Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird) Has Died At Age 89

[Funyarinpa]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35616011

RIP

[Arcadeotic]

That's rather sad to hear.

World just lost a great person

Rest in peace, Harper

[CeruleanGamer]

RIP and thank you for making a book that my high school English teachers made me read and analyze for the whole semester. 

[Flutterz]

RIP

Though I have to say, never having bothered to find out before, I sort of assumed she'd died a long time ago

[Decay]

Harper Lee has been at death's door for a while now, according to her family she has been in a non-responsive, near-vegetative state for some time, and they suspected the recent "sequel" to To Kill a Mockingbird that was published was done without her consent. Her lawyers and agents obviously disagree, as we can see in that article, I'm sure they're happy with the payday they got when they published that manuscript.

[Eclipsed]

Only thing I remember 'bout TKAM was that Atticus tried to logic that Tom Robinson couldn't have hit that one girl because a right hand could totally not do a backhanded swing and hit the right face and so the perp must totally be left handed

RIP though

[FuryTomic]

And down goes another great author...

Rest In Peace.

[Down]

...And right that same day it seems like Umberto Eco is dead too. =(

[Fred the Barber]

4 hours ago, Down said:

...And right that same day it seems like Umberto Eco is dead too. =(

This was the big news of the day for me. I'm not a big To Kill a Mockingbird fan (probably because, like many Americans, I was pushed to read it rather than finding it myself, and couldn't appreciate it), but The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum were not only enjoyable, but also impactful on my outlook on life. I can't express it well (though I guess that's the point...), but he keenly captured our simultaneous inability to communicate our thoughts to our fellow humans and our intense striving to understand both one another and the world. And then he somehow wrapped those themes in a compelling thriller, or a murder mystery, along with dozens of other themes, the vast majority of which I probably missed entirely (again... kind of the point). I haven't read much recent fiction that you could really call "literature" in quite a long time, but there's probably only about three people meeting that bill who I'd really look forward to reading: Haruki Murakami, Salman Rushdie, and Umberto Eco. I'm very sad to see one of them go.

[Funnerific]

8 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Only thing I remember 'bout TKAM was that Atticus tried to logic that Tom Robinson couldn't have hit that one girl because a right hand could totally not do a backhanded swing and hit the right face and so the perp must totally be left handed

RIP though

Spoiler

Didn't the guy only have one hand/arm? I thought that was the whole point.

 

[Valmore]

Well that's sad, though I guess I was fortunate that my high school gave us a large list of books and we were told to pick one each semester and turn in a report on it at the end. TKAM was on it, but I avoided reading it. Sometimes I wonder if I should have read it instead of An American Tragedy...