RIP Duke

[catbirdseat]

If you take a look at writers/artists through history you will find a lot of examples of people with depression or other mental problems. It may be that his lifestyle was a symptom not a cause.

 

OK, I'll concede that point. I've always wondered why this is so and whether it is a necessary condition to that level of creativity.

I believe that many if not most of us have the creativity within ourselves. We just lack sufficient motivation to produce. People like Hunter Thompson wrote not because they knew they would be rewarded in the end. They wrote because they had to. For them it was a compulsion and it provided an outlet for all the emotion they had bottled up within.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

People like Hunter Thompson wrote not because they knew they would be rewarded in the end. They wrote because they had to. For them it was a compulsion and it provided an outlet for all the emotion they had bottled up within.

 

I've heard similar explanations for why climbers climb, and I can certainly understand *that* drive.

[ScottP]

"My life has been the polar opposite of safe, but I am proud of it and so is my son, and that is good enough for me. I would do it all over again without changing the beat, although I have never recommended it to others. That would be cruel and irresponsible and wrong, I think, and I am none of those things.

Whoops, that's it folks. We are out of time. Sorry. Mahalo."

 

HST

[EWolfe]

 

RIP

[Norman_Clyde]

I was a big HST fan in high school after reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- I even went to a so-called lecture he gave at the local college campus. He was disappointing as a speaker, which didn't surprise me much even then (he spilled his drink on himself at one point). Though I enjoyed his writing, even at age seventeen I didn't want to emulate him. HOWEVER... as CBS has pointed out, like so many other writers of fiction or non-fiction, whose troubled lives they could never quite control, the truths in his better written words transcend the imperfections in his life. I'm glad I don't have the problems he had, I imagine he was a very unpleasant person to live with, but I'm thankful for what he has shared with the world.

 

Regarding death by suicide: Most mental health professionals consider depression and suicidality to be a chronic disease, with remissions and relapses. Maybe it finally got him after he successfully fought it off for 50 or more years. Self-medicating with alcohol and illicit drugs is a bad idea only because it has toxic side effects and usually does not work. The impulse to do something to spare oneself pain is not intrinsically evil, though it may have evil consequences. (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas's epigraph, by Samuel Johnson, is "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.")

 

One more thing:

"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world--a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us...No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you.

 

Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid rich kids like George Bush?

 

They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character..."

No one has yet said it better.

HST, here's to you.

[cj001f]

"Ronald Reagan, a smiling whore who will someday be president" mid 60's HST.

 

Pick up a copy of his collected letters KK - they are intelligent and amusing.

[olyclimber]

Seattle Times article. The gem in this story is this bit:

 

I saw Thompson in person only once, in 1985 at the Student Center at Berkeley, where each of us paid $15 to hear him speak and take questions. We waited over two hours before a blotto Thompson arrived.

 

As instructed, a bottle of Wild Turkey was propped on the podium, along with several vials from the chem lab. Thompson took a few swigs and grumbled for a while until the boos rained down. He then berated a few students who had had the guts to ask him questions.

 

"Have you read my books!?" he yelled at one underclassman. "Well, what the hell did you expect?"

 

[jitterjepp]

There are a million and great qoutes from him. "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

 

Yeah, they worked so well for him that he blew his brains out.

 

A heckler at a funeral? You can't find anything better to do?

[glacier]

 

... and HST writes a motorcycle review (1995).

[MisterMo]

Not to speak ill of the dead but right alongside his flashes of brilliance Hunter could also in his writing be vicious as a mink and often unfairly so.

[Squid]

My only regret is that we never lured him to our post-modern literary salon of cc.com

[Norman_Clyde]

My only regret is that we never lured him to our post-modern literary salon of cc.com

How can you be sure you never did?

[Squid]

You can see the bats from a mile off, and the Sausage Man creature smells like a beast.

[olyclimber]

[Dru]

You can see the bats from a mile off, and the Sausage Man creature smells like a beast.

[Skeezix]

Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman -- a match made in heaven.

[Alpinfox]

 

Since it happened my feet haven't touched the ground. It's like I can still speak to Hunter beyond the grave. Like he is saying, 'Don't fuck up on this one, Ralph! Tell it like you knew it, but don't bad mouth me!! You always knew I was going to do it, so it wasn't 'if' but 'when'. It was my call, Ralph and now you will have to deal with the flood. Apres moi, Ralph- the deluge!! Did you think it was going to be an easy ride? You knew what you were doing when you bought a ticket. You were there most of the time, but towards the end you couldn't handle the heat, but you made the Role of Honor by the skin of your teeth. So long Ralph, and thanks for the laughs. And remember- The Crazy Never Die! Look after Anita'.

 

So there we are. I always knew that one day Hunter would make that journey, but I did not know yesterday that it would be today. He told me 25 years ago that he would feel real trapped if he didn't know that he could commit suicide at any moment. I don't know if that is brave or stupid or what, but it was inevitable. I think that the truth of what rings through all his writing is that he meant what he said. If that is entertainment to you, well, that's OK. If you think that it enlightened you, well, that's even better. If you wonder if he's gone to Heaven or Hell- rest assured he will check out the both, find out which one Richard Milhaus Nixon went to- and go there. He could never stand being bored. But there must be Football too- and Peacocks. I thank everyone who has sent condolences, but spare a long thought for his wife Anita, who has had to balance their lives on a knife edge these last few years to keep them sane. She is a lovely lady. Bless her heart....

 

Ralph Steadman,

February 22, 2005

[Alpinfox]

 

 

Depp hires event planner for Thompson ashes blast

 

 

12/07/2005 - 18:34:57 Actor Johnny Depp has hired a Los Angeles event planner to ensure gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson goes out with a bang.

 

Actor Johnny Depp has hired a Los Angeles event planner to ensure gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson goes out with a bang.

 

The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory star was a friend of the writer and wants to ensure his ashes are fired high out of a canon in style.

 

“He was a great pal, one of my best friends,” Depp said in a recent interview.

 

“We had talked a couple of times about his last wishes to be shot out of a cannon of his own design. All I’m doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out.”

 

He described Thompson as a “hero” and said they had become close when he played him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

 

The 67-year-old journalist was speaking to his wife on the phone when he put down the receiver and shot himself in the head in February.

 

His ashes will be blasted from a giant canon on August 20 in the grounds of his home in Aspen, Colorado. The canon will be mounted on a 150ft pillar, courtesy of Depp.

 

The event will be closed to the public but the writer’s widow, Anita Thompson, said a public commemoration would be held later.