hunter s.

see note for reviewers.

after riding

with the

hell’s angels,

running for

sheriff of

pitkin county

in colorado

(speaking on

the “freak power”

platform---from

which he swore

that if he won---he

would

tear up all the

streets, replacing

them with newly

sodden, “never

take mescaline

whilst on duty,”

and legalize all

drugs to be used

solely for the

purpose of

recreation),

& climaxing his

life in the epic

saga of fear &

loathing, along

with his faithful

cohort (and attorney)---

none other than the

brown buffalo

himself---hunter s.

& oscar packed

“2 bags of grass,

75 pellets of mescaline,

5 sheets of high-

powered blotter acid,

a salt shaker half full of

cocaine, and a whole

galaxy of multi-colored

uppers,

downers,

screamers,

laughers…a quart of

tequila, a quart of rum,

a case of beer, a pint of

raw

ether, and 2 dozen

amyls,”

no doubt sending the

both of them reeling

into a frenzy that was

sufficiently documented

in his most famous book.

 

but it must have been during

his time spent trying to

uncover the “reasons” for

hemingway’s suicide, that he

himself started to think

about his own mortality, as

well as the extent to which he

would continue to write,

before illness or writer’s

block (amidst anything else

that springs suddenly upon

us) would inevitably destroy

his ability to express himself.

 

it wasn’t long before all this

actually happened, and at

age 67, hunter stating in

what his family regards as his

suicide note---aptly entitled

“football season is over,”

he stated that he had lived 17

years too long---at age 50

he had become boring & old.

 

unlike hemingway, who had

been locked away getting

electroconvulsive therapy

before being let out into the world

deteriorated & destroyed two days

before he put his favorite

shotgun’s barrel in his mouth---

hunter had thought long and

hard about his decision

beforehand.

he was on the phone with his

then-wife, anita, when he

ended it. 

 

here was a man who lived by

his own rules & no one

else’s---whose energy so

explosive & interesting,

could only have lasted as

long as it had & not a moment

longer.

 

in being ahead of the curve,

& in being full awareness of

the utter shortness of being

(“being” defined as those

years that the individual in

question understands to be

valuable to them), he blew

out his own flame.

 

whoosh.

Author's Note

"America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."

-Hunter S. Thompson