Dylan wrote about ‘slitting his wrists’ in an extreme reaction to the odds that the girl he pined for didn’t return his love. It wasn’t in connection with whether he did NBK or not.
The actual quote here..
“ If by fate’s choice, [edited] didn’t love me, id slit my wrist & blow up Atlanta ( pipe bomb) strapped to my neck. It’s good, understanding. a hard road since my realization, but it gets easier. BUT IT DOESNT! That’s part of existence. Unpredictable.” – DBK
Now, do I think he would’ve done it that way? Well, I think Dylan spent 95% of his life fantasizing about various ways he could suicide leading up to NBK (when, he’d eventually, finally, had the nerve to kill himself alongside his friend Eric). His mental dabblings in suicidal ideations was a form of a coping mechanism – a sort of stress relief for him to imagine how he’d take care of matters if things got to be worse than he could fathom and far too much for him to bear (on top of everything else that he felt sucked in his measly life). He might’ve to slit his wrists, sure but tbh, I don’t think logically he’d see that as his first choice of means to go out. It’d be slower and painful then a gunshot to the head but of course, that’s why he added on the follow-up ‘chaser’ with a pipebomb going off with *BANG!* while attached to his being. Then again, no guarantees there either he’d assuredly die. I just think the scenario he concocted was dramatic in relative relation to the surge of anxiety level that engulfed him in ‘going there’ mentally with the possibility that if his True Love didn’t love him back – well, then what … ?
His description comes off sounding something akin to “I’m going to plunge the knife in my chest and throw myself off a cliff and be eaten by sharks” There is a certain amount of romantic flourish to his creatively, melodramatic suicidal fantasy inventions.
Once Dylan would dream up these ‘solutions’ mentally, he could rest easy in knowing that he wouldn’t have to live life any longer (if and when he chose to) should he find out he couldn’t ever have the one great thing he wished for. Because then there would be a pre-conceived ‘escape plan’ for himself when everything got to be too much for him to manage and deal with.