I first met Paul in 1976 at the Kansas City worldcon. We had some wonderful, amazing conversations. Lost touch with him for a while, then ran into him at various functions, always enjoyed his company.
After his bike accident, he had been traveling in Europe and stopped here with us in North London for a couple of nights on his way back to the US. As it turned out, he was a mutual friend of mine and Chris's, before Chris and I had ever met.
We had a long conversation about head injuries--I had sustained one myself back in 1971 during the Mayday demonstrations in Washington, DC, although nothing as bad as his. One of the problems with certain kinds of head injuries is anger management, believe it or not. Paul said that sometimes he had to work very hard to keep his temper under control. When passing through Customs after arriving on the EuroStar, he had become quite angry about the suspicious way the officials had treated him (and this was before 2001).
It was hard for me to imagine that. He didn't get angry or emotional while he was talking about it and during his visit, we saw nothing but his usual gentle, good-humoured temperament. He was doing a lot of reading, he said, and learning. That was how he put it.
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Date: 2009-04-02 06:05 pm (UTC)After his bike accident, he had been traveling in Europe and stopped here with us in North London for a couple of nights on his way back to the US. As it turned out, he was a mutual friend of mine and Chris's, before Chris and I had ever met.
We had a long conversation about head injuries--I had sustained one myself back in 1971 during the Mayday demonstrations in Washington, DC, although nothing as bad as his. One of the problems with certain kinds of head injuries is anger management, believe it or not. Paul said that sometimes he had to work very hard to keep his temper under control. When passing through Customs after arriving on the EuroStar, he had become quite angry about the suspicious way the officials had treated him (and this was before 2001).
It was hard for me to imagine that. He didn't get angry or emotional while he was talking about it and during his visit, we saw nothing but his usual gentle, good-humoured temperament. He was doing a lot of reading, he said, and learning. That was how he put it.
Chris and I are both heartbroken.