Monday, February 21, 2005

We're gonna need golf shoes...

“Don’t take any guff off those swine.”

I was shocked to hear the news this morning about Hunter S. Thompson. He took his own life this past weekend. When thinking about the life he has lived it makes most people’s lives look like they were lived as puritanical shut-ins. I think it is amazing that he lived this long. There is no way he could die from natural causes. He was obviously super-human, impervious to the wounds that wear down normal people. He grew stronger. The only way he could die is by doing it himself. Can you imagine Dr. Gonzo in a nursing home?

I wonder what the legacy will be: great American writer or great American lunatic. He invented a style of writing, gonzo journalism. He told the truth through the filtered lens of his whirring and ebullient mind. His mind wired unlike any other, spinning backwards and curling upwards; turning inside out and spitting up brilliantly mad prose.

His insanity was not an act. He knew he wasn’t like you. He kept to himself, for your safety. Fear and loathing at the gates of hell.

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