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<The following is a bit of fanboyism. You've been warned>\
Today, May 18th is the birthday of Diane Duane, my favorite author EVAR, and someone who, through her writing has been a huge influence on my life.
As I said in another post about Ms. Duane's writing and her books, I've been a fan since 1984, the year after her first Star Trek book, "The Wounded Sky" was published.
Since then, I've read as many of her books as I could, and through that writing, the great lady has had a continuing influence on my life. In Deep Wizardry, the conversation between Nita and Carl, where she's realized that she accidently volunteered to get eaten by a shark, and is trying to get Carl, a Senior, to get her out of it, and realizing he can't, nor should he. In that conversation he tells her that there's a third option besides getting eaten or not getting eaten: to willingly get eaten. To face her fate not grudgingly, but eagerly, because if she does, the spell her death is the catalyst for will, because of her attitude, be far stronger and bind evil that much tighter.
Don't just grudgingly do your duty, but do it well, and with some joy
That was a lesson I took a long time to learn, and I'm not always perfect about it, but it still resonates with me. Later in that same book, Nita and Kit have to reveal their secrets to their parents, and to finally prove to Nita's parents that they aren't lying or delusional, they take them to the Moon. Nita's mom looks up, and there's the Earth. Blue and white, and beyond beautiful. Nita and Kit talk about how, in the future, all presidents will be taken to the Moon, so they can see that fragile planet we all share, and truly understand what they're responsible for. I've wanted to go into space and see that view since I was old enough to say "NASA", and the idea that someday that view could be accessible to non-astronaughts, or people who are not the uber-rich? I'd be first in line, danger or no. Some things are worth the risk.
In The Book of Night with Moon, Rhiow has to decide to abandon her quest, and her wizardry after "her" human, Susan, or "Hhuha" in Ailurin is killed by the forces that oppose her. It nearly shatters her. A few years ago, I had to put my cat, Beauty, down. She was a white Turkish Angora, terribly stupid, shy, shed on everything, and every night went to sleep only after slamming her head into mine, and leaving it there for a few minutes, just before I went to sleep. Helping her out of the pain her failing kidneys were causing her was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Coincidence, but nonetheless, the great lady nailed that feeling for everyone who's ever had to put a loved pet down.
On and on. I can point to ever book she's written, and find nigh-endless passages that resonate in my life, or have influenced me to be a better person. That's a huge thing for someone I've never met. Oh, and she's a huge Apple fan. Manages to work Apple references into quite a few books. She's got good taste too.
So again, Happy Birthday Diane Duane, and again, thank you.
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Posted by John C. Welch at 20:15 | Permalink
©2003-until I'm fucking dead and then some. you steal my shit, and I will fuck with you like you were a lonely shepherd's slowest sheep.
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