Greg Bear, RIP: Three Ways In Which He Bettered My Life

                          Greg Bear -- File 770

Greg Bear, author of more than 50 science fiction books, left us yesterday at the too-young age of 71.  I'll leave it to others to detail the superb, riveting stories he told us in those books, and tell you instead about three significant ways he had a personal impact on my life.  I was always happy to run into him at a science fiction convention, but these three encounters were more than that.

1.  I wrote a review somewhere of the Foundation prequel trilogy Gregory Benford (Foundation's Fear), Greg Bear (Foundation and Chaos), and David Brin (Foundation's Triumph) -- or maybe it was just a comment on some board -- at the end of the 1990s, a few years after Isaac Asimov's death.   I said that I enjoyed all three novels, but, surprisingly, Greg Bear's was the best.  (I guess I was surprised because I expected that all three would be so good it wouldn't be so easy to rank them.) Greg and I had already been in occasional touch -- he had been President of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1988-1990, and I was President of SFWA from 1998-2001 -- and I got a genial email response from Greg almost immediately after my review/comment was published.  "Why are you surprised?"

There was something refreshing and reassuring about those four words that immediately struck me.  I was already egotistical -- most writers are -- but Greg's response, in addition to making me laugh, showed me how right and important it was to stand up for yourself when circumstances called for that.  Modesty isn't all it's cracked up to be.

2. In February 2002, I received a package in the mail.  It contained a videotape made by Jay Kensinger, of a short movie he had made of my 1995 novelette, "The Chronology Protection Case," first published in Analog Magazine, already reprinted then in several places, and a finalist for the Nebula and Sturgeon Awards.  Jay apologized in the letter for not letting me know he was making this movie, not seeing if he needed some contract with me, etc.  He included his phone number, and when I called him, eager to talk to this guy who had made a movie from my story, he again profusely apologized and told me he had walked up to Greg Bear at a book signing, said how worried he was that I was going to be upset that he had made the movie without my permission, but he wanted to contact me and what did Greg think he should do?  He told me Greg gave him a big smiled and assured him, "I know Paul Levinson and he'll be nothing but thrilled."  Greg knew me well.  (And he knew himself  -- he had the heart and soul of a writer.)   You can watch the movie here, on Amazon Prime Video.

3. As I mentioned, Greg and I first got to know each other when I was President of SFWA, 1998-2001, and I sought his advice on a variety of issues, as a former President.  Greg and I agreed on just about everything, including that it was no fun at all being president of a writer's organization -- certainly a small fraction of the fun of being a writer.  I learned then a lesson that I learned once again when I was Chair of my Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University shortly after, from 2002-2008.   Don't do it.  Administration doesn't combine well with the creative process.

There are few people in my life from whom I learned so much, and was so fortunate to have known, than Greg Bear.  Rest in peace, my friend.

my Readercon 30 schedule Quincy, MA, July 12–14, 2019

July 12, 5:00 PM Salon 4 • Fascism as a Genre • Gillian Daniels, Ruthanna Emrys, Paul Levinson (moderator), Howard Waldrop Many thinkers have approached fascism as storytelling. In 1936, Walter Benjamin wrote, “The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life.” Umberto Eco’s 1995 essay “Ur-Fascism” considered this approach. And in 2018, Nick Harkaway tweeted, “Part of the danger of Fascism is that it’s less an agenda and more a style.” How can the lens of genre help us understand and combat fascism in the present era? What would anti-fascist aesthetics look like, and how can we write them into speculative fiction?

10:30 PM Salon 3 • Meet the Pros(e) Each writer at this party has selected a short, pithy quotation from their own work and is armed with a sheet of 30 printed labels, the quote replicated on each. As attendees mingle, the request “May I have a sticker?” provides a convenient icebreaker for tongue-tied fans approaching the pros whose work they love. Rearrange stickers to make a poem or statement, wear them as decoration, or simply enjoy the opportunity to meet and chat with your favorite writers.

July 13, 12:00 PM (Noon) Salon 3 • The Implications of SFWA’s Rate Increase • Scott H. Andrews, Pablo Defendini, Michael J. DeLuca (moderator), Paul Levinson, Romie Stott SFWA will be be raising their designated qualifying rate for fiction from 6 to 8 cents per word in September. It might seem a small change, but it has the potential to alter the field significantly for a lot of writers, readers, editors, and publishers. This panel, led by Michael J. DeLuca, will discuss what the change means for specific markets, who’ll be able to meet the new rate, who benefits and who doesn’t, and how this relates to the broader economic and political climate. This session has CART real-time captioning.

July 14, 11:30 AM Salon C • Reading: Paul Levinson - I'll be reading, for the first time in public, my new alternate-reality Beatles short story, "It's Real Life"

12:00 PM (Noon) Autograph Table • Autographs: Paul Levinson, Dianna Sanchez

More details here - come on by!

Reading at Galactic Philadelphia: Out of this World

Hey, I don't usually post reviews of my own readings at science fiction conventions, bookstores, and libraries,  but the Galactica Philadelphia event tonight at the Free Library of Philadelphia featured not only me but the best-selling fantasy novelist Sarah Beth Durst, so I think that makes it ok for me to review it.  Even if not, I still want to tell you what a great time we both had, doing our respective readings, and afterwards at the Kite and Key (pub), sitting next to and trading stories with Lawrence M. Schoen and Sally Wiener Grotta, who organized the event, which was sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

First, it was wonderful to be part of a double-bill with Sarah, whom I first met at conventions and book signings at the beginning of the 21st-century, when, as she so aptly put it, she was "dreaming" of writing and publishing her first book.  Wow, did she succeed.  She now has more than twenty novels of adult, YA, and middle school fantasy in print, and read tonight from her latest, The Deepest Blue.   It's a beautiful, vivid, watercolor gem of a story.

On the subject of watercolor, I read from Marilyn and Monet, my novelette, which may be in the very earliest stages of being made into a movie.

They'll be video of the readings put up on Galactica Philadelphia's web page in the next few months.  In the meantime, here's a video of a reading I did of "Marilyn and Monet" at Readercon a few years ago (thanks Phil Merkel).

The library venue was excellent.  We both sold a lot of books.  And it was great to see some old and new fans.

The time at the pub was out of this world in a different way.  There are few things as fun for science fiction writers as swapping stories about famous writers and their infamous behaviors.   No, I'm not going to tell you who they are.   But if you're a writer, and you get an invitation to do a reading at Galactica Philadelphia, I'd recommend you do it.   You'll be in for one if the best readings and aftermaths of your career.

American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story: Highly Recommended and Not Just for the Pictures

Binge-watched American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story on Amazon Prime the past few days. The 10-episode documentary-docudrama was excellent, and not just because of the pictures.

Hefner himself plays a major role, not just in real footage over half a century, but from an extensive interview he did in 1991.   Matt Whelan is convincing as a young through middle-aged Hefner, and provides narration throughout.  The same formula is effectively employed for Hefner's inner circle and brain trust at Playboy - recent interviews with the real people mixed with actual footage of them in their younger days, and lots of docudrama reenactments for the earlier days - as well as for important women in the story, including Barbie Benton (described by Hefner as the "love of my life"), Dorothy Stratten (a gorgeous blonde Playmate murdered by her jealous husband), and Marilyn Cole (British Playmate who helped Playboy in its competition with Penthouse by showing some frontal nudity).

The battle between Playboy and Penthouse, which came on the scene in America (I'm not going to try and avoid double entendres) in 1969, some 16 years after Playboy launched its first issue in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe on the cover and never looked back, is indeed one of the major themes of the documentary (or its second half). This true story of escalating nudity in the competition for readership and its conclusion in the 21st century and the age of the Internet is especially relevant to media theory. Playboy's circulation today of 600,000+ is less than 10-percent of what it had at its height in the 1970s (over 7 million for its November 1972 issue), and Penthouse, which with its raunchier pictures briefly exceeded Playboy's circulation in the 1970s, now has just a little over 100,000.  The reason is the instant access to porn on the Internet, which caters to every taste, and, by the way, is free.

The U. S. government, by the way, did its utmost to stamp out freedom of expression on the Internet (see my analysis in The Soft Edge of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and the Supreme Court's wise ruling that it was in violation of the First Amendment),  and though it by and large did not succeed regarding the Internet, it hounded Hefner throughout his career, and did some damage. Hefner himself was never convicted of a crime, but his casinos in New Jersey and England (the British government was no better than the American) were denied liquor licenses on pretexts, and Hefner's long-time assistant Bobbie Arnstein took her own life in the  Nixonian 1970s when faced with the choice of going to jail or making up garbage about Hefner.   This tragic example of a U. S. Attorney behaving like Gestapo has special and chilling relevance in our own age of Trump.

But as this documentary makes clear, Hefner and Playboy were often targets not only of the government but the media, which should have been Playboy's staunchest defenders on freedom of expression, but were either too dumb, blind, jealous, or all three to see that.  In this regard, I was surprised to see what what a, well, a-hole the young Mike Wallace was in his smug sneering interview of Hefner in the early days (though a much older Wallace seems to admit the error of his younger ways).

Gloria Steinem and the feminist critique of Playboy is yet another related issue, and I'd say that both sides have merit to their positions here, so to each her/his own.  Hefner to this day insists he's always been a champion of women and their rights - including medical care and control over their bodies but also taking off their clothes for Playboy.  The feminist argument that this last part "objectifies" women is also true.  My own view, for what it's worth, is that everything's ok among consenting adults.

There's almost no such thing as a perfect documentary on a subject you know well, because it's almost sure to leave out some things that you deem significant, inevitable given you didn't make the documentary.  I regretted no mention of the Marshall McLuhan interview in the March 1969 Playboy in the otherwise good segment on the importance of the Playboy interviews,  because McLuhan was not only the most important media theorist in history but that interview was by far his most informative (see my McLuhan in an Age of Social Media for why his ideas are more relevant than ever today).  And, similarly, no mention of Alice Turner and the great science fiction she brought to the magazine in the 1990s (I met Alice when I was President of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1999, so I guess I'm a little biased).

But these are small quibbles indeed about an outstanding documentary, free on Amazon Prime, which everyone interested in media and the popular culture of the past 60 years should see.

SFWA Science Fiction Bundle!

Hey, SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America, an organization with international members of which I was President way back in 1998-2001) has teamed up with StoryBundle (offering curated assortments of ebooks at incredibly low prices for the bundle since 2012, helmed by Jason Chen) to offer the first ever SFWA Science Fiction Bundle.

Here's how it works:  You pay as much or as little as you want (but no less than $5) for these six science fiction novels:

• Saiensu Fikushon 2016 by TOBI Hirotaka, Toh Enjoe and Taiyo Fujii
• Borrowed Tides by Paul Levinson
• The Weave by Nancy Jane Moore
• Truck Stop Earth by Michael A. Armstrong
• Children of Arkadia by M. Darusha Wehm
• Beyond the Gates by Catherine Wells

And, if you'd like the following six additional bonus books, just kick in a minimum of $15, and they'll be yours in addition to the original six:

• Unidentified Funny Objects by Alex Shvartsman
• Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer
• Strangers Among Us by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law
• Tech Heaven by Linda Nagata
• The Burning Eye by John F. Carr
• The Leaves of October by Don Sakers

These books were all selected - curated, in the modern digital parlance - by current SFWA President Cat Rambo.  Hey, I know she has discerning tastes, because she included Borrowed Tides (about the first starship to Alpha Centauri).  But I can also tell you I read and much enjoyed some of the other books, as well, including my friend Rob Sawyer's Factoring Humanity (also about Alpha Centauri, a very different kind of story), and (also unlike Borrowed Tides) a 1999 Hugo Award nominee.

Here's why this story bundle makes lots of sense (and saves you lots of dollars and cents) financially. Borrowed Tides is priced at $6.99.   I may lower the price once in a blue moon for a special sale, but I don't believe in giving my books away for free, and never will.  So, for less than the price of Borrowed Tides, if the novel has ever struck your interest, you can get it through the StoryBundle along with five other novels.  And, for just an additional $10, you get six more books.

The books will be let out of the bundle - i.e., the sale ends - in just 20 days.  More about this, including a handy link to buy the bundle, over here.  Enjoy!