You seem to assume that the only reason for my lack of understanding about other people’s grief is some sort of ignorance about who Thompson was, or what his contribution to our culture was. You are completely mistaken. I made very clear in my last post that i’m well aware of Thompson’s life and work; in fact, as a PhD candidate in 20th-century United States history, i would be rather remiss if i didn’t know something about him. I also made a point of saying that “i can appreciate his contributions, and i think the world is, in a small way, a lesser place for his departure.” And to this extent, yes, i feel the loss of his departure. But this, for me at least, is very much different from grieving.
Complete non-sequitur. Another person who assumes that my position arises from a simple lack of appreciation of the individual, Hunter S. Thompson. Another person who is incorrect.
I’m not questioning Thompson’s popularity, or, indeed, the popularity of any particular individual. I completely understand that people become popular for a variety of reasons, and that i’m not always going to agree with other people about the relative value of one popular person over another. And, in fact, i do understand Thompson’s popularity, because i happen also to be someone who appreciates his work—just in case you missed it again. And sure, the world is always a little bit poorer for the loss of him of of any writer. It’s a little bit poorer for the loss of a great many individuals. I just can’t bring myself to grieve about it.
And for anyone else who wants to chime in to educate me about brilliance of HST, you can save your energy. I’m well aware of who he was and what he did, and it has virtually no bearing on my position. In fact, i just did a little thought experiment with myself. I chose the five public figures whom i most admire. Like Thompson, these are, in Case Sensitive’s formulation, not just “celebrities,” but people who i believe make a real contribution to this world. And i believe the world will be a lesser place when they die. But i really, truly know that i won’t actually grieve when that happens. Think of me as ignorant about the causes of popularity, if you like, but you’ll be wrong. Think of me as heartless or uncaring, if that makes you feel better, but it’s not something i can change just by willing it.
Also, to those who take umbrage at my position, you’ll notice that i didn’t come stampeding into the grieving thread to give it to you. I’ve already said that Kel’s comments were stupid and unnecessary. I usually don’t enter threads on celebrity deaths precisely because (a) i don’t generally have anything to add, and (b) i realize that some people feel differently than i do, and those threads are not the place to point out our differences. But this is not the grieving thread, so if you don’t want to hear my opinion, and you feel i should “save the bandwidth,” then fuck off back to the other thread where you can grieve to your heart’s content.
