Talk:Aaron Lynch (writer)

POV and other issues
I've updated the reference list. I think this is now all Lynch's published work. Also, I think there is a bit of an NPOV problem - this article strongly advocates Lynch eg. "cogent" - if he was so cogent, then why did so many other memeticists have reservations??

Also, I think it is important to get some references to his Internet postings. As far as I can see, a rather incoherent http://cfpm.org/~majordom/memetics/2000/16782.html was his last post on 17th March 2004. It looks like his mind was already beginning to go by then. But Curt Hicks says his postings ceased around Oct 2005 - so where are these later postings? But well done to all who are digging stuff up. This will be a good article once polished by his devotees... Memeticos 11:36, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Clarification: The phrase "as dated correspondence on various websites also ceased around that time," suggests a more precise endpoint than I intended. In its place, the phrase, "as no dated correspondence from him appeared on websites after that time," would have better conveyed my intended meaning. In the months following his last phone contact circa 10/2005, my web checks looked only for postings dated after his last call. -Curt Hicks

Date of birth and death
The year of birth was originally submitted as 1957. Later, an anon added a date of birth and date of death. I can't find sources for any of the above so I removed them. If anyone can find a ref for them, please add. —Wknight94 (talk) 13:25, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Is Lynch alive or dead? It is repeatedly posted that he died in November 2005, but I can find no evidence of this by Google searches. Anybody got an obituary ref or anything?

Curt Hicks - you were his friend at Fermilab, and you seem to be the current "curator" of this article. Do you know anything about what happened to him?

_________________________

Aaron & I were friends since our undergrad days in the mid-1970s. We kept in regular touch regarding his work--at least monthly-- for thirty years. The last I heard from him was a phonecall which I believe occurred in October, 2005.

Once his wealthy friend from Fermi discontinued support after a decade of helping, Aaron's commitment to independent scholarship quickly impoverished him financially. He had amassed considerable debt. He had recently been evicted from his Evanston apartment and was temporarily living in a borrowed place. He complained of intense chronic pain from gout which he lacked funds to treat. His call was a request for financial help which I could no longer offer, having already helped him repeatedly far beyond my means. When his phonecalls--which had come nearly weekly at that time--suddenly ceased, I could not contact him as he had not had a phone for some time and had not told me his temporary address.

My personal impression was that his mental health deteriorated significantly during 2005. He had uncharacteristically begun describing personal events which seemed commonplace to me, e.g., computer viruses attacking his harddrives, mice in his apartment building, discontinued phone service and eviction from an apartment for nonpayment, as attacks against him organized by an cabal opposed to his work. He refused to do any other sort of work to support himself, stating that a society which could not support important cultural work such as his did not deserve it. A couple of weeks before his last phonecall, he had dropped off at my home both paper and electonic copies of his latest work for safekeeping. In his last call, he quoted an email I had sent him regarding his historical legacy. He said my inability to offer him further resources was "unfortunate, most unfortunate" with a tone in his voice that I took as grim resignation. As weeks and then months went by without subsequent contact, and as his dated correspondence on various websites also ceased around that time, the trajectory of a sequence of so many predisposing factors and common behavioral antecedants to suicide led me, retrospectively, to suspect that Aaron may have killed himself. However, I have no documentary evidence of this possibility.

-Curt Hicks, 2/18/2007 67.184.120.208 22:29, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

I heard in July 2006 from Aaron sister, Monica Lynch, that Aaron died Nov 14, 2005. I got the impression it was a serious illness and not suicide. She had been out of contact with him for a number of years. She stated in her email that she had been notified by someone in the Cook County Public Administration office.

Near as I can tell, his death has not shown up on the SS death index.

Get in contact if you want. hkhenson(at)rogers(dot)com Keith Henson 22:13, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Easy to find out - you just go to http://www.cookctyclerk.com/sub/death_certificates.asp and fill in the form, send $13 dollars - but you have to be a bona fide relative or friend and a US resident (I am none of these) 130.209.6.40 13:52, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Jeez, what an interesting story, and such a sad ending. This is like George R. Price all over again. Someone should write a proper biog, or put the unpublished stuff up on the web somewhere Penpal3 09:04, 22 February 2007 (UTC) _________

Update: A colleague employed by Cook County secured a copy of the Cook County Coroner's Certificate of Death, filed 3/16/2006. According to the report, Aaron Lynch died at Glenbrook Hospital, Glenview, IL on November 14, 2005 at the age of 47 years from anoxic encephalopathy after taking an overdose of an opiate-based pain medication at home on November 7, 2005. The report described the death as an accident. His remains are buried in Homewood Gardens in Homewood, Illinois. -Curt Hicks curthicks(at)aol(dot)com

I fixed the birth and death dates back to what his sister had put in some time ago. Keith Henson 20:43, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

E-mail response
Curt, I received your e-mail re: Mr. Lynch. It looks like you've sourced your information well. Whatever details you can provide for the death certificate would only make it better. As far as images, you can go to Special:Upload and read the instructions there. —Wknight94 (talk) 11:34, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Detail
There is no detail in the article about Aaron's activities before about 1979. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.27.109.117 (talk) 10:17, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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