[Patrick Bateman]

What do you reckon is the greatest of Hst's books?

Also, in a cunning ploy, who else would you recommend???

[Rhubarb]

You know, you and Marky should get together, and you can both go sit in some safe room somewhere and he can go on and on about Palahniuk and you can go on and on about Hunter S. and the rest of us can get on with talking about real books.

[Patrick Bateman]

Real books sweetie, this coming from someone who had never heard of Cervante and who admires Lewis Carroll. How about you start a message board about favourite Wonder Woman comic's and entertain the notion you are less than a little confused.

In conclusion, HST is a real author, Dickens was a hack, and don't even get me started on your personal hero, Da Vinci the first great benefactor of Public Relations

[Rhubarb]

Da Vinci's not my personal hero, T.H. White and Peake are my personal heroes, literarily speaking. HST's ranty journalism was pretty cool, as are Palahniuk's novels, but they're totally boring to make threads about and only about three people really care that much.

[Patrick Bateman]

Three! Who is this mystery third person, I must know immediately.

[scubasteve4lyfe]

I'll be your third person.

The Curse of Lono is my favorite work by Hunter. It's out of print, but you can get it semi-cheap used on Amazon. Or just go to the library and steal it.

Though I hafta say, a lot of my respect for HST has wained after his suicide. I dunno what it is about suicide...it's just...unattractive.

[Otal Nimrodi]

And painful. In general, I don't have a lot of respect for people who commit suicide. I don't know why. I do sympathize with them, but I think that it is kind of taking the easy way out. As hard as it is to be that upset, things will improve. I know from experience. People should just give it some time.

[Patrick Bateman]

Don't knock suicide mate. I figure it's better than hanging on for god know's what. Why are we all so obsessed with life that we NEED to hang on no matter what? Fuck it, when the fun's over, end the game I reckon.

I agree about Lono, it's a kick arse book, great work by Steadman too.

[Otal Nimrodi]

Video games. And as I was saying, it gets fun again. I know, happened to me a couple years back.

This post has been edited by Otal Nimrodi: 23 July 2005 - 06:07 PM

[Rhubarb]

Your life stopped sucking quite so bad after a while, therefore everyone who commits suicide is an asshole?

The only reasons people resent suicides is a) the taboo that someone would be so perverse as to want to die, and b) they might miss them when they're gone. The taboo and the whole 'coward's way out' argument is simply retarded, so that just leaves the problem of hurting the people you leave behind. And when you really feel that bad, and I mean really fucking bad, you honestly are incapable of caring about anyone or anything else. It's like, "Well, if they knew how unbearable this was, I'm sure they wouldn't begrudge me getting some peace". I find it hard to look down on someone who suffers so badly that they've lost all powers of reasoning.

The only times it makes me angry is when people commit suicide to deliberately fuck up other people in some form of petty vengeance or something. It's like, "If I feel so bad as to want to do this, I'll damn well make sure you feel bad too".

And yeah. Why the hell is everyone so obsessed with clinging desperately to life with teeth and nails for as long as is humanly possible? It's considered preferable to live blind, crippled and toothless, with alzheimers and dementia, than it is to die. What happened to 'going gracefully'? Jeez. Everyone dies. It's not like God is gonna suddenly go, "Oh hey, everyone who is still alive gets to live forever" in the extra few years you managed to hang on.

- die, emoticons

This post has been edited by Rhubarb: 23 July 2005 - 07:52 PM

[scubasteve4lyfe]

The thing about HST was that his suicide was the antithesis to everything he lived for. That's the reason why I view his suicide negatively.

In my personal life, my views on suicide are mixed. My cousin committed suicide about four years ago, and he was only fifteen years old. He just wanted a way out. I would never go so far as to call him a coward--he just couldn't take life anymore, nor did he want to try. Sure, I wish he was still alive, but I can understand why he did it. Once you're off the edge, there's no coming back. Even if things eventually do get better, sometimes people think it's just not worth the wait.

[Otal Nimrodi]

Your life stopped sucking quite so bad after a while, therefore everyone who commits suicide is an asshole?

The only reasons people resent suicides is a) the taboo that someone would be so perverse as to want to die, and they might miss them when they're gone. The taboo and the whole 'coward's way out' argument is simply retarded, so that just leaves the problem of hurting the people you leave behind. And when you really feel that bad, and I mean really fucking bad, you honestly are incapable of caring about anyone or anything else. It's like, "Well, if they knew how unbearable this was, I'm sure they wouldn't begrudge me getting some peace". I find it hard to look down on someone who suffers so badly that they've lost all powers of reasoning.

The only times it makes me angry is when people commit suicide to deliberately fuck up other people in some form of petty vengeance or something. It's like, "If I feel so bad as to want to do this, I'll damn well make sure you feel bad too".

And yeah. Why the hell is everyone so obsessed with clinging desperately to life with teeth and nails for as long as is humanly possible? It's considered preferable to live blind, crippled and toothless, with alzheimers and dementia, than it is to die. What happened to 'going gracefully'? Jeez. Everyone dies. It's not like God is gonna suddenly go, "Oh hey, everyone who is still alive gets to live forever" in the extra few years you managed to hang on.

- die, emoticons

Well, I think it's the cowards way out, because I almost took it, but decided not too, because, well, I didn't have a choice. I fainted. And I know from experience that I am a coward. That was the reason I did it. You say, Ms. Rhubarb, that because my life stopped sucking so bad that I think that they are an asshole. I don't I just don't respect them for committing it, as they believe people should. I don't say that it is bad for the people who have no life left, no possibility of recovering from the problem. But where I live, the majority of suicides are comitted by rich teenagers, for reasons, from what I have learned, of things as small as not getting an iPod. I don't like dying, particularly not when it is other people doing it. When I die, I will either

A. Go to heaven, where I will be to happy to worry.

B. Go to hell, where I will be to busy to worry.

C. Nothing will happen, so I will be incapable of caring. It's not my death I am worried about, but that of others.

And I too hate the taboo argument.

[Patrick Bateman]

Suicide isn't the cowards way out dude. Obviously you need to take others lifes into account, if you have kids etc others who rely on you then obviously it's not a good idea, but what's wrong with going gracefully.
If life is just a game then what's the problem with leaving the game before your time runs out??
I have no desire to die whatsoever, I have shitloads I want to do in the 70 or so years before I kick the bucket, but I tell you what, if I ever approach dementia etc or something that will detract from my quality of life then I'll way the pros and cons and if the cons hold sway then I'm out of here.

"It's only once you accept - not fear - accept that some day you will die, that your free to do anything. Until then you are worthless." Tyler Durden

Anyway back to HST, he knew the time to leave, always leave them wanting more.