The Ellison Bulletin Board

Name: Jack Skillingstead
Source: unca20071217.htm
Mark, "A Kiss Before Dying" is a fantastic book. I remember finishing it the first time and immediately starting over. I wanted to see how he DID that. Masterful.

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Name: Jack Skillingstead Source: unca20071007.htm Did I hear my name taken in vain, Mr. Ellison? Probably some other Jack. By the way, cookies ARE nasty -- unless they come equipped with chocolate chips. Or, occasionally, raisins. I had a conference call today with some guys for whom I've contracte...

Name: Jack Skillingstead
Source: unca20071007.htm
Josh, I have high hopes. I think you're very good.

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Name: Jack Skillingstead Source: unca20071007.htm Josh, what do you think of "Return To Oz"? This is one of my favorite movies. I've always been drawn to the darker side of the Oz stories. When I was a kid, watching "The Wizard Of Oz" generally scared the hell out of me. It still makes me uncomfort...

Name: Jack Skillingstead
Source: unca20070808.htm
Just ran across this piece about Tom Snyder that also mentions Harlan: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

Apologies if someone else already linked to it.

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Name: Jack Skillingstead
Source: unca20070808.htm
You still out there, man?

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Name: Jack Skillingstead Source: unca20070808.htm Assuming a book or movie is bad because it is enormously popular is as dumb as assuming a book or movie is GOOD because it's only appreciate by a select few. By the way, Dickens was enormously popular. So was Stevenson. Irwin Shaw sold a lot of book...

Name: jack skillingstead
Source: unca20070808.htm
I guess you could say Harry Potter is "devoid of original ideas" -- you can say it, but it's a silly claim and pointless, even if true. But it isn't souless. Those books have got a lot of heart.

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Name: Jack Skillingstead Source: unca20070808.htm HARLAN, I went to a Locus Magazine party tonight and found myself in coversation with a number of sf types. Everyone wants to know how the collaboration is going. I always give them the Buddha look and say something along the lines of, "Harlan's a g...

Name: Jack Skillingstead Source: unca20070808.htm Sandra, write something else and send it. What's the market? Listen, believe in yourself, in your talent and individuality. No one else will. My view of the artist is someone willing to hole up and write or paint or whatever, even when no one else g...

Name: Jack Skillingstead Source: unca20070808.htm I don't generally have a big problem with Spielberg. I've really liked a number of his movies. I didn't hate Minority Report. But. The eye thing is a mistake. You can explain or justify it, if you want. But the writer didn't bother. So anything you ...

Name: Jack Skillingstead Source: unca20070808.htm Sadly true, Kim. And I'll mention something else that irks me. Even among readers it is a fairly narrow percentage who care about how a writer uses language. Everybody's in it for the story alone. Or, if it's hard science fiction, they want scientif...

Name: Jack Skillingstead Source: unca20070808.htm The protag must solve his problem, or fail to solve it, himself. Story Telling 101. Also, the movies are FULL of stuff like the eye thing in Minority Report. What seems to count is the immediate visceral effect, not the logic or lack of logic in a s...

Name: Jack Skillingstead
Source: unca20070528.htm
Yeow, another birthday. From one old man to another: make it a good one.

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Name: Jack Skillingstead
Source: unca20070528.htm
How are you doing, Big H? I'm staying at the old James Blish house in Milford for a couple of days, so naturally I thought of you.

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