RIP Hunter S. Thompson
Well, it has been much more eloquently put by Warren Ellis and Davinder (Broken Glass Makes Me Laugh, see link) on their blogs but since I just heard about it from Warren's Bad Signal mailing list I thought I'd add a few thoughts.
I was never much of a Thompson fan. I always preferred William S. Burroughs for my junkie hipster journalist fix. I've read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but that's it. I would never claim to be a fan of him other than the movies about his life (go rent "Where the buffalo roam" with Bill Murray right now).
Without trying to sound harsh: it is because of these reasons that I was more surprised to hear that he had recently been alive. I am constantly astonished at the amount of abuse one can put their body and mind through and still live until a relative old age. Burroughs was one and, if I'm not mistaken, so was Allen Ginsberg. The fact that he lived that long should be applauded.
While, again, I was not much of a Thompson fan I truly believe that society needs people like him. People who look through the bullshit and give us a close semblance of the truth, be it drug-addled or not, make me smile. People like Thompson, Burroughs, Bill Hicks, Lester Bangs and the, thankfully, still among the living George Carlin and David Cross. Writers, comedians and visionary maniacs all.
I tip my hat to you Mr. Thompson.
I was never much of a Thompson fan. I always preferred William S. Burroughs for my junkie hipster journalist fix. I've read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but that's it. I would never claim to be a fan of him other than the movies about his life (go rent "Where the buffalo roam" with Bill Murray right now).
Without trying to sound harsh: it is because of these reasons that I was more surprised to hear that he had recently been alive. I am constantly astonished at the amount of abuse one can put their body and mind through and still live until a relative old age. Burroughs was one and, if I'm not mistaken, so was Allen Ginsberg. The fact that he lived that long should be applauded.
While, again, I was not much of a Thompson fan I truly believe that society needs people like him. People who look through the bullshit and give us a close semblance of the truth, be it drug-addled or not, make me smile. People like Thompson, Burroughs, Bill Hicks, Lester Bangs and the, thankfully, still among the living George Carlin and David Cross. Writers, comedians and visionary maniacs all.
I tip my hat to you Mr. Thompson.
posted by Des at 11:41 am
0 Bitching, Moaning and Praise
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