Andrea Dworkin has died at the age of fifty-eight. May she find peace.
She was a feminist writer whose voice was rough and eloquent and whose arguments were powerful and very controversial. She made me think, even when, and especially when I strongly disagreed with her arguments.
Nyarlathoteps Miscellany has a beautiful obituary:
There are people in the world who walk wounded and have the courage not to shut up about it, not to let our greater comfort with stoicism muzzle them; there are people who open their lives up to criticism so they can point out what we'd be happier not to consider, because considering it calls into question aspects of our lives we want -- need -- not to question. I think such people are canaries in the mine: you can judge the civilization of a society by what happens to them, how they're treated.