We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"
Bizarrely, I just finished Proud Highway last night! Bloody sad, especially for his family, but in way it seems kind of fitting that a man so stubbornly himself (and slightly irrational) should not give in the slow decline of old age. Not that I'm glorifying suicide.
RIP.
I just can't believe someone so self-assured and such a staunch fighter for the right to live his life as he wants would kill himself. I mean he was all about the living of life. Quite depressed and confused over the whole thing really.
//I just can't believe someone so self-assured and such a staunch fighter for the right to live his life as he wants would kill himself.
I've read people's arguements that hey, he WAS living his life doing exactly what he wanted, and he chose to have control over it - they think that he wasn't depressed or sad or anything, that he just said "hey, i'm the boss here, I'll say when it's time" sort of thing.
I've read others who think it was probably some kind of hallucenation, like oh fuck, there's bats on my face and i must shoot them off. I don't think anyone can know what was in his head, and i know that he'd lived a thousand lives already and I'm sure if there's an afterlife he's laughing and trying to piss on the head of anyone who writes him a eulogy.
I haven't been reading much of the commentary about his death, so don't know if there was anyone else there at the time: if not, we will never know the truth. In an interesting link with the history thread, we can almost choose outr own story about his death - I kind of like the idea that he decided he'd had a great life, but just coudn't do it any more. It is kind of odd to be talking about HST and dignity in the same sentence, but he had his own particular way of living with dignity, and I can fully understand how he might think that if he couldn't, then it would be time to go. Sure, he may have been only 67 in clock time, but he lived at such an accelerated pace, that's probably 300 years of my time. Would anyone really want to see him go through his decline to death, no doubt getting increasingly frustrated as the walls of his mortality closed in on him?
I've long believed that if we have any freedom at all to live as we choose, then the must important element of that choce is to choose not to live.
"Just prior to his death Hunter S Thompson invented a new sport, Shotgun Golf, with Bill Murray. His description:
"The game consists of one golfer, one shooter and a field judge. The purpose of the game is to shoot your opponent's high-flying golf ball out of the air with a finely-tuned 12-gauge shotgun, thus preventing him (your opponent) from lofting a 9-iron approach shot onto a distant "green". Points are scored by blasting your opponent's shiny new Titleist out of the air and causing his shot to fail miserably. After that, you trade places and equipment, and move on to round two."
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We were somewhere around Barstow on the ...
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"
He changed the way we write. RIP.
i thought lewis carroll did...
i thought lewis carroll did
Yes, and so did William Shakespeare, ...
Yes, and so did William Shakespeare, among others.
yeah, he was quite talented....
yeah, he was quite talented.
aww crap. just like Hemmingway...
aww crap. just like Hemmingway
I'm guessing the good Doctor has taken ...
I'm guessing the good Doctor has taken is self-medication routine to its logical conclusion. Not the end I'd pick for anybody but what can you do?
Rarely a week goes by where I don't read three or four letters from "The Proud Highway" or an ESPN column or a passage from another HST book.
RIP (and watch out for the bats)
Such a terrible shame, I am sure he ...
Such a terrible shame, I am sure he still had more to write as well... non conventionalists and radicals always have inner turmoils to deal with.
Hemingway was a genius
Bizarrely, I just finished Proud ...
Bizarrely, I just finished Proud Highway last night! Bloody sad, especially for his family, but in way it seems kind of fitting that a man so stubbornly himself (and slightly irrational) should not give in the slow decline of old age. Not that I'm glorifying suicide.
RIP.
he was hardly old though - what 67? ...
he was hardly old though - what 67?
I just can't believe someone so self-assured and such a staunch fighter for the right to live his life as he wants would kill himself. I mean he was all about the living of life. Quite depressed and confused over the whole thing really.
//I just can't believe someone so ...
//I just can't believe someone so self-assured and such a staunch fighter for the right to live his life as he wants would kill himself.
I've read people's arguements that hey, he WAS living his life doing exactly what he wanted, and he chose to have control over it - they think that he wasn't depressed or sad or anything, that he just said "hey, i'm the boss here, I'll say when it's time" sort of thing.
I've read others who think it was probably some kind of hallucenation, like oh fuck, there's bats on my face and i must shoot them off. I don't think anyone can know what was in his head, and i know that he'd lived a thousand lives already and I'm sure if there's an afterlife he's laughing and trying to piss on the head of anyone who writes him a eulogy.
I haven't been reading much of the ...
I haven't been reading much of the commentary about his death, so don't know if there was anyone else there at the time: if not, we will never know the truth. In an interesting link with the history thread, we can almost choose outr own story about his death - I kind of like the idea that he decided he'd had a great life, but just coudn't do it any more. It is kind of odd to be talking about HST and dignity in the same sentence, but he had his own particular way of living with dignity, and I can fully understand how he might think that if he couldn't, then it would be time to go. Sure, he may have been only 67 in clock time, but he lived at such an accelerated pace, that's probably 300 years of my time. Would anyone really want to see him go through his decline to death, no doubt getting increasingly frustrated as the walls of his mortality closed in on him?
I've long believed that if we have any freedom at all to live as we choose, then the must important element of that choce is to choose not to live.
well said myshkin....
well said myshkin.
for those of you who didn't get this ...
for those of you who didn't get this this morning
"Just prior to his death Hunter S Thompson invented a new sport, Shotgun Golf, with Bill Murray. His description:
"The game consists of one golfer, one shooter and a field judge. The purpose of the game is to shoot your opponent's high-flying golf ball out of the air with a finely-tuned 12-gauge shotgun, thus preventing him (your opponent) from lofting a 9-iron approach shot onto a distant "green". Points are scored by blasting your opponent's shiny new Titleist out of the air and causing his shot to fail miserably. After that, you trade places and equipment, and move on to round two."