RIP Peter Benchley

[erich orser]

Just found this when I logged-in.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/entertainment/literature_and_authors

 

[Jean]

J

 

[tonmo]

RIP... And here is Richard Ellis' review of Benchley's gigantic squid novel, Beast.

 

[bobwonderbuns]

Death -- it's a bummer!

 

[mosogama]

It was Peter Benchley's "Beast" that actually got me interested in Architeuthis, and squid in general. Apart from his "monster" books, Peter Benchley wrote some very good books, including "The Girl of the Sea of Cortez" (which was given to me at a young age by my Grandmother and got me interested in the ocean and all her creatures) and Rummies - quite a funny, political type fiction. The world has lost a good man. May he Rest in Peace. Cheers.

 

[Toren]

Not to sidetrack the discussion, but I've been recently watching the Looney Tunes Golden Collections, which are great, and it's great to see the old animators and voice actors talking about their work on the commentaries and features. They're quite old, of course, and along with the fact that Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc and others have passed on, it really gets you thinking about mortality. A sad fact but thankfully we still have their cartoons to make us laugh.

 

[cthulhu77]

Although his prose was somewhat...derivative, it is too bad that he died that way. I would much rather he was chewed up and swallowed by a few sharks, after the massive amount of shark killing that came about due to his book, "jaws".
He got off easy, in my opinion.

 

[Graeme]

I've never read any of his work. 'Course I've seen the movie Jaws (and been on the ride), and I think I know some of the differences between them. Is his work any good? I know this is a bit of a "whisky question" (meaning one person can't say what the best is since everyone's taste is obviously different) but what are his books like? Are they any good?

Roadkill Demon

 

[bmatson]

...I would much rather he was chewed up and swallowed by a few sharks, after the massive amount of shark killing that came about due to his book, "jaws".
He got off easy, in my opinion.

While that is true, he did try to make things better and did a lot later in his life to help sharks. I read a book by him last summer where he was defending sharks and I saw a movie where he talked about "jaws" and the controversy it caused and the importance of shark conservation. I think the public has to be blamed for the killing of sharks becuase they overreacted to a fiction novel.

Anyway RIP


Ben

 

[mosogama]

I've never read any of his work. 'Course I've seen the movie Jaws (and been on the ride), and I think I know some of the differences between them. Is his work any good? I know this is a bit of a "whisky question" (meaning one person can't say what the best is since everyone's taste is obviously different) but what are his books like? Are they any good?

Roadkill Demon

I personally like his work. In my opinion, he was a good writer. I don't think Jaws or Beast were his best works at all, but, just the fact that so many people were terrified to go in the water after reading either of them, lets you know that he could certainly spin a yarn. Check out the two books I've mentioned previously and let me know what you think.