Author Hunter S. Thompson commits suicide

I was surprised, but not shocked to wake up to this news this morning. I don't know that there was anything Thompson could do that would have shocked me. He the rare truly original individual and while I don't know that I would have ever had the intestinal fortitude to take a road trip with him, I was grateful he took us along for the ride.

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His wife, shortly after his death, said that he wanted to go out with a bang. Oh well. Guess he did. Why does this particular suicide not bum me out so much? Maybe because everyone is saying how much sense it makes. A sensible suicide. OK...

I'm with you, RayRay. His suicide doesn't strike me as particularly tragic because it seemed very calculated and, as you say, sensible. Given the way he lived, how he died wasn't really shocking. I tend to try not to make blanket moral assessments of suicides: I don't think it's some moral crime in general, but I often think that people who do it are taking the coward's way out. I don't get that feeling about Thompson, and I can't explain why.

I share LT's assessment of his work. I went through a Thompson faze in high school and college roughly coinciding with my Beat poets faze, but I hung with Hunter over the years through his guest appearances in Rolling Stone.

I think it's very unusual that this topic didn't generate more response, but anyway, since it's here, I'm just dropping in to belatedly pay my respects as well. When I was in college I read more Hunter books than philosophy, and that's what I was supposed to be doing a degree in. May he rest, if not necessarily in peace, than in any way he wants to...

I am a huge fan of Thompson's early work like FEAR & LOATHING & the Hell's Angels book, but he could have been a poster boy for a "Just Say No Campaign" if half of what he said he took he took.

There was a tremendous falling off of his work. Whether he would have run out of gas anyway, even without all the substance abuse, who knows, but he was basically shot as an artist.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ChrisFromAstoria,

I too am a huge Thompson fan, and am currently reading Fear and Loathing in America. His suicide did not suprise me in the least, and I think he was ready to go.