"The important thing in writing is... to astonish. Not shock — shock is a worn-out word — but astonish. the world has no grounds whatsoever for complacency. The Titanic couldn't sink but it did. Where you find smugness, you find something worth blasting. I want to blast it." -- Author, journalist and screenwriter Terry Southern, whose catalogue of work includes "Dr. Strangelove," "The Loved One," "The Cincinnati Kid," "Easy Rider," and "The Magic Christian." A part of what Tom Wolfe dubbed "New Journalism," Southern was an early contributor to the Paris Review, along with George Plimpton, William S. Burroughs, and other expatriates in post-WW2 Paris. For what it's worth, Southern, who died in 1995, also achieved a measure of pop culture immortality when his photo was included on the Beatles' iconic "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover.
