Subject: Re: suicide notes (was RE: Kurt Cobain)
From: Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Date: Tue Jan 04 2000 - 21:40:24 EST
At 4:34 PM +0000 on 1/4/2000, "Depressed" wrote:
> well, they're probably interesting for the relatives of the people that kill
> themselves. I think it's kind of creepy reading suicide notes that
>aren't meant
> for you. I think that if someone kills himself and leaves a note for his
> family, the note shouldn't be 'analyzed' by complete strangers.
I don't know; depending on the person, it might be instructive,
illuminating, enlightening. Or, conversely, it might be as it is in
Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," when a major philosophical
character kills himself and leaves a note that says, "I have gone out
the window." (It is dark humor at its best and needs to be seen in
context for full effect.)
For me and people close to me, "I have gone out the window" has
become shorthand for being in a state of mind in which we just MIGHT
feel that way -- or wish we had the nerve for it.
If Sylvia Plath left a note, I would be intensely curious to see
what it said, because of my regard for her poetry. The same with
Jerzy Kosinski. One could argue that The Old Man on the Mountain,
Salinger, might leave an interesting note as to why he has
effectively committed professional suicide in terms of new work. An
explanation from his pen as to why he really dropped out would make
gripping reading.
--tim o'connor
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