The magazine received this letter in response to the Jan. 18 cover story on the suicide of writer Dennis Williams, who went by the name Katry Rain. The story was written by Cynthia McCabe. Dear Readers I am sorry that Cynthia and I did not connect for her to talk to me about Katry Rain, though we tried. I think I could have provided more understanding about him. . I was good friends with Katry since we met in a Wellington in 1995 and we talked at great length many times of his hopes, dashed or otherwise, and plans. He told me when he was diagnosed with cancer and that he had no intention whatsoever of getting heroic style medical treatment. He told me he had decided 25 years earlier on a course of action if such circumstance should arise. He was not, as far as I could see, obsessed with suicide. He only mentioned it in relation to the cancer. He worked very hard at the end to revise his older works and to complete at least two new books. I wont quibble with the psychological interpretations of his personality. They sound about right. However, he was an extraordinarily sweet and kind man. While (self) centered on his writing, he always had time to help people in need, often strangers. This is very much the essence of his writing. Probably came off as naive to editors. I was in touch with him through out his last months. He thoroughly enjoyed this time... discovering oyster bars and ramen shacks in little alley ways in Fukuoka. He sent long emails ( as writers do) about his wonderings. His mind was made up and there was no point in trying to dissuade him in his course of action (I did ask him to talk to a friend in Japan who is a longtime Zen monk. He politely declined) . I was surprised to learn of the manner of his death. He had another, less dramatic, plan in mind, but perhaps that one was not workable. In my mind, he was a samurai. It was time for him to go. The whole western psycho analysis thing is a tad unfair. His adopted culture was Japan and in Japan there is no shame in suicide. His PhD was in sociology. He was no dummy about these things and could probably run circles around the psycho pundits. I was surprised to learn about the sending out of all the emails to reporters. It was clever, I think. He was clearly, as mentioned in the article, looking for a way to draw attention to his writing. His so called data dump was a couple of years in planning. He wrote his blog in one go and got all his books online after he had made his plans. He gave me a flash drive with all his works as a backup of last resort. All the talk about not having followers or likes are about other peoples insecurities. Yes, he was afraid a lifetime of writing would disappear and since no publisher would touch his books, he did what he could to save them and draw attention to them. The suicide, however, I am sure was not about publicizing the books. That was simply a brave decision about ending ones life in the face of terminal illness. More power to him and others who wish it to go on their own terms. My missing him, and I have thought about this in some depth, has to do with my own deluded selfishness. He was a philosophical Jeffersonian. Read his books and decide for yourselves whether or not he had something worthwhile to contribute to the social discourse. This is all he ever asked. David Pauleen
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 21:17:39 +0000
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