Richard Brautigan

Well, I'd like to get Corey Mesler over here to talk about one of my favorite authors, Richard Brautigan. Corey has written a novel with Brautigan as a main character. Brautigan's life and work are quirky and sad. I discovered him when I was an undergrad at East Carolina University. I was majoring in art and English. A friend of mine from Jacksonville who came over to ECU as an art major as well, good old Steve Holley, gave me a copy of _Revenge of the Lawn_. It had a curious picture on the front, of a dark haired woman sitting at a table with a big chocolate cake. At that time, I was starting to make a slow turn from art to writing, and Brautigan showed me quite a few things. Eventually, I collected nearly everything he ever wrote. His hauntingly beautiful _So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away_ is a story I think about nearly every day. The ending is just so poignant, so perfect, so beautiful, and so sad.

I always thought Brautigan's lonely death was sad and instructive. At one time the man was lauded, celebrated for his eccentric talent, his skewed look at American life. But he dies in a cabin, alone, forgotten to the extent that no one found him for some time. A life lesson there, methinks. With the usual melancholic tag line...

I have vowed to try and contribute here but whenever I attempt to add my voice to one of these online thingys I end up sounding like Philboyd Studge.
At any rate: Brautigan is the lonely ghost of my introduction to literature. His quirky, readable, funny little novels and poems led me in the back door of reading. For a long time I wanted my life to be like his life. Then I met someone who actually knew him and described him as angry and scary. His death may be instructive. The instruction may be this: try to stay alive.

Briefly, I won 3rd place in a 60s erotica short story contest and my story can be found here:

http://www.desdmona.com/contestwinners.php

It is a brief visit back to the folks in my novel We are Billion-Year-Old Carbon and Mr. Brautigan makes a brief appearance.

Corey

Interesting. I remember Brautigan's prose-poems as being quite peaceful and charming - not at all what I would expect an angry, scary man to write. But it has occurred to me more than once that writers sometimes write as a way to explore what is missing in their lives, to try out the most unfamiliar, untested parts of themselves and thereby integrate those aspects of their personalities more fully into their lives, or at least coax them out of hiding. Perhaps Brautigan would have been even angrier and scarier if he had not written such even-tempered prose.

#5: How insightful. I think perhaps the anger came from his mental illness. I know he was hospitalized when a teenager and even had shock treatments. That is when he ran away and lived on the streets. If he was bi-polar, that would account for the anger. His work is peaceful and sweet, even nostalgic. He writes about being a child and having quirky relationships with elderly or down and out people. Even his work about sex is quite sweet. I have always thought he must have written as a way to give order to his world. I think he did write about things that were missing in his life, real connection and real love. It seems he was always reaching out, but was so far away from the world.

Richard Brautigan is on my author life list. My former husband and I spotted him in City Lights Bookstore years ago and gawked. I can't remember if we were brave/brazen enough to approach him. The impression left is of a very tall, thin man in flannel.

How wonderful to have an author life list! I have one, too, now that I think of it.

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What is an author life list? Like a birdwatching list? Authors you've seen in person? Should I start one?

ETA - P.S. I think it's rather cool that you did see Richard Brautigan!

Ditto what SqueakyChu asked: what is an author life list? Should I start one, too?

I just made it up; should we be purists or may we include celebrities who've "written" a book?

I just made it up

LOL! I think I want a life list. Mine will include all authors I've heard speak publicly. Of course. I might not remember what they said, but I can always go back to the Library of Congress webcasts.

By the way, don't forget that the Library of Congress is hosting a free book festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC, next Saturday. That should be good for a life list (if anyone lives near-by and can attend).

I'm getting way off topic (should I start a life list topic?), but your mention of DC makes me think of Michael Dirda's wonderful weekly online book discussion at the Washington Post. Do you know it, SqueakyChu?

I haven't participated in it, but I think I'll look for it.

I saw Michael Dirda in person last year at the National Book Festival. He introduced one of the authors (I forgot which one).

Today I read in the Washington Post Book World that they are going to start podcasts on washingtonpost.com/books.

I haven't participated in it, but I think I'll look for it.

I saw Michael Dirda in person last year at the National Book Festival. He introduced one of the authors (I forgot which one).

Today I read in the Washington Post Book World that they are going to start podcasts on washingtonpost.com/books.