Friday, July 7th, 2006

Time	Event
12:12p	rich brown I first met rich when I was 17 years old. It was at a Fanoclast meeting in New York City. I was young and impressionable, and he took a mischievous delight in plonking me: by pretending that he was a real representative of Ayn Rand's "John Galt Society." This probably sounds absurd by reality-quotient standards for today's 17-year-olds. You had to be there. If there were still a good Internet link to it, I would point you to rich's scholarly article in the 1990s, which explained how the true and actual S. Morgenstern used "William Goldman" as a pen name -- publishing "The Princess Bride" as a PR stunt to promote his masterwork, "The Silent Gondoliers." rich was a good friend to me for all of my life. He was also really a butthead, sometimes, in fanzines and online communication. His closest friends will readily acknowledge this. Face-to-face, rich had a large and generous soul. Sometimes, this fact managed to shine through in his fanwriting -- along with a wry sense of humor. I'm happy that people are remembering that side of him, now. He was always ready to buy the next round in the bar or treat you to dinner, while explaining the intricacies of style in John Myers Myers' Silverlock -- or the cumulative paradoxes and plot flaws in Quantum Leap, Star Trek or Firefly. To those who knew rich only from periodic bombastic tirades, all I can say is this: I don't think he ever understood that opinions and denunciations in fannish print had the power to upset people in their actual lives. rich looked at s-f fandom the way that fan-fiction shippers look at their stories: as a large parallel universe to escape into with his friends -- where they (we) could make the rules. In person, rich was introspective and considerate, often willing to acknowledge that he'd allowed himself to be carried away in the "paper world." He would typically express surprise that people took the things he said in fanzines or online seriously, since he didn't take them seriously himself *outside of the world of fandom.* I believe this fan world/real world dichotomy in rich's thinking is what managed to alienate him, so much, from some people in the modern s-f community. S-F Fandom Challenge No. 2814: find the operant domain where the Knight of La Mancha is a good spirit guide, not a pain in the ass. (12 Comments | Comment on this)
11:36p	Brief movie commentary: A Scanner Darkly This one is a real PKD movie. I have some nitpicky quibbles with the direction of the actors, especially in the first fifteen minutes. But, eventually, either they all fall into their characters or my brain gets tired of going "Cut! This scene needs more *punctuation*." It's only an excerpted montage of the book, but 99% of it is Phil Dick's words -- and they chose all the right scenes. Arctor, Luckman, and Barris discovering Donna's roach in the ashtray is perfectly executed. Keanu Reeves really looks too young for Bob Arctor. But Woody Harrelson nails the Barris character. [[7-9-06: Barris is nailed by Robert Downey, Jr. Harrelson plays Ernie Luckman ]] Winona Ryder was also very good, even though she says she had no idea what the movie was all about. (See here.) Richard Linklater (the director) inserted one plot twist toward the end of the movie that I never picked up in the novel. I'm going to have to go back and reread it to see if that was really in there. By the way, the speaker notes for the Potlatch 14 "A Scanner Darkly" panel, featuring Bruce Gillespie and Grania Davis, are still around at the Potlatch website. Can't pimp this too often, after all the time I spent transcribing and posting the stuff. (1 Comment | Comment on this)

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