History Creator / RichardBrautigan

He was influenced by Creator/TheBeatGeneration and embraced by hippies but did not seem to feel at home with either group. His closest hippie-like affiliations were with the [[http://www.diggers.org/alf.htm Artists Liberation Front]] and [[http://diggers.org/ The Diggers]], a down-to-earth bunch who sought a realistic path to a totally free economy. He wrote many broadsides for [[http://diggers.org/com_co.htm The Communication Company]] [[note]]founded by hippie author [[Literature/TheGreenwichTrilogy Chester Anderson]][[/note]], including a well-known "valentine" about STDs. (Richard regarded these groups as artists doing something productive, as opposed to hippies who he came to think of as do-nothing layabouts.)[[note]]It seems he did not always feel this way. In a 1967 interview -- look for "The Way It Was: San Francisco Summer of 1967" on Website/YouTube -- he reflected that the hippies were attempting to emulate Native Americans and "return to the proper balance between man and nature; our society in the industrial age has completely thrown off the relationship, the balance with nature. And the hippies are interested in re-establishing this balance."[[/note]]

** [[https://voetica.com/voetica.php?collection=2&poet=921&poem=8974 "Flowers for Those You Love"]], a "Valentine" about STDS.

He was influenced by Creator/TheBeatGeneration and embraced by hippies but did not seem to feel at home with either group. His closest hippie-like affiliations were with the [[http://www.diggers.org/alf.htm Artists Liberation Front]] and [[http://diggers.org/ The Diggers]], a down-to-earth bunch who sought a realistic path to a totally free economy. He wrote many broadsides for [[http://diggers.org/com_co.htm The Communication Company]] [[note]]founded by hippie author [[Literature/TheGreenwichTrilogy Chester Anderson]][[/note]], including [[http://www.redhousebooks.com/galleries/freePoems/flowers.htm a well-known "valentine" about STDs]]. (Richard regarded these groups as artists doing something productive, as opposed to hippies who he came to think of as do-nothing layabouts.)[[note]]It seems he did not always feel this way. In a 1967 interview -- look for "The Way It Was: San Francisco Summer of 1967" on Website/YouTube -- he reflected that the hippies were attempting to emulate Native Americans and "return to the proper balance between man and nature; our society in the industrial age has completely thrown off the relationship, the balance with nature. And the hippies are interested in re-establishing this balance."[[/note]]

* ''[[Literature/TheAbortion The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966]]''
* ''A Confederate General from Big Sur''

* BackAlleyDoctor: Averted with Dr. Garcia in ''The Abortion: A Historical Romance'', who has slightly unorthodox methods but high ethical and professional standards. The narrator tells the tale of taking his girlfriend Vida to a veterinarian's office in Tijuana, Mexico for an abortion in the days before Roe v. Wade. To sterilize his surgical tools, the doctor douses them in tequila (but, surprisingly, does ''not'' [[QuickNip partake of said tequila himself]]) and then heat-sterilizes them with an acetylene torch. He reassures his patients that his procedures are "no pain, all clean", and you can take that to the bank.

* DCupDistress: Vida in ''The Abortion''. She's looked like that since she was eleven, and men have had accidents or even killed themselves. She hates it; she wanted to be a ballerina, and fantasized about a BodySwap with her pixie-like sister.
* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: In ''The Abortion'', the hero falls in love with, literally, the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman. Everyone is mesmerized by Vida's "Playboy-furniture" figure, and [[SoBeautifulItsACurse several people have died because of obsession with her body]], whether they be DrivenToSuicide due to being NotGoodWithRejection or DistractedByTheSexy, starting when she was in the sixth grade.

* MsFanservice: Vida in ''The Abortion''.

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Vida is literally the most beautiful woman on earth -- by American standards. She's tall, slim, has "Playboy-furniture" legs and huge breasts. Inside, she is an elfin, delicate creature and wanted to be a ballerina, but instead became trapped in a body she feels is a "grotesque, awkward machine". Since she was eleven years old, the men around her have imploded simply from being in her presence. They're so distracted by her that they have car crashes or fall downstairs; they commit suicide because she won't go out with them. She writes a book about what it's really like to have the perfect body, decides to donate it to a mysterious library filled with books no one reads, and there she meets the librarian who, though enchanted by her beauty, is not driven insane by it, and is actually able to listen to her story.
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Vida in ''The Abortion''.

* ''The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966''

** [[http://www.redhousebooks.com/galleries/freePoems/flowers.htm This]] Valentine's Day card.
** Also [[http://thebrautiganbookclub.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/2b676-love_poem-scaled1000.jpg this]].

His works tend to be [[MindScrew difficult to describe]]. He uses a simplified, child-like diction (if it won't make your [[HeroicBSOD brain explode]], try imagining the NewAgeRetroHippie version of Creator/ErnestHemingway). His novels will invariably have some {{One Paragraph Chapter}}s. His later works ''seem'' to veer into genre fiction, including detective fiction and horror, but in fact still have more in common with the rest of Brautigan's work than any straight genre piece. He was also a poet, which basically let him crank his imagination UpToEleven. He revealed that he wrote poetry in order to learn how to properly write sentences so that he could write novels.

He was influenced by Creator/TheBeatGeneration and embraced by hippies but did not seem to feel at home with either group. His closest hippie-like affiliations were with the [[http://www.diggers.org/alf.htm Artists Liberation Front]] and [[http://diggers.org/ The Diggers]], a down-to-earth bunch who sought a realistic path to a totally free economy. He wrote many broadsides for [[http://diggers.org/com_co.htm The Communication Company]] [[note]]founded by hippie author [[Literature/TheGreenwichTrilogy Chester Anderson]][[/note]], including [[http://www.redhousebooks.com/galleries/freePoems/flowers.htm a well-known "valentine" about STDs]]. (Richard regarded these groups as artists doing something productive, as opposed to hippies who he came to think of as do-nothing layabouts.)[[note]]It seems he did not always feel this way. In a 1967 interview -- look for "The Way It Was: San Francisco Summer of 1967" on YouTube -- he reflected that the hippies were attempting to emulate Native Americans and "return to the proper balance between man and nature; our society in the industrial age has completely thrown off the relationship, the balance with nature. And the hippies are interested in re-establishing this balance."[[/note]]

* BackAlleyDoctor: In ''The Abortion: A Historical Romance'', an unnamed narrator tells the tale of taking his girlfriend Vida to a veterinarian's office in Tijuana, Mexico for an abortion in the days before Roe v. Wade. To sterilize his surgical tools, the doctor douses them in tequila (but, surprisingly, does ''not'' [[QuickNip partake of said tequila himself]]) and then heat-sterilizes them with an acetylene torch. Actually something of an aversion; Dr. Garcia actually has high ethical and professional standards. When he says "no pain, all clean" you can believe it.

He was influenced by Creator/TheBeatGeneration and embraced by hippies but did not seem to feel at home with either group. His closest hippie-like affiliations were with the [[http://www.diggers.org/alf.htm Artists Liberation Front]] and the [[http://diggers.org/ The Diggers]], a down-to-earth bunch who sought a realistic path to a totally free economy. He wrote many broadsides for [[http://diggers.org/com_co.htm The Communication Company]] [[note]]founded by hippie author [[Literature/TheGreenwichTrilogy Chester Anderson]][[/note]], including [[http://www.redhousebooks.com/galleries/freePoems/flowers.htm a well-known "valentine" about STDs]]. (Richard regarded these groups as artists doing something productive, as opposed to hippies who he came to think of as do-nothing layabouts.)[[note]]It seems he did not always feel this way. In a 1967 interview -- look for "The Way It Was: San Francisco Summer of 1967" on YouTube -- he reflected that the hippies were attempting to emulate Native Americans and "return to the proper balance between man and nature; our society in the industrial age has completely thrown off the relationship, the balance with nature. And the hippies are interested in re-establishing this balance."[[/note]]

He occasionally engaged in other creative pursuits. Of note is ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Listening to Richard Brautigan]]'', in which the author records sounds of [[ADayInTheLife daily life]] in his apartment and reads poems and stories, as well as ''Please Plant This Book'', a book of seed packets with brief poems printed on them (there is now an interactive [[PragmaticAdaptation flash version]] of this book online... [[AdaptationDecay no physical seeds though]]).

* TheSingularity: a 'soft' version is described in [[https://allpoetry.com/All-Watched-Over-By-Machines-Of-Loving-Grace All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace]].

He was influenced by Creator/TheBeatGeneration and embraced by hippies but did not seem to feel at home with either group. His closest hippie-like affiliations were with the [[http://www.diggers.org/alf.htm Artists Liberation Front]] and the [[http://diggers.org/ The Diggers]], a down-to-earth bunch who sought a realistic path to a totally free economy. He wrote many broadsides for [[http://diggers.org/com_co.htm The Communication Company]] [[note]]founded by hippie author [[Literature/TheGreenwichTrilogy Chester Anderson]][[/note]], including [[http://www.redhousebooks.com/galleries/freePoems/flowers.htm a well-known "valentine" about STDs]]. (Richard regarded these groups as artists doing something productive, as opposed to hippies who he thought of as do-nothing layabouts.)

* BeigeProse: [[TropesAreTools Crafted to the point of fine art]].

* {{Metafiction}}: Trout Fishing in America is a character in ''Trout Fishing in America''. Richard himself is a walk-on character in ''The Abortion'' (he delivers a book called ''Moose'' to the library) and is mentioned in a story in ''Revenge of the Lawn'' as having written ''Trout Fishing in America''.

UrbanLegend has it that once TheSixties ended and the hippies got day-jobs, he was left without a significant audience, which may have contributed to his depression and subsequent suicide in 1984. The truth is that he made most of his fortune ''after'' the 60s [[note]]''Literature/TroutFishingInAmerica'', the book for which he is most remembered, was completed in 1962, long before the hippie movement, and wasn't published until the fall of 1967, after the Summer of Love was long over.[[/note]], and hippies were only part of a much larger readership. His books were published in several dozen languages and continue to sell well in the U.S., Europe (especially France) and Japan to this day. None of his books, with the exception of a few early poetry chapbooks, have ever been out of print.

His works tend to be [[MindScrew difficult to describe]]. He uses a simplified, child-like diction (if it won't make your [[HeroicBSOD brain explode]], try imagining the NewAgeRetroHippie version of Creator/ErnestHemingway). His novels will invariably have some {{One Paragraph Chapter}}s. His later works ''seem'' to veer into genre fiction, including detective fiction and horror, but in fact still have more in common with the rest of Brautigan's work than any straight genre piece. He was also a poet, which basically let him crank his imagination UpToEleven.

Richard Brautigan was a writer. He enjoyed trout fishing.

* AlwaysVSexy: Vida in ''The Abortion''.
* [[AntiLoveSong Anti-Love Poem]]: [[http://www.redhousebooks.com/galleries/freePoems/flowers.htm This]] Valentine's Day card.

* TheSingularity: a 'soft' version is described in [[All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace https://allpoetry.com/All-Watched-Over-By-Machines-Of-Loving-Grace]]

As a child during WorldWarTwo, he had subscribed to all the anti-Japanese bigotry and hatred typical of the era. As he grew older, he became interested in Zen, and learned what Japanese art and culture were really like. He describes this evolution of attitude in his books ''The Tokyo-Montana Express'' and ''June 30, June 30'', written during his lengthy stays in Shinjuku.