"Some of us are made to live a long time. Others for a short time..."

"...Donna wanted what she wanted."--"Coming Close to Donna"

That story, by Barry Hannah, has rocked my world on many an occasion, in fact, every single time I revisit it. So has every word I have ever read by him. A master of fiction and an artist of language, Barry Hannah could make you feel special in just a few words. He was a dear teacher of mine, an author of unreasonable talent and a man who recognized the potential hilarity in the irreverent. The latter, we often had in common.
Barry Hannah died today, 67 years old, after years of fighting a battle with unlucky health. He was weeks shy of his 68th birthday and just days shy of The Oxford Conference for the Book dedicated to his oeuvre. Our community has lost a man very important to us, and we will mourn him collectively and individually in our own ways. The following is mine.

In 2002, a professor of mine at Winthrop University taught his students a book of short stories called Airships by Barry Hannah. In one of the stories, the narrator describes a woman as having "skin like mayonnaise" (48). I knew, after that, I wanted to read everything he'd ever written.
In 2003, I accepted an assistantship as a graduate student at the University of Mississippi, where Barry (I don't know if I can ever refer to him by "Hannah," even critically) was the director of the MFA program and a professor of both fiction workshops and a literature class about "Form, Craft, and Influence." I couldn't resist either.
I took the Craft class my first semester and quickly followed up by enrolling in his fiction workshop the next. Though I eventually realized I am not a fiction writer, Barry was nothing other than gracious in letting me figure that out. Once, after a particularly successful fiction exercise on my part, and after he'd read several "critical" papers I'd written for his Craft class, he said to me "you may be one of those lucky people who can write creatively with one hand and academically with the other." It was the greatest compliment yet paid to me by any teacher. I'm pretty sure I didn't deserve such an observation, but I treasure that comment immensely.
I experienced many such moments with Barry, and I know I am not the only one. Barry touched everyone who ever studied with and admired him. He will be greatly, greatly missed, not just by the literary community at large, not just by the Oxford, MS, community, but by many, many individuals who were moved by his grandiose personality.
All of this said, some classmates and I quickly realized that Barry's comments on the various works and strategies we were studying/employing were pure gold, pure gold that we should remember, should take to heart, should definitely employ in our writing and perhaps in our general lives as well. Thus, we tried to record them. The following are quotations straight from my notes in those infamous classes I took with Barry. I make no apologies, and I don't think he would either.

"Psychiatrists are rich because people are lonely."

About Dosteoyevsky's Notes from the Underground, he "took the risk of writing an unlovable book."

"You need not worry about being a moralist. It will kill your writing if you do."

There is "no law that writers must write about current events."

"I do not think you should avoid gorgeous language."

"The French are unbaptized agnostics." (I can only tell you that a discussion of Camus was the context!)

"The best tales are told because they have to be told."

"I'm interested in unliterary opinions."

"In literature, there is no point to progress toward."

Speaking of Mormons: "That is one strange cult."

"Afflictions are descriptions of people, not a definition."

"If you're gonna write, you're gonna write."

"We don't have the luxury to discover undiscovered country any longer."

"I don't know if there's any connection between creativity and bad lungs."

"Nobody believes in patience."

and, finally, the Quote of the Day of the Quotes of the Days,

"We oughta have bumper stickers that say 'I'm weak and unable, and I gather with others of my kind.'"

I'll miss you, Barry. We all will.

Comments

[katra]

[this is good] Great post.

[laurapage]

I am very sorry for your loss C and for the loss of your community.  Through your words I feel like I knew him, and I remember you speaking of him fondly throughout school.  There will be a Barry sized hole missing in the world.

[Gabriel Scala]

Wow. Amazing post. It makes me sad and laugh out loud at the same time. Here's to Barry! I wish I had a shot to toast him with.