Memorial

Hunter S. Thompson is dead. Because the country needs him now more than ever, this loss will probably be largely unnoticed in many circles. What is one wild, freakish journalist amid the sea of conservatism and "moral" values in which we now flounder? Hunter S. Thompson, that's what. There were none others like him, although many have tried (intentionally or subconsciously) to imitate him. He was the foundation of the journalism of involvement, the antithesis of the detachment so common in the name of objectivism.
As foundations go, he may not have always been entirely stable. But that goes with the job. The job being Gonzo Journalist, which he entirely invented... So "that goes with the job" isn't much of an excuse. Not that it matters: He was a raving counterculture freak and we loved him for it.

Hunter S. Thompson shot himself in the head. No reason why has been made public yet. It's hard not to wonder whether or not he left a suicide note. Would a writer who has shared as many deeply personal feelings, delusions, insights, hallucinations, and terrors as Hunter S. Thompson want to write even one more word once he'd decided to go? I have a feeling that if he'd started to write such a note it would have turned into a rambling affair he kept at for months until it was eventually published as another book and he was too tired out to pull the trigger.
While searching for some explanation why a man like Thompson would kill himself, I am reminded of the legends of Hercules. Not that watered down crap on TV, but the actual mythology. Hercules was the mightiest of heroes, completely undefeatable, and when it came time for him to die he had to slay himself. Hunter S. Thompson was a legend who could not be destroyed, and there were many who had tried. The pigs, the cops, and the feds couldn't stop him. The squares, the straights, and the conformists couldn't crush him. Editors, publishing companies, and community standards couldn't contain him. The drugs, the alcohol, and the cigarettes couldn't bury him. The lawsuits, the bans, and the warrants only made him stronger. In the end, only Hunter S. Thompson could kill Hunter S. Thompson.

The End.