James P Hogan: what to say?

[major_clanger]

With only one or two exceptions there seems to be an odd silence across my f-list over the death of James P Hogan. I take it that what I'm seeing is the outcome of very mixed feelings as to how to react to the passing of someone who was on the one hand a long-time member of Anglo-Irish fandom and by all accounts a very personable individual, and on the other was an outspoken denier of the Holocaust, global warming and the HIV causation of AIDS.

I've heard it said that Hogan was the original exemplar case for Brain Eater Syndrome, so striking was the contrast between his early writing (and personal manner) and the eccentricity and offensiveness of his later opinions. If so, then it is sad that such views are likely to be what many who did not know him personally remember him for.

For myself, I'll try to remember him as the author of The Proteus Operation, which might be summed up as 'Alternate WW2 meets the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey theory of time travel' and as the chap who was very apologetic indeed about accidentally pouring his pint over me at WinCon III.

[Edited 14 Aug 16 to make public]

Comments

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I've not commented on his death as I hadn't heard about it.

I suspect that WinCon III was the last time I saw him, and I can certainly say he was very personable on that occasion, even if we did differ strongly on the issue of the Big Bang and modern cosmology. This may have been the first hints of him heading to woo-woo land, but while we did disagree we did it in a a friendly and collegiate way and I'm sad to hear he went over the top in later years.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Very personable indeed, as we encountered in Ireland at a PhoenixCon or two. And I did enjoy the full-on sense-of-wonder of his earlier novels.

Sadly, his determination to take the contrarian view at every opportunity left him among very nasty company.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

That's how I read it; stubborn contrarianism combined with EngineerFail - the tendency to see a grand design or an overarching conspiracy behind every phenomenon.

In his social context, nobody would have been remotely surprised if his need for explanatory narratives had found its outlet through the church.

[coth.livejournal.com]

I don't remember meeting him, although I may have done. His early books were fun, but he dropped early off my reading list when adulthood set in.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

I've mentioned elsewhere that I enjoyed his first novel (which I reviewed at the time), but hadn't kept up with his later work -- and I certainly wasn't aware of his less than savoury political opinions.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

I liked his works at first, but added him to my don't-purchase list after "Rockets, Redheads & Revolution".