Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Mon 02/21/2005 View Sun 02/20/2005 View Sat 02/19/2005 View Fri 02/18/2005 View Thu 02/17/2005 View Wed 02/16/2005 View Tue 02/15/2005
1
2005-02-21 Home Front: Culture Wars
Dr. Gonzo: Suicide
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by mojo 2005-02-21 12:20:26 AM|| || Front Page|| [11128 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Gosh. I don't miss him already.
Posted by Fred  2005-02-21 12:26:45 AM||   2005-02-21 12:26:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 I always thought he was a bit careless with firearms. That and being a drunk are a bad combination. I never agreed with his politics but he was a funny as hell fiction writer for people with a bent sense of humor like mine. Playing with guns finally caught up with him before the ruined liver did.
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-02-21 12:48:42 AM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2005-02-21 12:48:42 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I always knew Uncle Duke would come to a bad end. Poor Honey.
Posted by Eric Jablow  2005-02-21 1:00:58 AM||   2005-02-21 1:00:58 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Well, he was a better writer than Arthur Miller, at least. His writing talent and wit were considerable but pretty much dried up 10 years ago. He was a ballsy guy so I'm a little shocked and disgusted to see that he offed himself - as opposed to accidentally shooting or blowing himself, driving off a cliff or OD-ing.

While I was a fan for a while, it's something you grow out of. I'm dreading the hagiography that will ensue in the next couple of days. Thompson avoided any sort of ideology or pathos like the plague. Nevertheless, I bet the 60's hippy generation blather gets reheated and served to an unwilling nation once again. Thompson would not approve.
Posted by John in Tokyo 2005-02-21 1:44:18 AM||   2005-02-21 1:44:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 I'll bet they'll talk about how the age of Bush-era conservatism got him so depressed, he ate his gun.
Posted by Zhang Fei  2005-02-21 2:25:02 AM|| [http://timurileng.blogspot.com]  2005-02-21 2:25:02 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 Oh please god no. It was his crappy drunken lifestyle and nothing external.
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-02-21 2:29:05 AM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2005-02-21 2:29:05 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Guaranteed you'll see a 60s festival of Ashura! It'll be painful and slow , like the passing of a very reluctant turd. Let the Flagellating begin!

accept it you wankers!!
Posted by Ex-60s-hippie 2005-02-21 3:48:58 AM||   2005-02-21 3:48:58 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 The turd part rings true.
Posted by .com 2005-02-21 3:56:22 AM||   2005-02-21 3:56:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Shit it's still a part of your literary heritage like it or not, you philistines. I'll miss the addled fucker meself.
Posted by Howard UK 2005-02-21 4:13:20 AM||   2005-02-21 4:13:20 AM|| Front Page Top

#10 I guess I'm a philistine then. I hope we can still be friends anyway, Howard ;-)
Posted by trailing wife 2005-02-21 4:15:25 AM||   2005-02-21 4:15:25 AM|| Front Page Top

#11 I loved F&L in LA - ground breaking. Then I read his earlier book on the Hells Angels. It was turgid and pretentious. After I read a couple more of his books I realized that stoned he was great; sober he sucked. And I suspect he knew it too.
Posted by phil_b 2005-02-21 4:17:19 AM||   2005-02-21 4:17:19 AM|| Front Page Top

#12 The best thing about the Hell Angles book was they beat the crap out of him.
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-02-21 4:20:41 AM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2005-02-21 4:20:41 AM|| Front Page Top

#13 TW: No great offence meant - he seemingly 'lost it' in later years - his recent biography was near nonsensical. I managed to read 1500 pages of his collected letters last year (50's-80's) and these provide an insight into the person as opposed to the demonised public figure I presume he became in the States. I'm not in a position to agree with his pronouncements on American society but he had a keen eye and sharp wit and duly commands a place in the American literary canon. Better writer than Miller tho'? Ptui! God I could weep. Hey - he kept himself well armed tho' ;)
Posted by Howard UK 2005-02-21 4:29:42 AM||   2005-02-21 4:29:42 AM|| Front Page Top

#14 The sucky sixties are dead. What was their left for him to live for?
Posted by 2b 2005-02-21 4:34:37 AM||   2005-02-21 4:34:37 AM|| Front Page Top

#15 Just teasing, Howard. I'm smug and self centered enough to believe I couldn't possibly be a real philistine, even if I won't appreciate opera properly. Perhaps in a few more years, when the trailing daughters have progressed further in their voice studies....

Anyway, I'm in mourning. Mr. Wife is repainting the office, and announced we will purge the books before he lets me reshelve them. The infidel will get no virgins when he dies!!! That'll teach him (what exactly, I don't know -- but learn he will) ;-p
Posted by trailing wife 2005-02-21 4:41:28 AM||   2005-02-21 4:41:28 AM|| Front Page Top

#16 TW: Don't you throw any HST's out - post them to me!!
Posted by Howard UK 2005-02-21 4:51:01 AM||   2005-02-21 4:51:01 AM|| Front Page Top

#17 tw, we've done that several times in our many household moves.

It hurts at first, but there's also this great sense of relief to be carrying less of the stuff around. Sort of like dieting.

Which I also find hard to do LOL.
Posted by Robin Burk 2005-02-21 7:48:18 AM||   2005-02-21 7:48:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#18 I thought the 2 collected letters were pretty good. I especially liked the ones to his bill collectors and ones explaining to his mother why he needed a black Jaguar salon car.
Posted by Shipman 2005-02-21 8:55:34 AM||   2005-02-21 8:55:34 AM|| Front Page Top

#19 I figured he offed himself because he finally realized he'd never write a decent novel. The Rum Diaries absolutely sucked and it took him what 40 years to get that pile o crap published.
Posted by Shipman 2005-02-21 8:59:11 AM||   2005-02-21 8:59:11 AM|| Front Page Top

#20 In the immortal words of G. K. Chesterton,
Half the news is saying "Lord Jones dead" to people who didn't know Lord Jones was alive.
I'd never heard of Hunter S. Thompson before his obit.
Posted by Korora  2005-02-21 2:37:02 PM|| [http://basementburrow.blogspot.com]  2005-02-21 2:37:02 PM|| Front Page Top

#21 1) Arthur Miller
2) Hunter Thompson
3) ?

There are always 3...
Posted by BigEd 2005-02-21 2:52:38 PM||   2005-02-21 2:52:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#22 The Denver "Rocky Mountain News" made sure to point out Thompson was a member of the NRA and had accidently shot an assistant in 2000 while trying to cahse a bear of his property.A "source close to the family" said she "knew this call was coming...He was a raging addict and an abusive man. He had so many guns and they were always loaded." But she "loved Hunter." Yup.
Posted by OldeForce 2005-02-21 3:12:33 PM||   2005-02-21 3:12:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#23 Sandra Dee Ed. :)
Posted by Glady Knights 2005-02-21 3:39:51 PM||   2005-02-21 3:39:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#24 Hell, anybody who likes guns, whiskey and amytls can't be all bad.
Posted by Shipman 2005-02-21 3:42:21 PM||   2005-02-21 3:42:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#25 I wouldn't list Sandra Dee as the third on that list. She is another Hollywood star that drank herself to death, but never the raving moonbat variety Hunter Thompson and Arthur Miller degraded into. She certainly twanged my heartstrings back in the 60's - which kinda dates me, doesn't it?
Posted by Old Patriot  2005-02-21 5:31:47 PM|| [http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]  2005-02-21 5:31:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#26 Chavez? He's trying as hard as anybody to join the list
Posted by Frank G  2005-02-21 5:47:34 PM||   2005-02-21 5:47:34 PM|| Front Page Top

#27 #25- OP, she kinda got to me and she wasn't even doin' anything, I was born in 1972.
Posted by Jame Retief  2005-02-21 5:53:49 PM||   2005-02-21 5:53:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#28 Howard, what are HSTs?

Robin, in all our moves, we've happily purged everything except books. My clothes, sweaters and shoes now fit easily in 1/2 a dresser and half a closet. But we have somehow always made room for more bookcases ;-) We Jews, after all, are "the People of the Book[s]"
Posted by trailing wife 2005-02-21 6:52:22 PM||   2005-02-21 6:52:22 PM|| Front Page Top

#29 HST= Hunter S Thompson
Posted by Frank G  2005-02-21 6:53:07 PM||   2005-02-21 6:53:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#30 And John Raitt died this morning. Sigh.

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A Oklahoma!
Posted by Eric Jablow  2005-02-21 8:27:56 PM||   2005-02-21 8:27:56 PM|| Front Page Top

23:29 AzCat
23:17 Sobiesky
23:04 Sobiesky
23:03 crazyhorse
22:52 Beau
22:50 trailing wife
22:48 Frank G
22:46 trailing wife
22:36 trailing wife
22:36 trailing wife
22:30 Frank G
22:29 Brett
22:24 Aris Katsaris
22:23 Frank G
22:23 mhw
22:22 Frank G
22:19 Alaska Paul
22:13 Anonymoose
22:10 John in Tokyo
22:09 trailing wife
22:07 mom
21:54 Frank G
21:46 Aris Katsaris
21:44 3dc









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com