Rabbit, R.I.P.

John Updike died today.

A few (not many) of the self-styled literary types I met in New York were kinda snooty about him. 

I loved him and read his books with pleasure, and I think that people who snub him as "middlebrow" are full of shit.

He was the poet and bard of suburbia, which badly needs poetry and lyric ballads.

His commercial success was one of the exceptions proving the "rule" that if lots and lots of people like [some_form_of_artistic_expression] it tends to be some form of debased crap.

Rest in peace, Mr. Updike.