{"id":75655,"date":"2026-02-28T13:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=75655"},"modified":"2026-02-28T13:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:21:23","slug":"the-death-of-dan-simmons-to-celebrate-or-mourn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=75655","title":{"rendered":"The Death of Dan Simmons, to Celebrate or Mourn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If all art is political, are all artists politicians?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found out yesterday that Dan Simmons died<\/a>. I’ve mentioned him many times here, because Hyperion<\/em> and Fall of Hyperion<\/em> are favorites of mine. I also enjoyed The Fifth Heart<\/em> because I’m a sucker for Sherlock Holmes stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never met Dan Simmons, and I never heard him speak. I also didn’t go out of my way to learn anything about him. At the edges of my perception, I could see some news that he might be contemptable, but it was very easy for me not to know much about any of that until he died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that he’s dead, there are folks like Ursula Vernon roasting him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Dan Simmons, noted racist, has died. He wrote Hyperion, which contained a good short story and then a lot of other words, which many of us read anyway because it was the Nineties and Waldenbooks had a limited science fiction section.<\/p>— Kingfisher & Wombat (@tkingfisher.com)<\/a> 2026-02-28T19:23:24.330Z<\/a><\/blockquote>