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A Cult Figure in the 1960s, Brautigan Has Successfully Moved into a New Era

by Betsy Kline?

Brautigan wakes up to the sound of birds chirping outside his windows.

He loves the winter and the glacial snows that visit his small ranch in Livingston, Montana, because of the peaceful isolation they bring.

It's not surprising, either, that he surrounds his house with bird bells (feeders) in the winter. "I put them really close to the windows," he said. "The birds come down, and I can look at them. It's sort of the reverse of a birdcage, only I'm on the inside looking out. Birds are so wonderful to watch."

When the reclusive writer leaves his Montana hideaway, he plunges himself into "people" environments, crowded cities such as San Francisco and Tokyo.

It was in San Francisco 28 years ago that Brautigan fell under the influence of Japanese culture. "I love the imagination, vitality and energy of the Japanese people," he said. His reverence for the gentle life is obvious in his books, from his earliest, A Confederate General from Big Sur, to his latest, The Tokyo-Montana Express.

Although he does not have a home in Japan, Brautigan spends several months every year in Tokyo, drifting among friends.

"The Japanese are a very beautiful people," he said. "Japan has a very heroic landscape and nature. I love the heroic qualities of the Japanese people."

The influence of this gentle philosophy is evident in his many novels and books of poetry. Since his early days of distributing free samples of his poetry on the streets of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, Brautigan has attempted to spread the philosophy of life-affirming optimism.

Although it is difficult to tell what his interests in life are from the strange titles of his books (Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970, Sombrero Fallout, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, Please Plant This Book, Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork and Willard and His Bowling Trophies to name a few), a reading of one or two is orientation enough.

About the only thing that bothers him about being a writer, he said, is that people seem to expect him to come up with a Son of Trout Fishing in America or a In Watermelon Sugar Revisited. "I have never been interested in imitating myself," he said. "I'm basically interested in [sic] and my work is one man's opinion of life and death and the 20th century."

"When I die, there will be a shelf of books that will give this one man's opinion of just that."

He certainly is not interested in standing still. He shies away from interviews and public appearances, but he said he was enjoying his current lecture tour because it was a growing and learning period for him.

"I found I have been very limited in the space I was living," he said. The question-and-answer exchanges with students feed his natural curiosity.

Brautigan admitted that he was pleasantly surprised to find students today who were able to make the jump into his earlier books, products of the early '60s. The peace and hippie movements of the '60s were his milieu, but he has experienced no sense of displacement, he said, moving into what social-historians are calling the hedonistic '70s. "I'm not standing still in life," he said. "I'm not freeze-framed."

At 45, Brautigan still is the peripatetic prophet of peace.

The murder of former Beatle John Lennon, he said, left him shocked and disgusted. "It makes no sense...," he said. "It's so appalling when the creative artists of a society are assassinated."

"I wish that we had some signs that things would get better... I think we have to progress forward with as much hope and optimism as we can. There is no time for cynicism and anger. We have to commit ourselves to change in the future."


Kansas City Star?
December 21, 1980: 1,12D



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