Dragonwriter (15 page)

WEN SPENCER won the John Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2003. She has written ten novels, several of which have been translated into German, Japanese, and Russian. She lives in Hawaii near a volcano with a massive caldera much like the weyrs described in the Pern novels, only lava is spewing out of hers. She now considers Anne's famous short bio as a coded warning to new writers that they will have to write endless bios about themselves.

A
nne McCaffrey was first introduced to Bill Fawcett back in 1984 when he was working with Mayfair Games. The folks at Mayfair were science fiction fans and wanted to make a Dragonriders of Pern board game.

As I was big into board games, Mum made me point on the project, and I found myself proposing names for all the minor holds and designing their colors and liveries. It was while we were working on the board game that Bill suggested that I write a piece to put inside the advanced rules booklet. This piece became “Threadfighting Tactics on Pern.” (That same piece later went into
The Dragonlover's Guide to
Pern
as “Training and Fighting Dragons.”)

Shortly after that, Bill met this really nice lady, and at some point while they were dating, she took a very small dinner on which Bill remarked diplomatically. The lady—Jody Lynn Nye—said, with a twinkle in her eye as she punned, “Well, a waist is a terrible thing to mind.”

When Bill reported this to me later, he added, “And that's when I
knew
that I had to marry her!”

Bill and Jody have been family ever since. Their connection with Pern fandom grew not just from the board game and
The Dragonlover's Guide to
Pern
but also from two choose-your-own-adventure books that Jody penned in the Pern universe,
Dragonfire
and
Dragonharper.
During the past several years, Bill and Jody have been found regularly at Dragon*Con, often at the dedicated
Weyrfest
track.

SCIENCE FICTION FANS
are a passionate group. They come together, either at conventions or online, for the love of a shared vision of the future. The books or movies they love are, for them, a momentary escape from mundane life. While most fans restrict their involvement to reading or viewing their favorites, some devote themselves more deeply, perhaps wearing costumes, learning invented languages, and forming hierarchies as depicted in their favorite stories. Few, though, have formed a community as cohesive, widespread, or ongoing as those who have read Anne McCaffrey, and particularly those who love the Dragonriders of Pern series. As not only devotees of Anne's body of work but also creators therein,
¹
we have had the rare chance to experience this phenomenon firsthand, to sit down and get to know those who are deeply affected by it: Anne's fans. We asked a number of longtime fans for the reasons they are so devoted to Anne's work. They shared their thoughts and feelings about being part of the community that has grown up in the last few decades, which we've pulled together with our own, in hopes of sharing a sense of that community with you.

One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the way Anne's stories give the ordinary person a chance to become great. Most fiction focuses only on heroes with extraordinary talents. Among the legion of science fiction readers are scientists, computer programmers, test pilots and astronauts, environmentalists and biologists, yet the great majority are ordinary people—usually more intelligent than the average, but not the geniuses or heroes that are the usual protagonists of novels and movies. On Pern, however, there is a chance for the ordinary man or woman to step forward and be great—anyone can impress a dragon. To do so is also to acquire a lifelong companion who hears only your thoughts and is utterly devoted to you. In this simple relationship, Anne shows an understanding of two longings experienced by many readers: the desire to belong to someone (or
something
) who will give unconditional acceptance and the desire to be given power and responsibility (the care and riding of a dragon) that is at the same time manageable. Anne's words express thrillingly what it feels like to form that relationship with a dragon, unshakable and unbreakable unto death.

Not only has the ordinary man or woman gained a devoted and powerful friend, but he or she then becomes a member of a support group that cares for dragons and risks their lives with them. We see unconditional acceptance by the community, as well, and they want to be a part of it. Science fiction fans in particular, by virtue of their intelligence and awareness of the isolation that often provokes, long for that inclusion. In Anne's books, they see a special group to which they can belong. That is an attractive quality that draws those readers back again and again.

Few authors offer a viable social model for the common human being. Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders books appeal to a particularly devoted readership partly because of the way these books portray people living on Pern. Though their lives might be lived under harsh, even primitive conditions, the characters are able to survive, thrive, and create. The cultures are so rich in detail that it is possible to reconstruct a semblance of life in Hold, Hall, or Weyr—in ruling and administration, craft guilds, or dragon husbandry, respectively. Life on Pern is hard; characters are always fearing what may fall next from the skies. Yet, those characters live and love, sing, distill wine and spirits, and tell stories, gathering together in groups for mutual support and pleasure, enjoying the homey touches missing from more technology-oriented future sagas.

Like J. R. R. Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings saga, Anne scattered songs and poems throughout her books. Music and storytelling run a close second in fans' hearts to the dragons themselves. From the beginning, the Harper Hall has been the favorite guild, and its longtime guild leader, Masterharper Robinton, a favorite character (especially Jody's). All of these elements add texture, depth, and color that we drink in along with the adventures and romances. You might
exist
in the worlds created in some series; you could
live
on Pern.

Especially when they were first written, Anne's literature also might have been the first that young women—and men, too—had found in which strong, interesting female protagonists have adventures of their own and are in charge of their own fate. That was a welcome change from most SF of the time, when female characters often seemed to be helpless and stupid, or were depicted as less-effective men with breasts. Not only that, but the cultures from which Anne's characters spring are cooperative and interactive, values usually associated with women. Anne's heroes and heroines do not seek solo glory. They know themselves to be part of a greater whole in which every person has his or her role. As Charlotte Moore, longtime track head of the Worlds of Anne McCaffrey at Dragon*Con (and author of another essay in this collection), said, “the consistent theme in
all
of [Anne's] work is the importance of connecting to someone else—human or otherwise—as a means to find one's self.”

Reading about these compelling relationships, we readers crave to be part of something like that as well. It seems natural for fans to begin to emulate the communities they read about. The first Weyrgroups began to arise in the 1980s from a core of fans who loved the books and wanted to touch that sense of community within themselves. But a community, or any organization, takes its cues from the people at the top, or in this case, one person: Anne McCaffrey herself.

For many fans, it was not just Anne's work that attracted them and earned their loyalty, but her personality as well. Back in the 1970s or '80s, the followings or readerships of other authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien may have been more vast, but they did not have the benefit of the author participating directly in their activities. Anne enjoyed interacting with her fans. She was friendly and open with people, never making them feel as if they were wasting her time (not to say that she suffered fools or self-aggrandizers). She always listened patiently to nervous young fans who stood in line to get her autograph, focusing on them and making them feel that what they had to say was important. That isn't so extraordinary in the science fiction/fantasy field, which boasts a goodly share of nice people who write books, but Anne went beyond the usual. In the days before the internet, when social media was primitive and computers were slow and difficult to manage, Anne answered all her letters herself and participated in online discussions. Unlike many writers, she was an extrovert who was comfortable reaching out to others. Her assertive personality broke down the reserve of many a shy fan, winning their lifelong devotion. Because she was inclusive and fearless by nature, she formed friendships with her readers. She dined with them, visited with them when she traveled, and invited them to drop in on her at her home in Ireland. She made them feel comfortable in her company and in that of her other fans.

Having the privilege of knowing Anne McCaffrey over the years, it is easy to see how Anne's personality was an inspiration for her fandom. Her inherent faith in people and their goodness came through in the plots and characters. She honestly believed in people, giving them the benefit of a doubt, and often her trust, until proven wrong. Anne also cared, cared deeply, for many people. She often opened her home to someone in need. A few of those she took in literally continued to live as part of the Dragonhold household for months or years. As a part of her general faith in people, Anne was amazingly nonjudgmental. Whatever your faith, or lack thereof, your beliefs, orientation, or personal quirks, you were welcome in her world.

This same worldview can be seen in her books as well. Many years before gay men and women found acceptance in larger society, Anne made them an integral part of weyr life.
²
In no way do Pernese discriminate against others because their skin is a different color or because of their sexual orientation. For those readers who belong to often-targeted minority groups, Anne's books provide literature in which, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hoped for the greater society, people are judged by the content of their character. Her characters don't always act perfectly; they're very human. But in general, everyone strives together for the common good.