(urth) Seattle report

[Michael Straight]

Never fear, Roy.  I was just busy comparing notes with Mantis.

I'll start with the award banquet.  Neil Stephenson was the MC. He was
brief but very funny.  Unfortunately, he didn't have anything to say
about any of the inductees, including Wolfe.  There were two
posthumous awards, artist Ed Emshwiller and Gene Roddenberry.  Wil
Wheaton was there to introduce Roddenberry, whose award was accepted
by Roddenberry's son.  Wheaton gave a little paean to the Star Trek
ethos and I had to wonder what Wolfe thought of it all, since I see
Wolfe's body of work as a pretty strong rebuke to that kind of
optimistic humanism.

Wheaton also told a moving story of how when his character, Wesley,
was (in the show) promoted to ensign, Roddenberry took his own ensign
bars from Roddenberry's actual military service and gave them to
Wheaton.  Wheaton said, "Gene had told me that Wesley Crusher was the
closest he had come to writing himself into the show. I was only
filling Gene's shoes as an actor, but you [speaking to Roddenberry's
son] more than anyone else have filled his shoes and carried on his
legacy in real life." And then he passed Roddenberry's ensign bars
along to his son.  Pretty classy thing to do, I thought.

Ripley Scott was filming in Europe and so Wolfe was the only inductee
actually present to receive his award.  David Hartwell introduced
Wolfe.  He told about how when he left one of his first publishing
houses, he was allowed to take one writer with him.  Wolfe had
published Fifth Head and Hartwell had seen drafts of Shadow of the
Torturer.  So when Hartwell told them he wanted to take an author who
was working on an intellectual, literary SF book, the suits all broke
into grins and shook his hand.  Of course, Wolfe went on to win the
Nebula award soon after.

Hartwell said that in his professional opinion, Wolfe's body of short
fiction is unequaled by anyone alive. He also mentioned that Wolfe had
a book published almost every year since the 1970s.

We'd heard each presenter explain why each inductee's stand-in was the
appropriate person to accept the award in his place. So then Wolfe
came up for his award and said (paraphrasing):

"I'm not the most appropriate person to receive an award for Gene
Wolfe.  There are many people here who know him much better than I do:
his wife Rosemary, his daughter Teri, David Hartwell, Gardner Dozois,
Michael Andre-Driussi.  I know Gene Wolfe as a scared little man,
always groping around for an idea he can use.  Not just an idea, but
one that will bear fruit.  I might plant it, but it is the sun and the
rain and the soil and God that do most of the work to make it grow.
This is one of the greatest honors of my entire life and standing here
before you I feel shaken to my very core, so I hope you will forgive
me if I do not stand here any longer."

I gather Mantis felt pretty honored to receive a shout-out from Wolfe
in that context.

I'll post more later about meeting Wolfe and hearing about the books
he's currently working on.

Rostrum