Posted on 06/28/2018 1:52:19 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
Harlan Ellison, one of the most influential sci-fi writers of the twentieth century, passed away today in his sleep. He was 84 years old.
Christine Valada, the widow of the late Len Wein and a friend of Harlan and his wife Susan, officially announced the author’s passing on Twitter.
“Susan Ellison has asked me to announce the passing of writer Harlan Ellison, in his sleep, earlier today,” Valada wrote. “For a brief time I was here, and for a brief time, I mattered.”—HE, 1934-2018. Arrangements for a celebration of his life are pending.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbr.com ...
Phil Dick was OUT THERE.
My favorites were Arthur C Clark, Heinlein and Azimov.
I remember him somewhat obscurely, if this is the guy I’m thinking of. He used to write for the L.A. weekly when I was in high school. Not a sci fi fan so I don’t remember any of that stuff but I remember once he wrote about judging a miss America contest and getting boners from all the contestants.... was this wrong to bring up on his eulogy thread? That’s all I remember about him. RIP.
Zathras remembers Harlan...
Technical Advisor for Babylon5
I liked Chrichton too. Alan Dean Foster as well.
Hate to hear the sad news about his passing.
I was hooked on his stories after reading A Boy and his Dog.
RIP Mr Ellison
Battlefield Earth was good but the Mission Earth series was prescient and really needs to be made into a series of movies.
It has the correct mix of science fiction, illustration of the ridiculous current state of society and how PR Men run amok, plus accurately predicted the demise of music.
It’s the ANTI STAR WARS.
BOOM
I liked the BE movie, a lot different than how I imagined it looking when reading the book, but a full fledged attempt to bring the book to life.
Nothing wrong with that movie at all, kudos to Travolta.
Get Peter Jackson on Mission Earth and it works on many levels, including neutralizing the control of the PR men.
I read most of Crichtons work. Alan Dean Foster Wrote a lot of novelizations Of movies that weren’t based on books to begin with. His take on ‘Alien’ was great.
I still call ‘The Nostromo’ the ‘ Admiral Nostromo ‘ from the novelization.
Babylon 5 - most excellent series.
RIP Harlan.
Two of his works that really impressed me were,
“A Boy and His Dog”, which could only be made into a movie in the weird sci-fi period of the 1970s. Starring a young Don Johnson, it is one of the most surreal post-apocalyptic movies ever made. Definitely only for adults. Ellison eventually wrote a prequel for it, a short story published in Playboy.
“Soldier From Tomorrow”, which was made into an episode of the original The Outer Limits called “Soldier”. One of their very influential episodes, of which they had many. Parts of it were adapted for the movie The Terminator, and eventually later prints of the movie gave him credit for it.
One of the colorful stories from his life:
Shortly after the release of Star Wars (1977), Ben Roberts contacted Ellison to develop a script based on Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot short story collection for Warner Brothers.
In a meeting with the Head of Production at Warners, Robert Shapiro, Ellison concluded that Shapiro was commenting on the script without having read it and accused him of having the “intellectual and cranial capacity of an artichoke”.
Shortly afterwards, Ellison was dropped from the project. Without Ellison, the film came to a dead end, because subsequent scripts were unsatisfactory to potential directors.
After a change in studio heads, Warner allowed Ellison’s script to be serialized in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and published in book form. The 2004 film I, Robot, starring Will Smith, has no connection to Ellison’s script.
Oh, that’s too bad. He was one of my favorites when I was in high school.
RIP Harlan, I love your works and have read ALL of them!
He also made quite a few T.V. appearances in the the early '70s.
So is I HAVE NO MOUTH AND CAN NOT SCREAM!
Sad to hear.
Really, not particularly talented or intelligent or creative.
But one of the group.
Always sad. But none of us are immortal.
I loved Paingod and Other Delusions.
Great writer.
RIP. Cranky and litigious but one hell of a writer.
Yes, he was quite the curmudgeon. I used to like his appearances on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show. I liked a lot of his stories. Even if I didn't always agree with his viewpoints, I still liked the way he expressed them. I saw him at one of the rare Sci-fi conventions I attended and he read one of the stories from his Shatterday collection. Among my favorites of his stories were The Deathbird and Delusion for a Dragon Slayer.
In an interview once, Ellison mentioned admiring the stories of a South American writer named Jorge Luis Borges. I started reading Borges' stories and I daresay I found similarities between the two writers.
In the early ‘90’s I maintained an online catalogue of science fiction and men’s magazines from the ‘50’s. Many of them contained early writings of now notable authors. One day I was out back when my wife appeared and told me a Harlan somebody was on the phone for me. When I picked up, it was Harlan Ellison. He was puzzled by my wife’s lack of knowledge about him. I explained that I was the fan and assured him I knew exactly who he was.
Long story short, he was trying to close holes in his library of early works. I had several titles he needed. He proposed I should choose from a list of duplicate magazines he had which he would autograph for me. He had a title containing stories by Harlan Ellison and Cordwainer Bird. I asked him to autograph both stories and he did. I felt fortunate because he was famously irritable and hated to be reminded of Cordwainer. All in all, it was a very pleasant half hour.
I’ll see you on the other side. Stay clear of The Mouse.
Hey I have his autograph somewhere, maybe it is worth something on ebay. In person he was a pompous jerk.
He also created “The Starlost”, but had his name removed from the final product. My personal favorite is “Demon With A Glass Hand” from “The Outer Limits”.
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