And it can fairly be said that Tom Disch was a writer of passion for the work. His was a literary life, a life in literature, as creator and as critic, to the very end. Nor had his skills and literary powers burned out or his love for writing and his pleasure taken in it flagged. Even The Word of God, fragmentary, formless, deliberately self-indulgent, marred on a content level by bitter score-settling, what Brian Aldiss once called “a decent despair,” and envy of Philip K. Dick, displays all of Disch's considerable literary powers and even high-spirited sense of sardonic fun.
He had good reasons to say “I can't go on,” but he had one big reason to say “I'll go on.”
So why didn't he?
Thomas M. Disch also wrote two book-length critical screeds about science fiction, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World and On SF. Neither of these were exactly love letters to the genre. Both of them were written after he left “SF” for forays into “major mainstream publications” whose numbers in these dim days pretty much ended up destroying his commercial viability as a novelist even with so-called “major SF lines.”
Damned if he did, damned if he didn't.
Thomas M. Disch wrote more speculative fiction than anything else, but he was never really an “SF writer.” His thematic and literary interests were far too deep, wide, and catholic to be comfortably contained in any genre. No devotee of “the pulp tradition” was he, and his literary toolbox was far beyond “transparent prose.”
Yet struggle against it though he did, he was confined by the SF pocket universe, unable to successfully transcend his stereotyping as a “sci-fi guy” in the realm of publishing commerce, and to a lesser extent in the wider literary realm, to which he sought entry and where he really belonged.
The irony of it being that his very literary concerns were such that as “genre SF” was the only way that his earlier fiction could be published at all, and by the time he tried to “break out” it was too late.
The bitter irony.
For at the end of his career, major SF lines now being what they have become, there was no direction home. A writer like Thomas M. Disch was not deemed commercially viable by them either.
In the end, it was “SF” that abandoned him.
“What killed science fiction?” is a question often asked these days, and the answered offered are multiplex. But the question that is the title of this essay, in the end perhaps has a simple and stark answer.
What killed Tom Disch?
SF killed Tom Disch.
It killed what should have been his last hope, the last thing he had left to live for, and so killed his spirit, and left him with nothing left to do but follow it out of this world.
And yet....
And yet while lying in bed brooding on such matters I experienced one of those glaring epiphanies that seem so obvious that you wonder why you have never seen it before. But on second thought, I understood what had blinded me to the obvious, and what had tragically blinded Tom Disch, too.
We writers of science fiction, of fantasy, of SF, are not like other writers. Most writers only meet their readers for a few moments in autograph sessions, via the occasional letters that reach them through publishers. But SF writers meet them by the hundreds, by the thousands, at SF conventions and on blog sites dedicated to our praise and/or the reverse maintained by these ingroup devotees. I have been told that Tom Disch did have some sort of blogsite that he read and posted to regularly. But I wonder what sort of people he reached on it, and more importantly, how wide a spectrum of the readers of his actual broad spectrum fiction reached him. We become embedded in the SF subculture, in fandom, unless we make deliberate efforts not to be, and even then....
We end up believing that these are our readers, that what we leave in their memories, that how we affect their lives, is our legacy, whatever footprints we may leave in the sands of time. All too many SF writers seem to believe this. I suspect Tom believed it. I believed it.
I was wrong.
Perhaps it is only fitting that it was technology that showed me I was wrong.
The Internet. My own self-created and maintained web site, where I chose to embed an email link through which I can be reached directly, and Google, where a little hacking magic causes the web site with the email link to come up first when my name is Googled. Simple and geeky as that.
And the result is that I get emails, thank you notes from people who know nothing about me but something of mine that they've read, maybe everything, maybe only a single novel or story, that had positive meaning for their lives. They know nothing of the SF subculture, nothing of BookScan numbers, sales figures, marketing strategies, the commercial apparatus of the professional life of a writer, only what the work itself has meant in their own lives.
By sales figures, they are few, maybe a thousand or so over a year, but they are only the ones sufficiently moved to write, and of course I can never know how many others who don't bother have felt the same thing.
In karmic terms, the bottom line is not the bottom line. We forget that. We are blinded not by the light but by the darkness. For is it not a greater thing than the numbers on royalty statements or the winning or losing of Hugos and Nebulas to have so touched the hearts and consciousnesses of even a few hundred people over the course of one's life so deeply? It's a gift of the nature of the work itself. How many people other than writers can be so blessed?
I am certain by the nature of his work that if Tom Disch had set up the same mechanism he would have received the same encouragement, the same blessing.
It's enough for me.
Would it not have been enough to keep him going on?
Copyright © 2009 Norman Spinrad
[Back to Table of Contents]
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Department: SF CONVENTIONAL CALENDAR
by Erwin S. Strauss
LunaCon, MidSouthCon, MillenniCon and CoastCon (the 20th to 22nd of March) are oriented toward our kind of SF. Plan now for social weekends with your favorite SF authors, editors, artists, and fellow fans. For an explanation of con(vention)s, a sample of SF folksongs, and info on fanzines and clubs, send me an SASE (self-addressed, stamped #10 [business] envelope) at 10 Hill #22-L, Newark NJ 07102. The hot line is (973) 242-5999. If a machine answers (with a list of the week's cons), leave a message and I'll call back on my nickel. When writing cons, send an SASE. For free listings, tell me of your con 5 months out. Look for me at cons behind the Filthy Pierre badge, playing a musical keyboard.—Erwin S. Strauss
MARCH 2009
6-8—MarsCon. For info, write: Box 21213, Eagan MN 55121. Or phone: (651) 339-0397 (10 AM to 10 PM, not collect). (Web) marscon.org. (E-mail) [email protected]. Con will be held in: Bloomington MN (if city omitted, same as in address) at the Holiday Inn. Guests will include: Scott Rosema, Suzanne Hiza-Rosema, Jeanne Cavelos, Wally Pleasant. Low-key relaxacon.
6-8—ConSonance. consonance.org. Crowne Plaza, Milpitas CA. Dockrey, Fabris, Bertke, Sampson. SF/fantasy folksinging.
6-8—Creation. (818) 409-0960. creationent.com. Crowne Plaza, Cherry Hill NJ. Commercial media-oriented event.
6-8—ChimaeraCon. chimaeracon.com. Crossroads Convention Center, San Antonio TX. Gaming, anime, SF fantasy.
6-8—VulKon. (954) 888-9697. vulkon.com. Hilton North, Orlando FL. Media-oriented commercial event.
7—Time Quest. tenthplanetevents.co.uk. London UK. Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Nicholas Courtney. Dr. Who.
12-15—Anime Oasis. animeoasis.org. [email protected]. Airport Holiday Inn, Boise ID.
13-15—All-Con. (817) 472-6368. all-con.org. Crowne Plaza, Addison (Dallas) TX. Emphasizing media and costuming.
13-15—StellarCon. stellarcon.org. Radisson, Greensboro NC. Wold, Stout, Wick, Pederson, Brinegar, Dan Johnson, Maxey.
13-15—Corflu. corflu.org. Hotel Deca, Seattle WA. “A convention for fanzine fans,” especially old-time fanzines.
13-15—Wizard World. (954) 565-6588. wizardworld.com. Convention
Center. Los Angeles CA. Big comics/media event.
13-15—Fear Fest. fearfest.com. Mesquite (Dallas) TX. Horror media.
13-15—Monster Mania. (856) 307-9124. monstermania.net. Crowne Plaza, Cherry Hill NJ. T. Hooper, F. Balk. Horror film.
13-16—RevelCon. severalunlimited.com/revelcon. Houston TX. Long-time convention for fans of adult media fanzines.
18-22—ICFA, Box 3701, Youngstown OH 44513. iafa.org. Airport Marriott, Orlando FL. B. Aldiss. Academic conference.
19-22—Furry Weekend, Box 1511, Madison AL 35758. furryweekend.com. Hilton, Atlanta GA. Ebel. Anthropomorphics.
20-22—LunaCon, Box 432, New York NY 10465. lunacon.org. Hilton, Rye Brook NY. Freer, Dixon, Lackey, Flint, Grossman.
20-22—MidSouthCon, Box 17724, Memphis TN 38187. midsouthcon.org. Olive Branch MS. Mike Resnick, Vincent Di Fate.
20-22—MillenniCon, 5818 Wilmington Pike, #122, Centerville OH 45459. (513) 659-2258. Cincinnati OH. Scalzi, T. Smith.
20-22—CoastCon, Box 1423, Biloxi MS 39533. coastcon.org. Coliseum. D. Weber, M. Moorcock, L. Brom, K. Burnside.
20-22—FantaSciCon, 395 Stancil Rd., Rossville GA 30741. fantascicon.com. Howard Johnson's Plaza, Chattanooga TN.
26-29—AggieCon, Cepheid Variable (958460), Box 5688, College Station TX 77844. (979) 268-3068. aggiecon.tamu.edu.
27-29—Ad Astra, Box 7276, Toronto ON M5W 1X9. ad-astra.org. Crowne Plaza Don Valley. D. Drake, T. Pierce, T. Zahn.
27-29—Leap Back, Box 7122, Mt. Airy NC 27030. leapback2009.com. Los Angeles CA. Bakula, Stockwell. Quantum Leap.
27-29—Naruto-Star Trek Con, Box 970131, Boca Raton FL 33497. (561) 479-3872. Ft. Lauderdale FL. Anime/Trek.
27-29—PortmeiriCon, 871 Clover Dr., N. Wales PA 19454. portmeiricon.com. Portmeirion, UK. “The Prisoner” TV show.
28—WASFEn Con, 520 Hamilton #3, Wausau WI 54403. (715) 571-1873. myspace.com/wasfen. SF, comics, gaming.
APRIL 2009
3-5—ICon, Box 550, Stony Brook NY 11790. iconsf.org. Suffolk C. C. College, Brentwood NY. Thousands expected.
3-5—WillyCon, S. C. #103, WSC, 1111 Main, Wayne NE 68797. wildcat.wsc.edu/clubs/willycon. Wayne State College.
3-5—FILKONtario, 145 Rice Ave. #98, Hamilton ON L9C 6R3. filkontario.ca. Delta, Mississauga ON. SF/F folksinging.
AUGUST 2009
6-10—Anticipation, CP 105, Montreal QC H4A 3P4. anticipationsf.ca. Gaiman, Hartwell, Doherty. WorldCon. US$/C$215+.
SEPTEMBER 2010
2-6—Aussiecon 4, GPO Box 1212, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia. aussiecon4.org.au. World SF Convention. US$90+.
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Visit www.dellmagazines.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.
Asimov's SF, April-May 2009 Page 36
