Posted on 06/28/2018 1:52:19 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
Add Samuel Delaney and John Brunner to those two and it would take years of therapy to unkink your mind.
Ellison had a column called The Glass Teat, about various TV programs. I don’t remember what the publication was that carried it, but it was great.
I also remember him being interviewed by, I think Tom Brokaw, where Ellison said the movie studios were mostly laundries for drug money.They cut to a commercial instantly, and when they returned from the break, Ellison was GONE!
RIP, Harlan!!
Harlan Ellison did not like William Shatner from Star Trek.
He invited him over to his home to read his script. Shatner crashed his motorcycle on his driveway scoring a line across the concrete which is still there (I read this a dozen years ago)
He gave the script to Shatner and left the room while he read the script. He came back in and found Shatner was counting the lines for him vs others. The story goes that Ellison was livid with him.
The other actors all have stories of Shatner taking their lines while doing the show.
Harlan Ellison hated and became angry when introduced as a science fiction writer as he wrote about many other genres.
#3 He was angry (which is always with everyone) with Gene Roddenberry and others who rewrote his script for City on the Edge of Forever.
Interview with him about Star Trek on the Tomorrow show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35bqyHOKIak
Look at them clothes and hairdo’s!
I still remember a Heinlein plot or two. Asimov, Farmer, Niven, Pohl. Anyone read Henry Kuttner? He added some humor. If you want humor and fantasy, there’s Terry Pratchett. I’m definitely an old foggy as I stopped reading Sci-fi/fantasy many years ago and am completely unfamiliar with new writers.
“A Boy and his Dog” and “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream” are two of my favorite short stories by HE, but “Along The Scenic Route” sticks in my mind, too.
A boy loves his dog.
Heinlein. Have Space Suit, Will Travel, the only sci-fi I’ve read. About sixty years ago. Good grief.
Brilliant, original, difficult.
He was on my short list of favorites growing up. I ranked him in the same league as Heinlein and Asimov.
Yes. Quite right.
The first time I ever heard of Ellison was his commentary segments on the TV show Sci-Fi Buzz. I bought his book that contained his original script for the Star Trek episode “City on the Edge of Forever.” I also read Ellison’s short story “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman” in college.
Definitely an interesting guy, though his personality could rub some people the wrong way. He was a leftie, so I didn’t agree with him politically, but as someone who likes writing, I always admired how passionate he was about the art of writing.
I have many collections with Kuttner’s work. I He was married to CL Moore, who wrote the Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith planetary western/horror stories.
Any one dig Cordwainer Smith? His pen-name is the one Ellison took the pen-name Cordwainer Bird from.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith
A sci-fi guy writing Christian allegory who was really the guy who pretty much invented modern psy-ops theory for the Army. I guess there are stories out there that he REALLY believed his interlocked stories, that they were transmitted to him I guess.
FReegards
Quite the character. RIP.
RIP Mr. Ellison.
A lefty, but a great writer.
Also still pull out his TV commentaries from the early 70’s - some of them are really funny, despite the leftist leaning. Proof that leftists once had a sense of humor.
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