guy. I think he probably cared about his family and I think it probably pained him to put them through this. I also think he probably thought it through and decided it was time to go. I don't think we get to decide what constitutes an okay suicide or a dignified death for someone else. I know HST was a very private person; I don't see him going through a public suicide a la Kevorkian even if it could be done without a protracted legal battle. I think this was probably between him and himself. And on a man's dying day I think it's only right we should afford him the lenience of that 'dignity.' I'm pretty well shaken by this thing. Thompson was a top seven hero to me and four of the others -- who were all alive when I was -- are dead. Forgive me for finding comfort in the fact that when things got really bad for him he was able to go out quickly, presumably painlessly and on his own terms, with what I think he would have regarded as dignity.
