# Harper Lee has Died - To Kill a Mockingbird \[Feb 2016\]
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 19, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558 "2016-02-19T16:00:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/1 "2016-02-19T16:00:11Z")
Reported on the front page of the NYTimes online.
A wonderful, powerful story that came at a time when it was a welcome meditation on the American character.
Thank you, ma’am.
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### Author:  [@CGav8r](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CGav8r)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/2 "2016-02-19T16:07:47Z")
_To Kill a Mockingbird_ had a profound impact on me in my youth.
I might pull out my copy and re-read it, and maybe watch the film in her honor.
_Requiescat in pace_, Ms. Lee.
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### Author:  [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/3 "2016-02-19T16:11:59Z")
> [@CGav8r](#):
>
> _To Kill a Mockingbird_ had a profound impact on me in my youth.
> I might pull out my copy and re-read it, and maybe watch the film in her honor.
>
> _Requiescat in pace_, Ms. Lee.
I’m betting you will find it a startlingly better book than you remembered. And sometimes Christian apologists will say that Jesus must have been real, because no human could create someone as good as he was. Well - try Atticus Finch on for size!
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/4 "2016-02-19T16:15:39Z")
I’ve never read _To Kill A Mockingbird_, but I watch the film almost every time it’s on. Still relevant today.
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/5 "2016-02-19T16:29:24Z")
The book is wonderful too.
RIP, Madam.
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### Author:  [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/6 "2016-02-19T16:31:31Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I’ve never read _To Kill A Mockingbird_, but I watch the film almost every time it’s on. Still relevant today.
“Seventeen bullet holes in him. They didn’t have to shoot him that much.”
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### Author:  [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/7 "2016-02-19T16:32:16Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I’ve never read _To Kill A Mockingbird_, but I watch the film almost every time it’s on. Still relevant today.
I encourage you to read it. The film is one of the best adaptations you are ever likely going to see, and as such reading the book feels like spending more time with the characters rather than getting annoyed at differences.
I think it is time for my children to watch it this weekend.
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### Author:  [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/8 "2016-02-19T16:36:41Z")
Sorry to hear this. Her health has been poor for years.
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/9 "2016-02-19T16:38:58Z")
No work of fiction has ever affected and influenced me the way To Kill A Mockingbird did. In addition, I never expect to see a better movie adaptation of a book I love.
RIP
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### Author:  [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/10 "2016-02-19T16:48:00Z")
Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your author’s passing.
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### Author:  [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/11 "2016-02-19T16:51:11Z")
Damn.
But, you had a nice long run, madam. Thank you for the gifts you brought.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/12 "2016-02-19T16:54:26Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#):
>
> Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your author’s passing.
Nice.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/13 "2016-02-19T16:57:26Z")
It’s almost appropriate that it happened in Black History Month
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### Author:  [@rucciface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rucciface)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/14 "2016-02-19T17:09:25Z")
_To Kill a Mockingbird_ is my all-time favorite novel.
I just tried to say that out loud, and surprised myself by choking on tears. R.I.P. Harper Lee
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/15 "2016-02-19T17:10:35Z")
We got assigned to read it in high school. We were supposed to read the first couple of chapters over the weekend. I picked it up Saturday morning and finished it by dinner. It’s the only book I’ve read in one sitting. Such a good story.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/16 "2016-02-19T20:38:47Z")
I’m in the minority I think, but I also enjoyed _Go Set a Watchman_ very much and consider it a worthy companion to _Mockingbird_. Contrary to what you may have read it does not paint Atticus as a racist villain but as a believable “the world is more than two colors” product of his time and ultimately as an old man who knows the world is changing and knows that it needs to but doesn’t like the way it’s going about it.
I’ve mentioned before, but, when I worked at the U of Alabama a tall old lady used to come into Government Documents sometimes. She kept to herself mostly, looking at old documents and newspapers and sometimes asking for items from the basement, but she was always very sweet and polite and always had a bowl haircut and jeans and a wool cardigan.
One of my co-workers finally whispered to me “That’s Harper Lee!”, but until then I didn’t recognize her. Though I’m a fan I left her alone, as did most other library staff who recognized her.
But, alas, word got out, and the professors and the deans and the captains and the kings descended, laying slaughtered elk at her feet and begging her to bless their Blackberries and touch their barren gonads and what not.
Well, not quite, but they did fawn over her and make a huge to-do (wasn’t just fan-stuff: they wanted her papers so bad they salivated at the sight of her, and of course she was majorly useful in fund raising).
She was very gracious to them all. And that was the last time I ever saw her in the library.
Would love to know what she was researching.
(Think I’ll change my Facebook photo to a picture of my mother in which she looks just like Scout.)
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/17 "2016-02-19T20:46:33Z")
TKAM was a book I had to read in high school, and like most such assignments I knew I’d hate it. I started reading on the weekend and barely got out of the chair until I was finished. One my top 10 list of favorite novels.
The film is perfect, kind of a Reader’s Digest Condensed version of the book. It captures the feel of the book without really changing a thing.
The scene where the trial is over and Atticus is leaving, while those in the gallery wait for him, is one of the best scenes if film. If you’ve never seen it I can’t do it justice. You either have to read it or see the film.
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### Author:  [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/18 "2016-02-19T21:50:48Z")
I must have read TKAM a dozen times between the ages of 12 and 14. It is one of the books that has meant the most to me in my life. A flawed book, a product of its time, certainly. But there is a thread of gold in that book that shines through on every page.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/19 "2016-02-19T22:07:40Z")
I still maintain that _TKaM_ is the greatest work in the history of American literature.
And while the movie is fairly faithful to the book, it also cuts a lot out. So if you like the movie, there’s more where that came from.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harper-lee-has-died-to-kill-a-mockingbird-feb-2016/746558/20 "2016-02-19T22:07:53Z")
For a long time I assumed she died before I was even born. She seemed to be from such a distant era.
We read _To Kill A Mockingbird_ in High School, but I lived in rural 1980s New Zealand so the themes did not resonate with me. I really didn’t get it.
Anyway, as someone said here when it happened, I wish they hadn’t released that second book; it ruined her mystique.
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