• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

The Harlan Ellison appreciation thread

This is a wind-up isn't it?

:p



(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.
 
From what I've read, Harlan is pretty derogatory about Forteana. Doesn't stop me from liking his stories and criticism, though.
 
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'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. :evil:
 
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.
 
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...
 
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.

-
 
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!
 
"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
Click to expand...

That's very different from The Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World. As different as can be!
 
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.
 
I get the firm impression that the man does not suffer fools gladly (if only it resulted in there being fewer of them...).
 
He doesn't but then again i found him generous (he bought us poor workers a drink) and incredibly funny. But he can be a cock.
 
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.
 
Mob1138 said:
Thats a fantastic rant from the man on Wiki.
Click to expand...

Beckjord feels the same way about Wikipedia I believe. (As an "anonymous know-nothing" myself, I find it fascinating how riled up about their Wikipedia entries some people get. )
 
graylien said:
Mob1138 said:
Thats a fantastic rant from the man on Wiki.
Click to expand...

Beckjord feels the same way about Wikipedia I believe. (As an "anonymous know-nothing" myself, I find it fascinating how riled up about their Wikipedia entries some people get. )
Click to expand...

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

-
 
Last Dangerous Visions might be on its way at last

Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions may finally be published, after five-decade wait
Sci-fi anthology stalled since 1974 will be produced by executor, screenwriter J Michael Straczynski, adding stories by today’s big-name SF writers

Alison Flood
Mon 16 Nov 2020 14.38 GMT


It is the great white whale of science fiction: an anthology of stories by some of the genre’s greatest names, collected in the early 1970s by Harlan Ellison yet mysteriously never published. But almost 50 years after it was first announced, The Last Dangerous Visions is finally set to see the light of day.
Click to expand...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...-dangerous-visions-anthology-may-be-published
 
And now he doesn't have to worry about paying anybody because they're a' deid.
 
GNC said:
And now he doesn't have to worry about paying anybody because they're a' deid.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of lawyers in the afterlife...mind you it'll be pretty hot where they are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top