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A sort of beautiful, restful peace.
The UK memorial of John M Ford - and the man himself - is described here.
Quite apart from being a beautiful description, it makes me wish I had read more of his work before now - I've only read a very few pieces, a few years ago. Do any of you know his work at all?
Without the self-conscious distinction of fandom, would strangers have gathered in an upper room to remember him?
It did seem a curiously religious gathering; but not in any obvious sense. What makes science fiction a slightly religious activity is not that its lovers believe, or pretend to believe, in things that don't exist. They do. But religions are concerned with communities as much as myths. If you believe the right things, or if your imagination has been caught in the right way, then you become part of a community, with obligations, feuds and secrets just like a more conventional religion.
It is just what such a piece of writing should be - happy, and reflective, and important, somehow.
Quite apart from being a beautiful description, it makes me wish I had read more of his work before now - I've only read a very few pieces, a few years ago. Do any of you know his work at all?
Without the self-conscious distinction of fandom, would strangers have gathered in an upper room to remember him?
It did seem a curiously religious gathering; but not in any obvious sense. What makes science fiction a slightly religious activity is not that its lovers believe, or pretend to believe, in things that don't exist. They do. But religions are concerned with communities as much as myths. If you believe the right things, or if your imagination has been caught in the right way, then you become part of a community, with obligations, feuds and secrets just like a more conventional religion.
It is just what such a piece of writing should be - happy, and reflective, and important, somehow.