Keep Flying, Lux Lucre

Television Saturday, January 10, 2004. Post by Ricky James

Before Drog threw me into this tar baby and briar patch that is SciScoop, I used to regularly follow and post at four different websites. I don’t post anymore at kuro5hin or Slashdot (where Drog found me, lying in the street with a bottle of bits in my hand, and offered me a second chance for a life better than that of Slashdot troll), because now they’re The Competition. However, I still follow and post at Bureau42 (as rickyjames) because it’s a nice little sci-fi oriented site (with more commenters than here, hint, hint!), and I still follow and post on the Official Firefly Fan Site (as RJROBERSON) because I’m a Firefly fan and always will be. Plus it’s the best place to keep up on the status of The Firefly Movie that’s coming, I assure you.

Today word was posted at the Firefly site that one of its most prolific and beloved posters, Canadian LuxLucre, died yesterday at age 40, seemingly from complications associated with his diabetes. Also known as Kerry Pearson from Richmond, British Columbia, Lux was the ultimate Firefly fan who hung out with the cast of Firefly that now eulogizes him. Given his love of freedom that is a fundamental theme of Firefly, his interest in and love for the show was inevitable. His filks were catchy, his South Park cartoon representations clever and his Browncoat Handbook a masterpiece. Lux earned a place in the hearts of those who corresponded with him for his witty and thoughtful posts on the Firefly site, including a few to me in just the last few weeks. I learned about a few other things besides Firefly from him on his website, such as some insights into political anarchy as a philosophy that I don’t personally agree with but still have to acknowledge more than a few grains of truth in, as well as the existence of the Shavian alphabet. In what passes for social circles in the online world of the 21st Century, Lux was an intellectual friend and it seems proper for me to take a moment to mark his passing.

Lives end: his, mine, yours. Get busy living them.

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Anonymous

January 10th, 2004 at 11:53 am

Kerry was a prolific poster for the last couple of years on the Yahoo! Groups mailing list for friends of science fiction novelist L. Neil Smith, which is how I knew him first, before having been turned on to the Firefly community that Ricky mentions above. I’ll really miss the guy.

Russell Whitaker

Anonymous

January 11th, 2004 at 2:19 am

I met Kerry (Lux) on the L. Neil Smith Yahoo board. What a terrific guy. A proud Canadian, a native of Vancouver, (my favorite city) a lover of Freedom, a true gentleman. Intelligent, witty, good natured. I miss you Kerry. A light has truly gone out of my life.

Ken Valentine

Anonymous

January 12th, 2004 at 12:00 pm

Sorry, there’s been a mistake. I am BitGeek. I used the link to his flash as my “homepage” because I loved it so much.

Lux Lucre didn’t work at Microsoft, isn’t primarily a software developer, etc, things that are true about me, but not about Lux.

On the other hand, I DID have the pleasure getting to know Lux Lucre online. We have many things in common, including our support of libertarianianism and anarcho-capitalism. And I think its safe to say we were friends, though I had not known him long.

ITs very unfortunate that I did not make it up to visit him in Vancouver– it is so close, but other things kept me.

I’m a bit shocked to find out he’s dead, and a bit paranoid about the causes.

I can understand the confusion, but I hope that anyone reading this will correct others who might repeat this error. IF proof is needed, send me a message on Slashdot, and I will respond, whereas, unfortunately, Lux cannot.

BitGeek

rickyjames

January 12th, 2004 at 12:20 pm

In writing the article, I did a search for LuxLucre on Google and came up with several of your postings on Slashdot on the hit list, and I just assumed the postings were by him. Bad, bad assumption. Of course, it was only responding to the fact you had listed his site as your primary site, which as you note doesn’t make you Lux. I am mortified and thank you for letting me know about my error, which I have of course corrected.

Say, as long as you’re here, check out SciScoop and stick around a while! Consider becoming a member! Not all of the articles here have stupid errors in them. The law of averages says that I write so many that some are right.

Anonymous

January 12th, 2004 at 2:53 pm

No worries about the mistake. Was just surprised to see the link, and, of course, Lux shouldn’t be sullied by connection with the rampant flamefest that I am.

I’m still in shock that he’s dead. And pissed at myself.

I will stick around, though.

Geek

Pro Libertate

January 13th, 2004 at 6:03 pm

Hi there,

I just found your site via the Orbituary for Lux Lucre. Terrible, he was just my age and waaay too young to die.

Let me give condolences to all other Anarcho-Capitalists out there who were his friends. Lux was a great guy, should have been with us for much longer.

Pro Libertate

rickyjames

January 14th, 2004 at 7:09 am

Out of terrible things comes good things. I received yesterday an email from a very dear friend in college I hadn’t heard from in over 25 years. She came across this eulogy because she’s a die-hard Firefly fan just like me (I am not at all surprised), only over on one of the Yahoo Firefly sites where I’ve never been. She writes:

“Hi Rick…I was following a link about the death of LuxLucre which led me to your eulogy in SciScoop. What an eerie and sad synergy! I was recently reshelving books and came across my copy of Universe Ahead. I gave it to my daughter to read and told her that I knew you when you were writing/editing it. Since then, I had been reminiscing about those days at UT and wondering where all those people, including you, had gotten to. With all the sadness, I wanted to touch base long enough to tell you that I remember you. It is good, I think, at times like these to reaffirm our connections with others, however tenuous.”

Thanks, janietta. You’re right.