One of the immortals. I am so happy to see On Wings of Song given the recognition it deserves. It is not for a mass audience (how many science fiction fans are also devotees of Metastasian opera seria?), but will forever affect those to whom it is addressed. Goodbye, Thomas Disch!

Two things --

1) My father loved "The Brave Little Toaster" so much. He would have been sad to hear of Disch's suicide.

2) Reading this made my day. I'm a fan of Elizabeth Hand's writing. (She also wrote a wonderful review of a book about James Tiptree Jr.'s life in F&SF, and Generation Loss is her best book in years. If you liked this, check it out.)

Ms. Hand, if you're reading this, don't let the "why is this on Salon" whiners get you down. They always say that about anything other than politics and news.

To anyone who might ask, "Why is this on Salon?": Can you imagine anything more appropriate to something called Salon?

Thank you, Ms. Hand. Fine tribute.

...I'm depressed. Disch wrote one of the most poetic SF novels I've ever read with his, at turns, phantasmagorical and grimly realistic SF classic, On Wings of Song. For some reason, I've always fixated on the body-building NYC cop -whom Disch's protagonist references at various times in the novel-who, in the midst of some mid-twenty first century economic and social crisis befelling the city commits suicide. I'm thinking of him now, while reading of Disch's death.

I was a kid when I read his "Genocides"--a spare, fatalistic work not unlike Kate Wilhelm's later "When Late the Sweet Birds Sang" in its stark leaness--and not much older when I was blown away by "Room 334". He seemed so vital, even if darkly so, and now he's gone.

My reaction was "Thomas M. Disch killed himself and I just spent the past four days reading about bacon?!?!"

I haven't read anything by Disch in years, but I especially liked "On Wings of Song", since the premise was idiosyncratic but executed so coherently that you soon accept it as totally natural. I remember "The Genocides" and "Camp Concentration", but it was a little more straightforward to see where he was going in those novels.

Terrible... I cannot really imagine an author of his stature being faced with eviction threats, among other recent troubles. I'm also amazed that this is the first I'd heard of his death. When I saw the title of the article, I wondered if he had died years ago and I missed it or forgotten. I've been online all week and hitting the NYT and Google news as much as ever. What gives?

I didn't find out about his death until I saw the listing on Salon as I was poking around for something new to read (after I'd read all the new political stuff). For a moment, I couldn't believe what I was reading. I am deeply saddened by the loss of Mr. Disch. I have been reading his (and Ms. Hand's) works for many years. To say his novels and short stories and poems meant a great deal to me seems an profound understatement.

Thank you Ms. Hand for your article. It is clear that he meant as much to you as he did to me. Thank you.

A long time ago, in something of a different lifetime, my now wife and I had dinner with Mr. Disch. Just the three of us. It was a very nice, bizarre dinner. I couldn't figure out how the man I was talking with was the same man who had written the most depressing SF I had yet encountered. That's youth.

Thank you you, Elizabeth.

My wife works for Multnomah County Library & the day before yesterday I got a 2-word email w/a 2 word heading "Disch dead"....

The only thing I would add is that his early novel THE PUPPIES OF TERRA (U.K. title, WHITE FANG GOES DINGO) is essential early Disch. And that he wrote an amazing book of poem-industry criticism, THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. And that THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER and THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER GOES TO MARS are great gifts to give to small children. (And their parents, who will have to read the books to them, later thank you.) And that his Minnesota gothic novels became very popular (one even became a best-seller.) And he was also a really interesting painter.

Theresa Nielson-Haden had a post on her blog, & there were mentions on a literary Australian website (which tends to ignore SF by any name), & the Guardian & the NY TIMES & POP MATTERS had obits, but not THE NATION & not VILLAGE VOICE (odd in that Disch wrote so much for THE NATION, & that VILLAGE VOICE had always given him at least pretty good reviews).... Flags everywhere should be at half-mast....

I count myself fortunate to have met Disch twice, & to have spent a jovial evening of delightful evening of verbal sparring & argument at a 1980 Worldcon; he argued with everyone that night, & almost everyone understood immediately that with him this was a vital & exciting form of discourse...at the end of the evening, knowing that I was a Californian (at the time), he gave me a bottle of very good Zinfandel.

Indeed, Disch showed me that misanthropy & curmudgeonly contrarianism could be cardinal virtues.

PS -- Disch would have been amused by my egregious typo....

I am one of the philistines who knew Thomas Disch,the name, but never read one of his books, though I was an avid science fiction reader as a kid and probably shared some of his political philosophy. No excuses. This will be corrected and thank God I am retired and have some good time to do it. Thank you for this obituary and thanks to Salon for being such a great cornucopia.

The terrible injustice of one of the greatest writers in any genre killing himself because of illness, poverty, impending homelessness, and homophobia will stay with me for a while.

A great writer, a wonderful man.

Thank you for a fine remembrance.