Claude Lévi-Strauss has died, and the obituary tells me this:
France reacted emotionally to Levi-Strauss' weekend death, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy joining government officials, politicians and ordinary citizens populating blogs with heartfelt tributes.
Times certainly have changed, if "populating blogs" is how people deal with loss. For all you grief-stricken readers out there, take heart!
UPDATE (2009/11/04): Scott Atran's remembrance of Lévi-Strauss is well-worth reading. A short quote:
“I imagine myself in the New World with Columbus for the first time,” he mused, “a symphony of sounds, of colors, of smells, of desires, and of hopes. Then I imagine myself on the moon with the astronauts, and all I see is gray, dust and barren rocks, and the earth I long for is far out of reach.”
