I'm very sorry to hear it, although I read him more for the SF (so
much of which he disdained) than the poetry.
I met him once years ago; a very charming person. And certainly a mind
too sharp for most of the culture in which he lived.
His last book, about finding himself a god sounds like it will be very
interesting, indeed.
Doug
On 6-Jul-08, at 7:09 PM, Frederick Pollack wrote:
> With great sadness I announce the death of Thomas Disch. I only met
> him in person twice, fifteen years ago and early this year. But he
> was a huge influence on me and I am proud to say he was my friend.
> As a poet, he was the Alexander Pope of our era, satirizing the
> follies of society and the pretenses and blindnesses of culture with
> savage perceptiveness. There should be other poets like him, but he
> was one of a kind. He wrote at least two of the finest novels in
> science fiction, Camp Concentration and 334. The novel he wrote
> with Charlie, Neighboring Lives, is a superb fictional portrait of
> the Victorian intelligentsia. His critical prose was incomparably
> vivid and precise. The absence of his talent, vital to the end,
> hurts our literature. His death hurts me. - Fred Pollack
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
Latest books:
Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
It's the first lesson, loss.
Who hasn't tried to learn it
at the hands of wind or thieves?
Jan Zwicky
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