![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Philip Jose Farmer, R.I.P.
Feb. 25th, 2009 05:38 pmhttp://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1511266/rip_philip_jose_farmer.html
Just heard the sad news that author Philip Jose Farmer has passed away. I first came across his work in my teens, just the right age for his brand of mind-bending, taboo-busting sci-fi. He quickly became a favorite, especially his epic "Riverworld" and "World of Tiers" series -- a heady combination of pulpish adventure, imaginative world-building, and pointed examination of human nature. (My senior thesis project at art school was designing new covers for the "Riverworld" books... I did a crap job, but got a B anyway). And his audacious "Wold Newton Family" concept -- an elaborate geneology chart connecting Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, and dozens of other pulp and literary characters -- was near and dear to my fannish heart.
Paradoxically, both immortality and the possibility of an afterlife were recurring themes in Farmer's work. He's already achieved the only kind of immortality that counts -- his work will be read and enjoyed for generations to come. And who knows? Somewhere, out in that vast universe he explored so imaginatively, one PJF might even now be waking up, hale and rejuvenated, on the shores of a vast river, about to embark on a new adventure. I like to think so.
Just heard the sad news that author Philip Jose Farmer has passed away. I first came across his work in my teens, just the right age for his brand of mind-bending, taboo-busting sci-fi. He quickly became a favorite, especially his epic "Riverworld" and "World of Tiers" series -- a heady combination of pulpish adventure, imaginative world-building, and pointed examination of human nature. (My senior thesis project at art school was designing new covers for the "Riverworld" books... I did a crap job, but got a B anyway). And his audacious "Wold Newton Family" concept -- an elaborate geneology chart connecting Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, and dozens of other pulp and literary characters -- was near and dear to my fannish heart.
Paradoxically, both immortality and the possibility of an afterlife were recurring themes in Farmer's work. He's already achieved the only kind of immortality that counts -- his work will be read and enjoyed for generations to come. And who knows? Somewhere, out in that vast universe he explored so imaginatively, one PJF might even now be waking up, hale and rejuvenated, on the shores of a vast river, about to embark on a new adventure. I like to think so.
