Hunter S. Thompson has...

[elfs]

I've only read one Hunter S. Thompson book (Fear and Loathing, natch) and I'm not nearly as big a fan of his or Tom Wolfe's work as I am of P.J. O'Rourke, but as I was paying attention today I noticed a broad distinction between the two different memes of reportage.

In one set of reports, Hunter is said to have shot himself in the head. In the other set, epitomized by NPR, Hunter "has died." A little later, the report includes the phrase "of a self-inflicted gunshot wound" or "by his own hand."

I'm kinda curious why some editors preferred the phrase "has died," as if it were just something that happened to Hunter, and others chose to be explicit about his self-destruction. Part of me supposes that it might have been his age; Hunter was 67, a bit young but still within the margin of error for an "average" lifespan, and so saying "he has died" has little surprise value behind it. Usually when a young celebrity dies we want to know why, but 67... people do "just die" at that age. Hunter just chose to immanentize it. And maybe Hunter was always expected to go out with a gun. Goddess knows he owned a lot of them.

Comments

[casualprofessor.livejournal.com]

or maybe it was the ultimate accidental ending to all those classic episodes of alcohol and gunplay? That would leave open the question: suicide, accident, or act of a spooky supernatural being with a sense of humor.

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

I guess he just didn't seem like the type who could go slowly. He was a bit of an attention whore, and committing suicide is one way to get the headlines one last time if he felt he was fading. It's a strangely fitting end.