Dan Simmons RIP: another sf writer dies too late to salvage his rep

I have to admit at being a little bit triggered by this obituary by Eric Berger over at Ars Technica:

Dan Simmons, the author of more than three dozen books, including the famed Hyperion Cantos, has died from a stroke. He was 77.

Simmons, who worked in elementary education before becoming an author in the 1980s, produced a broad portfolio of writing that spanned several genres, including horror fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. Often, his books included elements of all of these. This obituary will focus on what is generally considered his greatest work, and what I believe is possibly the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Hyperion.
[…]
In any case, fans of epic fiction have lost a giant, a great writer and epic storyteller with a gift for dark twists and colorful characters. We can only hope he has found a tree ship to take him to a celestial paradise rather than become infected with a cruciform.

To only talk about a science fiction writer’s most famous work in his obituary is an understandable choice, especially since it seems to have meant so much to Eric. But I wish he had paid some attention to another, more infamous text of Simmons too:

“I mean the Century War with Islam,” interrupted the Time Traveler. “Your future. Everyone’s.” He was no longer smiling. Without asking, or offering to pour me any, he stood, refilled his Scotch glass, and sat again. He said, “It was important to me to come back to this time early on in the struggle. Even if only to remind myself of how unspeakably blind you all were.”

“You mean the War on Terrorism,” I said.

“I mean the Long War with Islam,” he said. “The Century War. And it’s not over yet where I come from. Not close to being over.”

“You can’t have a war with Islam,” I said. “You can’t go to war against a religion. Radical Islam, maybe. Jihadism. Some extremists. But not a . . . the . . . religion itself. The vast majority of Muslims in the world are peaceloving people who wish us no harm. I mean . . . I mean . . . the very word ‘Islam’ means ‘Peace.’”

“So you kept telling yourselves,” said the Time Traveler. His voice was very low but there was a strange and almost frightening edge to it. “But the ‘peace’ in ‘Islam’ means ‘Submission.’ You’ll find that out soon enough”

Published in april 2006 on Dan Simmons’ own website, “the Time Traveler’s Tale” wasn’t fiction, but intended as a terrible warning of the grim future Simmons saw ahead of him. Yes, he had his brain fried by 9/11 and the ensuing War Against Terror. Just another dime a dozen islamophobe echoing the same tired rhetoric about Islam you saw on every other warblog at the time. For me, that completely ruined any enjoyment I could get out of Hyperion. Rereading it made clear that the vileness that fully erupted in that essay in 2006 was already present in Hyperion in 1989, just hidden better.