Memory and Time
One of the pleasures of working on NYRSF is our weekly meetings, which are held at the offices of Tor Books in The Historic Flatiron Building^tm. A few months ago, I was walking down the hall and spotted Jim Frenkel, in for one of his quarterly visits from the wilds of Wisconsin, and we fell to talking. At one point, he mentioned that he had known one of his authors since before she was his assistant at Bluejay Books. We both laughed, because that was a long time ago--Bluejay lasted for about 3 years in the early 1980s, oh god, we're all so so old.
Later he mentioned his wife, who is the legendary Joan Vinge. And I had a weird realization that in some part of my brain I still think of Joan as a "new" writer... because she was a hot new writer just as I was starting to read science fiction seriously, just under 40 years ago. The 3 Vs of the 1970s--Joan Vinge, John Varley, and Vonda McIntyre--will forever be in my brain as "those hot youngsters" purely by the accident of me discovering them just as their careers took hold. Writers who came into prominence later--the early '80s hotshot whipper-snappers like Connie Willis, Karen Joy Fowler, and the Ace Specials Musketeers of William Gibson, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Lucius Shepard--still have a faint glimmer of "aren't these guys pretty recent?" but by the time they came along, my brain had adapted to the idea that new writers were a part of the life of the field.
Not sure if this has any significance beyond "Wow, memory plays many silly tricks with time." But, uh, memory plays many silly tricks with time.
Later he mentioned his wife, who is the legendary Joan Vinge. And I had a weird realization that in some part of my brain I still think of Joan as a "new" writer... because she was a hot new writer just as I was starting to read science fiction seriously, just under 40 years ago. The 3 Vs of the 1970s--Joan Vinge, John Varley, and Vonda McIntyre--will forever be in my brain as "those hot youngsters" purely by the accident of me discovering them just as their careers took hold. Writers who came into prominence later--the early '80s hotshot whipper-snappers like Connie Willis, Karen Joy Fowler, and the Ace Specials Musketeers of William Gibson, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Lucius Shepard--still have a faint glimmer of "aren't these guys pretty recent?" but by the time they came along, my brain had adapted to the idea that new writers were a part of the life of the field.
Not sure if this has any significance beyond "Wow, memory plays many silly tricks with time." But, uh, memory plays many silly tricks with time.