RIP: Charles Sheffield

uberdood writes "Dr. Charles Sheffield, noted for such SF works as the Heritage Universe series, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Higher Education, The Ganymede Club, Brothers to Dragons, Cold As Ice, and The Mind Pool, has died of brain cancer at the age of 67. Sheffield will be remembered for colorful characters such as McAndrew - and the wealth of short stories that helped make SF pulp rags so enjoyable. More information can be found via the Washington Post article. One of my favorite authors, dammit."

Comments

We should strive to be like Sheffield

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

Charles Sheffield was a man who did everything we all wanted to do.

He took the usual path of life, went and got a job, got married, and had children. But when he turned 40 and was in Iran doing business for a huge multinational corporation, something in him snapped -- and after reading a Sci-Fi novel, he decided to become a writer himself.

He left his high-paying job, and later his wife left him because he couldn't pay the bills. After miserable failure, he still persisted, and eventually got published and became a famous and respected Sci-Fi writer.

He's gone now, but at least he didn't go through the last years of his life a zombie like everyone else: an overworked corporate zombie with a wife for show, someone who, on the inside, is truly happy but is too afraid to challenge it.

Re:The nice thing about Slashdot's slowness

[plover]

[ First, as the moderators have so rightly pointed out, my original post was an overrated troll. I did not post it as flamebait, however. I was going for the "funny" points. Quite a mistake, eh? ]

Right or wrong, icon would imply being prominent in the public eye. Dr. Sheffield was brilliant. He was known and respected in the sciences as well as the science fiction circles. I have no doubt that he treated you and everyone he came in contact with kindly.

But, he was not "pop culture." He was not a Hollywood name. He was not a Spice Girl or a member of N'Sync. He didn't have music videos. He didn't do a posthumous duet with Elvis or John Lennon. (Well at least he didn't voluntarily do one during his lifetime.) He didn't appear on Leno or American Bandstand. He didn't host Saturday Night Live (well he might have, but nobody's watched it in the last 10 years anyway.)

I am not saying that these are good things. I'm just listing off the crap required to be an "American Icon (TM)" in the true P.T. Barnum tradition of "never underestimating the taste of the American public."

(And is caffeine a basic nutrient or a food group?)