The Harlan Ellison Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter Leaferne
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This is a wind-up isn't it?
(Actually, I do like his work that I've come across. It's the whole personality disorder thing that makes him an easy target.)
Err wait, are the owners of that website fans or not?!
Erm, his "official" site's not much better.
(Actually, I do like his work that I've come across. It's the whole personality disorder thing that makes him an easy target.)
Err wait, are the owners of that website fans or not?!
Erm, his "official" site's not much better.
Graylien
As if!
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And "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman is surely the best short story title ever.
I actually had a look for a collection of Ellison short stories in Ottakars the other day, but their science fiction shelves were full of really thick books along the lines of The Seventh Chronicle of the Wyrm Empire by people I'd never heard of.
I actually had a look for a collection of Ellison short stories in Ottakars the other day, but their science fiction shelves were full of really thick books along the lines of The Seventh Chronicle of the Wyrm Empire by people I'd never heard of.
I've had to resort to online buying and secondhand bookshops; usually the shelves are full of multi-volume sword&sorcery epic crap. Yeah, I know HE balks at being shelved with sci-fi/fantasy but realistically, that's where he's gonna be in most bookstores, if he's anywhere...
I once went to considerable trouble and expense tracking down both volumes of The Glass Teat at a secondhand booksellers'. Lent them to a friend, then discovered to my horror he had GIVEN them away.
I once went to considerable trouble and expense tracking down both volumes of The Glass Teat at a secondhand booksellers'. Lent them to a friend, then discovered to my horror he had GIVEN them away.
MrRING
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From what I understand, Harlan actually buys all his own remandered books and sells them himself, rather than letting bookstores sell his books on sale. It's apparently in his contract, and it actually makes it hard to find anything but his latest book.
He seems pretty loyal to his friends, but at the same time I don't really side with him or the Comic Journal in the Michael Fleicher affair. He's written some good stuff, and some bad stuff, and he's seemed nice & very acerbic at conventions I've seen him at.
He seems pretty loyal to his friends, but at the same time I don't really side with him or the Comic Journal in the Michael Fleicher affair. He's written some good stuff, and some bad stuff, and he's seemed nice & very acerbic at conventions I've seen him at.
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Woo - Hoo! A Harlan appreciation thread - like it!
Best place to get his books is from Amazon. So far I've got hold of Angry Candy, Strange Wine and a lovely, tattered old copy of Deathbird Stories. Excellent stories, and all told in one of the most beautiful, dynamic - and very often cryptic - voices on the planet.
I like his grouchiness, too. Anyone who says that 'Gene Roddenbury can't write for sour owl poop' is worth a helluva lot in my book. My advice for anyone dealing with Harlan's stuff is: just don't expect him to agree with you.
As for the poster who said that Harlan has little truck with Forteana: okay, that's true, but look what he does with it! His take on the 'Alligators down the Sewer' myth in 'Croatoan', for instance...
Best place to get his books is from Amazon. So far I've got hold of Angry Candy, Strange Wine and a lovely, tattered old copy of Deathbird Stories. Excellent stories, and all told in one of the most beautiful, dynamic - and very often cryptic - voices on the planet.
I like his grouchiness, too. Anyone who says that 'Gene Roddenbury can't write for sour owl poop' is worth a helluva lot in my book. My advice for anyone dealing with Harlan's stuff is: just don't expect him to agree with you.
As for the poster who said that Harlan has little truck with Forteana: okay, that's true, but look what he does with it! His take on the 'Alligators down the Sewer' myth in 'Croatoan', for instance...
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I gather from other reports, he has quite a reputation , say we say, for being outspoken and prickly - at least that's the impression from what I have read.
I haven't read any of his original stories but he seem to have had quite an input on popular culture from TV , film to comics.
Wrote "City on the Edge of Forever" for Star Trek- orignal series
One of the best stories in the Incredible Hulk - 140 - "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom" - the title similar to a previous story but not sure how different it is - Hulk is shrunk to an microscopic world - but has the mind of Banner - finds a green skinned race - becomes leader - falls in love with one - gets separated from her - was a standout story -Made a change from the usual "Hulk smash - Hulk kill" fare -
His sued and won against James Cameron as the Terminator films were based on a couple of his Outer Limits episodes."Soldier" and "Demon with a glass Hand"
I'm sure there are others.
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I haven't read any of his original stories but he seem to have had quite an input on popular culture from TV , film to comics.
Wrote "City on the Edge of Forever" for Star Trek- orignal series
One of the best stories in the Incredible Hulk - 140 - "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom" - the title similar to a previous story but not sure how different it is - Hulk is shrunk to an microscopic world - but has the mind of Banner - finds a green skinned race - becomes leader - falls in love with one - gets separated from her - was a standout story -Made a change from the usual "Hulk smash - Hulk kill" fare -
His sued and won against James Cameron as the Terminator films were based on a couple of his Outer Limits episodes."Soldier" and "Demon with a glass Hand"
I'm sure there are others.
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I have to admit to a certain sympathy for Harlan, especially when it comes to one of his most infuriting bugbears: TV/movie execs and hangers-on who interfere with his work in order to make it fit their own (distinctly stupid) conceits. Read the section in Stephen King's 'Danse Macabre' which details the infamous spat Harlan had with the producers of the first Star Trek film - it'd be bloody hilarious if it wasn't so tragic!
I met Ellison when he was a guest at a SF convention in Glasgow in the 80's, he bought lots and lots of Alan Moore comics (Warrior, Dr Who Weekly, 2000AD) from us and was generally very amaible and chatty.
This changed when the fanboys came out, he became loud and noisy and incredibly funny but very, very brutal if he felt it necessary.
This changed when the fanboys came out, he became loud and noisy and incredibly funny but very, very brutal if he felt it necessary.
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The discussion for his Wikipedia entry - which allegedy has a letter from him makes er ... interesting if not necessarily enlightening reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Harlan_Ellison
Timble2
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I had a collection that included some of his screenplays, including Soldier which predates Terminator by some years...HE was not happy about Terminator.
Demon with a Glass Hand was another excellent piece of SF TV. It's a pity he never wrote the sequel that was to be set on Babylon 5, alas for other commitments.
Demon with a Glass Hand was another excellent piece of SF TV. It's a pity he never wrote the sequel that was to be set on Babylon 5, alas for other commitments.
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graylien said:
And here's what happens when you let all and sundry unmoderated open access - Intentional or ironic on Ellsion's part given his attitude to the Wiki approach ?
I don't know. (warning text page but may take some time to load even on BB)
http://harlanellison.com/heboard/whathell.htm
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Bigphoot2
Not sprouts! I hate sprouts.
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Last Dangerous Visions might be on its way at last
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...-dangerous-visions-anthology-may-be-published
ramonmercado
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It's out and here's a appreciation of the anthologies and of Harlan - warts and all.
Everyone, it seems, has a Harlan Ellison anecdote.
Words that have been used to describe Ellison include angry. Genius. Jerk. Legend. “Sci-fi’s most controversial figure” (Wired). “A giant squeezed into a 5’5” frame” (Steven Barnes). “A parasite who can kiss my ass” (James Cameron). Ellison called himself “troublemaker, malcontent, desperado . . . a combination of Zorro and Jiminy Cricket.” The advice “never meet your heroes” feels tailor-made for Ellison.
Yet he also had his good points. Ellison marched in Selma, Alabama with Martin Luther King, Jr. He let friends live in his house rent-free. He was fearless and passionate, a friend and mentor, a thorn in the side of censorship. George R.R. Martin remembered that he “fought for women’s rights and the ERA. He fought publishers, defending the rights of writers to control their own material and be fairly compensated for it. He served on the Board of Directors of the WGA. He gave of himself to Clarion [writers’ workshop], year after year.” Writers he championed—Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel Delany, J.G. Ballard, Octavia Butler—became major literary players, making Ellison a sort of sci-fi Ezra Pound (without Pound’s troubling politics). Like most human beings, he was a mixed bag—yes, he was fractious and sometimes behaved very badly; at other times, he fervently advocated for and supported others (exception: that Fantagraphics defamation suit).
Harlan Ellison will be remembered for all these actions, righteous and reprobate, and for his work, which was voluminous: novels, short stories, essays, screenplays, comic books. The man even voice-acted. And it wasn’t simply voluminous; it was pioneering. His 1967 story “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” described an AI supervillain seventeen years before Skynet (and 55 years before ChatGPT). “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” won the 1965 Nebula Award and the 1966 Hugo Award, one of only twelve stories to win both since 1953, the first year of the Nebula. (Ellison did it again in 1977/1978 with “Jeffty Is Five.”) The Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever,” which he wrote, is widely considered the pinnacle of the original series. His collection of TV criticism, The Glass Teat, still holds up despite its 1970 release date. “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore” was included in The Best American Short Stories 1993.
Most of all, he will be remembered for editing two anthologies, Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972), which together heralded the so-called New Wave of science fiction. And he will be remembered for The Last Dangerous Visions, a collection he said would be published “approximately six months” after the second one. It actually appeared on October 1, 2024, fifty-two years after promised and six years after Ellison’s death, edited by his longtime friend, writer and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. ...
https://reactormag.com/looking-back-at-harlan-ellisons-dangerous-visions-trilogy/
Looking Back at Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions Trilogy
Considering the groundbreaking anthology series, long delayed and finally completed.Everyone, it seems, has a Harlan Ellison anecdote.
Words that have been used to describe Ellison include angry. Genius. Jerk. Legend. “Sci-fi’s most controversial figure” (Wired). “A giant squeezed into a 5’5” frame” (Steven Barnes). “A parasite who can kiss my ass” (James Cameron). Ellison called himself “troublemaker, malcontent, desperado . . . a combination of Zorro and Jiminy Cricket.” The advice “never meet your heroes” feels tailor-made for Ellison.
Yet he also had his good points. Ellison marched in Selma, Alabama with Martin Luther King, Jr. He let friends live in his house rent-free. He was fearless and passionate, a friend and mentor, a thorn in the side of censorship. George R.R. Martin remembered that he “fought for women’s rights and the ERA. He fought publishers, defending the rights of writers to control their own material and be fairly compensated for it. He served on the Board of Directors of the WGA. He gave of himself to Clarion [writers’ workshop], year after year.” Writers he championed—Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel Delany, J.G. Ballard, Octavia Butler—became major literary players, making Ellison a sort of sci-fi Ezra Pound (without Pound’s troubling politics). Like most human beings, he was a mixed bag—yes, he was fractious and sometimes behaved very badly; at other times, he fervently advocated for and supported others (exception: that Fantagraphics defamation suit).
Harlan Ellison will be remembered for all these actions, righteous and reprobate, and for his work, which was voluminous: novels, short stories, essays, screenplays, comic books. The man even voice-acted. And it wasn’t simply voluminous; it was pioneering. His 1967 story “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” described an AI supervillain seventeen years before Skynet (and 55 years before ChatGPT). “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” won the 1965 Nebula Award and the 1966 Hugo Award, one of only twelve stories to win both since 1953, the first year of the Nebula. (Ellison did it again in 1977/1978 with “Jeffty Is Five.”) The Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever,” which he wrote, is widely considered the pinnacle of the original series. His collection of TV criticism, The Glass Teat, still holds up despite its 1970 release date. “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore” was included in The Best American Short Stories 1993.
Most of all, he will be remembered for editing two anthologies, Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972), which together heralded the so-called New Wave of science fiction. And he will be remembered for The Last Dangerous Visions, a collection he said would be published “approximately six months” after the second one. It actually appeared on October 1, 2024, fifty-two years after promised and six years after Ellison’s death, edited by his longtime friend, writer and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. ...
https://reactormag.com/looking-back-at-harlan-ellisons-dangerous-visions-trilogy/
Mythopoeika
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What? Volume 3 was released?
Mythopoeika
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I must now buy a copy...
gojiramonkey
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There's a brilliant story of Ellison in a meeting to launch Star Trek: The Movie and he's sitting with a bunch of other writers who are desperate to appease the head honcho of the studio, who keeps dismissing every idea they have, repeatedly shouting THINK BIG!! BIG!! Harlan thinks for a few seconds then gives a pitch about The Enterprise being sucked into the mother of ALL interstellar warps that transport the ship back a google of light years and in seconds they find themselves in front of a vast wall. They spend days trying to break through it with their weapons and finally they succeed and suddenly there is an all encompassing white light and the face of God is looking out at them...
Everyone is stunned. The head of the studio sits in silence then yells DAMMIT!! DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO THINK BIG???!!! at which point Harlan gives him the finger and leaves...
Everyone is stunned. The head of the studio sits in silence then yells DAMMIT!! DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO THINK BIG???!!! at which point Harlan gives him the finger and leaves...