Hunter S. Thompson Killed Himself

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:25 am

Second obituary thread I'm posting in a relatively short timespan...

Hunter S. Thompson has comitted suicide. I can only wonder what he was on when he did it.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:59 am

Given my own outlook on death and suicide, I can only say I hope he's happier wherever he is and he'll be missed. Not enough people like him IMHO.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:08 am

What are you talking about?

[QUOTE=Magrus]Not enough people like him IMHO.[/QUOTE]
Not enough for what? Not enough for him to go to heaven?

edit: bah, I see what you meant now. I blame my lack of basic comprehension on sleep deprivation.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:08 am

When you live within a series of mirrors that reflect nothing but yourself, eventually you see no reflection at all. I suspect Thompson reached that point. A great stylist, but a nihilistic void.

Witch King · Post by **Witch King** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:24 am

[QUOTE=fable]When you live within a series of mirrors that reflect nothing but yourself, eventually you see no reflection at all. I suspect Thompson reached that point. A great stylist, but a nihilistic void.[/QUOTE]

that or the ridiculous amount of drugs he took for most of his life finally got to him.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 12:58 pm

[QUOTE=Vicsun]Not enough for what? Not enough for him to go to heaven?[/QUOTE]

Maybe I'm wrong on this, I never followed his life all that closely, but it seemed as though he wasn't afraid to do what it was he wanted. Wasn't afraid to say what he wanted to say either. I don't think there are enough people like that.

RandomThug · Post by **RandomThug** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 4:13 pm

Hells Angels, Fear and Loathing on the Political Trail, The Rum Diary, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Great Shark hunt...

I have always been a huge fan of Dr. Thompson and feel sad on this day... while anyone with knowledge of who he was and how he lived... this isn't to far of a stretch...

I can picture him now... drunk on some southern tea.... holding maybe one or two guns and thinking to himself "Screw that bastard god and his reaper, I'm going to make the decision of when I go"

While rather nihilistic his writings were great and his fictional work (Rum Diary) was a blast... he still had some good years left for his writing and it will be sad to not have the chance to read them.

Where ever HST is now... its definitly just got a little wierder...

Cause when the going gets wierd... the wierd turn pro.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 4:23 pm

[QUOTE=Magrus]Maybe I'm wrong on this, I never followed his life all that closely, but it seemed as though he wasn't afraid to do what it was he wanted. [/QUOTE]

Oh, he was, in a way. He made sure he wrote what the big name publications wanted, and he carefully avoided doing anything other than showing attitude. He never did a lot of research, never spent time and sweat revealing what goes on in the circles of power, and getting threatened in charge. He just had the cynicism and the money--he let others actually detail what was wrong, and take the fall. He was like the loud drunk in the bar who keeps raucously insisting "they're all crooks," while some other people take all the time and energy to actually show you who are the crooks, and how. What Hunter had that the loud drunks don't was a strong literary style. But I don't think it will outlast his death. There was nothing much linked to it.

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 4:36 pm

IMO some of the funniest things ever written were his "journalism" pieces. Magazines would hire him to cover one thing knowing full well that they would get something completely different.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 4:42 pm

Exactly! It was style, and a wonderful, seemingly "shoot at random" one that was actually anything but. He worked painstakingly at it; he was a master at it. In that sense, he reminds me of Gyula Krudy, the great Hungarian journalist of the early part of the century, who perfected a style all his own that was often more important than anything he had to say. But he did it so well, that people loved it--at least, until the political climate changed, and the binge-drinking began to wear with age. I suspect Hunter hasn't been in demand as much as previously, and the drink and drugs (as WK pointed out) lifestyle was taking a longterm toll on him. Plus, he had nothing else to offer. A one-note writer can fall on hard times when the song of the times changes.

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 4:46 pm

Political dissidence and hardcore drugs aren't as "in" as they once were.

Witch King · Post by **Witch King** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 7:00 pm

[QUOTE=fable]Exactly! It was style, and a wonderful, seemingly "shoot at random" one that was actually anything but. He worked painstakingly at it; he was a master at it. In that sense, he reminds me of Gyula Krudy, the great Hungarian journalist of the early part of the century, who perfected a style all his own that was often more important than anything he had to say. But he did it so well, that people loved it--at least, until the political climate changed, and the binge-drinking began to wear with age. I suspect Hunter hasn't been in demand as much as previously, and the drink and drugs (as WK pointed out) lifestyle was taking a longterm toll on him. Plus, he had nothing else to offer. A one-note writer can fall on hard times when the song of the times changes.[/QUOTE]

yes, that's it exactly. he wasn't able to evolve. he did create a new breed of journalism (gonzo) that change much of the direction of reporting at the time, and he was right on point for the times. but the times they are a changin. still, very sad he's gone- there are so few uniques in the world after all.

RandomThug · Post by **RandomThug** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 7:40 pm

@Fable - Have you read anything of his beside his journalism pieces in rolling stone and such? Like "The Rum Diary" or "Hells Angels" or his collection of letters "The Great Shark Hunt".

HST was more than just some journalist with an edge... he was a unique talent that cant be duplicated.

HST has been told every year for the last ten years or so... that he had only two years left to live. He always said "I'd never recommend Sex Drugs and roc kand roll to anyone, but they worked for me"

I guess I see him living his life the way he wanted to, and going out in the way he wanted to.

I'll drink to his honor tonight... I'll drink myself into a stupor...

here some quotes from the good doctor.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.
Hunter S. Thompson

America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.
Hunter S. Thompson

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
Hunter S. Thompson

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Hunter S. Thompson

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
Hunter S. Thompson

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 7:50 pm

I read Hell's Angels sometime ago. Again, I was most impressed by the style--and by the real sense of black nihilism at the core of this man. His laughter was bright, but chill. His writing was definitely one of a kind, and all copies have looked just like that, copies.

RandomThug · Post by **RandomThug** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:22 pm

I am mid swing in the middle of a bad drunk..

I read somewhere.. it was a quote.. something from another book..

"In this the foul year of our lord"...

That seems appropiate...

Witch King · Post by **Witch King** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:24 pm

[QUOTE=RandomThug]I am mid swing in the middle of a bad drunk..

I read somewhere.. it was a quote.. something from another book..

"In this the foul year of our lord"...

That seems appropiate...[/QUOTE]

that quote is from fear and loathing in las vegas. his best work.

frogus23 · Post by **frogus23** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:17 am

@Fable you're pretty completely missing his point, which was that 'journalists' are just people with certain press passes, but that 'journalists' don't have to do what people think of as journalism. Dr. Thompson was as much an exhibit himself as his writing was, but what's wrong with that? Performance artists do it, you know...

He invented a new kind of art which is kind of like turning yourself into a satirical cartoon version of your own audience, each episode the hi-jinks necessary for the satire were drugs and politics, but that didn't mean that his intention was ever to expose the real workings of american politics' villainy.

I suspect that he shot himself after finding out that he had liver cancer or some such. Probably something embarassing and ugly that he couldn't allow his persona to die of, even long after he was fashionable. Plus he lives in a house full of weapons and whiskey I guess which makes it easier. Maybe he ran out of whiskey and thought it was a convenient moment.

Macleod1701 · Post by **Macleod1701** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:20 am

Thats a depressing thought, 'oh I've run outta whiskey, I'm going to have to walk to the shop and get more......I can't be arsed to walk, what else is there to do around here? Oh look a gun!'

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:38 am

[QUOTE=frogus23]@Fable you're pretty completely missing his point, which was that 'journalists' are just people with certain press passes, but that 'journalists' don't have to do what people think of as journalism. Dr. Thompson was as much an exhibit himself as his writing was, but what's wrong with that? Performance artists do it, you know...

He invented a new kind of art which is kind of like turning yourself into a satirical cartoon version of your own audience, each episode the hi-jinks necessary for the satire were drugs and politics, but that didn't mean that his intention was ever to expose the real workings of american politics' villainy.[/quote]

He didn't invent that. It's been popular for a long time--Truman Capote, Orson Welles and Tennessee Williams did as much; in the 19th century, Charles Dic!ens, Mark Twain, and especially Oscar Wilde were noted for this in public.

But I think you're missing *my* point.

I'm not saying Thompson either went after governments or that he should have. I'm saying that he was a cynical nihilist--long before he evolved his image, shortly after his first book came out, Thompson was giving radio interviews that showed a very different persona in expressive means, but one that really felt the world had nothing to offer. To him, even back then, change was impossible. So he wasn't brave, as I think someone here was implying. He wasn't out to take risks against giants. He was simply taking a paycheck for an attitude expressed in one of the most interesting prose styles of his period. I'm just sorry he couldn't work it into a career in fiction, but that would have taken a lot more effort.

I suspect that he shot himself after finding out that he had liver cancer or some such. Probably something embarassing and ugly that he couldn't allow his persona to die of, even long after he was fashionable. Plus he lives in a house full of weapons and whiskey I guess which makes it easier. Maybe he ran out of whiskey and thought it was a convenient moment.

You could be right. I'm only recalling how much he impressed me with the consistency of his, well, nullity. He honestly thought there was nothing worth living, or dying, for. I remember reading a striking sentence by one of the lesser Elizabethan poet/playwrights: "Life is a few shags, then you die," except he didn't use the word shag.

Hunter could have been his modern counterpart, though slightly more diverse, having drugs and liquor to keep him company.

RandomThug · Post by **RandomThug** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:27 pm

"The Rum Diary" is a work of fiction. Its a good read.