Cory,
I always thought your writing reminded me of someone subconsciously!
Now as you say, I see it very much! I never got to met him, but always watched his segments on PoG completely! A very talented writer indeed! Rest in Peace Harlan!
Cheers,
Dan
Try reading the volume of the original script - which is barely a third of the book - the rest is Harlan at his most Ellison-y explaining all the things done to him and his script by various people, and why he’s responsible for it being nominated for an Emmy even though the producers always took credit for it. City on the Edge of Forever - Original Teleplay
To me, Harlan Ellison always seemed like a sort of hammered-down Hemingway, writing damned fine prose but getting even more mileage out of reputation. My favorite example of the latter was the occasionally retold story of how Ellison went far out of his way to punch fellow science fiction writer Charles Platt. (Are you lurking somewhere out there, Charles?) In Ellison’s telling, the event became more dramatic and exaggerated over the years, until you might’ve begun to imagine it as an epic vendetta, executed like a battle from a Batman comic book. For his part, Charles Platt usually recounts it by shrugging and muttering something about a “glancing blow” that was so weak as to be almost mistaken for a rough caress.
One of my favorite Batman stories from the 80s was written by Ellison. “A Night of Thanks, But No Thanks!” in which Batman keeps trying to prevent crimes but has misread the situation and no crime is taking place.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/detective-comics-567-the-night-of-thanks-but-no-th/4000-113025/
Ah shit, sad news.
I’ve always thought of JWZ as the Harlan Ellison of cyberspace. Clear seers, pointed tellers of hard truths, lovers of rude fun, ferociously motivated, a tad (cough) on the opinionated side.
It’s disappointing to think he didn’t die while doing what he seemed to love most, yelling at someone. Perhaps he was dreaming about yelling at someone.
I spoke with him at a few signings over the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was nothing but awesome. He inspired me to be a writer, but that career wasn’t meant to be mine. I haven’t read anything of his in years, but happened to just order Blood’s a Rover.
As someone mentioned above, I don’t really think Rest In Peace is the way Harlan would want it.
I remember reading that in a class assignment in HS (1978) and one of my fellow students had a hard time believing the incident was real. I had just started reading HE at the time and convinced the class that it sounded just like Harlan.
There’s an old Roman expression: " Say nothing but good of the dead. "
Perhaps you should adopt it for just a while, or we might have to question your humanity.
He is the business man, on beauty trades,
Dealer in arts and thoughts who, like the Jew,
Shall rise from slums and hated dialects
A tower of bitterness. Shall be always strange,
Hunted and then sought after. Shall be sat
Like an ambassador from another race
At tables rich with music. He shall eat flowers,
Chew honey and spit out gall. They shall all smile
And love and pity him.
–Karl Shapiro, “Poet”
This news exhausts me today. Might be a good day to see if I can take in a viewing of Demon with a Glass Hand, or Soldier.
I could almost collect HE’s books and collections for the Leo & Diane Dillon covers alone, but I loved those stories just the same.
So, will Last Dangerous Visions come out now?
My grandmother went to high school with Hemingway. Said he was a jerk even back then.
But he wasn’t this hypothetical jerk. But even so I think his defense of Dostoevsky is appropriate here. Certainly Dostoevsky as a person can be criticized. He was a gambler who impoverished his family. But that is completely irrelevant to Dostoevsky the author. This recent nonsense where people conflate works and creators is relevant here.
You can also play it on archive.org or download the files to play with ScummVM. I thought it was pretty good.
You can’t remove the bitter flavor from a burnt pot of beans. Even if you manage to take out the worst of it, all of it is tainted.
Fascinating person. I just read an obituary by Joe Straszinsky, where he tells a story about Ellison helping out a homeless woman in the worst part of LA, with several shady people watching. And also a major league asshole. I still love “I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream” for its pure nihilism.
I’d say Rest in Peace, but I don’t think he’d like that.
Glad you didn’t give him a -short- obituary, Cory.
