Sad to hear the news! I loved The British Museum Is Falling Down -- extremely funny stuff and its brilliant use of pastiche did the great thing of giving one the feeling of being in on the joke.
It's a brilliant book. To quote a friend who reread it homage: "chortled mightily at the scene where he tries to explain the Rhythm Method to a nymphette while trying to acquire the manuscript of a raunchy novel by a minor Edwardian critic while avoid the meat-cleavers of butchers with missing fingers."
I remember my excitement when "The Picturegoers" was reissued by Penguin in the early 1990s. I still have "Deaf Sentence" and the WElls novel to read. I have the hardbacks, at least one signed.
Ahhh I'm gutted by this news--though he had a long and productive life, it still feels sad that all of his work is done.
I'd always meant to write him a letter saying how much I'd appreciated his endeavors (loved his novels--"Thinks..." is also a great read--and benefitted from his insights into the practice of writing) and I'd spent much time and money tracking down hardcover editions of all of his novels and much of his literary work.
Grateful for this notice and tribute from another writer whose work I've attempted to track down and collect in hardcover editions and whose work I've also enjoyed immensely!!
I saw him in the flesh once in the early 90s. I was sitting at a cafe table outside Symphony Hall in Birmingham when he walked past. I wanted to tell him how much I appreciated him but it seemed uncool.
Speaking as a writer (though one with a vastly lower profile than Lodge, of course) I could say: it's always worth engaging, if you see an author you've read and like. They will not consider it uncool. Writing is an unusually solitary and often lonely business most of the time, and it can feel that what we write disappears into the void. That there are people out there who do read, and sometimes even like, what we do is a salutary and encouraging thing.
The Irish poet, Richard Murphy was living in the Kandy area and I was planning to visit Kandy. I had enjoyed Murphy’s autobiography and was impressed by all the impressive people he knew. He had collaborated on some poems with a Sri Lankan writer and musician, Ashley Halpé. Ashley’s wife Bridget communicated with me on Facebook and gave me Murphy’s phone number. I was too shy to call. I was hoping for an email address. Before I could screw my courage to the sticking point, the bugger died on me.
On being "seen": it's worse than you say, because in Lodge's account what we do isn't a conjuring trick at all, but only the "patter" that magicians deploy *between* tricks. I.e., students keep waiting for the tricks but we never give them any.
Sad to hear the news! I loved The British Museum Is Falling Down -- extremely funny stuff and its brilliant use of pastiche did the great thing of giving one the feeling of being in on the joke.
It's a brilliant book. To quote a friend who reread it homage: "chortled mightily at the scene where he tries to explain the Rhythm Method to a nymphette while trying to acquire the manuscript of a raunchy novel by a minor Edwardian critic while avoid the meat-cleavers of butchers with missing fingers."
I remember my excitement when "The Picturegoers" was reissued by Penguin in the early 1990s. I still have "Deaf Sentence" and the WElls novel to read. I have the hardbacks, at least one signed.
Ahhh I'm gutted by this news--though he had a long and productive life, it still feels sad that all of his work is done.
I'd always meant to write him a letter saying how much I'd appreciated his endeavors (loved his novels--"Thinks..." is also a great read--and benefitted from his insights into the practice of writing) and I'd spent much time and money tracking down hardcover editions of all of his novels and much of his literary work.
Grateful for this notice and tribute from another writer whose work I've attempted to track down and collect in hardcover editions and whose work I've also enjoyed immensely!!
Thank you, Gregory!
I saw him in the flesh once in the early 90s. I was sitting at a cafe table outside Symphony Hall in Birmingham when he walked past. I wanted to tell him how much I appreciated him but it seemed uncool.
Speaking as a writer (though one with a vastly lower profile than Lodge, of course) I could say: it's always worth engaging, if you see an author you've read and like. They will not consider it uncool. Writing is an unusually solitary and often lonely business most of the time, and it can feel that what we write disappears into the void. That there are people out there who do read, and sometimes even like, what we do is a salutary and encouraging thing.
The Irish poet, Richard Murphy was living in the Kandy area and I was planning to visit Kandy. I had enjoyed Murphy’s autobiography and was impressed by all the impressive people he knew. He had collaborated on some poems with a Sri Lankan writer and musician, Ashley Halpé. Ashley’s wife Bridget communicated with me on Facebook and gave me Murphy’s phone number. I was too shy to call. I was hoping for an email address. Before I could screw my courage to the sticking point, the bugger died on me.
On being "seen": it's worse than you say, because in Lodge's account what we do isn't a conjuring trick at all, but only the "patter" that magicians deploy *between* tricks. I.e., students keep waiting for the tricks but we never give them any.
Darn it, you're right.