Harlan Ellison Is Gone
07-02-18, 09:46 AM
#28
Challenge Guru & Comic Nerd
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
Nice story from Mark Evanier about him.
https://www.newsfromme.com/2018/06/3...ellison-story/
https://www.newsfromme.com/2018/06/3...ellison-story/
07-23-18, 04:06 PM
#30
Challenge Guru & Comic Nerd
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
Was looking for something else, and stumbled upon this nice Ellison remembrance.
https://www.comicmix.com/2018/07/17/...he-told-us-all
https://www.comicmix.com/2018/07/17/...he-told-us-all
07-24-18, 07:03 PM
#31
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
I used to see Ellison at Star Trek and science fiction conventions back in the '70s. He would do these comic mock debates with Isaac Asimov to packed crowds in massive hotel ballrooms. He was a wild man. They were always complaining about Paramount dragging its feet on producing a Star Trek movie. Ellison would complain about Barry Diller in particular and how Diller rejected Ellison's "blasphemous" ST script.
I recommend Ellison's books of TV reviews from 1968-72: The Glass Teat and The Other Teat. I can't think of anything else that captures the polarization of the era better than those columns (originally done for the L.A. Free Press). Worth reading in light of today's polarization which is a skewed variation of '60s-era polarization, but bit more primal if you ask me.
I recommend Ellison's books of TV reviews from 1968-72: The Glass Teat and The Other Teat. I can't think of anything else that captures the polarization of the era better than those columns (originally done for the L.A. Free Press). Worth reading in light of today's polarization which is a skewed variation of '60s-era polarization, but bit more primal if you ask me.
07-24-18, 09:34 PM
#32
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
"Harlan Ellison's Watching" is probably my favorite collection of film reviews/criticism. If for only introducing me to the movies of Val Lewton alone... dayenu.
08-29-18, 12:29 PM
#33
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
I read "Repent, Harlequin, Said the Tick Tock Man," yesterday (it was the only one of his titles my library had for free kindle check out). I didn't really like it.
Are his other titles similar or is this one stylistically different?
Are his other titles similar or is this one stylistically different?
08-29-18, 03:14 PM
#34
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
You might want to give the stories "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream'" "Jeffty is Five," and "Shatterday," a try if you can find them.
I kind if hate to say this, but I think Harlan Ellison is generally oversold to the point where, when someone reads his stories for the first time, their reaction will be That's it? If it wasn't for Ellison's overbearing personality and his singular ability to court controversy, he probably wouldn't be much more than a footnote in the history on genre fiction.
08-31-18, 01:38 PM
#35
Challenge Guru & Comic Nerd
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
A bunch of his books are in a good sci-fi ebook sale going on today only.
https://theportalist.com/1000-ebook-sale
https://theportalist.com/1000-ebook-sale
09-20-18, 12:30 AM
#36
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
Pretty similar.
You might want to give the stories "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream'" "Jeffty is Five," and "Shatterday," a try if you can find them.
I kind if hate to say this, but I think Harlan Ellison is generally oversold to the point where, when someone reads his stories for the first time, their reaction will be That's it? If it wasn't for Ellison's overbearing personality and his singular ability to court controversy, he probably wouldn't be much more than a footnote in the history on genre fiction.
You might want to give the stories "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream'" "Jeffty is Five," and "Shatterday," a try if you can find them.
I kind if hate to say this, but I think Harlan Ellison is generally oversold to the point where, when someone reads his stories for the first time, their reaction will be That's it? If it wasn't for Ellison's overbearing personality and his singular ability to court controversy, he probably wouldn't be much more than a footnote in the history on genre fiction.
I don't remember which of his stories I read first, but it may have been "Jeffty is Five." That was a really good short story.
Maybe you're right that the way he promoted himself helped him to be considered more than he was, but I don't think I would consider him to be overrated.
In fact, I would go as far as to say, I can understand why he was so cocky. His style of writing seems so effortless. There's no points, that I've read, where it seems like he's trying to hard or stumbles at certain parts.
10-15-18, 10:45 PM
#37
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
Not for me.
I don't remember which of his stories I read first, but it may have been "Jeffty is Five." That was a really good short story.
Maybe you're right that the way he promoted himself helped him to be considered more than he was, but I don't think I would consider him to be overrated.
In fact, I would go as far as to say, I can understand why he was so cocky. His style of writing seems so effortless. There's no points, that I've read, where it seems like he's trying to hard or stumbles at certain parts.
I don't remember which of his stories I read first, but it may have been "Jeffty is Five." That was a really good short story.
Maybe you're right that the way he promoted himself helped him to be considered more than he was, but I don't think I would consider him to be overrated.
In fact, I would go as far as to say, I can understand why he was so cocky. His style of writing seems so effortless. There's no points, that I've read, where it seems like he's trying to hard or stumbles at certain parts.
Not everything Ellison wrote was gold for sure, but whose writing is. I grew up scouring used book stores for old Ellison paperbacks, and he was one of the most important authors in shaping my worldview at the time. While his name is pretty well known to classic SF geeks, I hardly think he's oversold. I reread "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" recently and still found it as powerful as the first time. I suspect I'll feel the same when I get around to rereading "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" or something simple like "Blink"
I've certainly come to realize it's easy to buy into Ellison's own hype if you put the man on too high a pedestal as an author. I was never so disappointed as reading his original screenplay treatment of Star Trek's City On the Edge of Forever, or reading about what happened with The Last Dangerous Visions anthology, or his overzealous litigiousness nature which, while in his prerogative, doesn't endear him to fans very much I think.
Still, his books were very important to me so his passing was very sad to me.
08-13-21, 12:10 AM
#38
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
Well, it looks hell has truly frozen over...
I have to say I'm more than a bit skeptical about this project.
TLDV, notoriously, had bloated to over on hundred stories spread across three volumes in excess of 200,000 words each.
That the JMS version of TLDV will only consist of 112,000 words and that he has been soliciting new stories from folks like Neil Gaiman and Corey Doctorow, not to mention holding a contest for an unpublished author to be included, it leads me to wonder just how closely the published product will resemble the one Ellison intended. I think that, over the years, about forty of the stories Ellison bought were pulled by their authors and published elsewhere, so that would still leave about seventy stories and 400,000 words that will be cut down to 112,000 words. And there also those new stories JMS is soliciting. We'll probably only get a handful of the stories that were originally to be included.
From JMS's Facebook page:
THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS has at last been completed. The final draft went off to the agency that will be handling the sale about fifteen minutes ago. This has been a massive effort...112,000 words...tracking down the estates of the original writers to be included in the book, and nailing down some newer A List writers; fans of Harlan's who wanted to be a part of TLDV. (And for the record, Harlan continued to buy stories for the anthology right through the 90s, and stopped only due to illness. He saw TLDV as a living document, and fought to keep it relevant when some stories became less timely or were supplanted by real world events.)
I will have more to say about the contents at a later date, but suffice to say that they include some of the most visionary writers in the science fiction genre over the last 48 years.
THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS has at last been completed. The final draft went off to the agency that will be handling the sale about fifteen minutes ago. This has been a massive effort...112,000 words...tracking down the estates of the original writers to be included in the book, and nailing down some newer A List writers; fans of Harlan's who wanted to be a part of TLDV. (And for the record, Harlan continued to buy stories for the anthology right through the 90s, and stopped only due to illness. He saw TLDV as a living document, and fought to keep it relevant when some stories became less timely or were supplanted by real world events.)
I will have more to say about the contents at a later date, but suffice to say that they include some of the most visionary writers in the science fiction genre over the last 48 years.
TLDV, notoriously, had bloated to over on hundred stories spread across three volumes in excess of 200,000 words each.
That the JMS version of TLDV will only consist of 112,000 words and that he has been soliciting new stories from folks like Neil Gaiman and Corey Doctorow, not to mention holding a contest for an unpublished author to be included, it leads me to wonder just how closely the published product will resemble the one Ellison intended. I think that, over the years, about forty of the stories Ellison bought were pulled by their authors and published elsewhere, so that would still leave about seventy stories and 400,000 words that will be cut down to 112,000 words. And there also those new stories JMS is soliciting. We'll probably only get a handful of the stories that were originally to be included.
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John Pannozzi (08-16-21)
08-13-21, 12:29 AM
#39
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Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
If it leads to reprints of the first volumes I'll be well-pleased.
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John Pannozzi (08-16-21)
08-13-21, 04:37 PM
#40
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Harlan Ellison Is Gone
Well, it looks hell has truly frozen over...
https://www.facebook.com/officialjms...75048297333445
I have to say I'm more than a bit skeptical about this project.
TLDV, notoriously, had bloated to over on hundred stories spread across three volumes in excess of 200,000 words each.
That the JMS version of TLDV will only consist of 112,000 words and that he has been soliciting new stories from folks like Neil Gaiman and Corey Doctorow, not to mention holding a contest for an unpublished author to be included, it leads me to wonder just how closely the published product will resemble the one Ellison intended. I think that, over the years, about forty of the stories Ellison bought were pulled by their authors and published elsewhere, so that would still leave about seventy stories and 400,000 words that will be cut down to 112,000 words. And there also those new stories JMS is soliciting. We'll probably only get a handful of the stories that were originally to be included.
https://www.facebook.com/officialjms...75048297333445
I have to say I'm more than a bit skeptical about this project.
TLDV, notoriously, had bloated to over on hundred stories spread across three volumes in excess of 200,000 words each.
That the JMS version of TLDV will only consist of 112,000 words and that he has been soliciting new stories from folks like Neil Gaiman and Corey Doctorow, not to mention holding a contest for an unpublished author to be included, it leads me to wonder just how closely the published product will resemble the one Ellison intended. I think that, over the years, about forty of the stories Ellison bought were pulled by their authors and published elsewhere, so that would still leave about seventy stories and 400,000 words that will be cut down to 112,000 words. And there also those new stories JMS is soliciting. We'll probably only get a handful of the stories that were originally to be included.
The following users liked this post:
John Pannozzi (08-16-21)
