Harlan Ellison has died
variety.com
variety.com
When I was a teenager, a long time ago, when there was one phone per floor and it was on a long ass cord so you could take it into any bedroom in the house... I got a call from Harlan Ellison. At 2am. I was a awake, but everyone else in the house was asleep. Including the person he wanted to talk with. Martin H. Greenberg and family were staying at my parent's house, because Martin was going to some SciFi convention in Lake Tahoe. I guess Harlan wanted to talk about that. I mentioned that it was 2am and everyone was asleep, but he said "wake him up." I did!
Same trip, I got to drive Martin to Robert Silverberg's house (in Oakland). I took a bunch of my Silverberg books and he signed them. Got to shake his hand, be intimidated by his very large dogs, and longly look at his very young and beautiful girlfriend. She was probably a few years older than me. He had to be 50+ then, I'd guess.
That was a good summer.
According to Neil, he mostly decided to become a fiction writer after reading one of Harlan's collections of short stories.
Rowling's Death Eaters seems to me to be a direct lift from Ellison's Flop Sweat but as they say, it's the highest form of flattery
Excerpt: Figures in long black garments, with drawn cowls that covered their faces. And strange, sickly purple light, the faintest, most terrible glow, shining out from beneath the cowls. They stared in at her. She could see no eyes: but they were staring in at her.
Ellison, Harlan. Shatterday (Kindle Locations 1028-1030). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.
Ellison may also be the inspiration for some of Harry Potter's adventures in the shops of Diagon Alley. See Shoppe Keeper
Excerpt: The sign proclaimed Shoppe of Wonders and beneath those words in curlicued but extremely readable Islamic calligraphy: Your Heart’s Desire.
Ellison, Harlan. Shatterday (Kindle Locations 1593-1595). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.
Frank Sinatra, leaning against the stool, sniffling a bit from his cold, could not take his eyes off the Game Warden boots. Once, after gazing at them for a few moments, he turned away; but now he was focused on them again. The owner of the boots, who was just standing in them watching the pool game, was named Harlan Ellison, a writer who had just completed work on a screenplay, The Oscar.
Finally Sinatra could not contain himself.
"Hey," he yelled in his slightly harsh voice that still had a soft, sharp edge. "Those Italian boots?"
"No," Ellison said.
"Spanish?"
"No."
"Are they English boots?"
"Look, I donno, man," Ellison shot back, frowning at Sinatra, then turning away again.
You can find out how it ends here:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a638/frank-sinatra-has...
Isn't it obvious? (not to mention that a link to the full story was given).
I very much appreciate your response, and I'm sure I hope my reasons for asking a question may meet with your approval.
What sense should it make? It's not some part of the plot in an epic saga, it's a random casual exchange between two patrons at a bar. The idea wasn't to mean something, but just to convey a part of Sinatra's personality -- which it does well.
>The full story is, I read, notable for style, in some way that fails to be very current; I'm sure that it was a big change from Cronkite.
The subject matter and wording might not be "current", 50 years on, but this work (and others, e.g. Tom Wolfe, and the like) is part of the basis of modern long form writing, and has many traits that modern journalists use.
Besides, if one is interested in learning about Sinatra, the person, and how thing were with his entourage, this story remains gold.
Ellison worked at Disney for a total of 4 hours. :)
I was told about Ellison back in college, maybe 2001/2002, by a woman who worked the desk in the office I worked in. I think she lent me Dangerous Visions and then I slowly picked up most of his books.
As of late I was disappointed that he didn't do much in the way of new stuff, instead releasing compilations of his older works.
"Grail" is probably my favorite story from that collection.
Note to self: time to re-read!
Source: https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1959/in-un-chien-a...
I was rather pleased, but I struggled hard to retain a modest demeanor. "Yes, I am," I said.
"You're not kidding? You're really Isaac Asimov?" The words have not yet been invented that would describe the ardor and reverence with which his tongue caressed the syllables of my name.
"Well, I think you're—" he began, still in the same tone of voice, and for a split second he paused, while I listened and the audience held its breath. "—a nothing!"
My second earliest memory of Ellison was Bruce Willis playing the main character in Shatterday when Twilight Zone got revived!
Update: his Twitter feed is full of commentary.
https://twitter.com/straczynski
Update 2: his Facebook eulogy is striking.
https://www.facebook.com/139652459402959/posts/1999083533459...
Harlan Ellison was one of a kind, and although I never had any contact with him[1] I really feel this loss. Even though his works are still with us (I have a bunch of his books, and so many of the stories are etched into my brain), he won't be challenging us the way he did.
[1] Unless you count the time when in a crowded corridor I heard someone behind me saying "Wheelchair. Wheelchair." and moved out of the way – and it turned out to be Ellison walking with a young woman who was horribly embarrassed.
What a magnificent bastard, indeed.
As a kid, I never really knew much of anything about the people who produced what I consumed for entertainment, and didn't really care. TBH, the stuff he made after Ren and Stimpy is not as good, probably because there weren't as many people telling him what not to do, or a dearth of people powerful enough to make those recommendations stick.
Monsters can make nice things. You just can't sacrifice the people of the village to them. When the artist is incapable of working well with others, they are limited in the art they can produce. They can write books, and mail the manuscript to their editors. They can make animated shorts and publish on the web. They can't make feature films or television series. They can't be the "face" for the publicity campaign. There's too much human interaction, and not enough corporate lawyers to hold their leash and give it the occasional tug. And you can't put them in charge of the project.
I considered him such a great writer that I went around telling people that I'd be willing to read anything he wrote, even his laundry list. Which led to the idea of asking to buy his laundry list and creating a website called "Harlan Ellison's Laundry List". I suspect it would have been magnificent. Sadly I never got around to it - too late now. Probably would not have worked anyway as he was said to be notoriously anti-computer in his life.
Magnificent bastard indeed.
"Ellison was married five times, with at least two of those marriages lasting only weeks or months. Survivors include his fifth wife, Susan Ann Toth."
No one bore a grudge like him, and few were as talented.
For those who want to get a better sense of his personal views, try his non-fiction, like "The Glass Teat". ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Teat ).
It had a great premise and I loved it as a kid, but I think it only lasted one season.
And man, he worked, making many screenplays as well as stories.
Rest well you magnificent bastard.