HST at the pearly gates.
St. Peter: “You can’t park your car here!”
HST: “Why? Is this not a good place to park?”
St. Peter: “You’re blocking the gates!”
Poor guy. Survived all those drugs and the Hells angels…and now this.
What can be said? The man lived fearlessly. He faced down everyone from the President of the US to his own boss. He’ll be missed.
This totally sucks.
I love his line:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench; a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There’s also a negative side.”
The man lived life on his own terms.
I’m not surprised he’d choose to leave this life on his own terms, too.
I’m thinking that perhaps he was recently diagnosed with an illness of some kind, and just said, “fuck it.” I guess we’ll find out in the next few days.
I fear and loath that this has happened.
Hells Angels, Fear and Loathing on the Campain Trail 72, The Curse of Lono and of course F&L Las Vegas are some of my favorite books.
Yeah, right up to the time he killed himself. What a coward.
Maybe Hunter Thompson was secretly in love with Sandra Dee all these years and couldn’t go on without her.
It’s a hell of a man who, in one lifetime, can inspire two ongoing fictional characters based on him. Spider Jerusalem and Zonker’s Uncle Duke.
Night of The Hunter.
And so it goes. (Yeah, yeah, Vonnegut… but it fits.)
From Thompson, I learned the focus that comes from outrage. I saw how clearly a jaundiced eye could view the world. I felt that there was someone out there who wasn’t on anybody’s “team”, and wasn’t buying into some tightly focused, media-managed “message”. After all, who is more trustworthy than a totally debauched man? When there’s nothing left to lie about, you will always know where he stands.
So long and Mahalo, Hunter.
R.I.P., HST
-Rav
I won’t believe it until I can gnaw on his skull with my very own teeth, because it’s still not weird enough for me.
Oh hooray, the ‘a guy has killed himself, let’s abuse him for it’ gambit. :rolleyes:
I’m killing my case of wine.
Aw, man!
Where’s the Wild Turkey?
See ya, Hunter.
I actually started crying when I read this earlier.
Can we please memorialize him as the brilliant politicsl writer and thinker, and not as “that wacky dood who smoked too much drugz?” It seems that 99% of HST fans focus on quotes like that in post #4 and completely miss the entire point of what made him special.
We can’t comment until we know the circumstances; I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a terminal illness was involved.
If I get diagnosed with some dreadful, terminal illness you can bet I’m taking my own life. Why give your life savings to a bunch of quack doctors only to prolong your misery?
I’m completely not in shock.
No "Damn. 
" here, thanks.
My first thought was that his health must have been failing him. Of course I only knew him through his writing, but he seemed too fueled by anger and righteousness to give into transient despair. Then again the years of substances probably left his psyche somewhat tattered.
I have strong memories of reading everything from Hell’s Angels to Generation of Swine during one High School summer break. He consistently hit me in the gut with his observations and wicked humor. His later stuff lacked focus and felt a bit forced, the best work came from being in the middle of the action. FWIW, his last article is still up at espn.com – Shotgun Golf with Bill Murray.
…and the same webmagazine bids him farewell.
Let’s hold off on the comments until tomorrow, hmmm? A little respect, since we know nothing yet about any extenuating circumstances. Let’s just agree it sucks that he’s gone–I would have loved to have read his book on the 2008 campaign.
Just - No. Ultimately, his life was his own. No cowardice ever attaches to suicide . But you can discuss it here