Comments on: richard brautigan | in memoriam

By: Corey Mesler

Corey Mesler — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:43:16 +0000

Hi
I thought you might be interested in this video my friend Rebecca Tickle did to accompany my reading the opening chapters to my forthcoming novel, Following Richard Brautigan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty-5qH1FHj0

best,
Corey Mesler

By: Curtis Faville

Curtis Faville — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:43:42 +0000

Brautigan was an early post-Modernist who understood the relationship between the authorial identity and the projected image of character which occurs in media. He played that to the hilt–which is why a lot of his works function in the same way that some good advertising does. I think he had this in common with Lew Welch–who was himself a former ad-writer from Chicago. And they both committed suicide, in effect. How’s that for irony?

As a “real person” Brautigan wasn’t that unusual. He liked to fly fish in Montana, which obsession I share with him.

I never understood what the meaning of his book photos were: Were these women he was living with, or screwing, or were they just casual people or models put into peculiar situations. Ultimately, they’re meaningless, fake counterculture visions intended to create curiosity and camp mood.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:27:11 +0000

Great job, Norb …

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:57:01 +0000

From New Zealand. I’ve been collecting or acquiring his books – mostly in paper back however – since read Trout Fishing in America… His writing is very moving and beautiful. Poetic always, and humorous but also serious.. “Sombrero Fallout” has a power of emotion that is very intense – something I had never quite experienced before, except once reading a poem by Victor Hugo…

By: Joseph Vermeren

Joseph Vermeren — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:24:25 +0000

The Hawkline Monster, ©1975
my Pocket Book bears the pockmarks of age
after traveling from married to single, young to old,
California to Washington, Edinburgh to Bradenton,
where I find the “marauding magician of merriment”
on my bookshelf today. Thanks for reminding me.

By: Hatto Fischer

Hatto Fischer — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:09:12 +0000

I never heard before of him. When seeing the photos, what strikes me first of all is his resemblance with Peter Handke. Then, I might quote what Greek poetess Katerina Anghelaki Rooke asked the other day (she had written it down in her own diary): “what is the difference between fiction and life? Answer: fiction has to make sense, life does not!” I am not suggesting this might be an answer to those artists who see no way out of self destruction. A deeper dimension would be the utility of such pain that one ceases to write and then cannot bear living any longer. That was as said before the fate of Pavese. But a real question resists ready made answers, so thanks Norb for including Brautigan in Basho’s road. I agree he belongs to this column.

By: kevinmcevoy

kevinmcevoy — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:17:10 +0000

..been a rb enthusiast since rommel arrived – still remember the day i found it in the bookstore, and thankful that i did…finding this site brought a smile to my face

By: Bill Jacobs

Bill Jacobs — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:15:00 +0000

He was always my hero except the suicide part.

By: Jujitsu Wiker

Jujitsu Wiker — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:41:13 +0000

Ahhhh Brautigan. Unforgotten, never lost. You inspired a stroll to my book shelf where his collection still sleeps…

Milk for the Duck

ZAP!
unlaid/20 days

my sexual image
isn’t worth a shit

If I were dead
I couldn’t attract
a female fly.

From -The Pill Verses the Springhill Mine Disaster

By: Julie Eger

Julie Eger — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:14:27 +0000

Thanks Norb,

This is just what I needed on a snowy day when all my appointments cancelled! I’ve got myself a glass of wine and we’ll see where this goes.