Robin Williams v J J Murphy. – The Anna Raccoon Archives

by Anna Raccoon on August 13, 2014

JJ Murphy – his ‘watch’ has stopped.

I don’t habitually read the obituaries. Too reminiscent of past visits to my ex-mother in law in Liverpool, when the current score of Liverpudlians who had pegged it since our last visit would be ritually read out in football results fashion.

Still, it does form part of what we term ‘news’, so it does seem to be a valid part of the rolling news service – there will be those who need to know that Robin Williams has ‘left the stage’.

I’m supposed to say ‘so tragic to hear that Robin has died’ at this point, or even ‘devastated to hear’ – but how could I be? I never met the man, I don’t know any of his family, I may have watched one of his films at some point, but that is my sole connection to him.

J J Murphy died too – aged 86; still filming for a major television series – The Game of Thrones – yet his death was merely quietly reported, totally unlike the wall to wall coverage of Robin Williams death.

I thought there were supposed to be guidelines on the reporting of suicide? Particularly during that period when it was only ‘believed to be suicide’. It would seem that they are being ignored, if they exist.

Last night’s coverage of the ‘Robin Williams story’ – for that is what is has become – was particularly extreme. Live coverage of the press conference given by the LA coroner? Really? Does anybody outside of his family need to know the exact details of how he died? Perhaps those who wish to emulate the manner in which a celebrity took his life?

Followed by – a wall sized interactive graphic of the world, plotting the ‘clusters’ of ‘social media users’ retweeting ‘RIP Robin Williams’. That really is ridiculous – anybody who is interested in what social media has to say, is already on social media, and knows exactly what they have to say. The fact that ‘Jean-Claude in Paris’ was the first person in France to say ‘RIP Robin Williams’ or ‘Mustapha Ouank’ in Dubai was ‘devastated to hear’ isn’t news.

It is a gross wallowing in key words.

As for Alistair Campbell being commissioned by the Huffington Post to tell us how desperately sad it was that a man should be driven to suicide – words fail me. Except for two. Dr Kelly. A more inappropriate commentator would have been hard to find.

Is it really more newsworthy that a known celebrity ‘substance abuser’, to quote Sky, should have decided to take his own life, than that a great Irish actor who has quietly worked right up to the age of 86, facing life’s challenges without the support of drugs or drink or therapists, has also died – and it’s not worth mentioning?

What curious values drive the Sky news team.

*Ms Raccoon is off to the hospital in Bordeaux this morning with her friend – so there will be no one here to release your comments from moderation if you put more than one link in them.

{ 71 comments… read them below or add one }

Robert the Biker August 13, 2014 at 8:18 am

Lauren Bacall has gone too! Wonderful next to Bogie I always thought.
Robin Williams? I’m sorry he’s gone but I did find him a bit manic and grating.
All the best at the quacks Anna

JuliaM August 13, 2014 at 8:20 am

It’s fame. Nobody had heard of the other guy, and his name only made the papers due to his role in a flavour of the month tv show…

Anna Raccoon August 13, 2014 at 8:33 am

Superb article by Mary Hamilton on this subject – worth reading.

http://maryhamilton.co.uk/2014/08/reporting-suicide-kill-readers/

JuliaM August 13, 2014 at 8:41 am

We are now seeing the hounding of those people who state – rightly, in my opinion – that his suicide was a selfish act.

What the hell else are you supposed to say about a man who chose to do this in the family home, leaving his body for his wife to find, and those memories every time she sets foot into the room?

Anna Raccoon August 13, 2014 at 8:50 am

Well said Julia!

InLikeFlint August 13, 2014 at 12:33 pm

Sorry, but it’s not as simple as that.
I used to think the same way – I could not understand why anyone would choose to end their lives, especially when it meant that children would be left behind. Growing up, I experienced the misery that follows such an action when two friends of mine had parents who killed themselves. ‘Selfish bastards’ was the phrase that always sprang to mind – their children being condemned to a lifetime of uncertainty and shame as a result.
But now, as a middle-aged man who has experienced his fair share of pain, and subsequently depression, I can understand what drives people to this act. I am not a manic depressive, but I know people who are, people who are good and kind but sometimes find it difficult to cope. In the last year I have had a particularly rough ride, and at times have hit lows I could never have imagined possible. I am by nature an optimist, and that has helped enormously – along with the support of friends and family, but one thing I do now understand is that depression puts you into a state of mind where you do not think rationally, and if you are not thinking rationally then previously unimaginable acts such as suicide become possible, even desirable.
Someone who finds themselves in that position genuinely thinks that the world would be a better place without them, genuinely thinks that everyone would be better off without them – the descent into depression can be astoundingly swift, and as a result can have tragic consequences – for all concerned.
Of course suicide is a selfish act – the rational mind can see that. But if you are not thinking rationally, you won’t be able to – will you?

Henry Wood August 13, 2014 at 12:51 pm: Very well said, InLikeFlint.
(I know of what you write.)

Reply

James August 13, 2014 at 8:51 am

I don’t remember the waves of liberal outrage when Fred West and Harold Shipman were condemned for being selfish bastards for choosing to commit suicide.

Robert the Biker August 13, 2014 at 9:37 am

I imagine that that is because all normal people were glad to see the back of the arseholes!

James August 13, 2014 at 9:41 am

But…but…but… all the armchair mental health experts spent yesterday pontificating that suicides are to be extended sympathy and understanding at all times and that we should wallow in reflected guilt over the torment suffered by people who chose to end their lives.

I’ll tell you, it is making me see Adolf Hitler in a whole new light. Can’t begin to imagine what the poor man had to have been going through to end his life like that. Huge sympathy for his friends and family. If only he’d had the help he needed.

Duncan Disorderly August 13, 2014 at 10:26 am

“I’ll tell you, it is making me see Adolf Hitler in a whole new light.”
You are aware that he >shot his dog< beforehand? Bastard can rot in hell.

Mike August 13, 2014 at 2:41 pm: To be pedantic, the dog (and her new pups) were poisoned. They were testing the cyanide capsules before the Fuehrer took any (as Himmler had supplied them and Hitler no longer trusted his “traitor” SS chief.).

Reply

Henry Wood August 13, 2014 at 1:01 pm

In the “olden days” it would be said, “whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed”.
I suspect that “disturbed” people who have reached such a stage that they would do such a thing, never mind just contemplate it, have so much turmoil in their mind, unimaginable turmoil to anyone who has not been there, would think for a moment he was being selfish. He possibly thought the removal of his worthless self from this world might bring peace to those around him.

Mike August 13, 2014 at 2:45 pm

I think that was probably due to suicides committing a “sin” against God not being able to be buried in hallowed ground. If they were declared officially not responsible for their actions then they hadn’t sinned – could thus be buried in hallowed ground. Of course, suicide can, in numerous circumstances, be a perfectly rational act and nothing to do with insanity or any disturbance of the mind.

Henry Wood August 13, 2014 at 5:26 pm: I totally agree with you that some suicides can be perfectly rational acts, I’m thinking here of maybe (and that’s a big “maybe”) of people who have tremendous physical sufferings and feel life truly is of no quality and would like to be out of it. I know just a little about that.

My point about “disturbed mind” was in answer to JuliaM’s post about:
“What the hell else are you supposed to say about a man who chose to do this in the family home, leaving his body for his wife to find, and those memories every time she sets foot into the room?”

I honestly find such a post to be less than sensitive to say the least. I honestly do not think that Mr. Williams “chose” to do this in the family home. I doubt if Mr. Williams passed any choices through his mind, choices like, “Should I do it here in the family home”, or, “Should I maybe go to an hotel or somewhere so my wife won’t have memories every time she sets foot in the room?”

I honestly doubt if Mr. Williams actually knew what he was doing in the final sad moments of his life.

I did not like the wall-to-wall coverage of William’s death but that is the “meeja” these days, especially “social media” and the MSM is not much better. I like even less anyone pontificating on how a dead man could have been “more thoughtful”, especially a dead man who took his own life.

Anyone who feels themselves fit to judge another human being because of the “selfish” way and place they took their life, needs to not only explore selfishness, but also life itself. Life itself is the single, greatest thing on this earth. For a person to self choose to end it, well, I can neither judge nor comment.

I once read in a book a statement by a mass murderer, one Dennis Nilsen, who seemed astonished at the outrage about the things he had done to his victims following his killings of them. The “Press” were outraged that he had cooked body parts, that he had flushed body parts down the drain (and blocked them!). As Nilsen said, surely the very, very worst thing he had done to his victims was that he had killed them. He had taken their life, and with that had taken all possibilities that his victims may have done something in their life, something good, become famous, improved mankind, etc., etc.

It is the same feeling I have when I have read so many books about the likes of the Holocaust. How many Beethovens, Einsteins, doctors, scientists were gone before anyone even knew they existed?

Robin Williams was no Beethoven or Einstein etc., but he most definitely was a mensch. He went before his time and in that way I feel compassion for his passing.

“Ask not for whom the bell tolls … “

Reply

JuliaM August 13, 2014 at 9:59 am

On the subject of that Mary Hamilton link…

“Fundamentally, the media doesn’t care about the guidelines. It doesn’t care about the people they’re meant to protect. “

Well, no. Because these are guidelines, and not rules. This is a news item & the media will squeeze every last drop out of it.

What’s the alternative? That we censor the news?

Moor Larkin August 13, 2014 at 12:08 pm

re: copycat behaviour
When I was at University in the last century, there was an ongoing belief that students would throw themselves off a local beauty-spot but these tragedies were never reported by the local press nor the University authorities because others would be stimulated to copycat. It occurred to me that in order for this strategy to work, we could never be told the truth…

Fat Steve August 13, 2014 at 8:47 am

If I am early enough to catch you before you go Good Fortune Anna if I am not I hope all went well

Anna Raccoon August 13, 2014 at 8:52 am

It is not a visit for ‘I’ – but for my friend Jane. It will be the first time I’ve gone there and not had to take my clothes off – I do hope I remember that!

Mudplugger August 13, 2014 at 9:28 am

Good luck to Jane – she has the best supporter money can’t buy.

Fat Steve August 13, 2014 at 9:48 am: @Mudplugger –seconded

Reply

DtP August 13, 2014 at 1:41 pm

Well, you don’t ‘have to’ but, yer know, have fun with it!

The Jannie August 13, 2014 at 9:32 am

“It will be the first time I’ve gone there and not had to take my clothes off”
There’s a joke in there somewhere . . .

Moor Larkin August 13, 2014 at 10:23 am

I first recall Williams first from the TV series, “Mork & Mindy”, where he played an alien living with an American family. He buys a present for one of the extended family and it is a saucer. The recipient (who is one of those brash “consumer Americans”) is evidently a bit bewildered, but Mork though an alien, is now a “member of the family”, so she smiles “thank you” through tightly lip-stickered lips. The assembled family are all billing and cooing at how nice it is that Mork remembered her birthday and so forth, and trying not to allow him to see that they are just as bewildered at what the hell goes on his alien mind. Emboldened by all the attention and approval, Mork explains that he had no idea what to buy until he had overheard all the family talking about her coming birthday and knew that a saucer would be the perfect gift when everyone started saying that she only likes shallow things. I always liked to think that Williams had written that gag.

The other guy reminds me of all the times I read about Alec Guinness and he is referenced as the guy who played Obiwonkinobee in Star Wars and parts of my brain start oozing out of my tear-ducts. Beam me up in a flying saucer Scottie.

Henry Wood August 13, 2014 at 12:55 pm: re Alec Guinness – Last night I watched (again) a film he starred in, “Tunes of Glory”. What an actor! What a man he portrayed. (I’ve never seen “Star Wars”.)

Reply

Johnny Monroe August 13, 2014 at 10:33 am

The 1974 movie ‘Stardust’, wherein David Essex plays a 60s pop idol, climaxes with his drug-induced death in an ambulance en route to hospital as it careers through the Spanish countryside, a vehicle at the head of a grotesque procession consisting of paparazzi, manic fans and curious locals. At the end of the journey, when the stretcher with his body on it is removed from the ambulance, the fanaticism of the swarm to see the dead star and deny him any semblance of dignity quite shocked me when I first saw the movie as a fourteen year-old. It’s not that dissimilar from the disturbing images when the Ayatollah Khomeini’s body was almost wrenched off the stretcher by hysterical Iranian mourners fifteen years later. One was fiction, the other was fact; and yet both seemed so extreme that it was hard to imagine that kind of response to the death of a public figure in the ‘real world’. And yet, the 24-hour news media (along with social networking) seems to have made such a gruesome response the norm now. You don’t even need to be a household name for inclusion in the circus anymore. Everyone is a vicarious griever.

Duncan Disorderly August 13, 2014 at 1:55 pm

“And yet, the 24-hour news media (along with social networking) seems to have made such a gruesome response the norm now.”

Did the 24 hour news media and social networking account for Iranians almost pulling Ayatollah Khomeini’s body off a stretcher?

Johnny Monroe August 13, 2014 at 3:42 pm

Notice the word ‘now’, not 1989.

Duncan Disorderly August 13, 2014 at 5:27 pm

Indeed, but has there been a recent spate of people literally trying to pull corpses off stretchers? Perhaps there would be cases where this would happen if people were given the chance, but I don’t think recent advances in media need account for them.

Moor Larkin August 13, 2014 at 5:56 pm

“They” wanted to dig Jimmy Savile up… so “they” said.

Johnny Monroe August 13, 2014 at 6:32 pm: I was talking about the sensationalist way in which death is reported by the media now and the way in which those who follow it have been conditoned to react to death, whether the famous or the non-famous, in a particularly vicarious and voyeuristic manner; the two extreme examples I used – one from a movie, one from real life – happened many years ago and seemed shocking at the time, whereas today the death of a celebrity provokes thousands of vacuous tributes across social networking sites by people who never knew said dead celeb, just as the death or murder of a Lee Rigby provokes similar responses. It’s pretty obvious I wasn’t suggesting there’s been a recent spate of people literally trying to pull corpses off stretchers. Does every bloody opinion expressed on this blog require an explanation?

Reply

Gil August 13, 2014 at 11:08 am

Yes, we need to know the details and Robin’s last tweet.

“What the hell else are you supposed to say about a man who chose to do this in the family home…”
Perhaps desperate or impulsive.

This topic could have come straight from a Harry Enfield/Paul Whitehouse self-righteous brothers sketch.

Joe Public August 13, 2014 at 11:10 am

Before the body was cold, Apple’s iStore was push-marketing Williams-related stuff.

Ms Mildred August 13, 2014 at 11:27 am

I have only my other half inform me of the manner of this mans suicide and I stopped him in mid sentence. I briefly viewed a picture of this man’s palatial house. Thought of all the people homeless on a mountainside, living on rubbish dumps, in hovels all over the world. Suffering under the hand of religious tyrants and guerilla groups. Bombed, blown asunder, rocketed and targeted by drones. Then I come back to the droll, funny, wealthy, drug user, with more goods and chattels and fame and fortune than he seems to have been able to handle. I think of the ever growing list of these hugely talented persons who have been ‘found dead’. Surely it’s better to have 86 years to your life, discretely being a good actor. Quietly in the background, doing what makes you happy into old age? So many people seem unable to cope with direct fame, or fame by relationship, in these drug riddled, Twatter ridden, news spinning times.

strawbrick August 13, 2014 at 11:33 am

It was not just Sky News.

The first ten minutes of yesterday’s BBC 6 o-clock news was all about Williams …

Genocide was second up – four minutes worth.

The “high-lights so far” half-way through was just about Williams.

Fat Steve August 13, 2014 at 1:33 pm: When Peaches Geldorf passed over it was the first 15 minutes of the news with satellite links to the USA. Williams was at least a great actor.
Williams was a severe depressive —I think selfish may be the wrong word since it connotes subjective selfish motives to the act which might be inaccurate. Depression might be explained in layman’s terms as a clash of a personal reality with an objective reality —-neither of which a depressive is able to measure and reconcile into a workable model. To a depressive I suspect no amount of material possessions can make up for something that he or she sees as missing or too present in the world outside of himself..
Suicide is objectively a self indulgent act but not necessarily from the perspective the person committing suicide —its a giving up of hope or perhaps an inability to see hope

Reply

Chris August 13, 2014 at 11:48 am

Grieve! Grieve! Grieve!
I was online when the news about Mr Williams’ demise came through – and I’m at the stage when I don’t want to type “RIP *anybody*” as it has become almost meaningless.

I was, however, compelled to write this: http://retardedkingdom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/robin-williams-understanding-depression.html

Henry Wood August 13, 2014 at 1:07 pm: A very well written and thoughtful article, Chris. Thank you.

Reply

Engineer August 13, 2014 at 12:13 pm

Is this the best the MSM can do during Silly Season? No chaos on roads because a lorry has shed it’s load of strawberry jam? No stories about squirrels in public parks mugging men for their nuts? Nothing we can have a bit of a laugh about? Just doom, gloom and despondency?

It’s enough to make you turn over to Radio 3. Or Test Match Special. Or get out and about and enjoy the summer.

(I’m not trying to belittle genocide in Iraq, Ebola, strife in Gaza or the premature death of a Hollywood actor I’ve never heard of, but there does come a time when you just have to say ‘enough’. I can’t undo all the world’s wrongs. All I can do is try not to perpetrate any myself, and enjoy life as best I can. 24 hour rolling news is more likely to cause depression than cure it. So swith it off, and get with your real life. Like helping a friend in need – best wishes to Jane, and hope things work out well.)

JuliaM August 13, 2014 at 1:35 pm

“No chaos on roads because a lorry has shed it’s load of strawberry jam? No stories about squirrels in public parks mugging men for their nuts? Nothing we can have a bit of a laugh about? “

Engineer, I’ll just leave this here, shall I?

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/man-accidentally-killed-himself-with-vibrator-inquest-hears-9663971.html

Moor Larkin August 13, 2014 at 2:02 pm

Anything He can do, She can do better.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2704017/Surgeons-discover-5-inch-sex-toy-womans-vagina-10-YEARS.html

Engineer August 13, 2014 at 3:06 pm

Nothing wrong with getting a bit of a buzz out of life – but don’t take things too far….

The EU’s finest bureaucrats will be onto this in a flash. Proposals for licensing the use of any ‘pleasure-related object’ (it will be unclear if cucumbers are covered by the proposed legislation) will be drawn up, together with compulsory training by medically-qualified professionals for all purchasers of any device covered by the proposals. Anybody found to be in possession of an unlicensed device (or possibly cucumber) will be liable to imprisonment or community service. There will also be guidelines for the design of such items, which will have to include fail-safe features such as depth stops and a length of rope for retrieval in emergencies. Again, it will be unclear whether the design guidelines will apply to cucumbers.

Mudplugger August 13, 2014 at 5:16 pm

The fun-vegetable angle brings to mind the (allegedly true) story of the Australian bloke caught pleasuring himself with a pumpkin. When interrupted by a police officer, he quickly said “Streuth, is it midnight already?” – good line, Bruce.

Engineer August 13, 2014 at 9:49 pm: Almost everybody I’ve ever known with a medical background has at least one (and often several) stories like the links above. For some bizarre reason, the ones concerning male patients frequently involve vaccuum cleaners (no, me neither – unless ‘sucking off’ has something to do with it).

The most bizarre story of the lot involved a gay couple, one of whom had internal colonic burns. It seems they had a game involving a toilet-roll tube and a gerbil (don’t ask). This became a fairly regular pastime, until the gerbil refused to ‘resurface’ as it were. The other participant tried to investigate by shining a light down the tube, using a handy cigarette lighter. This apparently ignited a pocket of gas, expelling the gerbil, but causing the burns.

The opinion of the gerbil on these antics is not recorded.

I’d like to think this story is apocryphal, but I have a horrible feeling that as truth is often stranger than fiction, it may not be.

Heaven knows what the RSPCA in it’s current mindset would make of it all.

Reply

The Blocked Dwarf August 13, 2014 at 12:31 pm

OMG! I CANT BELIF SOME1 COMPARED DR PATCH TO H I T L E R! I AM SOOOOO OFFENDED!!!!11 ANNA DELETE THAT MEAN INSENSITIVE TROLL NOW! I WILL FONE POLICE IF YOU DONT! RobbY U R an Angle in HEAVEN now.

Enough pseudo Twitteryness.
Me, I’m waiting for 25Hour New’s coverage of the event.

*wishes Anna’s friend all the best but wonders why she is going to a French Doctor where you have to pay and they give you tablets up your bum. when the NHS is the ENVY of the world…innit?*

GildasTheMonk August 13, 2014 at 12:42 pm

I wasn’t a “fan”, but I respected his talent. Mork and Mindy was great when I came home from school as a child. I loved Good Will Hunting and the Dead Poet’s Society. I still remember his turn at the Royal Variety Performance in, I think, 1987. Brilliant

Of course, it would be wrong to say I grieve for Mr Williams – I didn’t know him, but I feel sadness. First of all I suffer from time to time from depression and anxiety, although it is manageable at the moment. I have certainly contemplated suicide. I heard a piece on Radio 4 last night which explored the link between high creativity – not just intelligence but that extra factor – and mental illness and depression, and it is pretty clear that there is a provable correlation; one might think of Van Gogh as an obvious example. Last year I had the chance to see a few of his pieces up close and personal. What struck me most was that I felt he was seeing the world in a different way, much more intensely than I did – his brain was on overload, so to speak.

One of the more sensible commentators on the matter was, I think, the director and “Python”, Terry Gilliam. As he observed, there is a price to pay for such a brilliant mind. Indeed there is. I may not have William’s creativity or brilliance (and like him or not, he was brilliant) but I understand the curse of an over active mind, and the perils of depression.

I agree with everyone about Sky’s coverage. Morbid and over the top as ever

Good luck at the hospital

G the M

Neil August 13, 2014 at 3:12 pm

On the subject of Van Gogh’s mental state, a friend and I once stood in front of one of his paintings in the V-G Museum in Amsterdam (It’s thirty years ago, so I can’t remember which one) We both spontaneously wept at the pain it conveyed to us…..

GildasTheMonk August 13, 2014 at 4:23 pm

My impression was one of overload of the senses, as if the light and colours of the world were too bright for him

The Blocked Dwarf August 13, 2014 at 7:35 pm: “My impression was one of overload of the senses, as if the light and colours of the world were too bright for him”

Yep, absinthe, in industrial quantities, will do that to you, which is one of the reasons so many artists of the Belle Epoque referred to it as their muse. The ‘Golden Brown’ of the Fin de siècle and the Lucy In The Sky of Jugendstyle….along with the Goddess Nicotiana.

Reply

EyesWideShut August 13, 2014 at 12:47 pm

Well said, Anna. The coverage has been utterly vile. I note also the relief with which the Beeb et al turned away from the plight of the Yazidi, the Russian mission to SE Ukraine and other stories to force-feed us with clips from “Good Morning Vietnam”. My irony-meter is broken.

BTW, Murphy may not have had the international recognition of Williams, but he was very much loved and respected in NI, where I am from. I remember him as a continuity announcer for UTV back in the 80s, and in a host of stage and TV productions. Big fish, small pond maybe, but he was personally known to many people here and accessible in a way that Williams would not be.

This is not to detract from the human tragedy of Williams’ death. I have complained vigorously about the trivialising reportage, with “Arts Correspondents” treating us to their long-distance psychological diagnosis. I believe the media is now so far removed from any sense of self-awareness that it has frankly been a waste of my time informing them just how shallow and ignorant and insensitive they are.

Ed P August 13, 2014 at 1:19 pm

I’m just saddened for his daughters – neither did well this year at Wimbledon and this trauma cannot help.

Ed P August 13, 2014 at 2:09 pm

Flippant I know – I’ll get my coat.

But also, Lauren Bacall just died at 89. She was a wonderful actress and a fine person. And to my mind, worth 100s of wise-cracking drug-addled “comics”.

Moor Larkin August 13, 2014 at 2:31 pm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2722856/RIP-Robbie-Williams-Twitter-users-mistakenly-pay-tribute-former-Take-That-singer-following-death-Hollywood-star-ROBIN-Williams.html

Ed P August 13, 2014 at 2:48 pm: It’ll be Frank Williams (F1) next!

Reply

oi you August 13, 2014 at 2:27 pm

On the subject of the MSM and their preoccupation with the rich and famous, short but interesting article here:

http://www.calvinlsmith.com/2014/08/when-are-fatalities-more-newsworthy.html

It’s written from the perspective of an evangelic christian, but non the worse for it. The figure of 250,000 deaths in the Syrian civil war is truly staggering. Not a word of it on the MSM. As usual.

Amfortas August 13, 2014 at 5:56 pm

Robin Williams was ‘Depressed’. Everyone is saying. ‘Depression’ is such a catch-all term and all too often gets nowhere near the depths of despair that a person might feel. And it is not so much a ‘feeling’ as a deep mood in an iterative cycle. There are pits of despair that an individual cannot escape by themselves. They are in the Abyss and need someone to reach down, grab their hair and pull them out.

Imagine a cave of ice with all entrance blocked. Dark, cold, wet. You are in there for weeks. Months. That is despair. Imagine being in a ravine with sheer sides and whichever way you go, goes on and on with sharp slippery rocks to clamber over until you are completely exhausted. A week later you are just too weak to clamber over another razor rock. Wet. No sunlight. Dank. Stink. That is despair.

‘Depressed’ people do not suicide. Believe me. I have seen enough in my time. People in despair though do. It takes a lot of love and patience and skill to grab their hair. It takes strength to pull them up.

Sometimes it takes God to do it.

Been there; experienced Him do it.

Williams had made it clear what ailed him. People laughed. He wasn’t waving. He was drowning. One serious condition upon another. He made a career from the gifts one ailment produced. His manic verbalisations were his stock in trade. Normal people do not have that gift. Sane people rarely. On top, add drugs and drink. Where did they come from? All around him. His ‘friends’ and ‘colleagues’ in an incestuous, narcissistic ‘Industry’, surrounded him with them. Inauthenticity surrounded him. It was all through him. That is what show-biz is. Inauthentic people playing the parts written by other inauthentic people. Pretend. Not real. For our entertainment.

And the ex-wives. Two lots of alimony. Two women who did not love him anymore. Women who had broken their vows but made him give them the money he earned. For as long as he lived. He was in his 60′s and looking to have to continue to work until he dropped just for them. And his current wife. What of her? We don’t know much but they had seperate bedrooms and she ‘went out’ mid-morning without even seeing him or speaking to him. Does that sound like a relationship? Was he seeing another whack of alimony about to load on his shoulders?

Sharp rocks, dank air. Ice walls. Darkness. Lonliness.

He gave us all such enjoyment. We, here, around the world, his audience, could not be in his life as friends, but where were his friends? Where were his colleagues? Where were the women who once said they loved him?

You poor man, Mr Williams. You poor man.

The Blocked Dwarf August 13, 2014 at 6:01 pm

There has just been some woman from Hacked Off on Radio 4 claiming that the reporting of RW suicide proves the case for press control. Didn’t take them long.

Ancient+Tattered Airman August 13, 2014 at 8:17 pm

What curious values drive the Sky news team.

Not just Sky Anna, the whole unbalanced media crowd with each attempting to trump the other. We the great unwashed public have accepted the dumbing down and trivialising so much it ceases to matter to most. Expecting real reportage on TV, radio or the dead tree press is a forlorn hope.

Fat Steve August 13, 2014 at 9:11 pm: @Ancient and battered –attempting to trump the other –on the ball –but trumping not in terms of accuracy or importance but in milking sentimentality —that distorted echo of genuine emotion.

Reply

GD August 13, 2014 at 8:17 pm

If only as conclusive proof that the majority of people managed to work out that hanging yourself by the neck tends to lead to death independently of last night’s TV coverage, let me tell you that my Grandmother committed suicide in the family home, by hanging, and, from the remarkably limited (no stomach contents)autopsy report, would seem to have died of asphyxiation. She probably did it at about the same time of day as Robin Williams too.

It is a hard and painful way to die…inexplicable with a houseful of pills…but it is certain, and the equipment is readily available in almost any home (not mine – bit jerry built, I wouldn’t count on ANYTHING to take the weight).

My Grandmother made everybody tea in bed, then a cooked breakfast, and was dead before lunch.

For some reason, perhaps the similarities, Robin Williams’ death brought it home to me that, however much suicide is the right choice for you and those around you, however badly you need out of a life that has no hope left and is never free of pain, actually going through with suicide is terrifying, often in means, as well as end, so that, for many people, when the moment comes, they grasp it with both hands and jump before the moment is gone.

One day my moment will come too, I hope.

Mudplugger August 13, 2014 at 9:39 pm

Robin Williams was part of a long list of inspired comedians who have struggled with depressive issues. In the UK, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan and John Cleese amongst others have all straddled that narrow line between comic genius and what we often record as insanity: some survived, some didn’t. While the public sees, enjoys and loves the clown-face on view, they rarely see the darker counter-balance lurking beneath.

The death of almost any individual is regrettable, an early death at only 63 is doubly so (I’m 63, that’s definitely too early), and when that death is brought about by the deceased’s own hand it becomes a tragedy. A tragedy for the person, for their friends and family, for their wider circle of contacts and associates – it is also a tragedy for our society in that we didn’t anticipate it, didn’t spot it, didn’t offer support to avoid it, and even more so when some callous members seem to glorify in it.

We are all diminished by such deaths, be they celebrities or nonentities – 30 years ago, one close friend of mine from schooldays, one of the ‘nonentities’, inexplicable died the same way as Robin Williams and I still feel my portion of guilt for not being aware enough to help him to conquer his invisible demons. Since then I have been more alert to the possible symptoms and have tried to be there for any troubled friends – whether I have actually helped avert any such tragedy, I will never know, but I do know I’ve tried.

Ancient+Tattered Airman August 13, 2014 at 10:15 pm

And now we learn from the Telegraph:

Robin Williams’s grieving daughter has been forced to quit Twitter and Instagram after online trolls bullied and taunted her over her father’s suicide.
Zelda Williams, 25, said she was “shaking” after she was sent a mortuary photograph said to show her father’s body, which was actually a picture taken several years ago of another man who died from asphyxiation and bore a passing resemblance to the actor.
The Twitter users who sent her the pictures and verbally abused her have now been suspended by the social networking site.
The Human Race is filled with inferiors who will taunt a daughter on learning of her father’s death. Disgusting!

GD August 13, 2014 at 11:28 pm

Loathsome little beasts…how could anyone do that?

Ho Hum August 14, 2014 at 12:18 am

‘how could anyone do that?’

Easy. They get their lack of morality, or any values that include an old fashioned sense of decency, from a populist ‘meeja’, which I took to be the essence of Anna’s article, anyway.

Insidious infiltration, hard copy, soft copy, sunrise, midday and sunset. A bit like waking up each day to hear someone shouting at you, ‘Good Morning, Viet Cong’

Ho Hum August 14, 2014 at 12:21 am: And it grieves me that I cannot convey in writing the inherent disgust and sense of sarcasm with which I would say it

Reply

MTG August 13, 2014 at 10:34 pm

Prior to incredible acting as ‘Bicentennial Man’ I never watched any of his films in their entirety. It is only with hindsight I suggest that a parallel turmoil stimulated this great performance.

Junican August 14, 2014 at 2:12 am

I was on a cruise many years ago on the Canberra. One one the entertainers was a young woman who looked a lot like Karen Carpenter and sang her songs (a ‘tribute act’?). She was very, very good. Later, in the bar, I was at the at the bar, and she came alongside. I said to her, “I saw your act tonight. I really enjoyed it”, to which she replied, “Thanks”. I then said, “I must be really enjoyable to work on a cruise. You seemed to be enjoying every minute” She shrugged and pulled her face a bit. “It’s just a job,” she replied.
I was both astonished and saddened by her words. The impression that she was projecting on stage was false. Her apparent heart-felt rendition of the beautiful songs was a sham. It was just a job. How then did she regard the applause and cheering? It must be meaningless – just part of the job. The people cheering and applauding meant nothing to her. The adulation meant nothing to her.
If that is so, what words of admiration, praise, gratitude, caring, loving, from ANYONE have any meaning for her?
One may say that her private life would have been different, but why should it be? Is it not true that showbiz people seem to pass through marriages/relationships with unusual ease? Is it surprising that they are often in turmoil in the minds? Whom can they trust? Not everyone is so afflicted, obviously, but it is uncanny how many suicides, accidental suicides, drug overdoses, accidents, happen to people in the spotlight.
There is a missing piece in this jigsaw. Did he leave a message? I read somewhere that most suicides do. Perhaps he did, but his wife hid it or destroyed it. Two of my former colleagues at work committed suicide. In case one, the guy was under immense pressure at work and at the same time his wife left him. He hanged himself. Why did he not just say to himself, “Fuck it!” and leave the job and start again? He was an intelligent and capable man. In case two, the organisation had re-organised, and he was one of many who were made redundant. His wife had also recently left him. He also hanged himself. He too was an intelligent and capable man.
It strikes me that we humans have too much of a capacity to fail to see that there are times when the only answer to problems is to walk away from them. Both of the people I have referred to above had parents who were alive. Both of them could have walked away from their problems and gone back home.
My wife suffers from multiple sclerosis, and sometimes looking after her can be a bugger and very inconvenient. But, one day, I ‘saw the light’. I asked myself, “Is it hard? Does it take a long time? Does it hurt?” In all cases, the answer was, “No!” From then on, I had no further ‘mental’ problems with dealing with the situation.
It is easy to see how Robin Williams could see no way out, but there always is.

GD August 14, 2014 at 2:34 pm: Don’t be so sure that there is “always a way out” Junican. Life is not that kind. But people are very efficient, we always find and take the best course for ourselves, in terms of our own lives, not other people’s impressions of them.

I have a living parent, I can assure you that I would be significantly better off dead than “gone back home” (which I have been fully aware has been the case since I was 13). How do you know this was not also the case for one, or both, of the two men you mention? You don’t know, but they did know, just as they knew the details of every other option you might suppose they had.

*YOU* have always had a way out…and never found yourself in a position that is worse than dying. Be thankful for that.

Reply

corevalue August 14, 2014 at 12:59 pm

From Paul Elam’s take on it over at http://www.avoiceformen.com/avfm-editorial/did-the-family-courts-kill-robin-williams-or-was-it-just-us/

“What we do know is on the public record. Robin Williams was a talented and wildly successful artist who accumulated a fortune over the span of his career. After being drained of tens of millions in two divorces and getting married a third time, he was faced with selling off his most valuable property and the prospect, at 63, of trying to make a comeback in standup, just to make ends meet.

All this so his children and ex-wives could live on the high end. As Williams himself put it:

“I have two [other] choices: go on the road doing stand-up, or do small, independent movies working almost for scale [minimum union pay]. The movies are good, but a lot of times they don’t even have distribution.”

“There are bills to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way. I’m selling the ranch up in Napa [, Calif.,]. I just can’t afford it anymore.”

When asked whether his two divorces took all of his money, he answered with blunt comedy:

“Well, not all. Lost enough. Divorce is expensive. I used to joke they were going to call it ‘all the money,’ but they changed it to ‘alimony.’ It’s ripping your heart out through your wallet.”

“Are things good with my exes? Yes. But do I need that lifestyle? No.”
”

It has been reported Williams was on the edge of bankruptcy. Was this because of his two divorces, and non-reducing alimony (the Bradley Amendment) ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Amendment

Pericles August 14, 2014 at 9:50 pm

I’m disappointed to sense the vitriol in so many of the comments of guests of this fine hostelry.

Williams suffered from depression. When some-one dies ‘of cancer’, what usually happens is that he dies of some complication, mainly cardiac or pulmonary, sometimes visceral, arising from the cancer.

Depression can be and often is a fatal illness in a similar way, except that the immediate cause of death is often suicide: yet we don’t say, “He died of depression.” No, we say, “He committed suicide,” with the concomitant allusion to criminality.

Please: a little consideration for the mentally sick.

ΠΞ

Ho Hum August 15, 2014 at 12:29 am: Amen, and Amen

Reply