Hunter

You'll probably all know this by the team you read my words on the matter, but if not, Hunter S. Thompson has been found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot. I'd say may he rest in peace right now if i thought that this man had even the slightest tendency towards inner peace.

My first thoughts were that it is likely the result of foul-play. This man has never taken the easy way out with anything, he thrust himself into a horribly difficult career, and chose to do it in a way no one had done before. He took massive doses of drugs that even the strong-willed members of this blog have a respectful fear for. The Fear & Loathing story is a perfect example. A struggling writer given a big assignment to cover a difficult story. So he destroys himself on substances, past the point of being able to cover the story, and even past the point of being able to conduct himself like even a decadent member of society. Certainly he would choose to end life the same way he lived it, in a manic, sadly hilarious craze. One blogger suggested a fitting headline would be "HST killed by police after consuming 100 tabs of LSD and spray-painting murals on cop cars".
Counter-argument: As another pointed out, he was brilliant with both guns and drugs, and knew how to use both as well as he knew how to craft anything into a brutal, hilarious story. He was apparently in a lot of pain from broken bones and surgeries, and was never the type you expected to die in a hospital. One of his favorite quotes is "he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." perhaps mental pain, the seasoned veteran, tag-teamed with the tough, new, physical pain and he chose to lose the bout. perhaps. another quote:
The Edge... "there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over"

I'm not sure if I can honestly say he's my favorite writer, but he's the closest of any to an idol. He lived his art as well as he wrote it, which is pretty damn well.

Here's a few of my memories.
-The entire Fear & Loathing book/movie, nearly verbatim.
-Him running for sherriff of Aspen on the Freak POwer ticket, I believe, with brilliant tactics such as shaving his head and referring to his crew-cut opponent as "my long-haired opponent" and "refusing to compromise on the eating mescaline while on the job issue...or any other issue for that matter"
-me just opening up my FearAnd Loathing in America (all letters to and from him) book to search for whether it was indded the "freak power ticket", turning to a random page and being greeted by the line, "David...you scurvy pig-fucker. I was just about to send you some mescaline when i talked to Jann & found out that all my daily expenses on the Salazar/Vegas stories were disallowed--for reasons of gross excess and irresponsible outlay." he goes on to call the guy a devious pervert, a treacherous pig, and a dirty catholic bastard.
-Hells Angels is a damn good book, I should not have traded it for slaughterhouse 5.
-His article on how to improve baseball, which calls for replacing the pitcher with a robot and having only one base, among other things that would probably be improvements of this mindlessly boring "pass-time" (sp)
-winning a bet on the world series, and taking the saudi prince's sister, princess omin, hostage until he paid up, which i'm not sure he ever did.
-shooting his assistant while trying to scare a bear form the property.
and many more...more will come when i read the rest of his books.

final thoughts: i suppose i first liked him because he did lots of drugs and told a good story. I like him even more now, for different reasons. He did something incredible, and he did it his own way. He wrote a news story the way no one ever wrote them before, and to me, his way was better. Also, He had his messages, and he made the world hear them. What 2 more important lessons are there to teach an aspiring writer?

Here's some links:
Articles:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=518158
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20050220/NEWS/102210004
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2724455,00.html
Blogs:
http://www.iamcorrect.blogspot.com/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/docgonzo19/3127.html
Quotes
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hunter_s_thompson.html
Most Recent Writings?
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/archive?columnist=hunter_s._thompson&root=page2