Hunter S Thompson RIP

[songbird36]

My hero is dead!

Sob sob sob I'm so sad...

For those not up with the play Hunter (the author of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the pioneer of Gonzo journalism) shot himself fatally at his house last night.

Those who live intensely, die in the same way I guess.

Hunter, I wish you hadn't done this.

RIP.

[Serotonin]

Very sad indeed, I just read it on smh.com.au.

A man who ran with the ugly and the common, the murderous and the forlorn and yet found beauty and exaltation within.
The fates of similar writers spring to mind: Ernest Hemingway, Richard Brautigan, Virginia Woolf. He will now join them in the limbo of tortured, yet transcendent souls.

RIP.

[songbird36]

Yeah.

I'm also reminded of Sylvia Plath - a fellow poet and tortured soul.

Thompson helped to shape a whole generation. It's impossible to overestimate his contribution to the zeitgeist of the 1960's and '70s.

[kuranes]

My hero is dead!

Sob sob sob I'm so sad...

For those not up with the play Hunter (the author of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the pioneer of Gonzo journalism) shot himself fatally at his house last night.

Those who live intensely, die in the same way I guess.

Hunter, I wish you hadn't done this.

RIP.
Yeah, I was sad to hear it. Someone my brother and I related to - his "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was one heck of a "road trip". It did not translate that well into a movie, although I applaud Johnnie Depp for trying.

Kind of like Jim Morrison, Hunter had to make or take every dare.

There's an interesting bio out on him, showing aspects most people didn't see. I can't say that "it shows a whole SIDE of him we didn't know" though, because he really WAS as he appeared. It was NOT mostly an act, as many ( including me ) thought, although I think he liked to exaggerate things to make them seem even more over the top.

I don't think he enjoyed being thought of as "funny", and "crazy" though. Like that old Joe Pesci routine. "Funny like HOW?"

Hunter attempted his own version of a "modern Hemingway" all the way to the bitter end, although he was not really much like the real Hemingway. K

[songbird36]

Oh yes Jim Morrison is another *great* analogy.

Weird, I was actually thinking about Jim Morrison today before I knew Hunter was dead.

[kuranes]

[QUOTE=songbird34]Oh yes Jim Morrison is another *great* analogy.

Weird, I was actually thinking about Jim Morrison today before I knew Hunter was dead.[/QUOTE

I think about Jim quite often.

Saw the "Twentieth Century Doors" this summer. Much better than I would have thought them to be, especially Krieger. Everyone there agreed they were the best band there that night, which included ZZ Top and others.

I think many of us enjoyed watching Hunter like we might be unable to turn away from an accident. He was fascinating, but full of jagged edges, including the stuff that would often catch on them.

K

[songbird36]

Very true.

Yes I was reminded of the Doors by a loud covers band I heard blaring out of a pub in the weekend. They were playing "Riders on the Storm" at levels that would deafen a small child...

[kuranes]

Very true.

Yes I was reminded of the Doors by a loud covers band I heard blaring out of a pub in the weekend. They were playing "Riders on the Storm" at levels that would deafen a small child...

Are you a lucky little bogan in the city of light?

Or just another lost angel . . . . . . . . .

in the city of night?

( Hunter ) Your muse is your special friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . UNTEEEL the end. Until the end. Until the . . . . . . . . . . .

:laser:

[songbird36]

Are you a lucky little bogan in the city of light?

Or just another lost angel . . . . . . . . .

in the city of night?

( Hunter ) Your muse is your special friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . UNTEEEL the end. Until the end. Until the . . . . . . . . . . .

:laser:

Hahaha - very good. You have major talent here in bastardising song lyrics.

On a serious note..I wonder whether Hunter was listening to "The End" as he thought about ending his own life.

I want you to write one for Zedo and Boo based on "Light my Fire".

lololol.

[athman]

I haven't read the papers today, I just found out about it on this thread. Damn, I was a fan. My favourite line ...'When the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro.'

[songbird36]

or the "weird" as the case may be..

lol

[Rambler]

I was a huge fan of the doctor and deeply shocked when I heard the news. Even my avatar includes the peyote button from the double thumb Gonzo fist.

"You better take care of me Lord, if you don't you're gonna have me on your hands"

~ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson

So Long you wonderful freak.

[sbw]

that is a shame (and am I the only one who liked the johnny depp movie?); his writings at espn.com (over the past few years) were often even more of a rambling mess than usual, but still offered some good stuff...

Scott

[Rambler]

I'm sure most if not all HST fans enjoyed the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It was very accurate to the book and Terry Gilliam did a great job setting the mood.

Shame, maybe The Rum Diary won't be completed now. (This being another movie adapted book that was in the works. It was supposed to star Johhny Depp as the good doctor again.)

[MacGuffin]

Sad, but not surprising. I saw him on Conan about a year ago - he had a very hard time walking and moving around. I doubt he wanted to continue on a deteriorate like that.

[songbird36]

Yes I knew he was unwell.

I suspect he would indeed be someone who would not want to live when his quality of life dropped too low.

[kuranes]

Yes I knew he was unwell.

I suspect he would indeed be someone who would not want to live when his quality of life dropped too low.

Yeah, it could have been some bad news from the doctor. Or even something sinister. There will be a new movie out soon on Brian Jones, finally describing how he was murdered. After all these years. Think how easy it would be with certain people, like say . . . . . Courtney Love; herself accused of contracting Kurt's death. No one would be at all surprised if she pulled a "Marilyn Monroe" tomorrow.

Hunter had a mystique, but also a "holy fool" aura. Like the Tarot card design, with the man blithely stumbling around on the edge of a cliff. Yet so many of his critiques were right on target, just like a court jester; the only one "allowed" to ridicule the king. But even icons eventually disappear. And we have a new jester - Michael Moore, who has, in these modern times, understandably hired bodyguards.

Songbird - Like your new icon!

K

[songbird36]

Gosh yes Courtney Love is a spinner, is she not? That woman is seriously scary the way she gets pissed or tripped out or whatever and then launches herself headlong into an unsuspecting concert audience.

Has she been sued yet for civil assault? I wouldn't be surprised.

[crule81]

I wondering if the lingering effects of the drugs he took addled his mind. But reading some of his more recent work - on ESPN.com - he still seemed mentally sharp.

[crule81]

This link explains things a little more. I love the story about the "autographed copy"

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/02/22/thompson.death.ap/index.html

[songbird36]

This link explains things a little more. I love the story about the "autographed copy"

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/02/22/thompson.death.ap/index.html

Well here's an interesting question that I'm sure I can elicit a heated exchange of views on - what is the price of quality of life?

For some (like Hunter evidently) it seems the threshold is set pretty low. If his broken leg prevents him getting out to the pub or see friends, it's "Hasta La Vista baby" for him.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say I don't admire that attitude one little bit.

I have had a broken back and a spinal injury and have been left with paralysed feet. I could have said to myself "oh no, I can never run again or hike with a pack in the mountains, so life is not worth living".

But oh no - there's so much richness and interest and enjoyment in life for me, even in the reduced physical state I'm in.

Why couldn't Hunter think like that?

[crule81]

It's hard to believe he killed himself only for that reason. The physical injury might only have been "the last straw" that put him over the edge. There must have been something deeper.

[Mr. Good Beats]

the article said it was a .45 caliber handgun, it was probably a six shooter and the crazy old bastard was playing russian roulette

[C.J.Woolf]

It's hard to believe he killed himself only for that reason. The physical injury might only have been "the last straw" that put him over the edge. There must have been something deeper.
Bush's re-election? I'll bet it gave him an "Oh shit, here we go again" feeling.

[songbird36]

I liked this tribute to HST I found while Googling the topic. It sort of reflects how I used to regard him very closely:

"Like Kerouac and Ginsberg he was one of a clutch of American writers who for the first time peeled back the thin flesh of American 20th century confidence to reveal the true beating heart beneath."

With blistering honesty, he said what needed to be said.

[Miss Anthropic]

He was fairly old, I'd have thought he'd just opt to be incredibly drugged for the remainder of his life instead of killing himself. Who knows, with all the drugs and booze he'd taken during his life he could have been suffering from some hellacious depression. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was one of the few books I ever read that made me laugh out loud.

[PonderBee]

"...... we're all doomed."

[waxwing]

"Call on God, but row away from the rocks."
- Hunter S. Thompson

[crule81]

Hunter Thompson's ashes are going to be shot out of a cannon!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/04/05/hunter.thompson.ap/index.html

[kuranes]

I read that at the exact moment that he did it he was on the phone with his wife having a conversation about something very mundane like "pick up so and so groceries on your way to the health club" or something of that order. Then . . . .bang. His son was supposedly home at the time. It made me think of either foul play or extreme callousness. Since he had been saying that he was going to do it for quite a while, I'm inclined to think it callous.

A friend of mine is telling me that he wants to kill himself. Because of pain and a knowledge that he's being laid off soon and won't even be able to afford the pain killers he's been taking that just barely get him by - without the job insurance. He was talking about filming it as "the ultimate performance piece" video. With a gun. I advised him not to, but I didn't argue from "morality" except for the part about him making his family clean it up. He was saying that he'd make it easy by surrounding himself with a tarp etc. I told him I'd miss him, of course, but I also told him that some people only maim themselves, because the effort fails. "You wanna talk about 'living in pain' after THAT . . . . . . It made him think.

K