Gonzo is Dead

Last night Hunter Thompson, author of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas ("A savage journey to the heart of the American dream"), preeeminent practitioner of self-styled "gonzo" journalism and the inspiration for this blog, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his ranch in Woody Creek (Aspen), Colorado. Hunter S. Thompson Takes His Last Trip, Echoing Hemingway [MercuryNews.com]. Amid all the obituaries, many ask how a man who lived so hard could commit suicide, without even leaving a note.

That's not a quandry; it's perfectly in character. Given his exccessive consumption of drugs and alcohol for 30+ years, it's a wonder the man made it to 65 at all. And it seems that Thompson planned it himself, spending an intimate weekend with his kids and shooting himself in the kitchen while his wife was working out at her health club. Once the fun was over, Thompson often made clear, he wasn't going to stick around and watch the janitors sweep up.

Suicide is painless. It only hurts those left behind. Yet as Albert Camus wrote in The Myth of Sisyphus in 1942, "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide." Indeed, it may be the only rational way to exit this insane world of ours.

Goodbye, Hunter. You died like you lived. Gonzo is dead; long live gonzo.

Update: Like Markos of The Daily Kos, there's only two authors for whom I have gone out of my way to read everything they've written -- Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Actually, there are five for me, since I've also read everything by Michael Chrichton, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum.) Oh well, serendipity is all we've got folks. Enjoy life while it lasts.

 Posted by glenn