This is my view of the man, as an observer peering through the
blinds--one perspective. Those with
better knowledge can speak otherwise.
We met at a workshop, which some found useful. He was proud
of his literary children and generous with his time to fans on the internet. He
won and was nominated for a number of SF awards. His public persona staged an
out-sized ego, but it’s hard to say how much was real, how much was showmanship,
and how much was modeling himself after someone like Isaac Asimov for whom it
worked so well although Asimov’s was more developed in his prolific introductions
talking about other writers to talk about himself but which personalized the
material within this context.
Resnick was a big man with big features and a big, boisterous
personality. He liked to describe how he got his start in writing through porn
novels. Not an infrequent agitator, he’d substitute “she” as God’s pronoun to
stir up religious conservatives. He stirred up a feminist hive in a column he
wrote with Barry Malzberg. They seemed to get the short end of the stick in
some ways but kept loyal followers. Resnick's attitude toward women (who understood
his sexual humor) remained the same, presumably designed to compliment the
women he addressed and to agitate extremists.
I noted, afterwards, on Facebook that he’d like different conservative
organizations (back when Facebook notified everyone of every act we do on its
site), but it’s hard to say if he were truly a conservative or still an agitator—maybe
his conservatism was an uneasy alliance as the above description might suggest.
He put together an anthology titled Alternate
Kennedys, which seemed designed to lift up the much mythologized Democrat of that
era. It’s interesting how politics can shift and turn people toward one party
or another, based on experiences.
#
Here’s a review of Ivory, I
had worked on it long ago, but life intervened until I’d forgotten what I was
going to say (as has happened with innumerable reviews). The pre-dated review
popped up accidentally. I recall naming it a minor masterpiece. My opinion has not
so much altered as shifted slightly.
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