The Hemingway Solution
Hunter S. Thompson has joined the ranks of those who took the Hemingway Solution. I don't know what it is about literary types but it seems most are fascinated with the Ernest Hemingway suicide. In Thompson's case it might just be that he was a gun enthusiast already. I seem to remember that Kerouac in the midst of his own alcoholic self destruction would refer to Hemingway's suicide. But that is neither here nor there. The angry crazy pit bull archrival of Nixon, Humphrey and ultimately himself is gone and I'm not quite ready to mourn as I'm so incredibly pissed about another talent copping out.
Sure he may have had his reasons. I suppose drugs could have be involved. One reason I was a fan of his writing is because he was able to boil down some very complicated drug reactions and thought processes to two ideas: Fear and Loathing, both capitalized because The Fear of a bad drug moment, that complete ant total anxiety that seems like demons have grabbed hold of your spine and paralyzed you, is the only fear in the drug world. Once you have experienced that any other fear is secondary, miniscule in comparison. The out of control terror in the unbalanced mind is the only Fear. And of course there is Loathing not only of an object or person but of self and the world. A complete dread of existence that is almost more than any person could hope to walk away from unscathed and could easily push people to do drastic stupid things. He used these words over and over in his titles because they wre the most accurate way he could spell out those emotional states.
I'm in the middle of reading Fear and loathing: on the campaign trail '72 right now. It's incredibly erie that he kills himself now (Makes a man wonder what kind of weird psychic powers he has going on). I was planning to write about the similarities between that campaign (the 72 campaign) and the 2004 election. I thought it odd that this man who just a few years ago was on late night TV saying there's no real evil left in the world like Nixon (he was very focused on Nixon) didn't get more involved in the 2004 election. It seemed like just the type of craziness he could have covered perfectly.
Another counter culture Icon is gone and I just don't see anyone stepping up to take his place. I suppose we might know more about the circumstances later. I wonder if it will mitigate the loss for me. I wonder if he will even make the evening news segments tomorrow.
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Sure he may have had his reasons. I suppose drugs could have be involved. One reason I was a fan of his writing is because he was able to boil down some very complicated drug reactions and thought processes to two ideas: Fear and Loathing, both capitalized because The Fear of a bad drug moment, that complete ant total anxiety that seems like demons have grabbed hold of your spine and paralyzed you, is the only fear in the drug world. Once you have experienced that any other fear is secondary, miniscule in comparison. The out of control terror in the unbalanced mind is the only Fear. And of course there is Loathing not only of an object or person but of self and the world. A complete dread of existence that is almost more than any person could hope to walk away from unscathed and could easily push people to do drastic stupid things. He used these words over and over in his titles because they wre the most accurate way he could spell out those emotional states.
I'm in the middle of reading Fear and loathing: on the campaign trail '72 right now. It's incredibly erie that he kills himself now (Makes a man wonder what kind of weird psychic powers he has going on). I was planning to write about the similarities between that campaign (the 72 campaign) and the 2004 election. I thought it odd that this man who just a few years ago was on late night TV saying there's no real evil left in the world like Nixon (he was very focused on Nixon) didn't get more involved in the 2004 election. It seemed like just the type of craziness he could have covered perfectly.
Another counter culture Icon is gone and I just don't see anyone stepping up to take his place. I suppose we might know more about the circumstances later. I wonder if it will mitigate the loss for me. I wonder if he will even make the evening news segments tomorrow.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 4:12 AM
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