Aug
11th
2014
So Robin Williams just killed himself · 11:25pm Aug 11th, 2014
I should probably have something more eloquent to say than that, beyond the obvious fact that of course thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family who actually knew him. I don't though. Except that seeing another creative person who I respect drive himself into an early grave is worrying to me. What is it about creative people that seems to lead to such self-destructive consequences? And, more selfishly, what does it mean for my own future when I consider myself a fairly creative individual? Just lots of shudders all around.
So yeah, not a lot of substance in this particular post. Just reaction.
Jesus.
I shall be watching Aladdin and other movies later.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Sometimes those who laugh hardest and smile brightest are the ones in the most desperate need of help.
Aladdin is how I remember him.
Discord got sad news today. The brother that gave him a glass of water has passed away.
Creative people who make it big often have underlying issues; addiction and depression/bipolar (now called manic depression, I think) being the most common I've heard. Mr. Williams often spoke about his struggles with substance abuse and depression so I can't say I'm as shocked as I should be. Unequivocally sad, but not entirely surprised.
Stephen Fry has a bitter sweet documentary on manic depression (part 1 and part 2). He touches on other issues facing "creative" types in Hollywood and in general.
In our mourning perhaps we can learn to better recognize and reach out to those in need.
Robin William was literally one of the few celebrities I could name without thinking. He was up there with Mr. Rogers for me when it came to associating names with good things. He will be mourned.
I remember him from Aladdin. I can't really describe how I feel right now.
Stay uncreative, Eakin.
Love you always.
The thing you have to remember is to look to yourself. See that creative energy and remember, that if you need help...everyone is here for you.
Let us honor his memory by not repeating his mistake.
2362343 The problem isn't necessarily that those issues are common amongst creative types, so much as it is that creative people often have issues such as depression or other mental disorders. Usually these issues are poorly handled, and the individual turns to mind altering substances, hence the association with brilliant artists with addiction.
... Usually. In some cases, the mind altering substances cause the creativity in the first place. But we're not getting into drug abuse.
The thing to remember is that most truly brilliant men and women don't think in the same ... frequencey, shall we put it? that the average people do. If you look back throughout history, hundreds of the most innovative, creative minds have had severe mental issues. Albert Einstein, Edgar Allen Poe, Socrates, any dozen musicians you care to name, Leonardo Da Vinci, etc. They all had mental problems and emotional issues.
People say there's a fine line between genius and insanity, but that's wrong. True genius is only found while scudding gently around the deep end on the far side of the rapids of mental instability. Or one really intense acid trip.
Normally it's difficult for me to comment on this kind of stuff, but hearing this in particular just hits me so hard, considering he was such a huge part of my childhood. Aladdin, Jumanji, Flubber, Robots...those were some of my favorite movies as a kid, mostly thanks to him. He was an awesome actor/comedian and an overall really cool, funny guy.
I wonder if they ever finished filming his parts in the third Night at the Museum film? I may not watch movies much nowadays (and that series is kinda just 'meh' overall) but I'd really like to see him in action just one more time.
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Dammit. Just, dammit.
... I... I have nothing else to say. It feels like something broke inside of me now. Robin Williams was a part of my childhood, and now he's gone!
Just like Casey Casem, Justin Carmical and quite a few others. I feel like I'm losing myself as time goes on. It's easy to think that these guys will live forever, and then news like this happen and you realize just how mortal these people are...
I...I can't believe he's gone.
He was literally one of the few celebrities I knew by name, one of the few I could see inside the characters he played and still see the characters...
It's...it's going to take a while for me to wrap myself around this...
2362453
I always thought of it as "There's a fine line between genius and insanity: survival is knowing which side of the line you're on."
Ouch. There goes part of my childhood. Lotta good memories about his movies.
Yeah I was a an MTG draft when someone announced that. The rooms' general reaction mirrored yours.
Just found out it was by suicide. I thought it was heart attack or something, but no... I just can't believe it.
He is last person on earth I would ever even imagine doing that. I can't help but wonder now what he was thinking. He was one of my favorite actors and made me laugh more then any other. I am going to forever miss him.
As for food for thought, just remember, that your life effects everyone around you, not just you. And no matter how far away in your mind that bit of darkness is, it will always be there to try and bring us down. Because we tend to listen to what are minds say the most, the bit of the darkness tends to ring louder for us. You can either do one of two things, ignore it or face it. Either will be hard. I can't say that for every person it is even possible, but if we just give up on life, then we give up on sharing all that we have with the rest of the world. We have something that makes everyone else's day worth living. We as creators, help to drive others to their potential and help to keep their day a bit more interesting. It is why creative people like us are so important. Without us, this world would be a dark and boring place. So I plan to stick around and make everyone's day a little better, one story at a time.
My mind went to kind of a dark place when I heard this. Oh, Watchmen.
I ran into Robin Williams at a Ren Faire once, when I was a teenager, like, 20 years ago. We exchanged words — well, I fanboyed at him in vaguely Rennaissance-ish speak, and he responded in kind with a smile. Even as a culturally stunted teenager I knew who he was; and I was simply one of the hundreds of millions of strangers he'd entertained, interrupting his personal life for a moment, yet he put on his game face and I walked away with a fond memory (turned slightly awkward with the perspective of experience). He put on his game face, because he had to, because when everyone knows you that's just how life goes.
Celebrity, man. Celebrity is brutal. I have no idea how anyone survives it, let alone anyone smart and creative enough to comprehend its full scope. If we're worried about walking in his footsteps, let's not forget the immense pressures that his celebrity added to the normal stress of being human.
To whatever extent it will aid him now, good thoughts go with him. Rest in peace.
The site I got the news from generally reports on politics. Those whose post comments there will use any excuse for insulting each other, bashing based in perceived party affiliation, sexuality, skin tone, religion -- anything. Any excuse will serve to hurt.
Their Commentary section is filled with all those angry sworn eternal enemies -- remembering his work.
And the first time anyone new arrived and tried to troll, they attacked as a group.
Oh, he's that guy.
Oh, shit.
OH FUCKING HELL.
He was a very good actor from silly things like Mork and Mindy to comedy like Mrs. Doubtfire and Good Morning Vietnam, to dark stuff like One Hour Photo.
2362751
I have to admit to not being terribly surprised that he committed suicide, and I have seen that joke repeated many times today. Too Soon, of course, is having a field day, and I'm presently trying to draw a tribute to him that John Cleese would appreciate; we'll see if my meager art skills are up to snuff.
Spoiler alert: probably not.
My process... ^
You can probably figure out at what point I learned the "how" of it...
It's known he suffered from depression, but I wonder sometimes what drives people to such states. Is it more genetic predisposition or is it more life experience? Both have to factor, but how much of each. What makes it worse... What drives one to say "I'm done"? I don't know, but I suspect some people just can't take the pressure of always being in the public eye. Always having to put up a face for everyone. You may never show it, and you may last years, decades... But maybe it hits a limit for some. They say the average human mind can handle around 150 relationships at any given time, give or take a few. Maybe celebrity is an overload on that. Maybe it's an overload of one's self awareness. How do you see yourself when ten million adoring fans won't shut up telling you how they see you. Maybe it's something entirely different...
Who knows?
Can't ask anymore...
INB4 >50% of the movie votes on Bronystate this week end up being for "What Dreams May Come".
I really don't know what to say.
I mean, there's any number of things I could say, and say respectably, in light of Mr Williams death.
But to say what I truly feel, is simple somber silence. Anything else out of my mouth would just be me listening to myself talk.
If it meant that you could be as influential and positively touch as many lives, would meeting the same end be worth it?
Suicide is actually pretty common in general; twice as many people shoot themselves as are murdered. We just don't care unless they're famous, and there is something of a taboo about suicide; people sometimes cover it up or don't really like to advertise that someone offed themselves. As you can see, while suicide is relatively rare, it is common enough to make the top ten list for COD. At 2.5 million deaths per year and about 40,000 suicides, 1 in 63 people eventually end up killing themselves.
If you aren't depressed, you probably don't need to worry about it so much. Robin Williams struggled with depression and alcoholism; I'm not terribly surprised it ended this way.
It broke my heart when I heard the news.
Incidentally, I still don't believe it happened. In a few days it's going to sink in. And I'm going to break down. But for now, it just doesn't seem real.
He was always that guy.
He will be missed.
He was a cool dude...
As for your question, I've long suspected that the most creative people are often the most... unstable. In one way or another. Doesn't mean you and me are emo's or something, just means that the creative ones are generally susceptable to the highs and the lows of life. Both ends of the spectrum rather than just some average patch in the middle. We're often very philosophical as well, we see the world a bit differently. It's much easier for us to come to the conclusion that life... just fucking sucks. And at the same time, we're more capable to marvel at its beauty and glorious complexity.
Don't you agree?
Well this is my own opinion, but What if he didnt commit suicide? now im probably going to get a bunch of crap about this, but what if someone had a hit on him, or killed him and made it look like a Suicide? I know the report said he was going through a stage of depression, but I'm a person that looks at things from multiple angles, even if they do seem extremely improbable.
May he sleep well, beyond the pain and tears of this life.
And let us say: never again.
Well here it is FimFiction my contreversial opinion so go crazy wth the thumbs down:
NOPE I DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR THE GUY!!!
I liked him in Jumanji and Flubber but I have no symphaty for those that take their own life regardless of what might have drove him to such decision. I look down on anyone who commits suicide and will get no symphaty from me.
Oh what the fuck
I just get into Fimfiction to see if there's something new, and I get slapped wth this!? D:
Well...goodbye, I suppose, Robin. You will be missed.
2362754
Well, now I'm curious as to what that site is. I have a few possible ideas, but none of them seem to fit. I don't suppose you'd be willing to provide a hint?
I'm pro-choice.
Just maybe don't make the decision based on that 1%.
R.I.P. Robin Williams unless the Religious people are right in which case.
...
He's making Satan laugh now.
2362450
To those who downvoted this comment, I should explain.
Others may have already mentioned this, but when a famous person dies by suicide, s/he causes the death of other people as well. Copycat suicides occur among those who loved the famous person, or those who were close to the edge anyway and took the death of someone notable as 'permission' to proceed.
This is a magnified example of the pain that people often cause to others by choosing suicide.
However you choose to remember Robin Williams, please don't follow him into death. Keep part of him alive by keeping yourself alive, and laugh at the things that he made funny.
That's all.
It hasen't been proven yet that he killed himself
As far as the question of creatives, part of it is that entertainers are higher profile. Plumbers and accountants commit suicide too, but you're not going to hear about it because no one's heard of them.
2363704
I assure you you're not getting downvotes for having that opinion, but for how and when you decided to share that opinion.
2363001
2362343
Apparently, this kind of thing is even more common amongst comedians. Cracked has a short article about it which has just been published now
2364109
People unfortunately both exaggerate the commonality of clinical depression and also love to paint creative types as suffering from madness, because, so their thinking goes, genius and creativity are linked to madness.
This is, of course, a lie; they've done studies, and while mania IS more common amongst high-IQ people, pretty much every other mental illness is more common amongst low-IQ people. This is hardly surprising if you think about it; people with defective brains being stupid is pretty much what you'd expect. People who undergo bouts of mania obviously have highs and lows, though sometimes I wonder if their "lows" are really as low as they think that they are, or if it has to do with comparing it to their bouts of mania.
And of course people with mental illnesses love to paint lots of people as having their mental illnesses; this is not surprising, as members of every minority group overestimates how many people belong to their group. I even had one not particularly bright advocate for the mentally retarded try to tell me that Einstein was mentally retarded. They actually believed this.
Worst of all, show them evidence that they're wrong, and they'll ignore it. I mean, just look at that Cracked article claiming that all comedians are depressed, and then linking to an article which points out that no, they're not. And he used it as support!
2364152
I am embarrassed for not looking more in depth into the article and simultaneously happy to be proven wrong and for having learned something.
Thanks!
2364166
One of the problems with trying to determine which groups have more mental illness in them, incidentally, is that very frequently said studies are done with extremely poor methodology.
For instance, if you just survey a random group of people, you'll find that people with high incomes will self-report more mental illnesses with people with middle-to-low incomes.
The problem is that, as it turns out, not only are people with higher income more self-aware (and thus more likely to recognize that they have a problem), but they also are more likely to have access to mental health care in the first place.
Thus you'll find a lot of very poorly conducted studies which draw erroneous conclusions; people with high IQ (which correlates with high income, incidentally) are more likely to go in and get themselves diagnosed with a mental illness if they have a problem and seek treatment.
The trouble is, this has nothing to do with how frequently people do suffer from mental illness.
To deal with this, a much more responsible group of psychologists did a longitudinal, long-term study on a group of people in New Zealand. They gave them IQ tests, monitored their SES and other aspects about them, and monitored their mental health. They had expected, as with previous studies, to find that people with high IQ were more likely to be schitzophrenic.
As it turned out, though, they found that almost every mental illness (including schitzophrenia) correlated with low IQ; people with lower IQ were more likely to suffer from mental health issues of almost all sorts. The lone exception was mania, which did, indeed, as in other studies, correlate with having high IQ (though it was not quite as strong a correlation as other studies had indicated, the prevalence rate was still more than double that of the average - indeed, north of 10% of high IQ people in the study suffered from it).
The problem is that in the wild (so to speak), people with low IQ tend to be poor, much less likely to recognize they have a problem, much less likely to seek help for their problems, and much less likely to be able to afford to get help for their problems. And unfortunately, mental health care is often not very well provided-for under socialized medicine, which many of these folks are heavily dependent on. Additionally, treatment is often heavily dependent on the person in question being willing to show up and receive the treatment, which they may not be very likely to do if they aren't being supported by friends and family - and, shock and surprise, guess who tends to have the least supportive friends and family on average?
That's not to say that all people with mental health issues are stupid; I know tons of smart people with mental health issues, and the overall difference in rate for the most common illnesses is not that large. My best friend suffers from depression and is quite bright. But the idea that smart people are likely to be mentally ill is false; only a minority of them are, and indeed, they appear to be somewhat less prone to mental illness than the population at large.
2363704
It's easy to think that when you're looking at it from a rational perspective. I've been to the funeral and had to look the person's kids in the eye and offer my condolences. I've seen first hand how devastating can be, and no kid should ever have to suffer through that. A part of me wonders how anyone could be that selfish to make their kids suffer in such a painful way.
Yet I know this person wasn't thinking rationally, and had lost their way. It wasn't that they wanted their kids to suffer like that, just that they felt it was the only escape from a very dark place. Much like the person I knew, Robin clearly struggled with his personal demons. These people need sympathy and help (before it's too late, obviously), rather than scorn and accusations of selfishness.
The real tragedy is that too many people are placed into situations where they feel their only option is to take their own life. Robin is sadly yet another name to add to the list, albeit a funnier name than most.
Creativity is the bane of the living! Praise schools for trying to bring us down to the expected, average wage slave.
On a serious note: The more imagination you have, the easier it is to see how this world is messed up, which leads to funny/bad results. Sooooo don't think about it and pony up your world folks, it may save your life.
2362303
You just made me think of Party of One.
Unfortunately, I didn't know Robin Williams, the person, well enough to tell how well this fits.
What I can say is that, regardless of that, he will be missed; whenever I think of him, the only things that come to mind are exceptional performances, often in movies and animations I loved. I don't see how someone capable of brightening the day for so many other people can be anything shy of great.