Kickstarter Encouragement: Guy Gavriel Kay

The Locus Foundation Ephemera Kickstarter is funded up to almost $16,000 now. But every extra bit will enable more work to be done on this fabulous collection. Offering additional encouragement to support this project, I present Guy Gavriel Kay.

Gary has indicated concisely why the collection Charles accrued is so important, and to more than just scholars of SF, or literature, or culture – but also to non-specialists. I don’t think any of us will make the point better.

I want to offer a parallel thought, or perhaps a flip-side thought is putting it more accurately. Charles was a friend so I, too, am biased, but I am also convinced that as time passes the understanding of his role and importance in the development of SF as literature and as a community will grow, not diminish. I may be wrong: we don’t live in an historically-aware society. But that sets up my point: this is an individual’s collection. An individual aware, committed, passionately involved. It reflects taste, inclination, affinity, humor, prioritizing … and for anyone who understands the reality of that almost 60 years presence, there’s real value to that aspect of this story, too. It isn’t just the record of a community over more than half a century, it is the record of someone’s engagement with that community and his role in helping to define it.

When we go to an art gallery and view the works donated by a particular collector and gathered in one set of rooms, there’s interest and history embedded in that collecting (of all kinds). The same thing applies to this.