Hunter S. Thompson, he dead...

[rmcrobertson]

Yes, as many of you may have heard or read, Uncle Duke shot himself last night at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado.

The family has asked for privacy, noting only that, "He stomped Terra."

This sucks.

 

[Cryozombie]

For once Robert, I agree with you 100%...

I posted about this in the Locker Room, btw.

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

I have not read any of his works. My lady-friend, however, was a huge fan, and is distraught by his passing. Even followed his recent political commentaries.

 

[rmcrobertson]

His books include, "Hell's Angels, A Strange and Terrible Saga," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail," and the collection, "The Great Shark Hunt," among others.

He also ran for Sheriff of Aspen, Colorado, on a campaign that included his pledge to change the town's name to, "Fat City," and if memory serves, to make skiing illegal. We'd all be better off if he'd gotten elected.

 

[Cryozombie]

He was an incredible man, his writings were... if nothing else... extremely thought provoking.

 

[Dan Anderson]

Hunter S. Thompson - good reason to shy away from drugs.

Yours,
Dan Anderson

 

[rmcrobertson]

Much as I appreciate Fripp and Eno, I have to respond to the DARE message by saying--Richard M. Nixon...good reason to shy away from politics.

Some people's lives transcend easy classification.

 

[Darksoul]

-I am probably one of the few people that DARE actually worked on. And that means, its not really reaching everyone, in terms of being effective. They should come up with something better and stop wasting money. RIP Hunter!


A---)

 

[The Kai]

A hugh fan of the books of Hunter S. Thompson, I saw him a few years back at a local college. A definate post script to the drug-alchol binges, that in itself was a walking dare ad!!

RIP Hunter

 

[psi_radar]

He was an extremely talented writer, very hard to classify. A true product of his times. If he had been elected sheriff of Pitkin County way back when I doubt Aspen would be the parking lot for private jets that it is today.

I saw him in a convenience store a few years back in North Boulder. He was bigger than I expected, a strange old duck wearing lipstick. Mumbling to the cooler about the poor selection of beverages. When he noticed I had recognized him, he kind of pulled up his collar to obscure his face, and I think said "Is he gone yet?" to no one in particular.

Hunter was notoriously poor with his firearms safety skills. I think he would appreciate the irony if, in actuality, he accidentally shot himself and the world interpreted it as a suicide.

 

[PeachMonkey]

Thompson's "eulogy" for Nixon is a perfect example of why he'll be so sorely missed, and why his spirit of writing is so badly needed at times like these.

 

[rmcrobertson]

Yeah, anybody with the guts, madness and malice to point out that Tricky was buried illegally in his mom's back yard, and that the proper method would have been, "to burn his body in a 50-gallon trash can and dump the ashes into the L.A. River sealed in a bottle so they could float out with the Japanese Current," deserves our respect.

Then there was the time Thompson wrote that during the 1968 campaign, Humbert Horatio Humphrey, "looked like a farmer with terminal cancer trying to borrow money on next year's crop."

There's a nice Christopher Hitchens article on Thompson, in today's on-line "Slate," magazine, which begins with Hitchens in Aspen at an official party, being told he can't get a G&T because of the altitude.

 

[ginshun]

Another dead junkie.

Boo-fricken-hoo.

 

[rmcrobertson]

Well, now THERE'S somebody writing with the manners, compassion and decency that make martial arts training worthwhile.

Let me tell you some of the things Mr. Thompson, whatever his world-class flaws, did NOT do: he apparently never hurt a living soul except for himself; he never lied to his readers by writing in ways he wasn't willing to back up by putting his own *** on the line; he never gave in to the popular hoorawing about whatever people were hoorawing about at the time.

And--unlike several Presidents I can think of!--he never started a war based on some Gulf of Tonkin incident that he knew damn well never happened; he never had neutral countries bombed illegally and then lied to everybody about it; he never had bombs dropped on a baby girl, then waved the flag about it; he never wimped out on health care, then got caught with a fat, sad chic in the Xerox room; he never whipped up xenophobia and religious bigotry to get elected, then led his country into an unnecessary war using a pack of lies and exaggerations as his justification.

So call me zany and crazy and Golden Ruleish, but if we can have national holidays for THOSE guys, I think we can probably spare a little compassion for a good writer and world-class maniac, junkie or not.

 

[psi_radar]

Right on, Robert.

:asian:

ginshun,

Do you feel superior now? Everyone posting on this thread knows who and what Hunter was and of his contributions, and all except you spoke well of him. What have you done lately? Let's hear some greatness from you, bub. You've got no excuse, being sober and all, right? Hunter may have been totally off the wall, but as the man said, he stomped on the terra.

It's amazing to me that some people can completely dismiss others' accomplishments by pointing to lifestyle choices. It's hateful, petty, and ultimately self-diminishing behavior.

And by the way, Hunter preferred hallucinogens, not opiates, so technically he wasn't a junkie, just a substance enthusiast.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Ah, Hunter. We'll miss ye.

"Hell's Angels" rocked. It was truly a fun book to read.



Regards,


Steve

 

[Marginal]

I read one news article about Thompson that featured a comment to the effect that if only he'd curbed his habits, he'd have lived up to his potential. Had me wondering just what a writer has to accomplish to be considered worthy.

Seems to me he did all right.

 

[ginshun]

Right on, Robert.

:asian:

ginshun,

Do you feel superior now? Everyone posting on this thread knows who and what Hunter was and of his contributions, and all except you spoke well of him. What have you done lately? Let's hear some greatness from you, bub. You've got no excuse, being sober and all, right? Hunter may have been totally off the wall, but as the man said, he stomped on the terra.

It's amazing to me that some people can completely dismiss others' accomplishments by pointing to lifestyle choices. It's hateful, petty, and ultimately self-diminishing behavior.

And by the way, Hunter preferred hallucinogens, not opiates, so technically he wasn't a junkie, just a substance enthusiast.

No, I don't feel superior. And just so you know, my lifestyle choices probaly are not all that different that his were.

I just never found anything that I read of his to be all that great or insightful, and I don't really agree with most of his opinions. I don't see him as the great and revolutionary man that many people seem to. A lot of people hold him on a pedestal because they love the movie Fear and Loathing, when in reality, he was nothing special.

I suppose my comment was pretty offhand as most of the people here were honoring him. I don't feel happy that he is dead or anything like that, and I am sorry for being disrespectful. However, I also don't feel that the world suffered any great loss from him taking his own life.

To each his own.

-ginshun

 

[PeachMonkey]

A lot of people hold him on a pedestal because they love the movie Fear and Loathing, when in reality, he was nothing special.

Actually, a lot of us were reading his writing and admiring his work well before the film was even a gleam in Terry Gilliam's eye, and your claim that Thompson was "nothing special" is simply vapid. Regardless of whether you agree with his point of view, he was a tremendous influence on American journalism culture.

 

[ginshun]

See, I fail see how he was "a tremendous influence on American journalism culture" either. I guess that he just doesn't appeal to me as much as he seems to appeal to others. What exactly is a "gonzo journalist" anyway?



And yes it is obvious that many of the people here know more of him that Fear and Loathing, but you have to admit that without that movie, at least half of his admireres wouldn't even know who he was.

"Where the Buffalo Roam" was better anyway IMO.