A little history will do you good

A little more on the true story behind the movie Pride. 

Today I'm reading about Thomas Disch, because I found a blithe comparison of him to another Heinlein white male icon of the Science Fiction monolith, by someone who does not appear to know much about his life or work, to be somewhat galling.  It made me want to think about Disch more, to understand more about his contradictions and also make up a little for the lack of effort and interest in the genre's history that lay behind that casual yet sharp criticism.

Here's an interesting discussion of his poetry, by Dana Gioia, with an excerpt from one of his better-known poems: Advice that is not at all dated. 

"So sell it, and don’t feel ashamed.
If the world, in the form
Of critic or poet, asks who we are
And why our wages are higher than his
(If they are), answer his question politely
And say..."

That review links to Gioia's memorial for Disch, which includes this:

"Tom Disch was one of the few people I’ve ever met whom I considered a genius. Not that genius did him much good. He had a superabundance of invention, an often startling clarity of perception, and a preternaturally quick mastery of literary technique. At the same time he had little ability to handle the ordinary challenges of daily life. If he possessed the fertile imagination of a brilliant child, he also had a child’s social awkwardness and vulnerability. A connoisseur of self-loathing, he never understood how much his friends adored him. He was enormously good company—endlessly funny, intelligent, and genuinely sweet—except when he fell into a rage or depression. He could be difficult but he was never, never dull."

And this: " Disch loved to outrage respectable opinion—not just middle-class opinion, the easy target of most writers. He also mocked proper liberal opinion and habitually violated even the most flexible limits of good taste. This eagerness to outrage would have been tiresome if he had not been so consistently funny and insightful." Which strikes me as very gay in terms of sensibility and in particular his era. 

Knowing that at least one sibling still lives here in the Twin Cities, because I was at Dreamhaven one time when he was selling Tom's books, I'm tempted to think about interviewing people with an eye to a biography.  Time being, of course, the problem with that idea.  Still... There would be a lot of contradictions as well as anecdotes to make a bio worthwhile, if one could pull it off.

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