Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion
Joke
This really makes no sense. Maybe that's why I like it.
An hour or so past midnight, in a small town, the constable sees one of the town's citizens wandering around aimlessly with wild staring eyes.
The constable approaches him and asks, "Why are you wandering around the town aimlessly at this hour?"
The man answers, "If I knew that, I would have been in bed hours ago!"
Hi, everyone. I have not read any of Mr. Disch's work, yet. But I feel badly for him, his family and all here. Other than that, I don't know what to say. Doc, sorry to here re your mom. My heart echos with sadness for you. My mom died in 02, and it still hurts to think of the loss. But I'm sure you know that it does get better with time, and the love and support of friends and family. Shagin, you were much on my mind last night. I sent out a hug through the vapors to you. The first few months for me were very hard. If it would help you to talk, please use the Email. It may take me two or three days to respond but I will. And that note on your writing, it's actually a compliment. In my understanding, (limited very limited), they don't respond back unless they want you to keep working and submitting. Also, it's just that person's opinion that the other story was better. A different person might have the contrary opinion. I was rereading some of Mr. King's stuff last night. In the intro, he was discussing the joy and the heartache of writing. And I concurred. Writing fiction and poetry is about the only activity I know that is both a deep, deep joy, and a bleeding agony at the same damn time. Barney, while I totally agree that we have lost two many of the good the last couple of years, sometimes acknowledging the loss together helps to ease the pain, and to keep the dear ones in our thoughts and hearts. It is a way to honor them. But in the event of my highly unlikely early demise, (some would say overdue, like the Skokie village attorney, probably), I want all I know to have the biggest party possible on me. As a much much better poet than I am said, " No longer mourn for me ...". Life is a kick and a joy. Not 24 7. But so much of the time. I read a good book "The Host", by a female author whose name escapes me. It's science fiction and also a love story. Good read. Bye all. Stay well and happy. Oh I have a joke. Please remember much of my time is spent with my niece and nephew, 7 and 4. How many monkeys does it take to change the light bulb at the zoo? None, silly. That's the giraffe's job. That one cracked me up. I giggle easy.
It is always difficult with the loss of a friend or family member. We need to take time to mourn their passing, but most importantly we need to remember and keep dear the good times and experiences we have had with that person. Death is part of life, we cannot allow ourselves to be so afraid of losng that person that we hesitate to make a friemd. Those friendships are what get us through life with someone by our side to share our joys and sorrows. I am very glad for those in mine.
Harlan & Susan:
I meant to call today... Figured peace and quiet (at least from me) was more respectful. Our sincere condolences. We'll talk soon. Take care, Tim
HARLAN-
Sorry, Harlan. I didn't realize I was perpetrating a 'boning'. I only asked a second time because I didn't hear anything after I asked initially. You know I'm eager to get it into my grubby hands, but it comes when it comes. I shan't bother you about it again.
EVERYONE-
What Thomas Disch novel would be a good starting point? Everyone seems to speak highly of _On Wings of Song_, so I was considering that as a first read. Thoughts?
Thanks.
--
Ryan
Keep slugging away, shagin.
Tom Morgan:
I'm afraid I can't get to you at the address tjmorgan58@cox.net, though I tried using three different accounts. Your provider always sends me back the messages. Can you figure out what's wrong? May I contact you in some other way?
Thanks.
The Left-Handed Compliment
Summing up a rejection I received today: "This story is similar to someone else's. Your's was very good, but the other was better. Try us again later."
Um...thanks?
Back to writing now.
shagin
The NY Times obituary for Disch:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/books/08disch.html
And the week gets worse...
We've lost another fine writer and a terrific guy:
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/rnw-news-wetering-author-dutch
Barney, we are not like Locus, take it back! They don't take charge of their breath at Locus, we do, or you do.
Best that we read some Disch, the only way to remember a writer. They live on that way.
---------------
Dorman, you are American, right?
Barney & Twain
Hey B, if you don't find it, let me know. My dad subscribes to Time and I'll purloin his copy.
Thomas Disch. Damn.
I can't say Disch was a _huge_ influence on me, or a major favorite writer. I met him briefly at a Philcon perhaps two decades ago. He'd spoken about how a lot of science fiction fell into standard models of things like galactic empires, and afterward, I asked him if he could recommend something that might be a good alternative. He suggested I hunt down some Soviet science fiction. I did, and thus broadened my outlook (I hope)... but later on, when I'd read such works as _Camp Concentration_ and his amazing colection _Getting Into Death_, I couldn't help but wonder if Disch was enjoying a little irony at the expense of an earnest fanboy.
I really liked his critical survey of the field, _The Dreams Our Stuff is Made of_. For one thing, it kind of mirrored some of my own ambivalences about the field, while providing some insights that I wouldn't have come up with on my own. I remember discussing the book-- or, rather, _trying_ to discuss the book with fans I knew. The ones who read outside the field were sympathetic, while the ones who read exclusively _in_ the field felt the need to shout the usual defenses.
Disch was someone who existed in two worlds that tended to be pretty exclusive. He was an excellent writer of dark, ironic fantasy. He was also a fine theater critic for _The Nation_, so he had an audience among the NYC literati, but I think he was pretty aware that these were two nations that could never really erase borders. While it's not rare to have practitioners of SF who appreciate other areas of the arts, Disch wore this cosmopolitan view on his sleeve more than most. But Disch engaged with SF in ways that most people didn't. Every time I read him, I was enriched in some way.
(No, I don't think this is what prompted his final actions.)
I truly wish that he could have escaped what was driving him downward in his last years.
Death and TWAIN and Dannelke
It's the "next day" but not 24 hours. Sorry. I've been away and I'll be away again so I'm crowding this response.
*** DTS *** It warms me in a way I cannot define that my uber-Twain geekiness reputation is now preceding me on other continents. I don't subscribe to TIME but I must have had a dozen people ask me if I had seen this in the last 24 hours. So far I've been offered on well rolled and stained coffee shop copy. If I get out to a certain chain book store tonight I'll see if there's one left. If not and anyone has a really nice and lives in the USA and wants to ship it to me Media Mail when they are done with it I would appreciate it.
319 North 8th Street
Allentown, PA. 18102
(an even worse kept secret than Harlan's.) ;-)
ALL you will get is a thank you as I am daughter-in-college tapped out these days. Yes, I will take multiple copies. It's my sickness. Look away if you must but do not mock me. Am I not human? Do I not bleed? Don't test that last part, thank you.
---------------------------------------------
In other magazine news the Obama interview in the most recent Rolling Stone is Very Good and I recommend it. As was his speech yesterday on the economy. All networks dropped it when it went to Q&A so they could do the Madonna story. A recipe for Dannelke cranial implosion but I'm getting used to it.
And now, back to bronchitis and book packing.
Hugs. - Barney
Can I just say I'm breaking up with 2008. This year has done very little but suck in the big term. Sigh.
Ahh well. Some humor. In the vein of the Doc's joke. Same scenario, guy goes to the beach with some friends, sans wife. Kicker is, its a nude beach. He ends up falling asleep, counting sweater puppys as they go by, sans pants. He wakes up, not sans sand in his crack, but also not sans a hell of a sunburn over his entire body. Yes, there too. He gets home, and decides not to tell his wife what kind of beach he was at. She insists on a bit of "marital duty", and, to keep his secret, he grins and bears the pain. Later, he heads to the kitchen, and grabs a glass of milk. Taking a sip, he thinks to himself how cool it feels on his lips, and quickly dips his throbbing member (only time you'll see that phrase used non sexually) in the cool refreshing drink. A sigh of relief passes his lips, to be answered by a chuckle. He looks up, to see his wife staring at him, grinning. "So", she says, " Thats how you refill that thing".
Deep condolences to any and all who knew Thomas Disch.
________________________
Dorman, it was last Friday's issue of TIME, and you're right to note that it's a must-read for everyone.
Death and Dannelke
BARNEY: It may be too little in the assuagement dept., but when looking to another writer who (has long since) passed on, "Time" at least did a good job of celebrating Mark Twain in their Jl 14th issue (I think we get the magazine a bit later Down Under, so if I'm relaying old news, c'est la vie).
Condolences all around regarding the death Thomas M. Disch.
-DTS
R.I.P., Thomas M. Disch
Words can't express how sorry I am for Thomas Disch and those who loved him. I only knew him through his work, the numerous interviews I've read and from reading his blog. To hear that he's gone now, and to read the circumstances that contributed to his passing, saddens me more than I can say.
I've loved so many of his books. I thought ON WINGS OF SONG was brilliant. Also, THE M.D. THE DREAMS OUR STUFF IS MADE OF. A paperback copy of FUNDAMENTAL DISCH sits on my nightstand, where it's been sitting for months. I dip into it occasionally, when I need to hear the voice of a different erudite, irascible, and altogether brilliant writer.
To think his voice is now silent, just...goddamn.
I'm too torn up about the loss of Disch to speak to it much. I positively dread coming to this board now that it's become some instantaneous version of the last few pages of LOCUS combined with whoever the hell else has shuffled off according to celebrity deathwatch and Google.
I mean it makes perfect sense that Thomas Disch is noted here. The Dangerous Visions alumni connection makes that a solid requirement. And if it makes someone pull down CAMP CONCENTRATION or one of his volumes of poetry - I'm pretty sure I'm the ONLY person in Allentown PA with three books of his poetry - then at least there is a balance to this heartache - but do we have to note ALL these passings? All of them? Really?
Nobody has mentioned this book that I've seen, but if you can find a copy of Disch and Naylor's NEIGHBORING LIVES, it is just a brilliant way to do literary biography and one of my keeper/models. Plus, you don't know really know how vengeful and petty some literati can be until you see it through the lens of Carlyle.
Anyway, Tom may have had a reputation as a curmudgeon but he was warm enough to me when I met him and we traded head shaving anecdotes back in the late 1980's. It hits me hard that at the end of the day THIS is how true talent is often rewarded. Rest in peace Tom.
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Helms had 25 people show up for the initial viewing this morning. That's five less people than the 30 endless years he spent tarnishing my image of what America is supposed to be. I will take something good away from that. Because that is exactly the sort of mean spirited prick I am.
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Damn it Harlan - once again I am so very sorry for your loss.
I would very much like to stop doing this now. And I was ready to stop 15 years ago. And they haven't even gotten near my circle yet.
- Barney Dannelke
Poppy Z. Brite said on July 5:
"Years before Harlan Ellison became my Uncle Harlan, I was fortunate enough to see him do a public speaking gig at the University of North Carolina. At one point he went into a deadly riff about our wingnut senator, Jesse Helms.
"Hey, you don't have to live with him!" someone in the audience shouted.
"Neither do you," Ellison shot back."
On May 26, she wished a list of people a Happy Birthday, including Harlan.
http://docbrite.livejournal.com/
Thanatoglitch
Due to a clerical error, the following accounts have been inadvertently deleted: K. Vonnegut, G. Carlin, T. Disch, H.S. Thompson, R. Altman, L. Vandross, A. C. Clarke, A. Bancroft, N. Mailer, S. Bellow, O. Butler, S. Winston, B. Diddley, G. Parks, S. Lem, J. Anderson, I. Bergman, G. Paley, J. Doohan and R. Pryor; while the following delinquent accounts, earmarked for deletion, remain in the system...
The Management offers its sincere apologies and asks that you kindly bear with us until the mixup is rectified.
I know what you mean
I often wake up and say to myself, "Shit, Mike Cobley is alive?!"
Don tells me he has much the same experience.
Then we remember that you "live" in Scotland. That seems punishment enough.
Another slice of haggis?
Thomas M. Disch
Damn, damn, damn, fuck, fuck, fuck.
All I can say is that I have an idea of where Mr. Disch was prior to his death. I've been in that dark place, and I know how the despair, the emptiness and the pain feels. Sometimes you'll do anything to make it stop.
My heart goes out to all those touched by the loss of Thomas M. Disch.
Chuck
Tom Disch
This is just awful news. Why can`t I wake up one morning and find out that Karl Rove has departed this vale, or Rumsfeld?
How desperate must TD have been?
Extremely sad to hear of Tom Disch's passing. I though 334 was superb and had a pipe dream to adapt Casablanca. I kept meaning to email and tell him how much I admired his work. Such a tragic waste and a pity that he felt so alone to do this. One hope that he's found whatever peace he was seeking. Such a waste. Poor, poor man.
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