One of my favorite authors since I first read him in the early '70s. Too often pigeonholed as a "sci-fi" writer, his work - fiction and non - has always deserved wider recognition, IMO.
"For a brief time I was here, and for a brief time I mattered."
I'm betting there are a good number of fans here on PE.
David
Happy with what I have to be happy with.
Yep.
He was one of the best. "A Boy and His Dog," "Jefty Is Five," "Shatterday," "Repent Harlequin!...," all great stuff.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
His mouth has been shut, and I want to scream.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
"Gadfly" is too pejorative. "Provocateur"? He was one who had NO problem letting people know what he thought. And more than intellectually suited to "out-gun" most anyone who disagreed with his viewpoint. He'll be missed.
Rest in peace.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
All my heroes are going: Edgar Froese, Bernie Wrightson, Chris Squire — and now Harlan Ellison.Originally Posted by proggy_jazzer
Yes, Harlan keeps getting billed as "SF writer" in all the tributes and obits, but that's inevitable. I prefer "speculative fiction." Or just author. HE's nonfiction was equally engaging: The Glass Teat, The Other Glass Teat, The Harlan Ellison Hornbook, Harlan Ellison's Watching, An Edge in My Voice, and various other pieces scattered throughout his bibliography. Even his bleepin' introductions to his collections are literary gold.
Speaking of fans, Djam Karet's named after the Indonesian term ("the hour that stretches") which drummer Chuck Oken, jr. read in Harlan's story "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World."
Harlan last won the Nebula in 2011 for "How Interesting: A Tiny Man." He tied with another author for the category, but he's still the only author to win three Nebulas for Short Story.
Here's John Scalzi's tribute, posted yesterday in the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-j...628-story.html
Rest in peace.
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.
Re-watched “A Boy and his Dog” last night. Man, that’s a weird movie.
He wrote two Man From U. N. C. L. E. episodes, and did two more uncredited rewrites for the show. He and his wife were scheduled to attend The Golden Anniversary Affair in 2014, the 50th anniversary of the show, but he got the flu. He also wrote for Outer Limits. Major talent.
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Rest in Peace
Harlan was always one of my favorite writers. And I agree that he was much more than a science fiction writer. His introductions to his short story collections are some of my favorite things he wrote, especially the intros to the stories in Dangerous Visions.
^^
More than just about any other author, I really felt like I had a sense of the man because of those introductions and his essays. I never got the sense that he was just creating a public persona, but that he just would never consider writing something that he didn't believe or honestly feel passionately about. He was an agitator, never shied away from poking a hornets nest, and freely called out anyone he saw as acting in an unjust manner. It made things easy for his detractors - "...see what an asshole Ellison is?" - but he really owned it, could back up his statements, and never seemed to me to be anything other that authentic. I'm glad of the words he left us, and that his voice (with an edge in it) will live on.
David
Happy with what I have to be happy with.
Correction: Yes.
RIP you cantankerous SOB.
As a teenager I read a ton of his stuff, plus the Dangerous Visions anthologies. I didn't always grok what was going on because I was a teenager. But some of those stories have stuck with me ever since. Especially "Harlequin" which I now have to hunt down.
For decades authors have bitched about contributing work to a final Dangerous Visions compilation. For some reason Harlan never released it. I wonder if it will see the light of day now. I guess that's up to his wife.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
IIRC, Susan has instructions to destroy any and all unpublished manuscripts, especially unfinished pieces and fragments. A real bummer. As prolific as Harlan was, there will be that much more we're bound to miss out on.
Well, that would be Harlan's stuff. The material for The Last Dangerous Visions is all from contributing authors, many of whom had tried to get the rights to their stories back when Ellison dragged on not publishing the book. The only thing Susan Ellison could torch would be her husband's intros.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Regardless, TLDV will not be published. Especially not that HE is gone. At best, the stories can get returned. Maybe.
Yeah, I guess I agree. I went down an Internet rabbit hole looking at stories about it and it's a lost cause. Too bad, some of the authors who submitted stuff have since passed away.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Mm hmm. One of the things that was supposed to be in it was the only collaboration, ever, between husband-and-wife team Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton...
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Here's a long interview with Ellison: http://www.tcj.com/the-harlan-ellison-interview/
Met him with my younger brother at DragonCon in Atlanta in 2001, he immediately commented on the fact that we had a very non-regional sound to the way we speak and asked us where we grew up. Then, at one point, some obnoxious PA system that was too close to his meet and greet line started blasting music and he said "Excuse me just a minute.", went storming over and read them the riot act until they stopped. He clearly did not suffer fools lightly.
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