h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I know that he made it possible for me to think about writing as a series of possibilities.

I only found out about this today, through a brief mention on 6music when a DJ dedicated a song to him.

I think his stuff should have been taught in schools more, his tendency in some books to write in a series of short paragraphs was perfect for the short attention spans of today's kids.

What did I learn from him? Probably that you can make serious points whilst being silly. It's a trick I try to use regularly.

He meant 15 points on my Deathlist.

Never read any of his books. What they about?

B

I only read one - Breakfast Of Champions, and only because I saw the film (Bruce Willis, Albert Finney, decent).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_of_Champions

I loved his capacity to be dark and existential in a funny way without going too much into it. Hearing about his other stuff I'll probably check some of it out now. Sirens sounds particularly good.

Oh!
My Dad bought my daughter a copy of "Slaughterhouse Five" when she turned 18, because he said there were some books that you have to read. He was right. It may have saved her life in that she's now gone very quiet about joining the Army. I loved the way that his characters are able to move from their internal to external lives and back again..

Kurt influenced a lot of other writers with his loose collation of ideas and ironic subsuming of anthropological memes.
An entire generation that was tired of reading assigned texts picked up his books in their paperback editions and read them while stoned, which could explain a lot of things.

There is a lackadaisical quality to even his darker work, with the exception of "Player Piano", which was supposed to be a straight novel. He was working for GE at the time and the corporate takeover of America and the world herself was heavy on his mind.

He was extremely suspicious of the military/industrial complex long before Eisenhower used the term. He was also extremely suspicious of Eisenhower.

In the end, according to recent interviews, he was oddly nostalgic for career criminals like Nixon instead of the steady stream of amateurs since then.
He thought Bush was an evil buffoon.

While I don't agree with all his sentiments, I will grant that his experiences and point of view might have merited them.

I saw him in a series of interview excerpts on Charlie Rose's PBS program the other night.

He will be missed.

Wonderful writer
I remember crying and laughing out loud on the tube the first time I read 'God Bless You, Mr Rosewater'. I'm very introverted in RL and this is the only book I've ever done that with

He had a rare talent. He could write in such a way that he made hidden truths seem so obvious that you wondered why you never put it that way yourself. He could entertain you with drama and humor equally and at the same time, had a nearly perfect sense of when to stop saying something and change topics to keep your attention. I especially liked his books because he was fond of pointing out how random yet concidence ridden life is, and that is how I see it as well.