Robin Williams Dead

[former_trader]

@Greenman72

^I know of no other Isildur…ever. Regardless of how many R’s are in it.

And I probably wouldn’t like Star Wars nearly as much if I watched it for the first time now. I have a hard time getting into older movies, regardless of how “revolutionary” or “great” they were 30 years ago. (The French Connection comes to mind, here.)

I don’t mind older movies. I saw 12 angry Men for the first time last year and that was an absolute classic.

What I can’t stand is seeing grown men wearing costumes. I can tolerate comics such as Superman/Batman/Spiderman probably because I grew up watching the cartoons but besides that, no thanks.

[higgmond]

@ohai

Star Wars is not really sci fi. It’s more like a fantasy western that is set in space. There are no real science concepts explored in Star Wars. The main concept in the series is essentially magic.

I love it, but we have to admit that Star Wars is really just a soap opera set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

[jmh530]

^I could disagree with that, but arguing about Star Wars being a soap opera is like arguing whether cheerleading/poker is a sport or video games are art.

[S2000magician]

@Greenman72

Not to disrespect the recently departed, but personally, I never liked Robin Williams’ humor. Didn’t like Mrs. Doubtfire, didn’t like Aladdin.

I always thought that RW’s greatest works were his non-comedic roles, like One Hour Photo and Good Will Hunting.

I, too, never cared much for his humor.

He had a great role in another very good movie: Dead Again.

[system]

@ohai

I wonder what is the thought process of someone like this who is depressed and commits suicide.

That’s the thing though, these people’s brains are not functioning.

Thus there IS NO coherent thought process. The brain is sick and dying; the resulting symptoms of this are depression, anxiety, panic attacks, attention deficit, various other mental illness, alzheimers, etc. He also had a heart attack. And he may have been manic depressive or hypomania-whatever. And was vegan (homo evolved their brain eating meat).

I’ll suggest what nobody will probably piece together…

That a whole lot of people in the USA and dying from heart attack, stroke, alzheimers, depression, etc. And that’s it’s likely environmental (diet). The central figure is what people are calling “metabolic syndrome”. It keeps explanding to include more illnesses, and the next one they will add will be…you guessed it, depression.

My analysis could be shit, but probalby not.

[system]

Robin Williams suffered from onset of incurable Dementia and maybe he reasoned that rather than fight an uphill battle he would go out while he still had his senses.

If he was 80+ and had cancer I don’t think many people would’ve questioned his choice yet because he was at an age society deems ‘too young’ it is felt that he should’ve ‘tried harder’ and ‘sought help’. While clinical depression is a serious and complex issue, I am certain that he sought as much help as he could within his personal compass and ultimately chose an answer to one of the most difficult questions that we have arbitrarily decided as ‘wrong’.

Nevertheless, at this point it would be more respectful and apt to realize that his rationality and intellect simply took him down a different path that is no less valid and questioning if he did all he could is distasteful.

I am sure he is smiling and at peace wherever he is.

EDIT : I thought the bump by the previous poster was in bad taste as well. I see their posts have been deleted so please delete this as well.

[Palantir]

@bchad

Greek heroes often felt it was best to die at the peak of their greatness. When you feel - accurately or not - that your best years are behind you (profesionally, health, family, etc.) and there’s not so much left at the well, I would think suicide could become more appealing. It’s sad, but I can sort of understand it, especially for someone who’s life was as an entertainer, it’s a dramatic last act which could feel more satisfying than the fear of fading into obscurity and ill health.

Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Natalie Woods, Kurt Cobain. Dying too young does seem to immortalize entertainers in our psyche. Robin WIlliams was still young enough to benefit from that.

I saw Jackie Mason eating at a restaurant on the Upper East Side about a year ago. He looked all shriveled up and probably had Parkinsons. For someone who was once such a public figure, it must be very humbling to be lain so low. I don’t think Williams made a sensible choice, but I can see why it might have looked appealing.

Obviously depression had a big part to do with it, but it could be that at this point there was less of a hurdle to overcome before pulling the (metaphorical) trigger.

Here’s an interesting article on the relation between comedy and depression. I dont’ know if it’s true, but it seems plausible from my experience, and one of the reasons I ultimately stopped doing stand-up and switched to dance, which tends to have the opposite effect on mood.

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/robin-williams-why-funny-people-kill-themselves/

Tragic, but I still think this is an important post.