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R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey, Creator of Pern and The Ship Who Sang
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Unifarva Skrewj
Dec 17, 2011, 4:31:34 AM12/17/11
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R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey, Creator of Pern and The Ship Who Sang
Anne McCaffrey wasn't just the inventor of Pern, the world where a
whole society is based on dragon-riding. She was also an incredibly
influential author who helped transform the way science fiction and
fantasy authors wrote about women, and the way all of us thought about
bodies and selfhood. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award and a
Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.
Top image by Michael Whelan
Besides the Pern books, McCaffrey wrote the classic space-faring novel
The Ship Who Sang, in which a severely disabled girl becomes the core of
a starship, or Brainship, with her mind controlling all its major
functions. McCaffrey's novel provided a startling new way to think about
personhood and the nature of the mind/body connection, but also helped
pave the way for a whole subgenre of posthuman space opera, in which
heavily modified humans explore space.
She told Locus in 2004 :
I think the best story I ever wrote was 'The Ship Who Sang'. It still
causes people to cry, including me. When Todd and I were reading it at
Brighton, they had a BBC crew filming it. So there were these BBC
cameramen hunkered down filming us, and comes the end of the story
(which Todd always reads, because I can't go through it without
weeping), I saw that these cameramen had tears rolling down their faces.
That's such a thrill â€" a story I wrote at the beginning of my
career, and it's still packin' the house. I wrote that story because I
couldn't tell my father, he died in 1953. I remember reading a story
â€" I can't remember the name or that of the author â€" about a
woman searching for her son's brain, it had been used for an autopilot
on an ore ship and she wanted to find it and give it surcease. And I
thought what if severely disabled people were given a chance to become
starships? What if they wanted to do that? I thought, 'Hey, that would
be a gorgeous idea.' So that's how 'The Ship Who Sang' was born.
McCaffrey's first novel, Restoree, was written in response to the
unrealistic depiction of women in science fiction and fantasy.
But it was the many Pern novels that sealed her renown. One of my
fondest convention memories is of going to Dragon*Con one year and
attending a panel about "Emergency Medicine on Pern." There, a group of
extremely earnest â€" but good-humored â€" people were hashing
out exactly what you would do if someone happened to be on Pern and fell
of his/her dragon. How would you make a stretcher out of items that were
readily available on Pern? How would you keep the fallen rider's dragon
from freaking out? And so on. The world of Pern was as real to these
people as Atlanta â€" maybe more so.
Anne McCaffrey died today at the age of 85. [ Media Bistro ]
Contact Charlie Jane Anders:
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mobileleaptop
These are the coats we wear.
Of Devils plaid, and Witches Hair!
With a hood, or a belt, or a sleeveless one.
Doesn't count,
that's a vest called a jerkin.
Uh......we're all wearin' Jackets.
Anne McCaffrey wasn't just the inventor of Pern, the world where a
whole society is based on dragon-riding. She was also an incredibly
influential author who helped transform the way science fiction and
fantasy authors wrote about women, and the way all of us thought about
bodies and selfhood. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award and a
Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.
Top image by Michael Whelan
Besides the Pern books, McCaffrey wrote the classic space-faring novel
The Ship Who Sang, in which a severely disabled girl becomes the core of
a starship, or Brainship, with her mind controlling all its major
functions. McCaffrey's novel provided a startling new way to think about
personhood and the nature of the mind/body connection, but also helped
pave the way for a whole subgenre of posthuman space opera, in which
heavily modified humans explore space.
She told Locus in 2004 :
I think the best story I ever wrote was 'The Ship Who Sang'. It still
causes people to cry, including me. When Todd and I were reading it at
Brighton, they had a BBC crew filming it. So there were these BBC
cameramen hunkered down filming us, and comes the end of the story
(which Todd always reads, because I can't go through it without
weeping), I saw that these cameramen had tears rolling down their faces.
That's such a thrill â€" a story I wrote at the beginning of my
career, and it's still packin' the house. I wrote that story because I
couldn't tell my father, he died in 1953. I remember reading a story
â€" I can't remember the name or that of the author â€" about a
woman searching for her son's brain, it had been used for an autopilot
on an ore ship and she wanted to find it and give it surcease. And I
thought what if severely disabled people were given a chance to become
starships? What if they wanted to do that? I thought, 'Hey, that would
be a gorgeous idea.' So that's how 'The Ship Who Sang' was born.
McCaffrey's first novel, Restoree, was written in response to the
unrealistic depiction of women in science fiction and fantasy.
But it was the many Pern novels that sealed her renown. One of my
fondest convention memories is of going to Dragon*Con one year and
attending a panel about "Emergency Medicine on Pern." There, a group of
extremely earnest â€" but good-humored â€" people were hashing
out exactly what you would do if someone happened to be on Pern and fell
of his/her dragon. How would you make a stretcher out of items that were
readily available on Pern? How would you keep the fallen rider's dragon
from freaking out? And so on. The world of Pern was as real to these
people as Atlanta â€" maybe more so.
Anne McCaffrey died today at the age of 85. [ Media Bistro ]
Contact Charlie Jane Anders:
Email the author
Comment
Discussion Threads
Featured
All
Start a new thread
Show earlier discussions
In order to view comments on io9.com you need to enable JavaScript. If
you are using Firefox and NoScript addon, please mark io9.com as
trusted.
Follow obituary on io9
We Come from the Future
Newer Stories…
obituary 3:06 PM R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey, Creator of Pern and The Ship
Who Sang
Friday, November 18, 2011
rip 4:40 PM Gary Garcia, Wrote and Performed 80s Pop Hit
‘Pac-Man Fever,’ Dies at 63
Sunday, November 13, 2011
rip 9:05 AM Evelyn Lauder, Creator Of Pink Ribbon Campaign, Has
Died
Thursday, November 3, 2011
obituary 2:06 PM R.I.P. Richard Gordon, producer of Fiend Without a
Face and countless B-movie classics
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
unix 10:33 PM Dennis Ritchie, Co-Creator of Unix and Founder of C,
Has Died
Thursday, October 6, 2011
obituary 12:30 PM R.I.P. Derrick Bell, Creator of One of Science
Fiction’s Scariest Thought Experiments
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
steve jobs 4:41 PM Steve Jobs Is Dead
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
rip 10:16 PM Wilson Greatbatch, The Man Who Accidentally Invented The
Pacemaker, Has Died
Thursday, September 15, 2011
modern life 6:17 PM Reliving a Romance, from Beginning To End, via
Gmail
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
obituary 5:30 PM R.I.P. Sakyo Komatsu, author of Japan Sinks
Thursday, August 4, 2011
books 6:30 AM R.I.P. L.A. Banks, author of bestselling vampire
novels
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
goals 4:30 AM Write Your Own Obituary to Take Stock of Your
Accomplishments and Goals
Monday, July 25, 2011
science 2:25 PM Man Who Vowed to Live Forever Died Over the
Weekend
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
obituary 7:30 AM R.I.P. Martin H. Greenberg, super-prolific
anthologist and collaborator of Isaac Asimov
Friday, June 3, 2011
obituary 1:33 PM R.I.P. Joel Rosenberg, fantasy author and gun rights
advocate
More Stories…
About
Help
Forums
Jobs
Legal
Privacy
Permissions
Advertising
Subscribe
Send a tip
mobileleaptop
These are the coats we wear.
Of Devils plaid, and Witches Hair!
With a hood, or a belt, or a sleeveless one.
Doesn't count,
that's a vest called a jerkin.
Uh......we're all wearin' Jackets.
David E. Powell
Dec 17, 2011, 11:05:28 AM12/17/11
to
On Dec 17, 4:31 am, BillV2...@webtv.net (Unifarva Skrewj) wrote:
> R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey, Creator of Pern and The Ship Who Sang
> Anne McCaffrey wasn't just the inventor of Pern, the world where a
> whole society is based on dragon-riding. She was also an incredibly
> influential author who helped transform the way science fiction and
> fantasy authors wrote about women, and the way all of us thought about
> bodies and selfhood. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award and a
> Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.
> Top image by Michael Whelan
Massive SF/Fantasy crossover series, a lot of D&D fanatics got into
> R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey, Creator of Pern and The Ship Who Sang
> Anne McCaffrey wasn't just the inventor of Pern, the world where a
> whole society is based on dragon-riding. She was also an incredibly
> influential author who helped transform the way science fiction and
> fantasy authors wrote about women, and the way all of us thought about
> bodies and selfhood. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award and a
> Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.
> Top image by Michael Whelan
her books.
> Besides the Pern books, McCaffrey wrote the classic space-faring novel
> The Ship Who Sang, in which a severely disabled girl becomes the core of
> a starship, or Brainship, with her mind controlling all its major
> functions. McCaffrey's novel provided a startling new way to think about
> personhood and the nature of the mind/body connection, but also helped
> pave the way for a whole subgenre of posthuman space opera, in which
> heavily modified humans explore space.
themes in the episode "Tin Man."
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