Prey for Peace

The Doc Searls Weblog : Monday, February 21, 2005

Excellent comments on Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and his suicide:
"He opened journalism to the rest of us:
  I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.
  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.
  A word to the wise is infuriating.
  The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. "

and:

"  The doctor made a virtue of failure at self-destruction:
  I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
  It's a bummer that he finally succeeded. "

From TheBleat...
Monday, February 21, 2005

"HST killed himself. He never would have “turned his life around” – that’s a hard thing to try when the room’s been spinning for 40 years. Depression? Wouldn’t be surprising. A bad verdict from the doc? Wouldn’t be surprising. A great writer in his prime, but the DVD of his career would have the last two decades on the disc reserved for outtakes and bloopers. It was all bile and spittle at the end, and it was hard to read the work without smelling the dank sweat of someone consumed by confusion, anger, sudden drunken certainties and the horrible fear that when he sat down to write, he could only muster a pale parody of someone else’s satirical version of his infamous middle period. I feel sorry for him, but I’ve felt sorry for him for years. File under Capote, Truman – meaning, whatever you thought of the latter-day persona, don’t forget that there was a reason he had a reputation. Read "Hell's Angels." That was a man who could hit the keys right."