Theresa Duncan, known for creating computer games for girls – Chop Suey, Smarty and Zero Zero, committed suicide on July 10th. She had a blog called The Wit of the Stairs, which was a scrapbook of her personal and professional life. A week later, on July 17th, her boyfriend Jeremy Blake, was seen walking naked into the ocean In New York, leaving behind his clothes and a note that mentioned the loss of Theresa as his motive for suicide. Jeremy had his artwork appear in numerous high end museums around the country and had recently signed on with Rockstar Games.
No one knows exactly why they committed these acts, but rumors circulate that they had recently experienced bouts of paranoia. I will not go into much detail on these rumors here, but for more of the story you can visit the LA Times website. Everyone please keep their families in your thoughts as they go through the trying times ahead.
21 Comments to Theresa Duncan – Creator of Games for Girls – Commits Suicide
by: Joelteon7
On July 28, 2007 at 4:41 pm
That’s a terrible thing to hear about. The unfortuneate thing is…I had never heard of her.
by: used cisco
On July 28, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Wow, that really sucks. I hope their families are Ok.
by: Gixermouse
On July 28, 2007 at 6:21 pm
What a terrible waste of to highly talented and successful people.
Very sad and horrible for the families they’ve left behind.
by: GROAR
On July 28, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Theresa Lee Duncan,she was the best kind of personality to be around, she was the best type of writer-because her motive was enlightenment and joy.Many artists writers,others too can get this feeling,that further existence is futile-you’ve seen everything,experienced each sensation,you get tired of the same pattern especially if there is a condition of pain or deep despair. Theresa wouldn’t have foreshadowed her decision,she wrote stories,but she did not manufacture drama in her everyday life.She was really cool-this is a great picture of her.I thank you for putting it up.
by: ThatGuy
On July 28, 2007 at 7:01 pm
To have only one person in the world and for them to die. That would be it.
by: ThatGuy
On July 28, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Talent, What’s talent when there is no one that will see it as you and love you for it? Anyone can live, anyone can die, there are far too few happy endings that are truly happy, You would think rich is happy, or well known, or even rockstar fame is happiness, ROTL while stabbing myself. No real surprise. Anything that could bring you closer to what you want can also drag you infinitely farther away from it!
by: William
On July 28, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Definitely a sad event. With these kinds of things, the real story never gets out though.
by: Rodney Allan
On July 28, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Sorry you couldn’t stand it anymore Theresa. G-d only knows what you were going
through. Like Brad Delp (Boston) or Paul Sanford / California lawyer, 2007 has turned the whole suicide “thang’ up a notch. Maybe like Solomon, you knew too much. With knowledge comes despair. – I don’t know, but I like to think I understand. – It’s over for you, maybe that’s what you really wanted. – Hope to see you on the other side, I do admire your gifts.
My Very Best.
Rodney
by: noname
On July 28, 2007 at 9:41 pm
by: William
On July 28, 2007 at 9:44 pm
I noticed other sites picked this story up and some people are leaving some really negative comments. What happened to empathy in this world?
by: somewhat
On July 28, 2007 at 11:53 pm
a great loss
a great loss
@ Will
empathy and many other human feelings are sadly left at the door of internet anonymity by people with major problems of their own…
by: dhhhhggg
On July 29, 2007 at 12:32 am
Why kill yourself during summer vecation, it really is a strange time to commit suicide considering you have allot of time to relax and work out issues in your life.
by: William
On July 29, 2007 at 12:37 am
dhhhhggg, summer can be a lonely time in some places. I live in a college town (Virginia Tech), so it’s like a ghost town basically in summer. I’m not really sure what happened with her, but I know summer can be a lonely place. Both of my roommates left here after the shootings.. I guess they wanted to get away from it all permanently, so it’s definitely been a sad summer for me here.
The only thing we can really do to try and prevent suicide is try to have more empathy in life and to pay attention to the people around you. I think we often spend too much time worrying about ourselves and completely miss all the signals of suicide from someone that is right in front of us.
by: d sutherland
On July 29, 2007 at 4:17 am
selfishness^2
not that I feel bad for them… but what about the world they could have reached?
suicide at it’s core is self-worship gone to it’s ultimate end.
by: William
On July 29, 2007 at 4:37 am
that’s definitely the opinion of some. I find it hard to believe that suicide is a form of self-worship though. It’s often seen as a selfish act by those left behind which I truly understand, but you really have to be in their shoes to know what really happened and that’s not possible.
by: Ben
On July 29, 2007 at 5:02 am
Selfish people everyone has problems in life, they should of worked through it, I feel sorry for the families, not those selfish people
by: Jorg40
On July 29, 2007 at 5:13 am
I dont like suiciders, shows that they were weak persons, and not strong enough to deal with lifes problems.
I have never heard her before this, but anyway… ending your life like this is tragic, not tragic because its sad but rather tragic because its idiotic..
by: Spir
On July 29, 2007 at 11:48 am
Clearly, some type of conspiracy is afoot.
by: Manna
On July 30, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Emile Durkheim argued that it is the anomie of modern society which produces the despair responsible for suicide.
by: skeppy
On July 31, 2007 at 12:26 am
Dear mourners (and we all are as such),
Theresa’s death has inspired many conflicting emotions. I’m one of the people to experience a wide spectrum, ranging from remorse to relief to vindictiveness back to a deep empty sadness. At my core, I truly feel sorry for Theresa and Jeremy and their families. To be so hopeless that you take your own life is an overwhelming thing to contemplate. I wish they had sought help to ease their pain and avoided death.
But don’t be so quick to judge the people that that post less-than-favorable comments. Even those who hated Theresa feel adrift as a result of her death. (Remember that hate is very close to love in its passion.) We all need to be able to express what we feel. And we are all anonymous in the Internet.
I for one will admit I never liked her. We were like oil and water. Her narcissism and elitism made her unbearable to me. Yet I still respected her and thought she was a smart and beautiful artist that contributed to the world.
I’ve read so many comments that escalate her to heroic proportions… but face it, she was human. And flawed like we all are. One person on another blog belittled the negative sayers, mentioning that they only behaved in a small way because they were in awe of her brilliance. But don’t you think Theresa could have acted small and petty because of similar feelings? Couldn’t she have lashed out unreasonably because of jealousy or feelings of inadequacy? I can certainly say she did in the years I knew her. While she played the role of a warrior she in fact was vulnerable and very insecure.
If you have any knowledge of PR you know that everything written in he papers isn’t true; you can’t believe the myth Theresa created about how wonderful everything was. (Or perhaps it was everything she expected, and it ended up not being as satisfying as hoped. Who knows.) Whatever Jeremy and Theresa’s lives were, they weren’t enough to merit them committing to live them. Is it a selfish act? I leave that for the gods to decide.
To do Theresa justice we need to see her as a fully realized individual: somebody driven by ambition and despair as well as brilliance and joy. Don’t make her stay on earth be some simplistic romantic ideal. Make it a complex and intriguing portrait, one that I will look at with horror and fascination for the rest of my days. And perhaps as time goes on I’ll be blessed with a waft of perfume from her limitless imagination.
by: Jessie
On July 31, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Very sad news. I didn’t know either personally, but they seemed two very interesting, creative souls. It is a shame that they chose to silence themselves.
I do think that it is closed-minded to pass judgment on others who chose to take their own lives. We don’t know the full circumstances of the pain that they felt, and it is easy to sit and judge and speculate about something that we will never fully comprehend. I generally don’t think that people who kill themseves mean or want to cause pain to others; they just seem to feel that they have no other option. But hey, what do I know?
At any rate, it is very sad and I am very sorry for their family and friends.