The Life and Works of John M Ford Panel at Anticipation

[papersky.livejournal.com]

It went very well. We had quite a big room that was absolutely packed, standing room only, and people were standing. Teresa talked about editing Mike, and moderated and kept everything moving splendidly. Guest of Honour David Hartwell talked about Mike's early career and how he was to work with -- I'd never heard that he lost a finger making a deadline, or that he and S.P. Somtow worked at Asimov's at the same time. He also talked about The Dragon Waiting and what a splendid tour de force it is. Neil Gaiman, also a Guest of Honor, talked about Mike as a friend and a colleague, how Mike could make him laugh until he cried and how he used to send his work to Mike who could always see what was wrong with it. (If the room was packed with people who had come to see Neil, I think they got to see him at his best, and I'm sure they went away filled with an urge to read John M. Ford.) Patrick also talked about editing Mike and read some lovely bits from Making Light -- the Casablanca Seuss parody ("So hit the ivories, Sam-I-Am") and the Against Entropy sonnet. Harriet talked about how important Mike was to her and to her late husband Jim (Robert Jordan), and about how she edited Scholars of Night and inspired the story "Scrabble With God". I talked about how I asked Mike if I could use the word "skazlorls" from that in a novel I was writing at the time, and how he said it was using a twenty ton hammer to crack a very small walnut, but that I was welcome. I also talked a little about his importance to the gaming world, about his work for Paranoia and GURPS and Traveller. A Klingon from the audience gave a moving tribute. Beth Meacham, another of Mike's editors, stole the show by reading two of the unpublished "Aspects" sonnets.

I'd taken my copies of all his books, and we put them on the table as a display and waved them around at the appropriate points. David mentioned how innovative Web of Angels and Princes of the Air were, Neil read his song from How Much For Just the Planet -- I think all the books and poetry collections were mentioned. We also talked a little about Elise, and how she kept Mike alive for years longer than he would otherwise have managed. (Get well soon, Elise, we missed you at the panel!)

At the end, Jon Singer asked from the audience if anyone could tell Mike's bar joke. Nobody on the panel felt confident that they could, so my husband Emmet came up from the audience and told it into the microphone.

Heisenberg, Goedel and Chomsky walk into a bar. Heisenberg says "This is very odd and improbably, and I wonder if we might be in a joke, but I can't be certain." Goedel says "Well, if we were outside the joke we would know, but since we're inside the joke, there's no way of determining whether or not we're in a joke." And Chomsky says "Of course this is a joke, but you're telling it wrong!"

The audience erupted in delighted laughter. I remember Mike telling us that joke in a Minicon some years ago, and it's been one of Emmet's favourite jokes ever since. It's so characteristic of Mike -- it assumes background knowledge from more than one field to really get it, but for those who do get it the payoff is delicious.

I think the panel went about as well as it could have.

Comments

[grahamsleight.livejournal.com]

Very glad to hear it.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the excellent report. I'm really glad the panel went so well.

And I will try to remember the bar joke :-).

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for this. I wondered how it would go, it sounds as if it was delightful. I've had Mike on my mind all week, so many of his friends celebrating his work and introducing it to others, that makes me smile.

I need a tissue, though.

[(Anonymous)]

...need a tissue....

You're not alone. There were several times during the panel -- especially after the readings from The Hearse Song, the Aspect sonnets, and Against Entropy, when one could see on the faces of the panelists the effort to contain tears, even as one felt it oneself and had a sense of the room feeling the same way.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear it. It sounds like a truly magnificent event.

[pameladean]

Thank you so much.

He didn't literally lose a finger; he just lost most of the use of it. When Joel Rosenberg used to bully me into bullying Mike to see a doctor, he always used that anecdote to persuade me.

P.

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

You go with what you've got. He wasn't looking after himself -- he always had reasons -- and he would listen to you; I'd gone to that well too often, and the light touch never worked for me in getting Mike to take care of himself. I can't prove it, but I think that the medical care that you, Elise, Felicia, Lynn and Victor (as well as others, I'm sure) reminded, nagged, prevailed upon, and bullied him to get extended his life by at least several years. I'd have preferred more years, but I think we all did pretty well by him, all in all -- when I met him during the Black Period, he was turning thirty, and pretty sure he wasn't going to get much older. (Orthogonally: he told me how he ruined his hand the first night we met, after his bizarre introduction.)

Still, I'm sorry about the bullying. I'd much rather have reasoned with him on the subject, but...

I miss that guy.

[pameladean]

There's nothing to apologize for. Mike needed to see a doctor, and I needed to be persuaded to persuade him. It's all good.

P.

[pameladean]

Well, except for there not being still more years. But we did the best we could. And don't leave yourself out of the reckoning. I am quite sure that that Fourth of July trip to the ER saved his life.

P.

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

Okay, okay, I stand corrected: "the light touch almost never worked." Then again, he was going to the ER that time, and I think he knew it. (This is Mike, after all: he later explained like it felt like the opening of one of the Platonic Dialogues, where it's explained to Socrates that it really didn't matter how persuasive he was, as nobody was going to listen this time. I'm pretty sure he was saying thanks, but with Mike, you almost always did have to figure it out for yourself.)

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I almost feel like I was there!

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

It was incredibly powerful and moving, and did about as good a job as I can imagine of showing forth what a protean figure Mike was. That is, even for those of us in the audience who only knew him from Making Light and from absorbing all the stories and tributes after his death, the panel seemed to hold up to the light each of the major facets of the man, so one could contemplate it for a moment, and then moved on. Ave atque vale.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Heee....I had to go wake up my boyfriend and tell him the joke. (He's supposed to be up anyway.)

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the panel; it was a moving tribute.

I need to drop Mike's books back in the queue for re-reading.

And I'll have to remember that joke. I have a couple of social circles who'd appreciate it.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

According to one of the people at the NESFA Press booth, about 10 minutes after the panel ended they sold out of From the End of the Twentieth Century -- something like 8 copies. And they got some Internet orders.