So long, John Updike
January 27, 2009 • 5:25 pm • POSTED BY Dan Shepelavy
I haven’t even collected my thoughts on the passing of Andrew Wyeth and now this… John Updike was among my very, very favorite writers. He wrote with a breathtaking dexterity and admirable directness, very often about two of my favorite things: art and women. More in tribute and thanks, later.
“Perfection Wasted”
And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market—
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories
packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That’s it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren’t the same.
-John Updike, originally published in The New Yorker.