ABSTRACT
Just before dawn on the morning of April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for the Seattle band Nirvana, injected a massive dose of heroin into his arm, put the barrel of a .12-gauge shotgun into his mouth, and fired. His lifeless body was found three days later, along with a carefully written letter addressed to Boddah, his imaginary friend from childhood. The letter expresses a variety of painful, negative emotions — sadness, guilt, anger, self-loathing, and a wistful desire to regain the “enthusiasm I once had as a child.” He repeatedly comes back to the word “empathy” and his acute sensitivity to the feelings of other people, something that fills him with both love and misanthropic hatred. The note closes with the words, “Thank you all from the pit of my burning nauseous stomach for your letters and concern during the past years. I’m too much of an erratic, moody baby! I don’t have the passion anymore and so remember it’s better to burn out than to fade away.”
