Revelations
5/4/02 17:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eredienMy first exposure to Issac Asimov came in the early 1990's, when I was about ten. In Cricket magazine, I read an article entitled "Good Doctor Gone?" about Asimov's death. I thought, "whoever this Asimov guy is, this person really liked him." And wondered why.
I tried to read the Foundation series in junior high school, and got bogged down somewhere in the page turn between the first and second chapter. I told myself that I hadn't really wanted to read that anyway, to make myself feel better. Secretly, I really wanted to figure out what all the fuss was about.
And then...then I discovered his short stories. Someone died, and left Hugo and Nebula Award Winner anthologies and massive amounts of Asimov short-story collections to our high school library.
Bless you, unknown donor.
The final year of high school, I read the Giants anthology, which he edited; Nightfall and Other Stories, I, Robot, Pebble in the Sky, the Magic collection, How to Enjoy Writing and, finally, Bicentennial Man. Over which I cried.
And I found out what Asimov was about. He told Story.
And so, when I found a little article in the new issue of Ansible that stated that Asimov had had AIDS, I went, "wait. That can't be right." And checked the source.
Harlan Ellison.
And checked the other source, a letter to Locus magazine from Janet Asimov.
Then, I believed it.
I still don't want to.
But I must admit that I think it good for the storyteller's own story to be told, at last.
I tried to read the Foundation series in junior high school, and got bogged down somewhere in the page turn between the first and second chapter. I told myself that I hadn't really wanted to read that anyway, to make myself feel better. Secretly, I really wanted to figure out what all the fuss was about.
And then...then I discovered his short stories. Someone died, and left Hugo and Nebula Award Winner anthologies and massive amounts of Asimov short-story collections to our high school library.
Bless you, unknown donor.
The final year of high school, I read the Giants anthology, which he edited; Nightfall and Other Stories, I, Robot, Pebble in the Sky, the Magic collection, How to Enjoy Writing and, finally, Bicentennial Man. Over which I cried.
And I found out what Asimov was about. He told Story.
And so, when I found a little article in the new issue of Ansible that stated that Asimov had had AIDS, I went, "wait. That can't be right." And checked the source.
Harlan Ellison.
And checked the other source, a letter to Locus magazine from Janet Asimov.
Then, I believed it.
I still don't want to.
But I must admit that I think it good for the storyteller's own story to be told, at last.
Cricket... Asimov
6/4/02 18:04 (UTC)Geez!