Friday, February 29, 2008

In Memorium Redux

Our friend T.J. Brown is lamenting the recent death of conservative columnist William F. Buckley. Like he mentioned in the post, he attended a lecture Buckley gave at IU in 1994. I also was there, a lowly freshman who had no idea who the man was.

His death also reminded me of a blog argument T.J. and I had after the death of Hunter S. Thompson. I said, rightly, that Thompson was among the most influential writers in recent memory, while Brown argued Buckley was a better writer and significantly more important. Then he threw salt in my wounds, after claiming I lost the battle, by sending me copies of Buckley's "Lexicon" and "Miles Gone By."

The jury is still out. May both rest in peace.