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What a complete maniac. Anyhow, here’s an interview with Isaac Asimov, Gene Wolfe and Harlan Ellison, from 1982.
Gene Wolfe rules.
Warning, a little bit of off-colour vocabulary is utilized.
Freegards
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I will say that 20 years ago Harlan made the Sci-Fi Channel “The Prisoner” Marathon very interesting.
Hunter Thompson was a wanna-be next to Harlan.
A brilliant, creative, difficult guy. In 2075 I want to take the Disneyland “Be Harlan Ellison for an Hour” ride.
Great article! Thanks for the post!
Ahh, yes, Harlan... Pure evidence of what can happen if you live your life with absolutely no care about anyone but yourself - all you end up with at the end is just living with the one person hardly anyone else can stand to be with.
There’s a saying: Acquaintances help you move, friends help you move the body. To add to that, Harlan at one time would have been that body. My boss was utterly enchanted from spending one evening having dinner with Harlan - who can be quite the charmer so long as someone else is footing the bill.
But for me, having observed him and encounters with him for far too much of my childhood, he serves as an absolute object lesson of how to drive anyone and everyone out of their life.
His frequent reminding of others what he wants his tombstone to say (and Harlan, really, you should just pay for it now) “For a while I was here and for a while I mattered.” It is a solo testament to his life: I care about me, and how impressed I am with me.
Hopefully in these twilight years Harlan will finally learn that there is more to humanity than the letter I.
Weird. I was just reading his “Shatterday.”
He’s indeed a messed-up individual. He’s the darkside of Bradbury. I see his talent, but... not my favorite author.
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.
I wish his I, Robot screenplay could have been produced.
I have a VHS copy of The City on the Edge of Forever. I haven't watched it. Just had to have it. Wonder if it's still playable.
...He keeps going and going and going.
LOL Graphic Novels...also known as comic books, use to sell for 10 cents. How much does a graphic novel cost....too much I’ll bet.
thanks for posting this.
Huh, who’da thunkit? I think he wrote some outstanding stories. I recall a really neat one about a man who started fires with his mind. I read a lot of his stories in the 80s, but I don’t feel much interest now.
I’m glad to hear he’s still kicking. All the great old masters of science fiction are dying off, and they don’t make writers like that anymore. I grew up reading his stories. He wrote as an angry ultra-liberal who had a seething contempt for both Humanity and God, and he always expected the worst from the human race. A brilliant and highly imaginative writer nonetheless. I found his short stories very entertaining.
Harlan Ellison is one of those folks that once stood before a writers’ symposium, and stated:
“When you finish reading an article, or a book, and stand up in shock, and shout, “This is crap! I can write better than that!”, you have just taken your first step towards being a writer!
And as for me, so it began.
Harlan Ellison, (Uncle Harlan to some), is a fountain pen afficianado. I have a printout from his Webderland site, “Harlan Ellison’s Watching”, 05/19/2006, discussing fountain pens.
Harlan Ellison, unknown to some, is a Korean War vet, and did train with the 1st generation of Special Forces, even with his height. It was shortly after his end of enlistment, that he became a member of a Brooklyn street gang, and then the book about same, thereafter.
Harlan Ellison, having such a great love for a NY publisher, sent said publisher, during a normal ‘dog days’ temperature range, through the USPS at what used to be called ‘book rate’, with the resultant slower handling times, a freshly harvested gopher from his hillside, in response to the publisher’s displayed love towards Ellison! (Talk about biowarfare!)
Harlan Ellison, during a conference with a publisher, who was being obstinate about business details with one of Ellison’s books, sat calmly, discussing these details, while field-stripping a Government Model 1911. Subtle, but effective.
lastly, his first exclamation of non-love towards someone, anyone, is recorded to be “bug-copulation”!
All of these little things make up the psyche that is, and always shall be, Harlan Ellison.
“Take no prisoners, leave none alive!”