February 20, 2005

R.I.P. Hunter S. Thompson

We Can't Stop Here, This Is Bat Country

thompsonh.jpgThis really, quite frankly, has no place here. But something would seem rather fundamentally wrong with the universe if we didn't make an exception to the general Portland-centric rule to join the chorus of bloggers out there marking the moment at which we all learned that Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is dead.

Dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, he apparently (according to The Washington Post) was alone in his kitchen at the time.

It's utlimately relevant, in however strained a way this might be, because the good Doctor, of course, was the man who injected his own subjective self into the world of journalism, in the process calling out the practice's pretense of objectivity as little more than a corruption sitting in the way of actually seeking truth.

Truth, actually, dictates the confession that we have never been the rabid consumers of Thompson that so many others have been, and will continue to be.

But we would find it a difficult proposition should someone suggest that bloggers, of all people, not mark this day in writing. While we're certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that few bloggers can even approach Thompson, in a very real way the arc of journalism's evolution and its intersection into the personal and subjective approach of blogging owes a rather onerous debt to Thompson's gonzo.

To paraphrase from and expand upon a comment posted somewhere in this Metafilter thread: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and President Richard M. Nixon, together again. May the good Doctor kick him in the balls.

Posted at 10:35 PM | PermalinkComments (22) | TrackBacks (4)
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Comments (22)

  1. andres kahar on 20 Feb 2005

    A loss. Sadder than many others (imho). Thanks for this note. For non-devouts, you produced an obit more eloquent than the cookie-cuts rocketing about cyber tonight.

    Cazart, indeed.

    Andres Kahar

  2. J. Harry Ewert Jr. on 21 Feb 2005

    Tis a sad sad day across all of America. It is a shame and always will be, a good man will be missed. Res Ipsa Loquitur.

  3. Brad Laboe on 21 Feb 2005

    I will miss him ... BIG HUG for Juan, Jen, Willam and Anita… who never be able to fill the hole left in there lives by the man in spite of the myth and legend attached to his life.

    Bradley H. Laboe

  4. Mark Pugner on 21 Feb 2005

    worth a read -- nice eulogy

    http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=1428

  5. el peto on 21 Feb 2005

    S.O.S..Hunter is dead.stop. send drugs. stop.

  6. Piotrowski on 21 Feb 2005

    I have to wonder why he did it... Maybe fear and loathing, had something to do with it.

  7. Victoria Marinelli on 21 Feb 2005

    Found this site by putting the old guy's name into Google's news engine, and now, having realized that there is, in fact, a "chorus of bloggers out there marking the moment at which we all learned that Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is dead," feel compelled to add my two cents, which may be found here.

    The man was nothing if not provocative. May he rest in peace.

    -- Victoria Marinelli (who sometimes wishes she were in Portland, given the Powells factor, but who resides in Richmond, Virginia)

  8. Ashley O'Dell on 21 Feb 2005

    from http://chickensoupforthevegansoul.com


    ... Full of fear and loathing and - an odd combination - determination and the desire to combust with the power of the sun - I am walking outside, to the cold concrete, where at least the sky is crying with me.

  9. Eva Burle on 21 Feb 2005

    We have lost our only remaining American legend. Who can we look to now? Who remains to scandalize the wicked?

  10. Theo T. Lazybite - Idiot @ Large on 21 Feb 2005

    RIP HST
    You fiend of fiends
    Much spect!!

  11. e. reid on 21 Feb 2005

    didn't know what an enormous impact you had on us until this very moment. you were one crazy mofo and we'll sure miss you.
    peace to all your loved ones.
    RIP to the one and only.

  12. Shawn Monks on 21 Feb 2005

    "If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism"

    -HST

  13. Cullen Reed on 21 Feb 2005

    I don't know why you did it but I guess you had your reasons. Thanks for the books man!

  14. Kate on 21 Feb 2005

    This is so sad...He was one of my favorite writers in the world...he was great...I can't believe he's dead...But, he'll always be remeberd. This is really very sad to me because it pains me evertime I hear of a suicide because two of my friends killed themselves and I know the pain that his family and friends must be feeling...R.I.P.

  15. Jonas Katzoff on 21 Feb 2005

    I don't think it's been noted yet but he killed himself in the same manner - with a shotgun - that his idol Ernest Hemingway used to end his life.

  16. dennis on 21 Feb 2005

    An absolute genius, and one of the reasons for many enlightendly crazy individuals wondering the planet today. Blessings be with him, always a terrible way to go....but I am sure he will find his peace. And thanking Hunter s. for helping to define mine and certain wilder contempories who retain open minds in memory......my next big story will be dedicated to the great shark.
    charlie

  17. ben peterson on 21 Feb 2005

    The good doctor was my hero. He's the only journalist who had the balls to leave nothing out of his writing no matter what he felt he never censored himself, and thats what this country needs. Pure journalism.

  18. Jim Soffa on 21 Feb 2005

    Suicide is a cowardly way out, so I guess years of drug abuse and separating oneself from mainstream society creates cowards. It's too bad he didn't put his talents to better use.

  19. TBR on 21 Feb 2005

    .
    I will not rest till I hold the pigf**kers scull in my own hands.

    He will be missed. It never got strange enough for me.

  20. B on 21 Feb 2005

    I am going to wake up at 5 perhaps to have a glass of Chivas, with plenty of ice, and wish him luck wherever he will be next. It was surely a fitting accident for such a gun crazed loon. The only hero I wanted to meet, the only hero I would have been absolutely petrified of!!!My God!!

    He will suffer no fools, in heaven or hell. God love him. R.I.P Raoul,

    lots of love, Becca
    xxxxxxx

  21. Sid on 21 Feb 2005

    Thompson, Miller... too much in one month to handle :(

  22. doretta on 21 Feb 2005

    The thing I love most about neochristian neocons is that they are always ready with an unkind word for the recently departed.

    "The mainstream?" Is that what you call the place where you pass judgment on people you didn't know whose circumstances you had no clue about?

    Thanks for the warning.

Trackbacks (4)

  1. We can't stop here, this is bat country! on 21 Feb 2005

    A very sad day. Hunter S. Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Woody Creek on Sunday night. He was 67. Regarded as one of the most legendary writers of the 20th century, Thompson is best

  2. Fear and Loathing on 21 Feb 2005

    The man who is my own very definition of both good politcs and good journalism has died at the age of 67. Hunter S. Thompson, rest in peace. Thompson apparently committed suicide Sunday and the news made the press about six hours ago. After another ...

  3. Fear and Loathing on 21 Feb 2005

    The man who is my own very definition of both good politcs and good journalism has died at the age of 67. Hunter S. Thompson, rest in peace. Thompson apparently committed suicide Sunday and the news made the press about six hours ago. After another ...

  4. not ready on 21 Feb 2005

    I am not ready to write about the death of Hunter S. Thompson. And yet, I feel this intense pressure...