PUG4: R.I.P. (Pinget/Williams)

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Robert Pinget
1920-1997
The avant-garde French novelist and playwright best known as a member of the Nouveau Roman (New Novel) literary movement died in Tours last August 25th at the age of 77. According to French sources, the cause of death was a stroke.
Pinget was a prolific author who, in the course of 46 years, published 14 novels, 11 plays and several books of essays. He was considered a master of dialogue and was reknown for his intricate and carefully wrought style.
"I hear my characters more than I see them," he told the Paris-based daily Libération in his last interview. "I transcribe what they say. To write, I have to hear what I write."
His first book of short stories was published in 1951, but it was his first novel "Mabu or the Raw Material" that gained him his first notice. In 1961, his novel "The Inquisitory" won the French Critics Prize while another novel, "Someone," won the prestigious Femina Prize in 1965. In 1987, he was awared the Grand Prix National des Lettres, the same year that five of his plays were presented at the Avignon theatre festival.
While invariably associated with the New Novel movement (along with better-known, but perhaps less talented members like Robbe-Grillet, Simon and Sarraute), Pinget was reluctant to associate his work with any specific genre or school, preferring to acknowledge his literary debts to such writers as Marcel Proust, William Faulkner, Max Jacob and his friend Samuel Beckett.
"The Inquisitory," perhaps his best known novel, is characteristic of his approach to fiction. A technical masterpiece, it is large novel consisting entirely of question and answer where the reder must work out the truth and its meaning for himself.

Rozz Williams
1964-1998
Legendary frontman for Christian Death, Rozz Williams committed suicide by hanging himself in his Hollywood apartment on April 1st. He was 34 years old.
While Williams, whose real name was Roger Painter, had fought heroin addiction and severe depression during much of his life, friends and associates expressed shock and surprize at his death.
Williams had provided vocals for Christian Death since he was 16 and was a fond fixture in the LA-scene. He also performed in the bands Shadow Project and Premature Ejaculation.
In his obit for Rozz, SonicNet's Johnny Walker noted that "Williams [often] expressed frustration with his audience for artistically straitjacketing him in spite of his oft-proven ability to embrace a Bowie-esque style of musical eclecticism, best heard on the aforementioned Whorses' Mouth. That album recalled the Jim Morrison of An American Prayer, and Dream Home Heartache -- a stunning collection of bluesy cabaret songs done with singer Gitane Demone -- found Williams in Bryan Ferry/David Bowie torch mode.
"'I much prefer when somebody gets at least the idea ... If I'm going to be compared to anything, I would prefer [it] to be to what had actually influenced me," Williams told SonicNet Music News. "If somebody wants to say this is similar to Bowie or the Velvet Underground, great. If they want to say Sisters of Mercy or whatever, no, it's not. It's not goth! I've never done anything goth in my life!'"