I became acquainted with the writings of Harlan Ellison in the 80s when I had a subscription to the, now defunct, “Twilight Zone” magazine. He was an editor of that magazine and frequent short story contributor. I liked his work for that magazine.
On Net Flicks, there is a movie adapted from one of his short stories called, “A Boy and his Dog”. It’s about a post apocalyptic world where some people live on the surface and some people live underground. It starred a very young Don Johnson. It is a kind of ridiculous and very politically incorrect story where a young man and his talking dog go about their daily activity of attacking other nuclear survivors for the their food and ravishing defenseless woman, etc. It’s the kind of story that could never be filmed today, much less published as a novel without NOW or some other feminist group making huge fuss about it.
Anyhow, based on the article, Harlan Ellison seems to be a bit of a narcissist who has problems caring about other people, something not uncommon for writers/actors/people in the entertainment industry. I guess you can enjoy someone’s work without necessarily liking the person who produced it.
His writing is kinda scary... sort of like you took Virginia Wolfe and sent her to Neptune.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s, I read alot. “A Boy and His Dog” is still one of my favorites.
He also edited a volume of short stories called “Dangerous Visions” which is, in my mind, to this date one of the most impressive collections of sci-fi ever put together.
Bradbury always struck me as what would happen if you took someone from the MSM and sent them to Mars.
Ellison is what you would get if you sent Charles Manson and Aleister Crowley to Mars!