John Updike Dies at 76

“From earliest childhood I was charmed by the materials of my craft, by pencils and paper and, later, by the typewriter and the entire apparatus of printing. To condense from one’s memories and fantasies and small discoveries dark marks on paper which become handsomely reproducible many times over still seems to me, after nearly 30 years concerned with the making of books, a magical act, and a delightful technical process. To distribute oneself thus, as a kind of confetti shower falling upon the heads and shoulders of mankind out of bookstores and the pages of magazines is surely a great privilege and a defiance of the usual earthbound laws whereby human beings make themselves known to one another.”

-- John Updike

I feel this passing. I actually wasn't an avid reader of Updike's work, but I loved the couple of novels that I did read, with "Roger's Version" playing a special part in my mental life, with its treatment of the strong anthropic principle at a time in my young life when I was still a little haunted by the possibilities of God and the mysticism of his presence becoming manifest, and Updike was an influence in bringing me home to philosophic materialism.

I also feel an affinity to his rather high-testosterone sensibility. He chafed a bit under the stronger forms of feminism that we came to know toward the end of the last century, what some of us sometimes call feminazism. He liked to bring up how one feminist criticized him as being a penis with a Thesaurus, and I fondly like to think that Updike rather cherished that shot.

( AP report )

John Updike Dies at 76

“From earliest childhood I was charmed by the materials of my craft, by pencils and paper and, later, by the typewriter and the entire apparatus of printing. To condense from one’s memories and fantasies and small discoveries dark marks on paper which become handsomely reproducible many times over still seems to me, after nearly 30 years concerned with the making of books, a magical act, and a delightful technical process. To distribute oneself thus, as a kind of confetti shower falling upon the heads and shoulders of mankind out of bookstores and the pages of magazines is surely a great privilege and a defiance of the usual earthbound laws whereby human beings make themselves known to one another.”

-- John Updike

I feel this passing. I actually wasn't an avid reader of Updike's work, but I loved the couple of novels that I did read, with "Roger's Version" playing a special part in my mental life, with its treatment of the strong anthropic principle at a time in my young life when I was still a little haunted by the possibilities of God and the mysticism of his presence becoming manifest, and Updike was an influence in bringing me home to philosophic materialism.

I also feel an affinity to his rather high-testosterone sensibility. He chafed a bit under the stronger forms of feminism that we came to know toward the end of the last century, what some of us sometimes call feminazism. He liked to bring up how one feminist criticized him as being a penis with a Thesaurus, and I fondly like to think that Updike rather cherished that shot.

( AP report )