demagogue on 29/6/2018 at 23:26
My favorite story from him was "Repent Harlequin". I made it into a one-act play and acted it out with some of my friends. One of the best theatre projects I did. I saw the NYTimes obit started off with "Harlan Ellison, famous Star Trek writer..." and I was thinking that's not the way to remember his legacy, which was so much more. Anyway, it's been a lousy week so I suppose it's only proper we lose someone like him while we're at it. Great author for his time.
Tocky on 30/6/2018 at 03:07
He also wrote for The Outer Limits and one of his stories, Demon with a Glass Hand, is among my first memories. Every time one of my heroes dies I wonder why I never wrote them and told them how much a story meant to me. Not that Demon with a Glass Hand was particularly good but writers were always my heroes. To be transported to a place I could never dream of being was magic. I also recall "I Have no Mouth but I Must Scream" being in an anthology of science fiction when I was an early teen and that WAS a very good one. Every time one of the magicians of imagination leaves it leaves us duller. I don't think we fully realize what we are losing. I also can't see that we are replacing them at the same rate we are losing them either. There are still those who capture the magic of course. I hope I write to them next I read a really good one.
PigLick on 30/6/2018 at 03:31
Not really familiar, except for Boy and his Dog? Most likely have read some of his shorter work as I read a lot of sci-fi anthologies.
uncadonego on 30/6/2018 at 09:31
I have a copy of City On The Edge Of Forever the way Harlan Ellison actually wrote it with a preface from him about why he hated the changes that Star Trek made to it.
Queue on 30/6/2018 at 14:48
I became acquainted with Ellison's work back in 80s, where he popped up quite often in media if you looked for him. I loved his Alfred Hitchcock Presents (which was airing late-nights on one of the local channels) teleplay, and the scripts he did for the 80s version of The Twilight Zone--and, of course, my VHS of A Boy and His Dog. Strangely, he was kind of a household name, even though I'd bet most of the public had never read any of his works, being one of those writers often referenced by other writers and in turning up in the news throughout the 80s and 90s, and well into the 2000s.
He was well-known for being an asshole (the brick thing is classic!), but was a fine writer.
Tocky on 30/6/2018 at 15:26
He was indeed an asshole. He was a perpetual teenager someone once said and I agree. There was very little in his head which stopped him from doing outrageous things or made him feel sorry for them once they had been done. Part of me empathizes with that but another part is repulsed. You can go too far as he did with the groping of an awards presenter at the 2006 Hugo awards but I don't feel he was malicious in any way but more impulsive. He was full throttle with diminished steering as a result. I can relate. Only the severity of my conscience keeps me out of the ditches.
I have the original poster of A Boy and his Dog BTW.
