Aw, goddammit!!
Just about a day after I wrote about how few really substantial authors I know and how hard it is to find new ones, the very one I used as my prime example announces he is dying and has stopped writing.
Iain, if you reincarnate, I hope it'll be in something like the Culture. I may join you.
Thanks, man, I can't count the hours of joy you've given me.
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If you haven't read Iain Banks, you've missed out. Check my earlier mentions of him (scroll down for several posts).
Sorry, Eo. Sad... :-(
ReplyDeleteSure wish peeps wouldn't wait until they're DYING to "embrace" their loved ones, though; why not cease the opportunity...DAILY!! Anyway...at least he recognized and is taking time out to focus on what is *really* important in this life!
I think it's been okay. He said once that he writes one book a year. That just takes three months, in the fall, the rest of the year he has off! Good gig if you can get it.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks. Maybe he'll have himself frozen so that he can be reanimated in the future. Him and Ted Williams.
ReplyDeleteI think it's been okay. He said once that he writes one book a year. That just takes three months, in the fall, the rest of the year he has off! Good gig if you can get it.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good gig! Well...GLAD that he is focusing on what's important, these last few months...
Another one you admired. I'm sorry. :-(
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. David Pogue wrote about it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Ebert was brilliant. Understood movies better than anybody I know. And unusually didn't have any snobbery about them.
But for me personally, Banks was the greater loss, simply because I read about *everything* he put out. (There are maybe three of his books I never could get through, but given his output...)
Yeah, Ebert was brilliant. Understood movies better than anybody I know. And unusually didn't have any snobbery about them.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about brilliant but I agree that his lack of snobbery was refreshing. He tried to judge a movie on what it tried to be, who its audience was, etc., rather than on how it compared to Citizen Kane or 8 1/2. (Read his review of 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for an example.)
Btw, do you think Armond White is kind of the Bizarro Ebert? He hates almost everything, and what he likes is for very strange (even stupid) reasons.
both Siskel and Ebert are now gone. That really sucks.