Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion
"It is mankind's cognition and creative abilities, which enable man to have power and control over the universe"
Holy paralogism, BATMAN! NOW we're masters of the UNIVERSE???
WHAT does one DO with this equity?
"I shall show the world that I can be its master! I shall perfect a race of people! A race of atomic supermen that will conquer the WORLD!"
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaa-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!"
Intelligent design assumes that the universe is orderly and intelligent. It most certainly is not. It's a seething pot of randomness. A collection of accidents and raging chaos. It is an unmitigated mess. What kind of intelligence would have designed the platipus?
Even more secular (ie: not traditionally religous) proponents of Inteligent design fall into the trap of assuming we are the pinacle of evolution. Evolution is not a process of progress towards higher life forms. It's a process of adapting to change.
That's what I say to those dimwits who ask "Why are there still apes around?"
Looking around nature and saying "Wow! Look how ordered it all is!" does not constitue evidence or observation. So any theory based on that concept isn't even remotely scientific. All one has to say is "no it's not." And we're right back where we started.
Steve E.
Book Shippin'
Books arrived in great shape + within days of Susan's posting. The ...ah...Disney box threw me off course, but the return address said it all. I plan to enjoy these tomorrow along side a hot carafe of special blend. Too much activity today, if you can imagine an antique show in Northern Michigan via a 140+ mile ride up + down the coast of Lake Huron. I thank you both very much!!!
ID & shit
Tom Waits offered the following w/ the whole faith vs. philosophy vs. reason vs. blah, blah, blech...:
"Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's only god when he's drunk." Amen.
Not that I believe in the whole "I yem whot I yem" horseshit; I'm more of a observe, mearsure and repeat in a lab sorta guy. However, I've seen a couple of burning bushes (Praise Be!)
Do What Thy Wilt,
E.K.
Overheard at the Time Travel Cafeteria:
"We wanted to see what'd happen if Manson got into the Monkees instead of the Beatles. He opened a rehab clinic and day care center."
Reply to Harlan
I was pointed to your post of August 4th, requesting my contact info. I'm only too happy to oblige. My address is 11204 Crossland Drive, Austin, TX 78726, and my number is 512-336-7098.
REPLY TO HEATH FODOR
I do indeed continue to write exclusively on various OLYMPIA manual models. Sometimes on an office standard full-size, of which I have seven or eight, all in top condition, sometimes on an Olympia portable with bookface type (called Congress Pica), of which I have a dozen or so, sometimes even with a wafer-thin Olympia portable designed to be carried by war correspondents in a hot-fire zone, of which I have three or four. (I even have one that was made in pink...ostensibly for female reporters under fire. Sheeesh!)
Yr. pal, Harlan
John:
I appreciate the spiritual needs of man, and recognize God as a necessary extension of those needs. All stable cultures practice God worship. Since God has always been present in human culture, the relevance of God in human life should be recognized and respected. Whatever the greater context or sense of connection that is necessary for giving the life of mankind meaning … call it God and his Mighty Works and get on with having a satisfying life.
I fall off the religious logic train at the point where proponents of religion begin to assert that our intelligence proves higher intelligence, or that this higher intelligence can be invoked from physical principles or that it can be linked in a scientific way to the theoretical structures that science is exploring. Religion is of the heart; it exists in and for the heart, and for building and maintaining a durable sense of community that enriches our very human experience.
Intelligent Design relates to none of that.
It is not related to science, nor is it concerned with the well-being of the human heart. It is simply a tool designed by fundamental Christian institutions to help force the teaching of Christian belief systems in our public schools. It is the successor to “Creationism”, which has already been rejected from inclusion in most public school curricula. The goal is to create the illusion of uncertainty regarding the integrity of evolutionary science and thus prevent the faith of developing Christians from being affected by evolution in a way that might undermine their acceptance of the traditional Christian mythology, in which God made Man and Man is the immortal center of all creation.
Well, an institution is alive, and like an animal it will do what it has to do to survive.
Situation normal. Ave Maria, and ix ipsit carborundum.
Lee: Your comments remind me of something C.S. Lewis once said. I paraphrase but basically what he said was that if the universe were truly meaningless and senseless we would never be able to deduce such a thing. The mere fact of our, as humans, ability to reason, create, and solve problems is evidence (along with the Golden Section) of a higher intelligence. The concept of humans being created in the "image and likeness" of god does not mean god "looks" human. Only a fool, religious and atheist alike, would think that. It is mankind's cognition and creative abilities, which enable man to have power and control over the universe, that make man in god's image and likeness.
Caution: If one goes looking for an intelligent design, one will, of course, find an intelligent design. Caliban will see his own face in the mirror, afterall.
But (to steal an idea from Douglas Adams) nothing would disprove the existence of God faster than actual evidence of an intelligent design. All faith would immediately be negated by such a discovery, and God would necessarily cease to exist "in a puff of logic."
But, as an atheist, I must ask why anyone would exchange a transcendental deity for an immanent deity? For then, believers would be left with a small God who fits into this universe, with all of its cruelty and stupidity. In other words, they would make a "Pain God" of the worst sort--a god not unlike the one in which many fundamentalists believe.
Steve Dooner,
Proud Atheist
THE GOD QUESTION
It just don't matter....Intelligent Design....anthropomorphic principles...quantum mechanics....gravity vs. anti-gravity...time travel....wormholes... Relativity...it all comes down to one thing that I believe.
I believe God came in a UFO...he or she or it, found a near human animal called homo erectus...decided to manipulate the gene pool of erectus by injecting "their" genes and wah...la!
Here comes Homo Sapiens...us....the most difficult animal on this planet to understand...and to contain for any length of time before it rebels and will fight all, even themselves to be free.
Yes....if God is out there somewhere....He came in a UFO.
Erika,
Randomness is indeed at the heart of what drives reality, and as a scientist I’m sure you are aware that we have proven that by experiment. When you were taking scientist lessons, didn’t your quantum theory professor insist that that all possible random values exist simultaneously, with the act of observation influencing which quantum state resolved into “reality”? Even though that damn cat that is and isn’t in the box is just a theoretical construct, black body radiation, spectral absorption bands, quantum transistors, SQUIDS, and those weird dual light slit experiments that your evil professor forced you to solve in Quantum Mechanics 101 are all quite repeatable proofs of the theory. Light. It’s a particle. It’s a wave. It’s a wavicle. Whatever you like. Both or neither. Your choice.
Though I’m far, far away from being able to comprehend the details, my impression of superstring theory is that it extends the potential of quantum mechanics to include the simultaneous existence of all possible universes in an abstract quantum realm of all possible states. We experience the universe we are in because it is the one in which we are able to exist. This is called the “anthropomorphic principle”, which does not require a God, unless you want to cast him in the role of creator of quantum mechanics.
The problem with Intelligent Design is that it demands that the universe make sense.
But if making sense is what the universe is doing, it’s DEFINITELY not doing it for us.
This time I have to applaud a review (for Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo) by Roger Ebert for its candor and the information it reveals.
Rob Schneider...what a third-rate dipshit.
Thank you, Susan and Harlan
Susan,
Got the book(s) today, in great shape as usual. What a nice Friday surprise. And then I saw the postage sticker...jeebers! First dinner, now this. You guys are really taking it for the fans!
-Keith
Olympia De Luxe portable typewriter
Dear Harlan,
Was wondering if you still use these typewriters. Just found one at a Church Garage sale down the sreet. I usually use a Sears manual typewriter that once belonged to my Grandmother.
The Olympia moves like Walter Payton. My Sears is more like that tumbling touchdown The Fridge made in Super Bowl '85.
Heath Fodor
>So, I'll oust myself and say that I'm a scientist <
If it's not too toward, I was wondering what your doctoral degree was in, and where and in what you do research.
Steve,
Hubbard did not invent the universe, but he may have channeled it. After all, this is the same Ron Hubbard who participated as "scribe" in the black magic rituals of rocket scientist, JPL founding member, and Aleister Crowley devotee Jack Parsons.
Ha! Just kidding all you litigious Scientologists. He never did any of that. Really, he didn't.
Really.
Frank writes;
"My other Cindy, you know, the one in Texas: did you know that Texas is now minority white? I'd say within 30 years you will see a radical hispanic President."
That's fine by me as long as he wears a wrestling mask - then I can body double for him.
I liked the rest of that post as well.
- Barney
Al Franken just said that when he was a kid, the existence of Sputnik scared the bejeezez out of him, because that meant that the Russians were beating us.
That was the line at the time; the government used Sputnik as an excuse to spend more money on the defense, as a boondoggle to corporate power. The propaganda worked--this was basically NSC-68 at work.
He also said that Sputnik made America care more about science, which is bunk. Science is one thing this country has never cared about, unless you count the science of UFOs.
We saw science in the eyes of Spock, but only as a cultural conceit. Science to us was a bunch of serious guys shooting ray guns at strange Alien beings.
Now we have ID, the science of myth in a petrie dish. The boogens under a microscope aint truth. Rattling minds in a haunted house of illogical bumps in the night do not equal the pursuit for a high purpose, but does contort the myth into our own American brand of pretzel logic.
Sure, I believe in God too, and my God understands that things have to begin using a natural process. Actually, I have always thought God was a pretty rational cat. I cannot prove it, and that is why I usually keep my religious opinions in the closet. My other kinks are out and rather obvious.
--------------
Cindy Sheehan, now there's a patriot.
----------
My other Cindy, you know, the one in Texas: did you know that Texas is now minority white? I'd say within 30 years you will see a radical hispanic President. Trust me sugarlump.
Apoloies for posting twice.
I need to clarify. I don't wholly subscribe to every idea within ID, nor do I wholly take science as the empirical perspective. My belifes are a highly debatable combination.
The very idea of the universe being created by 'chance' is amongst the most laughable bullshit I've ever heard. So, I'll oust myself and say that I'm a scientist whom is very attracted to the idea of ID. My reasons are complicated, and maybe I'll explain myself at the other forum. {shrug}
Question the world not only with science, but also with your heart. Science is but only one perspective.
Chance. Randomness. Puhleeze.
The Truth of Intelligent Design
It came to me in a flash overnight. According to the tenets of ID, life in the universe is much younger than the big bang would technically allow (let's say 10,000 years, a nice round number). It required a guiding hand which miraculously created all forms of life in an instant, out of nothing at all.
Since the name of the "theory" is Intelligent Design (without naming God) we have to find the responsible party by using logic. The Creator has to be Intelligent, with a wild imagination -- say a member of a society reputed to be technologically way ahead of their time.
The Creator would have to have some Design sense, as well as an off-beat sense of humor. And a good deal of creative energy to boot.
The Atlantians are out, for obvious reasons.
It's right in front of us: The universe, in all of its variety and wonder, was invented by L Ron Hubbard at a dinner party in the 1960s.
Like Lennon said, whatever gets you through the night is all right. If people want to believe that a creator deity put the universe together, that's their right and their choice. If they believe a particular set of commandments or a holy book with the ideals of treating one's neighbor as they'd like to be treated is the way to go, I say run do not walk.
What irks me, and raises my ire, is when people try to cram their belief structure down my throat. Myself, I believe in God and I like to think he's pulling for us, waiting for us to realize that this world is ours and the greatest gifts he gave us are common sense and self-determination, but that's me. The Catholic upbringing is hard to shake. But I keep my faith private. I don't force my beliefs on others, I keep my relationship with Yahweh/Buddha/Allah/the Way to myself. People tend to get religion mucked up and mixed with spirituality. You don't need the former to explore the latter.
Blech, enough religion already. Anybody pick up the ADAM STRANGE: PLANET HEIST trade paperback? It's good reading, and you have to love any comicbook featuring a guy with a rocketpack and a finned helmet shooting blasters and fighting alien scum. I mean c'mon, we're not talking rocket science here. It's a nice breath of Classic SF fun, making for a nice break from the Sturm und Drang DC Comics have been putting out lately. But that's a whole other kettle of bitter we really don't need to be getting into. I've still got Astro City, though this new Dark Age series is setting of my Angst-o-meter.
Okay, so it's not Proust but I know what I like. :p
Sincerely,
Stacy
Wowee
My shipment came today....I'm re-experiencing the overwhelming awe,wonder,terror of having fifty (now) years of Harlan wash over me in an instant, which eclipses even the epiphany I had when I actually started *reading* in the 35 year version that had sat on my shelf for five or seven or maybe it was ten years, and TRULY discovered what took most folks here decades....I remember reading a footnote (was it??) in my CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER book, about Harlan being a runaway kid, wondered what kind of horrid parents would drive their kid to run away, opened ESSENTIAL at random and in true ancient fashion a la the conversion of Augustine or something, stumbled on the essays "My Father" and "My Mother". OK, whatever you are Harlan, you aren't their fault. ;)
Bash me for a dunce, I hadn't figured that out about what to do with the Herc Bonus book. Most kind of you to sign&date it. I recently read in a guidebook to Japan that the Japanese word "arigato" (thank you) literally means "You have put me in a difficult position," but OK, I'll find a good home for it . :))
On Intelligent Design, how about Insidious Deism? Or Insidious...something or other. It's an attempt to sneak creationism into the schools in a different...Insidious Disguise?? All right, you IDers, quit hemming and hawing and come out and say it. You mean God, don't you, guys???
Hmm, "the devil can cite Scripture for his purposes" is a quote from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice...they're talking about Shylock! And what a great answer! lol
Kristin
to Keith Cramer
"Like if I wrote that my... offering me tubes of Preparation H"
I'm going to be laughing myself to sleep tonight. Thanks.
I though ID stood for Imbeciles and Dolts.
Yes, there are scientists who believe in ID. They're just not good scientists, as Penn & Teller might say.
Learn the truth about ID from Vic Stenger, author of "Has Science Found God?" and "Not by Design" (both excellent).
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/cosmo.html
What's next? Believers trying to convince people that Noah put dinosaurs on the Ark? Oops, too late, they're already doing that.
intelligent design is for dum dums
Great quote from The Book, Duane. I love it, always have, and use it with such alarming frquency against the Pharisees that I've had one or another of them fire back, "The devil cites Scripture for his own purposes."
To which IIIIIIII usually respond, "I use it for my porpoises!
Who happen to be smarter than you."
I laugh inside. IIIIIII think it is funny.
Yr. pal, Harlan
It's funny that Voltaire devised the perfect answer to the philosophy of "Intelligent Design" 250 years ago, back when it was called Deism. Everytime we wish to think this is "the best
of all possible worlds," replete with an "intelligent design," we should think of the inane Dr. Pangloss and his postulations about the logic of everything in the universe.
Most absurd of all is the assumption that certain biological constructions are "irreducibly complex." Guess what? They're all "irreducibly complex" and they're all "not irreducibly complex." Saying anything is "COMPLEX" is a subjective judgment that has nothing to do with science.
To us, a star fish's eye might seem "irreducibly complex," To us, certain organelles in a cell can reek of "irreducible complexity." Yet, why stop at biology. Rock formations can be "irreducibly complex" and the flow of rivers can be "irreducibly complex." The whole bleedin' universe could seem "irreducibly complex." That doesn't mean that a some man-shaped deity made it. It just means that we, as humans, can be awed by the nature from which we came forth.
It's funny to see so many people baffled by this red herring just because an ersatz mathematician and a pseudo-scientist have put it forth. When Heisenberg could not measure atomic particles he didn't say magic bunnies control proton movements, he left it as a necessary uncertainty, and that is why he is a scientist. When mathematicians think that they can infer god just because something seems extremely complex, they have entered the realm of the ridiculous.
Steve Dooner
ID and Lost Books
... and here I thought Intelligent Design was a show on HGTV. As an evolutionist I can still respect the faith of those who believe in Creationism, but ID is a masquerading pseudoscience alongside astrology, parapsychology and the study of Atlantis -- it cheapens the value of true faith in an effort to coerce people into thinking unsubstantiated conjecture trumps scientific evidence. The Bible ain't a textbook.
...................................................
Any list of Lost and Lamented bookstores would have to include A Change of Hobbit in Santa Monica/Westwood; Richard Kyle Books here in Long Beach; and Moonstone Books in Washington, DC. (Added to Dangerous Visions, of course.)
I'm a Christian and even I think ID is crap
Intelligent Design actually contradicts the Scriptures. The Book of Isaiah states that "My ways are not your ways; my thoughts are not your thoughts." (Isa. 55: 8-9)
Intelligent Design is God's brain fart...
Intelligent Design is Evolution to chimps.
Intelligent Design Is...
Intelligent Design is just Creationism in a party dress.
Chris B.
Chuck, thanks for the love, pal.
--------------
Intelligent design? Sounds like the name of a houseware boutique in SoHo.
Creation myths have no place in a classroom. Sure, O'Reilly equates that with fascism, but truth puts the foot in the door, separating the light of reason from the dark corridor of bad ideas.
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Harlan writes friction, not fiction. friction is when the real world butts up against the land of Nod.
Harlan is our eye opener.
Keith--book on the way. Thank you.
Now don't start going on about dearly departed bookstores, you'll have me weeping about the old Oxford Bookstore in Atlanta. Sniff....sniff...
Kroch's & Brentano's
TONY RABIG:
I discovered and purchased my very first Unca Harlan book at Kroch's & Brentano's bookstore. I cannot tell you how much I still miss the flagship store on Wabash Ave. I worked (and still do) about a block away and spent many a lunch hour and a dollar there. The staff was incredibly knowledgeable and could tell you where a certain book was located without the aid of a computer database. They just plain knew and loved books. Also, the best damn art book section anywhere. Christ, I miss that store.
Amen.
Keith... Funny, are you. ;)
But seriously. I knew that almost everyone would leap onto Harlan's simple, well-said tenet; over-analyzing it, and what seems like even trying to explain what he actually meant! Sigh. Instead of building a wildfire of chatter, as is usually the case with Webderlanders, shut up already and just *hear* the man.
Respectfully said,
-Erika.
Shelving / D'Onofrio
Harlan's not alone here. You can also cite the novel GLIDE PATH, by Arthur C. Clarke, a non-sf account of World War Two, which when in print is ALWAYS shelved in science fiction. Haldeman's 1968 is also always shelved in science fiction. Writers who write in several different fields are almost always shelved in the field where they made their name, frustrating attempts at crossover success. Even Westlake, writing a comic fantasy novel a few years ago, had it shelved among his mysteries.
I've always wondered how the brilliant Dan Simmons has managed to escape that trap. His sf masterworks (HYPERION, etc), his horror novels (CARRION COMFORT, others), his private eye books (HARD CASE, etc), and his historical thriller THE CROOK FACTORY (Ernest Hemingway vs. Nazi spies in Cuba! Woo!) are not all crammed in the same section, but spread around the bookstore, where they can attract readers with wildly divergent interests, in addition to the weird ones, like me, who simply track down and read everything he writes. Either by design or good fortune, he was able to arrange a career where he could do whatever the hell he wanted and not find himself faced by publishers who said things like, I'm sorry, we don't mysteries from you, you write SCIENCE FICTION, stick to that. (As someone just getting into book-length work, now, after years of hopping around the genres at short story length, I'd like to know how he managed the arrangement -- -- if it's not just blazing, undeniable talent, in which case I'm probably screwed.)
One note on the D'Onofrio discussion: alternating episodes of LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT had less to do with him "burning out" on the character and more to do with his body "burning out" from the punishing schedule. He made headlines twice last season, when a couple of collapses on the set sent him to the hospital. The new status quo on the show came about because people were beginning to wonder if he'd drop dead.
I would guess that HE was pegged as a "science fiction" writer a long time ago, when he was first composing paragraphs. And the publishing companies cater to the lowest common denominator when they do cover art. I mean, how else to explain my copy of "Spider Kiss" with its goofy alien holding onto a microphone? I bought it (shelved in the science fiction section back in the '80s by the way) 'cause it had the name Harlan Ellison on it and it was a by god novel. A damn fine one at that and wishing in an adolescent, geeky, selfish way for other novels by HE. Of course, I'm also wishing for a million dollars and the restraining order Scarlett Johansen has against me to be lifted, but neither is likely to happen either.
Harlan in the stacks
I think this might be a case where Harlan has harped on something that bugs him, and people are taking it way too seriously. Like if I wrote that my ass itches one day, and then for 30 years people are popping out of the woodwork asking how my ass is, and offering me tubes of Preparation H (which stands for hemorroid, by the way)..
Keith
What killed Peter Jennings?
It may have been a regular form of lung cancer (is there such a thing?) I may have been blinded by my own Ahab-like hatred for the cancer that stole a friend from my life long before he should have had to check out.
And yes, there is more than one form of lung cancer. They're all nasty and the only difference between them is level of lethality.
And Frank:
Quit the cigs, you fool.
Chuck
HE in the bookshop sf sections
When I worked at the late lamented Kroch's & Brentano's in Chicago, I made it a point to stock Harlan's works in the correct areas (Gentleman Junkie in fiction, Glass Teat in film/tv, etc.) But I also made certain that each title was also in the sf section, simply because the books seemed to sell more quickly there. As to why they wind up in sf more often than not --
Check out the covers. Delightful covers, every one, but so often they seem to shriek "Fantasy may be found here!" The Dillon and Shaw covers for the Pyramid and Ace reissues just had that look to them, and I'd guess that look would tend to get them shelved in the sf sections in a lot of book stores where the staff might not give each title a more careful examination before shelving. Once in the sf sections, the books would of course be seen by long-time HE readers, but never seen by folks who wouldn't set foot in the sf section even if they knew it would cure their cancers; outside the sf sections the covers could tend to put off those same readers.
Many moons ago I met Leo & Diane Dillon at a library convention, and we talked briefly about the Ace SF Specials line (and the Dillon covers were worth the price of the books all by themselves); Diane Dillon said they didn't do quite as well in the market as expected, and DD thought this was in part because the covers weren't even close to the traditional "sci-fi" covers, and that a number of the books had done much better when reprinted later with more conventional sf covers. Go figure.
Should HE's work be in the correct areas? You betcha. But probably better if possible to have the work in sf AS WELL AS the right shelves, for roughly the same reason a story like "All the Lies That Are My Life" appeared in F&SF when it should have been published with all possible fireworks in the New Yorker or the Paris Review. He's got a large number of readers in the sf world, and it makes sense to place the books where they'll be seen by as many likely buyers as possible.
Bests to all
--tr
Harlan Ellison and John McPhee
When I go into a bookstore looking for authors like Harlan or John (whose books can be found ANYWHERE) I first ask at the info desk. Of course that is problematic in many a used store. All I care is that they are represented.
Respectfully,
Neal
Ellison doesn't just write "science fiction," but his work appeals to the science fiction sensibility. I think that's why he's shelved there. Harlan is a bit like E.A. Poe, who if he wasn't being shelved in "literature" because of his historical standing, would also be sitting in the fantasy racks.
Kind of like Brian Eno's ambient work sitting in the rock/pop section of the record store. It's hardly rock or pop, but that's the market that buys Eno, not the classical or jazz markets, even though some of Eno's work is a lot more like composers in those genres.
My point about seeing Harlan's books in the general fiction section - whether they were fiction or not - is that he has expressed in the past how much he loathes constantly being shoved into the narrow SF category, when most of his fiction should be in the Fiction section.
Yeah, The Glass Teat books are non-fiction, but believe me when I tell you that you wouldn't want to be in the non-fiction section of this particular used bookstore I was in. The books would never be seen, or read.
Thank you, Susan. Will keeps both eyes open for its arrival.
The Amazing Vincent
It was D'Onofrio's jump from FULL METAL JACKET to THE PLAYER that made me sit up and take notice. Holy Cow, I thought -- that's the same guy? No way!
Vincent D'Orofrino
Who could forget Vincent's incredible acting as the obusive husband-turned-alien bug in the original MEN IN BLACK. That was the first time I saw him act...and everytime LAW AND ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT comes on...I still see that ability in his acting that will make him a great character actor that could make him star in his later middle life. He is right up there with Brennan, Buchanan, Elam, and the just recently deceased
KEVIN (Doc on Little House)HAGEN, plus a myriad of others.
I wondered how long it would be until Vincent D'Onofrio got tired of being a supercop. My favorite performance of his was as an addled time traveler in Brad Anderson's HAPPY ACCIDENTS from 2000. Of course the fact that Marisa Tomei was also in it didn't hurt.
Kristin, Doug, Ray and Greg--your books on the way.
Susan
D'Onofrio
D'Onofrio
Apparently, he's a bit burned out in his current role on "Law & Order Criminal Intent," as Dick Wolfe is bringing back Chris Noth from the original L&O to do the show every other week next season. D'Onofrio, though, can really get into a character. Remember his portrayal in "Mystic Pizza" of the fisherman boyfriend/eventual husband?
Larry
Larry
D'Onofrio
When I saw D'Onofrio in FULL METAL JACKET, I thought, cool performance. Too bad we'll never see the guy again. He was too fat, too much of a specialty character.
Of course, his very next performance was as a simulacrum of the Marvel superhero, Thor.
I had known that he did not provide the voice of Orson Welles, but as far as I'm concerned he earned his permanent place in the acting pantheon with his performances as Robert E. Howard in THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, and as a doomed subway rider on that searing episode of HOMICIDE.
(Meanwhile) Am psyched. 'Tis been a GOOD day so far...!
Welles in Ed Wood
The voice of Welles was supplied by the incomparable Maurice LaMarche, better known for his portrayal of the Brain from the cartoon Animaniacs.
---Peter
Vinnie and the Dubs
>He was the guy who played Welles in ED WOOD <
He mimed the role. The voice was dubbed by an impersonator.
Don't fret about it, though. Also dubbed by other actors were Ursula Andress and Gert Frobe, in Dr. No and Goldfinger respectively. Happens more than we know.
BTW, Disney is closing down its last hand-drawn animation unit. The end of an age.
Strain? I thought a strain was something contagious, like a virus. Lung cancer isn't contagious, is it?
Susan: after writing on the blackboard "I will not get impatient" 500X..i only want to know did my order reach you yet?? No big deal, really and I know you're great with fulfillment.
Kristin
Lung Cancer
I always thought that there is only one strain of lung cancer...but I guess if you add emphezeyma, asthma, bronchitis
and a myriad of other names into it...there are quite a few different strains to lung cancer.
Because of my politics...I was never a fan of Jennings...of all the liberal or those who say they are liberal journalist in television...he rankled my fur more than they did. I am, however sorry that he had to go in such a horrible way...I too smoked while serving in the U.S. Army....four almost five packs a day. I quit when I married my present and only wife in 1968.
The AMA just recently came out with a survey or a paper that even if you quit as long as forty or fifty years ago, you are still not out of the woods as far as lung conditions go...I can attest to that...I have had more lung problems in the last five years than I have had before. Had a lung condition this year that they still do not know what it is...almost did me in.
And ....Frank? Speaking now as a fellow human being and not as a political adversary....why don't you quit smoking? I know ...I know...it is not easy.
Having said everything I have to say about "well-intentioned misreckonins", self-appointed guardian angels where there had been no sour sentiments (nothing more than the defense of a good adage), and lemmings apparently clueless about the complexity of a topic (just compare the two different ways CS Lewis and Freud reconciled their fears of death as an example. They sought the device that would allow them to move forward, one radically different from the other. MOST of us have our fears; that's the simple REALITY I'm trying to address. Each of us, then, have to find a way to address those distinct fears, or we OSSIFY. Thus, what worked for Harlan does not quite work for me; I agree with his final argument; but it isn't quite ENOUGH for me to say, "don't be frightened", because it fails to address the reality...well, MINE and others, I don't know about YOURS)...
I was just looking at a film and had come upon one of the most camelion-like character actors I've EVER seen, Vincent D'Onofrio.
He was the guy who played Welles in ED WOOD as well as 'Pyle' in FULL METAL JACKET. That's one helluva stretch. Remarkable actor.
Okay, let's assume that a cig habit killed Peter Jennings. Here's a fun thought. Imagine if the ratings go way down. ABC loses millions in advertising revenue, bargaining leverage, and the like... so the network initiates a lawsuit against the tobacco companies, holding them liable.
I know, it won't happen. For one thing, the tobacco companies would simply hire John Stossel as a friendly witness. He's cheap and affordable.
Neal--No problem.
Chuck, you may be wrong on this one; Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw were on Larry King and they both mentioned that cigarettes were the cause of the lung cancer.
-------------
I smoke, so I look even dumber.
Alex - Saying that Harlan "cares" is a very general statement and far be it from me to say he doesn't. Like everyone he has a number of things he cares about, in the process of writing about them he makes us care about those things or people. But he also writes very effectively about things he doesn't care about, which doesn't mean the writing's less personal then. Caring is an important aspect of Harlan's work, but in my opinion it's not up there with fearlessness (and perhaps fear). That's what sets him apart.
No, Rob, Todd is right. He didn't say it 'cause he's polite, but you were being a dick.
And, yes, I'm sure Shane is a big boy and can write his own retort, but it does help sometimes when there's at least a couple of people that can agree when someone was being rude.
(By the way, Rob, be thankful not too many people actually read your post regarding fear. I guess you figured mentioning it as a stereotype made it ok to say it.)
I'd agree with HE regarding his words o' wisdom: "You must never be frightened. Not of anything. Not of the chance you'll fail, not of the consequences, not of the cost." I would add this caveat: But you damn well better know what those consequences and costs are.
That separates the knuckleheads from the thinkers.
Todd...
There. There. There. There. There. There. THERE...
Ol' Shane can handle his six-shooters all by his lonesome, n' he can recognize a well-intentioned misreckonin' when he sees one!He don't be needin' no self-promoted guardian angels...so get OVER it. He'll be alllllllllllllright.
Y'know, not everyone here is a fragile tulip.
...and Frank,
"I kinda agree with Rob, you cannot really be angry at someone who is scared"
That's not QUITE what I was getting at. You might want to read my post more carefully.
SUSAN AND RYAN
i am just getting back on my feet financially and had no idea we were talking about such an expensive edition
i can be of no help at the moment--should have kept my yap shut
i am so sorry Susan, i was trying to help Ryan and just added confusion-please don't yell at me
things are tough here (and all over, I know)
contrite be the,
Neal
Peter Jennings and cancer
The cancer that took Peter Jennings is a vicious, fast-spreading killer that had nothing to do with his smoking. The cigs probably didn't help, but this is the same cancer that took away a friend of mine -- who also smoked, but again this had nothing to do with sucking on a cancer stick -- not this cancer. It was this strain, or something like it that killed Andy Kaufman, who was a non-smoker.
It hits like a panzer division and kills fast. It's hard to treat. I already have a grudge against this swift, mindless killer. I certainly hope this doesn't mean it's becoming a more widespread strain. It used to be quite rare.
Chuck
Hugos
Hugo awards came out yesterday. Susanna Clarke won best novel for "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell." Charles Stross, Kelly Link, Mike Resnick, Ellen Datlow, The Incredibles and Ansible in some of the other categories. 684 ballots.
query on a quote .....
The following quote is taken from Neil Gaiman's episode of The Sandman entitled 'Soft Places' :
" Any view of things that is not strange is false ... "
[ it's on p129 of the 1993 softcover edition by the way ]
does anybody know if this is attributed to another writer, artist or the like ?
Cheers,
Dougie.
Adam, don't worry, I love you too. I know, you are still new here, for the most part, but I do love you.
------------------
I kinda agree with Rob, you cannot really be angry at someone who is scared, some people are just less brave then others.
Now, if this fact were not true, we would have a better world, but that's another story.
----------
Peter Jennings may have been part of the machine, but he did do it with grace and style.
See, what those fucking cigarettes do to you? Cancer stick bitches.
Hey, Rob, mellow with the response to Shane as if he is a fanboy who doesn't pay attention: Shane is well aware of Harlan's many comments. He is a Friend of Ellison, not a fanboy; such a friend that when Harlan visited our Valley Of The Sun two summers past, Shane's little fender bender with a local nut resulted in Harlan flying back to Phoenix on his own dime to help (alas, to no avail) Shane win his day in court.
I met Shane that day as well (not to drop names, but when the wife and I shared lunch with Mr. Ellison, Susan, Shane and Justin-of-this-board-at-times), and he's a mensch who should be talking down to you rather than the other way around.
Knowledge of Harlan Ellison and his writings/comments is not supposed to be a competition on this board, Rob, so take a deep breath and a chill pill and let the world go on in relative calm.
-TODD
Of NASCAR and Being Afraid
AJ: Question?
You once opined "Now, I absolutely despise NASCAR and Formula 1 racing with a hot and unholy passion. I hate the fact that it's put forth as a sport when it is a pastime; that its drivers are called "athletes" without needing to exhibit any real athletic ability."
Can we safely assume, then, that you also detest golf, skeet shooting, billiards, bowling, archery and baseball? Lord knows, each of them involves a fraction of the athleticism of auto racing. And may we assume you readily agree that ballroom dancing -- a very athletic event -- must now be legitimized as a sport? Just asking...
...........................................
Being afraid.
I, for one, am accepting Harlan's success quote at face value. I agree with it, for one thing, but for another I don't think he's literally saying "don't be afraid of anything" -- I have a nasty suspicion he'd feel a bit of fear were he locked in a tower with the entire onscreen staff of Fox News, f'r instance. The difference is he would face the fear and overcome it, hopefully leaving a few bodies strewn in his wake.
Short but true story: A year and a half ago I was working for a company (formerly known as WorldCom) that was draining the life out of me and virtually every other employee. We'd been through scandal, bankruptcy, the death of a much-respected interim leader, and public humiliation. Layoffs were common, meetings were conducted with a semi-threatening tone, and I was sick each morning the alarm clock went off. Ignoring the entreaties of the "alumni" of the company, I stayed out of loyalty and shear fear of walking out the door.
I was a fool of the highest caliber -- I admitted it then and I admit it now. The happiest day of that year was the day in April that I finally resigned in anger. It was too much, but my fear had kept me rooted there a good two years longer than I should have stayed.
I will never do that again. Harlan's right. You must "never be afraid to go there."
(BTW - I'm lifting that quote and may include it in a book I'm writing about my photography... In the event I'm fortunate enough to find a publisher I'll ask permission to use it.)
You must never allow the fear to dictate your life -- and you may feel it, but never, ever let it drag you down. My wife, whom I greatly respect, is a person of recognized talent and vocal skill, but she used to suffer terrible stage fright before a performance. Almost debilitating. Then she discovered how the fear was affecting her performance. She's a strong woman and confronted it, turning that fear into raw energy right before taking the stage. (Cookie can probably identify.) Since that time she's recorded several cds and won a few awards and is headed for even more.
So, I'll take the quote, Mr. Ellison. I accept it as is, and thank you for the lesson.
F1 Racing
I'll cop to not knowing much about NASCAR (oval tracks bore the hell out of me), but F1 is both nationally and racially diverse. I realize that Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen get a lot of press time, but Fernando Alonso is the points leader. Even Narain Karthikeyan gets his onscreen time, though it's usually because he fucked up a corner (of course, Jordan cars ain't great). I'm sure Takuma Sato and Juan Pablo Montoya would be amused to be tagged as white bread, too. As for athletic ability, I would LOVE to see a hobby driver handle a track that includes a bunch of 4 1/2G turns for two hours at a shot. F1 drivers have to handle some of the most high-performance vehicles in the world. They are required to have incredible stamina, reflexes, and strength.
AJ (Foyt) Berman
I love when anyone who has driven 10 miles over the speed limit thinks they can make assumptions about NASCAR. The G-forces alone after the first ten minutes would have you cryin' for your mama. Also no one has ever called a driver an athlete, unless it was that McCrumb babe. Going to a race does not make you an authority any more than going in a bookstore makes you an author. That's stupid, but it is a sport. You have to be conditioned. Sitting on your ass eating cheesedogs and swilling beer makes it a pastime. Baseball is called a pastime by some too, but I don't see too many geezers or CURVES drop-outs out there. Country music began to suck when Buck Owens hung up his guitar. Some airheads need a little deflating now and then and sometimes it takes a dead man to do it.
Oh, the things I overlook for objects of beauty
(scoff and smile) Next you'll be telling me The Wird can Overcome who tells it. Like UFO's and Winning The Lotto the world would be a better place, but not in the next two minutes.....
You know, I've been thinking.
And I've come to the personal conclusion that you're all wrong. Yes, even you, Harlan.
The secret, I think, to the success of our Esteemed Host (EH=HE?), is NOT the hard work, but rather, to what it is which DRIVES him to do that hard work, and to what it is all that work is aimed TOWARD:
Caring.
Harlan CARES. He cares deeply, intensively, about the Work and about life. And because he cares, he works his craft with that same depth and intensity. And in doing so, he makes YOU care. About his stories, his characters, and his--and our--world.
That is what makes a great writer.
(Give you an example: I just finished a novel set in and around the world of NASCAR fandom. Now, I absolutely despise NASCAR and Formula 1 racing with a hot and unholy passion. I hate the fact that it's put forth as a sport when it is a pastime; that its drivers are called "athletes" without needing to exhibit any real athletic ability. Further, I absolutely hate the fact that this pastime has been, of late, embracing the same damn-the-roots hypocrisy that is seen in another target of my ire: Country music. Both have eschewed their Southern-fried, working-class backgrounds to become glitz and gloss, going Hollywood vanilla.
[and, speaking of vanilla, both are the most racially-exclusive pastimes in this country outside of perhaps polo.]
But I dearly loved the novel I just read, despite its subject matter. Why?
Because it was written by the excellent Sharyn McCrumb, another writer who CARES. And whose tales make YOU care.
[* the book is the newly-released ST. DALE, by the way--and the redoubtable Ms. McCrumb was no NASCAR fan herself before beginning the book, seeking only to write a modern Canterbury Tales about the current-day process of beatifying secular saints like Elvis, Princes Diana, Dale Earnhardt, but in the process became a devotee, because, in trying to see why OTHER people cared so much, her own caring takes center stage in her book.])
Rob, It wasn't me,it was Jay Tea's blog at Whizbangblog.
SHANE,
"...Harlan Ellison once opined that "Everyone is not entitled to an opinion. Everyone is entitled to an informed opinion." ...
Once? ONCE?
Seems to me you've been here for sometime, yet you MUST be a newcomer.
Harlan has vocalized that argument a lot more than once. He repeats it when he's out on the road, and often in interviews, simply because it occurs to so few out there. I don't mean to take anything away from you, but if you've followed Ellison MUCH, this is hard to miss. Yeesh!
"You must be at least this interested to vote"
by Jay Tea
...Harlan Ellison once opined that "Everyone is not entitled to an opinion. Everyone is entitled to an informed opinion." ...
http://wizbangblog.com/archives/006643.php
Jan,
My list is based purely on personal observations made during the fifteen years that I spent working in the arts. I was fortunate to train with New York City Ballet, and dance for American Ballet Theatre in the late 70’s and early 80’s. This was a time when most of the great American dancers were with one of those companies, and most great choreographers created or staged works there. For years, I worked, watched or talked with artists like Balanchine, Robbins, Petit, Tudor, Baryshnikov, Villella, Makarova, Gregory, Nureyev, MacMillan, Loring, (Agnes) de Mille and many others. Though they used vastly different approaches, the qualities that I mentioned are simply things that they all had in common.
After giving many years of my very best to becoming an artist, I achieved moderate success of a craftsman-like nature, and knowledge of my limits. I found that some limits you set on yourself, others are hard and real and you discover them only by trying as hard as you can to surpass them, until you look back one day when it’s all over and see that you never did. Somehow the great artists surpass the hard limits. To them, it seems clear how they did it, but there is no way to teach someone else how.
Harlan’s point about fearlessness reminds me of another time, in a class that Baryshnikov was teaching. He was very frustrated with all of us, because what it took to do the step in question was so obvious to him. And he did the step repeatedly in chain, to an extent that was pretty much impossible even for a top principal, and he talked to us the whole time. While he was doing it. Saying, “You see, I know my center. I am right here. I know where I am. You cannot knock me off.”
Baryshnikov was saying the same thing that Harlan just said.
Or Stanley Williams, without a doubt one of the greatest ballet instructors of the last generation, saying, “I think before I go. But then, it’s time. And I just go.”
Williams was saying the same thing that Harlan just said.
Or Robbins, really wanting to use me in his ballet ‘Opus Jazz’. Looking on in frustration as I struggled with the movement style and saying, “Don’t you hear the drums? The movement will happen when you hear the drums.”
Robbins was saying the same thing that Harlan just said. And I didn’t get the part.
I finally settled on being happy that there are great artists, and never mind how they got that way.
Dear Neal and Ryan:
Please, please, in the name of THE OLD ONES, please work this out and tell who needs what.
Yours in confusion--Susan
David, interesting essay about discipline. What’s lacking, though, is any mention of passion.
Lee’s list - and we don’t know where he got it - mentions inhibition, which I suppose is another word for fear. After Harlan said that the secret is to be unafraid, Rob seemed to argue that fear can be both helpful and bad.
Fear is, of course, an inhibitory force, which is why your life turns awry when you let fear make the decisions for you. You end up never leaving your comfort zone. A writer’s life in many ways needs to be an explorer’s and risktaker’s life, otherwise the well will run dry and the artistic potential is never fully explored, either. However, when writing one presumably needs to be in touch with one’s fears, and Harlan has shown us through his writing that he has plenty, most of all perhaps fear of death, loss and destruction.
If we are to draw any use out of defying fear, the whole package of our personality needs to be there, because fearlessness and courage cannot be our main motivations. We cannot be machos, we need to know what to be fearless about, that is, like Rob said, we need convictions and worthy goals.
Dear Susan...
Since the subject of Harlan's fearlessness has been broached, speaking from your own privileged vantage point, is Harlan afraid of anything?
Does he have an irrational fear of sock puppets? Or double-A batteries? Perhaps he gets the shakes whenever he sees a wild monkey?
up too late, hope my ramble is worth a chuckle
When Ellison writes, I listen.
Hiya, Harlan. I visit this board because I often enjoy reading the essays you've written more than your fiction. Galvanizing, ennervating and irresistable, they are a powerful tonic.
But everyone here knows that and you scarcely need the reassurance, so I wonder why on earth I felt it needed to be written. A need to feel like I'm hobnobbing with my betters? Making noise to be noticed? Rubbing shoulders in hopes something will rub off on me? (and then there are the even more obnoxiously self-centered questiosn: is doubt fear? a lack of self-confidence the same thing as a lack of courage? hm hm hm... i'm all questions, all conversational thumbs, tonight. I'm up past my bedtime.)
Off to feed a hedgehog, ponder a narcissistic nexus of fear/doubt/hero-worship, and then fall asleep. Hopefully in that order.
Harlan,
What you wrote made me cry. That's it and I won't forget it.
Cindy
The Secret
Harlan, that fearlessness is a big part of what makes you such hot stuff. It definitely sets you apart from the herd.
(Rowr!)
Harlan:
"You must never be frightened. Not of anything. Not of the chance you'll fail, not of the consequences, not of the cost. You must never be afraid to go there."
Respectfully, I would like to tweek that just a tad.
It is only natural for human beings to be frightened, to feel those sharp blades of trepidation; I don't think we're capable of completely ELUDING fear. I don't think it's possible (depending on the baggage). It's COPING with those fears; DOING the thing regardless of that trepidation; confronting the ghosts and FOLLOWING THROUGH in SPITE of them. THAT'S what really defines COURAGE. (Having the ability to formulate back-up plans when imagining possible consequences, of course, is a good reserve for confidence; a good weapon in coping)
We each obviously live in our personal domains; the heritage of our individual pasts: what means nothing to you may be a Daliesque NIGHTMARE to me. Yet, knowing what I want in life, could I really live with myself if I folded and refused to confront that nightmare? Our reluctance to acknowledge and examine our fears is the simple reason many people fail to be what they COULD be.
Some fears, of course, SERVE to override other fears. My fear of what could happen if I don't achieve a long-run goal might be greater than that of the immediate consequences. Thus, that fear in itself could be a strength.
I guess my reaction to the thesis is a strong one, because it is so pertinent in MY life. (My mother was a weak person; and that can leave some nasty barnacles on a kid growing up alone around that)
Lemme tell you a quick story here: I KNOW someone - a neighbor - who'd shown great potential and promise as a kid, but has turned himself into a social handicap. While growing up he was an ace in school. NOW, although he continues to appreciate art, politics, science, etc, he no longer reads (except for the Jewish newspapers) where ONCE he read voraciously. He has vast talent as a poet, yet makes no effort to expand his writing skills OR his understanding of poetry. He's allowed all his potential to disintegrate.
Between great negligence from his parents and years of his own laziness, he refuses to TRY anything that might lead him to some type of career. He FRACTURES the stereotype of the "hard-working" Jew! He has rarely worked in his life. He is in his late 30's. He is essentially living a Cliff Claven-like existence under his mommie's wing (she owns an apartment building, so he gets a free apartment of his own). He receives a certain amount of money each month from his family (for doing nothing); anytime they try to urge him into some type of work, he refuses. He hasn't a single bankable skill. He WON'T go back to school (in the 80's he went to school in Europe for 2 years). He goes about day-to-day socializing (rather like a house wife) on the phone or on the streets. And he has no comprehension of the discipline of a schedule (Fuck! He used to call me as late as 2am, even when I'd have to work the next day). Now his brain is mush: he can't focus (to the point where, now, he tends to crash his father's car into pylons or other vehicles; he nearly ran ME down once at street corner, and I was ready to beat the shit oughtta him!); he argues irrationally, putting up insurmountable barriers; he fires political diatribes without checking facts; and his manners, though he is often well-meaning, are horrendous.
And he attributes his inability to resolve these problems - these emotional blocks - to his fears. He succumbs to them completely. But that's because he can AFFORD to; EVERYTHING is given to him (he isn't wealthy, though; neither his mom nor his dad nor HE has much cash. Their apartment building is their key resource). Let there be no mistake here, he isn't happy (though he claims to be enjoying life by getting out to talk with people); there is no woman in his life, and now-and-then he is distraught about what he should DO about all this.
Yet, since he FEARS fucking up, and he knows he is likely to do this in any undertaking, he chooses to avoid the effort completely.
I've confronted him about this for years. He resists all suggestions because, he asserts, he has no confidence.
I get angry when he dumps this on me.
"You think I'M not afraid?", I keep telling him. "I've lacked confidence since I can remember. I'm afraid of a lot of things. But I confront those fears by seeking solutions to cope with each one. Then I move on". I have goals I want to achieve. Coping mechanisms are stronger when you have goals in your life; you take more risks regardless of the consequences.
Since SURVIVAL in the material world is not a priority for him as long as he lives in that place for free, it's easier for him to NOT do things than to TRY and do them (Homer Simpson philosophy!). So, he allows his fears to dominate his choices. The results are quite pathetic.
"A MAN EITHER LIVES LIFE AS IT HAPPENS...MEETS IT HEAD ON AND LICKS IT. OR HE TURNS HIS BACK ON IT AND BEGINS TO WITHER AWAY"
- Dr. Boyce talking to Captain Christopher Pike in Star Trek's THE CAGE.
SUSAN AND NEAL:
Okay, I'm confused.
I had initially inquired about the 35-year Essential Ellison (with the pale melon DJ, not the burgandy 50-year DJ). Neal jumped in, offered to send me the DJ if he purchased the final copy, and all appeared fine (if odd).
Now I've seen the price for the limited edition 50-year quoted to Neal and I am, as stated, confused.
Is the final copy of the 35-year EE headed to Neal? Or should I be writing the check for it as was the original intent?
Me poor befuddled brain...
--
Ryan
Neal:
If you still want THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON.
The cost is:
Outside of California $153.00.
CA Resident $165.38.
Send to: THE KILIMANJARO CORPORATION, P.O. Box 55548, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413.
Thank you.
Susan, just letting you know I got the package in the mail. Thanking you a Trillion for your kindness. Glad you guys got the Asimov Wolfe Ellison tape. Oh frabjous day!
best ever,
MF Korn
www.geocities.com/rachmaninoff_70815/
Ya know, I was writing something, and it as good. So good. More delicious than food, it was so good. The, I accidentally selected the back button on my browser; my poorly coordinated brain tonight guided my fingers to click the wrong icon.
I hate it when I lose something so well; so satisfyng and something that I'm proud of. And I don't often feel so pleased as I did tonight, with my writing. So, it's like a knife to the gut. I want to mentally berate myself, such as saying that I have a poorly coordinated brain.
Fuck.
Fuckfuckfuck.
I am going to try again, but it was... so good. How can I re-write at the same level now? Sigh... Maybe I need to give my brain time before a new attempt. Now I'm all so melancholy...
the missing element
ELLISON:
leave a strong moral sense out of the equation and you are like the sound of a deflating balloon.
a lot of noisy nothing.
Harlan Ellison is a moral writer. That more than anything else, in my estimation.
pfft,
Neal
The Secret Revealed
HARLAN: That's the secret all right: but it's not just the secret to success in writing. It's the secret of how to approach everything in life: work, love, friendships, hardships, everydamnthing. And I've been suprised (and a bit dismayed) to find that so many people don't live that way (as the comments below prove -- no offense, Jeff).
--DTS
Let's just say you're a guy who absofuckinglutely KNOWS he's gonna make it Big Time in a field of creative endeavor, specifically Writing, and let's just say this guy is afraid of finding someone in his kitchen one night holding a shoebox with wires coming out of it and calling it a bomb(Stephen King's wife) or of having your ornate, wooden front door splattered with eggs (Harlan Ellison). Is the fame worth the art?
Why not create and have some other schlep be the personality? Did this crazy kind of shit happen in the 50's in this American culture? Why can't artists be allowed to create and then be left-the-fuck-alone by those who pay for their creations?
Anybody who's in the business of writing, movies, music, etc. has got to be bug-fuck stupidcrazy, Herculean-brave or both.
Kudos to Harlan for doing all this and more.
He's one of my few remaining heros.
But I still get scared sometimes...
THE SECRET REVEALED
Only now do I know what it is, looking back.
It is this:
You must never be frightened. Not of anything. Not of the chance you'll fail, not of the consequences, not of the cost.
You must never be afraid to go there.
Harlan Ellison, 5 August 2005, 6:00 PM, Los Angeles, California
The secret to Harlan's success is the same as for any great artist:
1) Inhibition
2) Talent
3) Craft
4) Ambition
5) Market awareness
6) Stamina
7) Longevity
Chris Roberson
Harlan, there is a hit for "Chris Roberson" at www.switchboard.com. Enter the name in the "find a person" section, enter Austin and TX and an address/phone is displayed. Dunno if it's the same guy, but probably. I didn't want to put the info here, if that's OK.
This was just posted at the Asimov's magazine forum:
http://www.worldscreen.com/newscurrent.php?filename=idt715.htm
"Masters of Sci-Fi will one-hour films based on works from some of the greatest writers of science fiction, including H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. Initial works chosen include Bradbury’s Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed, Harlan Ellison’s 'Repent, Harlequin!' Said The Ticktockman and Wells’ The Crystal Egg."
Forgiveness, if this was already posted.
Mr. Sassone, I'm not sure how happy he'll be to know that THE GLASS TEAT and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT, two volumes of TV criticism, NON-FICTION, were to be found in the "General Fiction" section.
Book Bonanza
Hey gang,
I haven't commented on this board in...who the hell knows how long. I've been lurking and rummaging around for a bit lately, but I thought I'd tell you of a treasure trove I recently found.
There's a new used book store that opened not far from me. Well, it's "new to me." Been around for a few years, but it was so small and local-themed that I never went in there. But while walking home I decided to give it a shot. Am I ever glad I did, because here's what I found, all in great condition and pretty damn cheap:
The Glass Teat (both volumes)
Hardover of Slippage
Paingod paperback
Dangerous Visions
I snapped them up. Now, the fact that I have all of them *already* didn't make a difference.
And Harlan, you'll be happy to know that all of these were found in the general fiction section, and not off in the sci-fi corner.
Praying for cooler temps,
Bob
Peter,
Aplogies in my delyed reply; frequent heat-induced power outages. =/ Your post was very helpful, too! :) Thank you. I actually do have a few more questions, so I'll get an e-mail to you soon.
The not-so-sweet smell of the "secret" to success...
Harlan's success is not any sort of "secret".
First of all, the fact of his success is not now, or ever will be, an issue. In his lifetime he has won many awards, sold many books (despite whatever bizarre standard of sales numbers Frank Church uses...Harlan's printed pages have certainly pulped entire forests, to the point that ANY savvy participant in the publishing trade would readily recognize his sales record as an unqualified MAJOR success), motivated many other writers, been analyzed and scrutinized by many critics, effected mass media, had stories anthologized over and over and over again, etc. And most importantly, certainly within my own little world, whether for good or for bad, Harlan's life and work has caused MANY of us to see things differently, question things more effectively, yearn more sincerely, and generally to get off our collective asses and THINK.
Now I'm aware of Harlan's discomfiture in the face of open praise, but damn it all, that's SUCCESS by any standard, and I don't care how much it makes the man squirm and shuffle his feet to hear it! Harlan, I love you enough to admit that I haven't always agreed with you, that I wouldn't hesitate to go toe to toe with you if I thought my view of reality was better informed than yours. However, I never doubted that things MATTER to you, seriously, passionately, and always with good reason, and I know all about whatever feet of clay you might have that makes you as merely mortal as the rest of us, but I'll gladly break bread with you any day, and that's the most sincere compliment I can pay any person. Take it or leave it, my door is always open to you…
As for that "secret" to success…you can have all the talent in the world, all the good breaks, all the great ideas, but none of it means a damn thing if you don't have DISCIPLINE. That's not a secret, ANY successful writer will tell you it all begins and ends with discipline. Writing requires the discipline to make the time, the discipline to use the time, the discipline to finish, the discipline to submit, the discipline to immediately start over again, but that's still not enough. You also have to have the discipline to walk away from your friends when work calls, to lock yourself in your room when the mission requires it, to tell your lover or spouse that you don't have time for them, to skip meals, pee in a can, live in your bathrobe, to shut yourself off from the rest of the world and DO IT!
Minimal talent, usually acquired through regular practice, is good enough. Fairly decent ideas, usually acquired through osmosis and reading, are good enough. Neither good luck nor bad luck, both avoided through basic research and a regular submission routine (buy that Writer's Market!), is part of the formula. But without discipline, you ain't gonna do any of this anyways, so don't be foolin' yo-self!!
I moderated two highly successful writing workshops here in San Francisco in the late 1980's and through the 1990's (the Marina Writers Workshop and Write Now), and we saw an amazing 50% rate of all the participants going on to actually publish. Not freebie works or for contributor's copies, but real paying mass market sales to major periodicals. The topic of the "secret" to success came up often, and the debate raged between the ones that had already succeeded (science fiction author Mary Caraker and romance writer Beverly Sommers among them) insisting that it was discipline and the neophytes countering that it must be, well, something else. However, without exception, every single one of the folks who finally published for the first time came back to the group or me and admitted that it was finding the DISCIPLINE that got them through it.
Does it seem all too simple and easy to you? Oh, it's definitely simple, but it is NEVER easy! This is where it gets ugly, and this is where the sweet smell of success turns foul and unappealing. Writing is a lonely life, a solitary existence, that can't be shared and is ALWAYS misunderstood by the general public. But it is also a remarkable conceit. For the truly disciplined writer NOTHING is more important or sacred than the time to write, and the very discipline that breeds success for the writer also breeds contempt and loathing in the people in the writer's life who do not drink from the same fountain of manic motivation. Lovers leave, friends disappear, gardens go untended, neighbors sneer suspiciously, and life is never quite, well, normal for a writer. Many writers have spoken about it, how the discipline wore them down, isolated them in such a way that they finally desperately abandoned their work and went screaming back into the real world. Even a few of the newly published writers in my workshops admitted that they couldn't stand the stress of that level of discipline and wanted to give up!
Okay, perhaps I exaggerate, perhaps I take hyperbole and stretch it as thin as I can, but not TOO far, folks, not too darn far from the honest-to-gosh truth.
Ask Harlan and I'm certain he will concur. A soup sandwich isn't all that crazy for an author anxious to get back to his work.
Talent, great ideas, and eye-opening ideologies may mean the difference between truly superlative, life effecting writing (obviously insert Harlan's name in this category), hack piece work for pennies a word, and everything in between, but ANY level of regular writing success requires discipline bordering on obsession. There are no "secrets" to the process, just darn hard work, all alone, over and over and over again.
One last note, if I had to ponder the special nature of Harlan's singular success, I'd point out his honesty, his searing, unrelenting, unblinking, unyielding honesty. A great author probably has as many readers who hate him as love him, such is the nature of the successful effect of the writing, and the power of Harlan's convictions and honesty is certainly no small part of his particularly potent success.
Watch your Syntax, Frank
Frank wrote --
"Harlan has always been an outsider, and that is what attracts him to me."
You got it backwards. His outsider status may attract you to HIM, but there's no particular evidence of any overwhelming attraction going the other way...!
Clarification
Before anyone suggests it, I'm not accusing Frank of being a troll, it's a metaphor...
(apologies for the double post, but insults, not intended, should be headed off at the pass with this board.)
Ellison's Success
I disagree with Frank's post (big shock). And not that Ellison's relative success warrants defense, but once again I must point out the obvious (and will likely be accused of annoying the troll...)
Howsomever:
Ellison IS considered to be a success otherwise a) the website marked EllisonWonderland would be a one man masturbatory exercise; b) he would be living in a small rundown shack in Des Moines; c) Susan would be single (or married to another lucky schmuck) and -- most significantly for the people who're reading this -- d) there would be an empty shelf on a lot of bookcases and a lot less money in corporate pockets.
Those companies what published his works, printed his articles/stories, shot his scripts and listened to his commentary would never have fronted the cash/moola/greenbacks if he was not, in what we view as contemporary society, successful at making them even more cash/moola/greenbacks.
Is he a brand-name like Stephen King, Tom Clancy or Dean Koontz? No -- but artistically speaking: could he be? I defy Clancy to write something as profound as Jeffty. Koontz, good as some of his stuff may be, would be pressed to write "Demon With...". King, Koontz and Clancy are all good writers (my personal issues with Clancy notwithstanding), but success is not defined solely by the numbers of books bought. That's a very narrow definition, and doesn't even hold up very well in the current discussion.
Ellison's sold and seen and writ a lot, the vast majority of which made somebody's shareholders money -- which makes him far more successful than the vast majority of writers anywhere.
In our society, Harlan would not be considered successful. This is a country that counts everything based on book sales, not on the sheer talent of an author.
Harlan has always been an outsider, and that is what attracts him to me.
A note on "A Boy and His Dog" on the Sun-Sentinel website
Miami photography exhibit gives paws to dog lovers
By Oline H. Cogdill
Staff Writer, Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/booksmags/sfl-dogbrief1aug04,0,4478681.story?coll=sfla-features-books
. . .A Boy and His Dog with Don Johnson and Jason Robards will be shown 8:30 p.m. Saturday. If you have never seen this sci-fi movie, don't expect a heart-warming tale a la Lassie or Old Yeller. Instead, the 1975 film based on the classic novella by Harlan Ellison deals with a post-apocalyptic America, an underground society, sex and, well, food. . .
SUSAN-
You can pass the hold on the 35-year Essential Ellison to Neal. We'll see how this works itself out.
Thanks.
--
Ryan
Foolscap readings
** David **
Man, I don't want to be disrespectful to con activities - after all, in the last 25 years I've done everything from acting as tapster at an S.C.A. meeting to filksinging and was once even a walk-on Darth Vader [costume provided] for a large convention musical - because I was the tallest guy they could talk into it if you must know - But a 24 hour Ellison reading sounds like a kind of thankless task. Especially the 2AM - 8AM shifts and whoever catches hour 23. Then there are the problems of who reads what. There aren't that many Ellison pieces that clock in around an hour so you'll have lots of people doing 20 minutes and vacating or reading stories that have already been read.
There is a sick part of my soul that 10 years ago would have gotten up at 3AM to do a dramatic reading of THE VENGEANCE OF GALAXY 5 or DOOMSMAN just to say I did it - provided there was at least ONE other person in the room - but those days are gone.
- Barney
Everyone KNOWS them Greek sisters actually come from Schenectady, NY!
BTW, we're all learning about ESP, and Fred and Ethel Mertz on the other board in case anyone here is interested in the higher things. If you're on crack you'll stand a better chance of following it all.
Harlan's Success
Some say he was an adventure aviator who crashed in the Orient and learned how to spellbind people with words alone.
Others say he attended Esther Braithwaite's Finsihing School for Fabulous Writers in Pekin, North Dakota.
I once heard that his talent came from singing the blues with Blind Harlowe Allison back when he was still riding the rails.
But the best guess I've heard is that he frequents the slopes of Mt. Parnassus and flirts there with several Greek sisters who give him all his ideas.
Steve Dooner
Barney,thanks for the correction. I'm looking forward to meeting you and other webderlanders at FOOLSCAP next month. The convention is in Bellevue an eastside suburb of Seattle. Not much to do there other than a great place for hot-dogs. Plenty to do in Seattle. The EMP/Sci-Fi is worth a visit.
One of the things happening at FOOLSCAP will be a Harlan Ellison Read-a-Thon--24 fans who would read 1 hour each of a Harlan novella, ending with Harlan doing the last hour. I voluntered for this...
David
Disney's chronicles of "Narnia" is complete redolent garbage and filth, child actors gone bad on E! entertainment tv (a Disney company) is more enriching. Another bloodless cold product off the assembly line of Homosexual corporate executive Michael Eisner. Now running an underage sweat shop in "Narnia".
Harlan's Success?
Being bugfuck is a way of life,man! And, he knows the answer to the question that Willy Loman asked but never learned.
Mark W.
The secret(s) of Harlan's success?
a) HE is absolutely passionate about what he does.
b) HE knows that he's only going to live once.
c) Susan
Lots of sub-reasons related to all those, but dems de utmost, IMHO.
Chris Roberson
Harlan, I don't have his number, but his website/blog (http://www.chrisroberson.net/ramble.html) states that he's not going to be around to take your call for awhile:
"Tuesday, August 02, 2005
WorldCon Bound
Well, in another two hours Allison and I are off to the airport, and somewhere around twelve hours after take-off we'll be wheels down in Glasgow (with a brief stop-over in Chicago). Six nights in Glasgow and then three in London, and then we'll be back again the end of next week. I look forward to seeing lots of folks I haven't seen since WorldCon last year, and meeting as many new folks as possible. Oh, and drinking. Naturally.
I'll hopefully have some news to report on my return. If not, at least a few amusing stories."
Sorry, -TODD
How did I do that?
Looks about bewilderedly.
Shrugs.
Beetles brow.
Turns, squirms back into cocoon.
Has unsettling, repetitive, dreams.
I am trying to find the writer CHRIS ROBERSON.
Last contact information had him at 8017 Scotland Yard, in Austin, Texas. The working phone number has been disconnected.
Any contact info y'all can pass back to me, will be appreciated.
This is not an emergency, nor even particularly urgent; but your assistance--if not too taxing--would be salutary.
Yr. pal, Harlan
I am trying to find the writer CHRIS ROBERSON.
Last contact information had him at 8017 Scotland Yard, in Austin, Texas. The working phone number has been disconnected.
Any contact info y'all can pass back to me, will be appreciated.
This is not an emergency, nor even particularly urgent; but your assistance--if not too taxing--would be salutary.
Yr. pal, Harlan
SUSAN
Dear Susan,
Please hold that copy of TEH ESSENTIAL ELLISON for me. Also please indulge me with the dollar total.
I will mail; the dj to Ryan. This should simplify things at your end.
Payday is next Tuesday. Money in mail Tuesday or Wednesday.
Goodgood?
Respectfully,
Neal
Jan:
Talent and hard work. Chance favors the prepared etc.
That said, millions of people have the Tony Robbins / Zig Ziglar success bromides tattooed on their brains. What seperates the truly successful from the rest is Deciding on a course of action, and then Taking action. It's the second one that is the hardest. It also helps to know Exactly What You Want.
What's Harlan's secret?
I wonder if any of you have an opinion on what Harlan's success is based on, that is both his success as a writer and as a person. Maybe we could discuss this? There must be certain ingedients in his stories that we respond to, and certain factors in his personality that made him a success.
I've been trying to figure this out for a long time. I once asked him about discipline here and got no reply, but obviously hard work would be one factor, although more passion than discipline may be behind it. Something we respond to in his work, particularly in his essays, would be the claim or promise of his work in general to reveal some truth, to enlighten. I think this ties into what I feel his most important character trait might be, which would be fearlessness. That translates into honesty which then translates into truth and profoundness. Fearlessness in Harlan's case may have been caused by the fact that the worst things already happened to him during his childhood. It is also often caused by strong emotions. Which lead us back to passion, and Harlan's works are nothing if not passionate. Acutally, if we go back to ultimate causes, sensitivity and a sense of justice would probably be his most important traits and they are both roots of passion. I'm curious about your opinions.
Jan
Heya Stan, just a quick word of support from another fella down in the trenches. Best of luck with the submissions!
Rejection Slip
Well everybody, I just got my upteenth or downteenth rejection notices on a story I sent to ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE. Oh well...at least there form letter had a checklist...of course...the first one was ISN'T RIGHT FOR OUR PUBLICATION. But the next check off was NICELY WRITTEN. Maybe there's some hope for me to get published yet!
la poesy
Looks like it's time to trot out my favorite quotation from Don Marquis (best known for _Archy and Mehitabel_), who once wrote:
"Publishing a book of poetry in America is like dropping a rose petal off the rim of the Grand Canyon and listening for the echo."
Hey, I want nothing whatsoever to do with that PC person. It was pretty ugly, and unlike myself, anything but clever.
----------
Now I gotta rot my brain reading all the false diatribes about how NSC -68 aint so bad. Grrr.
Thanks Rich!
You're right, it was Stalking the Nightmare.
After a little googling I remembered that funky cover art by Jane Mackenzie.
I'll have to check that out again.
Used copies of FASTER THAN LIGHT, edited by Jack Dann & George Zebrowski, can be found - reasonably priced - at bookfinder.com. Harlan's honey of a teleplay is accompanied by lovely Tim Kirk illustrations.
Question for HE ... the sort of thing that never occurs to me to ask you whenever I see you and Susan:
Did you ever meet Dennis Potter?
I Have No Mouth...
Harlan:
Thank you! :-) I still have to get the selection approved to teach, but that's in process now. Hopefully (with every possible finger crossed) they'll approve it, and I can work on getting the copies I need.
Will let you know either way.
Duane:
Thanks for your input as well. I can't remember when I've had such a warm welcome anywhere.
Keiti
*** David R. *** No, that's the teleplay for CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER you're thinking of. Still, a nice, and fairly rare anthology. FYI, Doug Lane did a nice job fielding this over on the other board.
Since I'm here - I take it that barring the unforseen that FOOLSCAP is a go? I should be booking a flight, etc? Are they any other guests besides Harlan and Gabe&Tycho? How is the dealers room? Should I be bringing an empty bag? Does the banquet do an award? Should Doug and Tim and I organize a "Talking in front of Harlan's back" panel? Is the SF museum worth the visit? Should I tack on a day just for that? Where's my propellor beanie?
And just how did that fannish icon/chapeau thing get started, anyway?
- Barney
Puzzled in Pa.
Didn't the script for THE STARLOST also appear in 6 Science Fiction Plays (I think that was the title)??
David
Outer Limits/Hunger DVDs
HARLAN: That Outer Limits DVD (with the Human Operators) as well as the Hunger episodes (Helene Bournow and Footsteps) are also available on DVD at Amazon.com
Yours in more goofy information,
the Man
Erika and Poetry
Erika (and again, others who are interested):
Beyond the normal Writer's Market, there is also a Poet's Market, which focuses on poetry and includes both the big guys and the tiny journals. I really don't think it's worth investing in unless you are a diehard poet looking to bombard journals with your verse. If you're simply looking to place a poem, then I would suggest going to the library, checking out the Poet's Market, and then after selecting a few journals whose guidelines fit what you're looking for, seeing if the library, or any of the local university ones, carry them and reading a few copies. Make sure they want the kind of poetry you write.
Then when you send, it's best to send between three to five poems to a market at once. This is pretty much SOP. Poems are usually short enough that editors prefer simultaneous submissions.
David Silver is right. Poetry makes money for no one. But it is a worthwhile pursuit. I would suggest sending to university based journals. I've gotten good responses from Mid American Review. Unfortunately The Formalist folded last Fall. I would have loved to have gotten into that one.
Email me if you have other questions. I've been at this a while.
---Peter
David Silver: Thank you! I'm too poor to buy it right now, but I'll look for it in our local library. Most helpful reply; thank you so much! :)
HE, I mentioned about the dvd for the Human Operators a couple days ago. It is still available. Last time I saw it was at Best Buy for $9.99, which contains, if remembering correctly, six episodes.
Re: Outer Limits new series for Harlan (& sorry about 2d post)
Harlan,
Amazon lists title as:
The Outer Limits (The New Series) - Sex & Science Fiction (1995)
All the best,
--tr
REPLY TO ROB
No, I think you're misremembering, kiddo.
As far as my wee weary brain can recollect (and if I'm wrong, Barney or Tim or Michael Zuzel or one of the other well-informed denizens will correct me), the script for THE STARLOST has only appeared in print in the FASTER THAN LIGHT anthology.
There is, of course, the novelization Ed Bryant did, using my script; and one day soon enough there will be a dual-edition of novel&screenplay in a gorgeous edition with a James Gurney wraparound that is a stunner, plus all the ancillary background material...but at the moment, unless I'm wrong, it is available only in the FTL antho, and we don't have any extras to offer.
Yr. pal, Harlan
--------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of "am I crazy, or do I remember..."
Didn't someone drop a mention not too long ago about a DVD of "The NEW Outer Limits" show, the season that included my and van Vogt's "The Human Operators" under some sort of whacky umbrella-title, something like SEX AND OUTER SPACE SCI-FI FOR ADULTS...or somesuch????? If I've taken leave, let me know; if I'm remembering correctly, can someone(s) put me on to the correct title and whereat I'm can be porchessing semm? Tenks yew fuhr helbingk a newcumber to yawr shorz.
Yr. pal, Huhrlanovich Drushenko Ellisonovski
Fictionwise
Harlan,
Glad to hear that Fictionwise works well for you; believe me, it's every bit as delightful for the customers (well, this customer, at least).
Any chance you'll be making more stories available through Fictionwise? I for one will purchase every story (and essay, and script, and grocery list, and...) that I find listed for you there.
And if the rest of you haven't checked out Fictionwise yet, you really should. Plenty of nice fiction there by Knight, Wilhelm, Malzberg, Silverberg (LOTS of Silverberg, by the way), Leiber, and others. Audio too. Reasonably priced and the ebooks can be read on your desktop pc as well as on handhelds. If you've been thinking about trying ebooks, this is the place to start.
Bests,
--tr
Taking it to the source.
Sorry, HARLAN, but if I could take just 10 seconds of your time - no more than that, I promise you - I need to get my head straight on some facts; muh brain's amuddle:
I know PHOENIX W/O ASHES is in FASTER THAN LIGHT.
BUT, before Dangerous Visions bookstore closed, I spotted an anthology (a thick hard-cover rather resembling EDGEWORKS) that included what seemed to be the original pilot SCRIPT for STARLOST (what would have been, had they not meddled and botched the thing so horrendously). Is this at all accurate? If so, WHICH anthology was that? And would Susan happen to have a copy I could purchase from you? (Otherwise, I'll turn to Fictionwise.com - or - Amazon as you encouraged Keiti to do)
If I deluded myself, if the only printed version of that pilot IS PHOENIX, I'll just order FASTER THAN LIGHT.
I'll appreciate any brief word you might offer. Just place the incision RIGHT there!
Thank you.
Thanks for the pointer Robert. That was really hilarious. (I once had a Korean car radio with an instruction manual that said things like "Re-memory the desired station into the button using the manual memory methode(sic)"
Susan: the note with my order says I don't need another I,Robot; you can save it for somebody else - but thanks for the verry generious offer! you can substitute anything equal or lesser value if you insist (except City on the Edge of Forever, I already have that too) but my main reason for posting is to say thanks!
Kristin
Query...Does anyone know if "The Deadly Streets" was released by Severn House? I saw that "Children of the Streets" was released. Amazon has TDS listed as a special order. Thanks for any information.
Why "Star Wars" is better in China
is the actual subject, which was cropped for some reason - hence the double post.
Why
http://americaninlebanon.blogspot.com/2005/07/backstroke-of-west.html
Thanks, Susan
SUSAN: Got the new issue -- and "hi" yerself, ya Lovely Limey. Say hello to the Kosher-Pizza Eater who lives with ya. Love and kisses, and it's back to work for me.
I remain (in the spirit of Lenny Bruce, who knew how to diffuse a word),
The Hun Bastard (AKA,DTS)
Citrus,
STALKING THE NIGHTMARE was the name of the book. The essay you're talking about appeared in the "The 3 Most Important Things in Life". (And to make it even more complete, they are sex, violence, and labor relations.)
My good deed for the day. I'm all tapped out now.
I remember reading a story that Mr. Ellison wrote about "fear"
It took place in a dark movie theatre and some guy comes in mad as heck and throws another guy out of the balcony possibly killing him.
I guess it was pretty disturbing to me because I still remember it from years ago.
Was it really true?
I'd like to read it again if someone can tell me where to find it.
>That's some ugly shit, man<
Ugly, but so transparently lunatic that all we really should worry about is whether he's a licensed driver.
Thanks, Mr. Ellison
I just want to say thank you for all the wonderful stories and essays. I've accumulated quite a pile of your books over the years, most of which have been re-read many times. I'm not big on idolizing people, but you are on my short list of amazing folks.
PC Re-Educator
PC Re-Educator's semi-literate ramblings (with seemingly random use of captialization) made for...enlightening reading, if only to illustrate just how idiotic the lunatic fringe can be. I see that he (he is almost certainly male; although far from a man) feels it is necessary to hide behind a pseudonym--coward that he truly is. All hail the First Amendment! Only by allowing these freaks & cranks to spew their venom, can they be exposed as the marching morons they are.
Ugly
Ugly or not, and as much as I hate to see some wannabe grand wizard come on here and try to write like Frank Church, it doesn't break any board rules. I would suggest simply ignoring it rather than giving it any attention by making it a topic of discussion.
Can we eradicate that disgusting "PC re-educator" crap? Rick?
That's some ugly shit, man.
Unca Harlan wrote:
"I only LOVE fictionwise.com! If the rest of the internet were as well-run, as honest, as supportive of writers, I'd never have had to sue the bastards."
Okay, did anyone _else_ imagine this as a blurb on Fictionwise's site?
ESSENTIAL
UNCA HARLAN:
done and done
RYAN:
email me.
Respectfully,
Neal
KEITI:
By all means, absolutely and whoop-dee-do, buy my stories from Fictionwise.com. They have a great deal with me, they have paid me handsomely, and the money you spend DOES go--at least a reasonable royalty amount--into Susan's and my kitty.
THIS is the sane, righteous way for classes to get individual stories (in perfect, ellison-proofed versions) at a pittance price. Each copy is right in the $1 range, and if you can get each student to dowload his/her own, I make more than what I'd've made if we'd sold that many pbs when it was new.
I only LOVE fictionwise.com! If the rest of the internet were as well-run, as honest, as supportive of writers, I'd never have had to sue the bastards.
So, yes, hurry your class to Fictionwise. If they ever want actual books, though, we're happy to sell you as many as you need.
It keeps me off the streets.
Yr. pal, Harlan
Susan,
Mailed the money order this evening; it should go out with the morning mail and, with any luck, reach you before winter.
Thanks.
-------------
David,
Way to go. I'll be sure to check it out.
D.
Hey Keiti,
Here's a link to Harlan's personal store:
http://harlanellison.com/herc.htm
I think you can order this particular item directly from fictionwise (as a matter of fact, it's linked to the above page). Harlan will get his Benjamins.
Re-Educating my Foot!
Here I was, reading these perfectly nice posts, enjoying my evening, and then this person comes along with this bit of unpleasantry. I realize we all have a right to free speech, but this entry was downright nasty. Was this really necessary? The only this person impressed me with is that something short circuited upstairs! (and if this is a joke, it's not funny.)
negro commerical popular diversions for the water buffalo herds
Any white girl who sleeps with a ne-gro deserves to have a knife stuck in her throat. look at nicole simpson's strange malformed children, with their strange hair. a butcher knife wielding baboon for a daddy. living the good life playing golf in ireland. ne-gro hair begins to kink and curl as the effects of ironing wears off pretty quickly or whatever unusual sprays they use to prevent themselves from reverting to nature. i guess that was the kind imbedded on clarence thomas's nasty coke can. i have no belief in god at all i'm a completely materialistic atheist, hence the importance i attach to cultural continuity and tradition, the stabilizing keel of conservative social norms as definitized by western European cultural history. females on the whole are pretty mindless. without the tempering influence of hierarchical European cultural norms they unravel pretty quickly, allowing every migrant ethnicity to impregnate them. who is the Shakespeare of the zulus? who is the Pasteur of the african pigmy? who is the Homer of the rastafarian hottentot? What did ellison think of the affirmative action version of The Wizard of Oz presented by the jim henson (disney) company. That's the result of radical former scenarists like ellison specifically mentioning the races of actors in their screen plays. like his rotten scenario for the i robot asimov movie. anyway he got his racist wish in methodless actor will smith.
:-()
Reply to Harlan
Harlan,
Thank you for responding to my post so quickly - I actually located the answer to my original question, but now I have another:
I see that "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" is available as an ebook from Fictionwise - I want to purchase it in order to teach it in my classes. Is there any way to purchase it as an ebook directly from you, or should I go ahead an order it from Fictionwise?
I'd rather my money go directly to you, if at all possible.
Thank you,
Keiti
Where to send (and possibly sell) poetry!
To Erika aka Toulouse...but anybody who wants to write may want to read this as well because it applies to freelancing in general:
If you're serious about pursuing poetry, go to a major book store or one of the major internet book sites, find a copy of the 2005 Writer's Market (the regular printed edition, not the pitiful and useless CD ROM or web access version!), and buy it! Primarily look in the small publications section, which is substantial, because those are the best poetry markets, but there are zillions of other legitimate places listed to send poetry. In a nutshell, avoid ALL listings (anywhere you find them, not just in the book!) for "contests" or "anthologies for new poets" because virtually every single one is a sham! They'll either ask you for money up front to help cover publication costs, or charge you a ridiculous amount to buy a copy (or many copies!) of the book in which you'll be "featured", but it just isn't real! The ONLY idiots who buy these books are the poor fools who appear in them, and the publishers are accomplished crooks who know exactly how many to print to serve this single purpose. A complete and vile rip-off! Look carefully through the Writer's Market and you'll find plenty of real, established, honest publications that will accept your work for consideration and treat you professionally. Poetry does NOT pay, but I've seen plenty of poets pass through my workshops and succeed in their ways. If you're lucky enough to get accepted in a paying market, it will only mean enough to buy a dinner, and probably not for two! There are a couple big markets that pay really well (the first one on most people's minds is the New Yorker), but that's like hitting the lottery. The vast majority of serious small publications that accept a lot of poetry tend to "pay" with contributor's copies, and some may also throw about five to ten bucks at you. The point is that THEY pay, not YOU! Instead of waiting for somebody to recommend a a couple of places to submit, buy the darn book, do your own research, LEARN about the poetry market, and choose for yourself. Then submit to MANY publications at a time. Unlike with fiction or mass market articles, simultaneous submissions are usually okay for poems, and the publishers usually only want one time rights. A good poem can appear several places at once, or "sell" over and over again. Have fun!
REPLY TO KEITI
I don't do e.mail, as most everyone knows.
Either post your message here, or send a letter to me:
Harlan Ellison
c/o HERC
PO Box 55548
Sherman Oaks, CA 91413
REPLY TO ANDREW LAUBACHER
When I spoke to Matt Groening lo those many months ago, he averred it was a positive idea, using me as either a guest character voice, or as myself, on THE SIMPSONS. He said he would think on it, and see if he could come up with a salutary slot. He made no promises, and I have heard nothing further. He's a terrifically nice man, a conscientious man, a mensch, yet I suspect he has a billion gnats buzzing his tete--as do I--constantly. It's possible he forgot; possible that it was put in the abeyance bin; possible he was being polite and was too overbooked already; possible that he decided it was less a swell idea than he'd said; possible that he's waiting for the right moment ... or not at all.
I have no idea. Haven't heard a word.
But it would be brash and impolite of me to nuhdz him. If he can, and he wants to, he will. If not, he's still tops in my book, and though I might wax wistful, I would never presume to nag him, or mention it again. That's how we "class acts" behave with each other.
But thank you for asking.
Yr. pal, Harlan
Nellie McKay news
Since Harlan and many others are very found of her work (as am I) I thought I would share this email I received:
NEW NELLIE McKAY album PRETTY LITTLE HEAD features duets with Cyndi Lauper and k.d. lang - In Stores Tuesday, October 18
Featuring a kaleidoscopic selection of tracks culled from 23 new songs written by McKay for the album, Pretty Little Head premieres duets with Cyndi Lauper ("Beecharmer") and k.d. lang ("We Had It Right") as well as an assortment of provocative new compositions including "Columbia Is Bleeding" ("...it's turned into a real rock tune..."), "Cupcake" ("...about gay marriage..."), and "The Big One" ("...about a tenant's rights activist...").
Working with a group of "wonderful musicians," Nellie McKay sings and plays piano--as well as cello, vibes, and synthesizer--on Pretty Little Head.
I still hope Harlan can write liner notes for her someday!
Thanks,
Tony Adams
Request for Harlan
Harlan,
I'm sure you don't remember me, but I met you briefly during the book signing at Dutton's on Magnolia back in December. If it'll possibly refresh your memory, you called me a bitch - fabulously so, I might add. :-)
At any rate, I have just become a high school teacher, and would like to speak with you about something. So as not to bore the rest of the audience, would you be so kind as to email me at my posted email address?
Thank you,
Keiti
Correction
Aside to Loftus, not Rob. Apologies for the clarificationating double post.
The Starlost
Okay, now that the title of this thing has sent a cold chill down Harlan's spine: JMS addressed this very recently on his message board. To whit:
**********************
> So, to JMS, ever spoken about The Starlost? Ever thought about a collaboration of that sort? I know it would also take a cable or network channel's interest to make it a reality, but if there were interest, might both you and Harlan be persuaded to get together on such a thing?
>
> - Jeff
We've spoken about the Starlost a few -- very few -- times. One
doesn't lightly sprinkle salt in a wound of that magnitude. Beyond that, we've sometimes talked about doing something together one of these days (aside from B5 where he was our creative consultant for five years), but so far we haven't hit on the right thing.
jms
***********************
Aside to Rob - Congrats on the Podcasts. About time someone did something intelligent with that medium (interviews with Jennifer Aniston notwithstanding).
Harlan and Susan,
Hold on to a lightening rod because I am going to shock you and place an order for 2 books...with bona fide CURRENCY!
I need DREAM CORRIDER, with the John Byrne illustrated I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM.
And I need the anthology with the original STARLOST scipt (is that ESSENTIAL ELLISON?).
I want to be sure I got the title info right, and, of course, that you still have the titles in stock. Please give me the total price and I'll mail in for them asap.
Best wishes from the beachside,
Rob
(To footnote, since I brought up the subject of STARLOST, one would think, with these tsunamis of remakes, that an effort would be made to revisit Starlost and try to do it justice this time round. For ONCE, the revamping would be validated. For all I know, you were once approached about it. Instead, they're going back to ANOTHER classic, as ABC is reworking Kolchak: The Night Stalker - sans the distinct humor of the original, and making the character - trademarked by Darren McGavin - yer stereotype young stud. Ironically, it LOOKS - and this is obviously the idea - just like X-Files, which, itself, nearly drew lawsuits for lifting its premise from the original series; but at least that took its OWN directions. That's why it became the template for pathetic rip-offs like this one.)
a little quality amongst the flotsam
Dear Friends:
My podcasting show is a REALITY!
"Straight to the Art," a podcast program devoted to creativity and imagination, went live online this week. In it, I will be interviewing writers, musicians, visual artists, and other creative types about how they do their magic.
My first show features classically-trained, New Age/jazz acoustic guitarist and composer Doug Smith chatting about his work, his past, the Grammy (or piece of one) he earned this year for his participation in the all-acoustic Henry Mancini tribute, "Pink Guitar," and playing one of my favorites of his terrific tunes, "Crest of the Revolution." There are also clips from his other work on the show.
In future weeks, you'll hear from other fascinating creators, including novelist Nicole Mones, animators Chris Stover and Angie Howard, cartoonist John Callahan, pet photographer and former actor Jim Dratfield, art history prof and erotic performance artist Joanna Frueh, "grown-up fairy tale" author Gregory Maguire, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Schatz (who also co-founded the "dragapella" singing group "The Kinsey Sicks"), public TV chefs Caprial and John Pence, retired LA Times film critic Charles Champlin, and many more.
Please download the show -- it's a free mp3 audio file -- and tell anybody else you think might be interested. I'm trying to raise the quality of podcasting above the level of corporate music marketing, adolescent humor, and couch potato blogs.
This is the place:
http://purecastmedia.com/shows/StraightToTheArt/
David Loftus
THE GOOD NEWS is that Our Beloved Leader has made a public statement advocating attention to varied points of view.
"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."
THE BAD NEWS is
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/01/national/w200833D87.DTL
Does anyone have recommendations of legit places to seek out for publishing a poem? I've got one that's worthy of publishing, but dont know where to look. Thank yeh, ahead of time. :)
I used to use the library computer as well. Teehee.
-----------
Faisel looks like a terrorist, I don't blame the British government one iota.
See how boring being right wing is?
No Ellison on Simpsons?
Mr. Ellison:
Animation World Network (among other sources) ran a story on 7/29 about the celebrity guest voices joining The Simpsons this season. "New and returning celebrity guest voices coming up for the 17th season of THE SIMPSONS are Alec Baldwin, Kelsey Grammer, William H. Macy, Joe Mantegna, Michael York, Ricky Gervais, Terry Bradshaw, Lily Tomlin, Frances McDormand, Terry Bradshaw, boxer Joe Frazier, former basketball great Dennis Rodman and Yankee pitcher Randy Jackson."
I noticed that your esteemed name was not listed among them. I'm not asking for the messy details, but did the plans for you to join the cast for a show fall through? I was also hoping to see your credit listed in this year's Treehouse of Horror anthology--especially with the EC theme it's using--but, to no avail.
Hoping for a reply,
Andrew L.
too much stuff
*** Rob *** Thanks for your concern but, no worries mate. That would have been a "triple" at this point. It's a sickness. Sometimes I'll buy extras like... well, here's a for instance or three. I have all of Harlan's Magazine of F&SF appearances twice. One for the Harlan section [soon to be wing] of my house, and another set mixed in with the 6 boxes of F&SF in my basement. Some things, like DREAM CORRIDORs and PB anthology appearances I just buy reflexively, like some old woman taking in yet another cat. Now that FINGERPRINTS is done, or at least the part of FINGERPRINTS where Timmytimtim calls me up from his bathtub holding sodden post-it notes asking me for all the SFBC pagination codes for FIVE FATES or the page numbers for yet another state / edition of some Donald A. Wollheim anthology that I have kept near "the surface" for just such an eventuality - now that THAT'S DONE. Did I mention how many things this madman has made me take out of shrinkwraps to serve his insatiable desire for trivia? And the fingerprints on the shiny surfaces...and the EYE tracks and the exposure to sunlight as they are removed from their jewel encrusted nitrogen cases and...
Like I said, a sickness. So, Rob, like I said, no worries, except for my sanity.
By the way, a couple of you may be amused to know that my H.E.R.C. renewal comes up next issue. I am both thrilled and HUMBLED by this fact. A few years ago I did a strange and silly favor for Harlan down in Philly and he tried to reach for his wallet. Now I like cash as well as the next person, but I said, "how about a 20 issue H.E.R.C. extension instead?" I asked for TWENTY issues because I think I would have been doubling my out-of-pocket, but mostly because TWENTY issues of the H.E.R.C. sounded like the sort of Science Fiction number that would have me covered until we were all living in the Oort cloud and self-flossing teeth had been invented. How wrong I was. And could not be happier about it. The check is in the mail baby. Thanks for all the hard work and dedication Suzy-q.
For the civilians - I get a free pass on the Suzy-q stuff because of that one time she sang that song. ;-)
Hugs - Barney
Just checking in, just to remind y'all that I'm still alive-- busily exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen, in my ongoing business arrangement with the Flowers.
I spoke to Faisal, and here's hoping that _Scribble_ gets all kinds of praise and honors and Offers of Employment. But, as he put it, the _big_ challenge is going to be in simply _getting to the screening_, as he'll be a Muslim carrying a backpack on the London Tube-- nowadays, analogous to the time-honored U.S. crime of "DWB." (I urged him to take a taxi.)
The main reason I haven't ben posting here recently is my starting a blog over at LiveJournal. Simple reason for this: odd notions enter my head every so often, and instead of inflicting them on all of _you_, I can post'em at the blog and people can read them at their leisure.
The first failure here is that, apparently, very few people read the thing. The second failure is that a lot of the LiveJournal acquaintances are through a friend, and _her_ friends tend to post lots of shit about cats and Rush lyrics, and there's lots of support thrown about through the currency of "*hug*." Not exactly the most receptive audience for my comparatively bristly notes. (I figure her friends are writing to her, wonder what she saw in me, exactly. It happens.)
But, in summary: Still Here.
WRITTEN BY et al
Susan & Harlan - the WRITTEN BY arrived this morning - many thanks - much appreciated!
Barney - sorry to see you missed out on CHOCOLATE ALPHABET this week on eBaY...
Faisal - noticed your film SCRIBBLE is up for Best Newcomer Award at the Rushes Short Film Festival in London's Soho this week - best of luck...
And finally, to the Californian posse in general - has anybody out there been to see the new Sergio Leone exhibition at the Autry Museum yet? If so - any reports?
Thanks
Rob Ewen
ADSVISEMENT TO NEAL JOHNSON & RYAN LEASHER
Neal, Susan says she'll hold the book for your purchase. Now, if you buy it in the next two weeks, you can send your dj to Ryan and all will be happy. I ask that you two work it out with e.mails 'tween you, and then, Ryan, you can pop in here to let Susan know the dispensation in this (increasingly complex) bit'o'business. The ball, as Alice Marble used to say, it be in
your mixed-double court.
Yr. pal, Harlan
Susan, I just put my cheque for my Confirmed in the mail!!!!!
(ROFL not serious there)
My father has been watching too much British television - he's taken to calling his cell phone a mobile, (like there's mo-bile in yo liver)..Actually "mobile phone" is miles better than the idiotic term "wireless phone" used by US service providers. A wireless is an old radio, dammit!
I wonder how many people here are going to Foolscap? I don't think I can do it unless I can get into some kind of shared travel arrangement. (i'm in the bay area) also isn't membership limited? And for all i know the hotel is sold out by now.
(serious there)
Kristin
Harlan,
FYI, you're front page at SilverBulletComicBooks right now:
http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/masters/
(but if you wait too long, it'll scroll off).
Note that this column was filed before our little chat this afternoon (hence the no-quote from Mr. Ellison).
On a softer note, Chantzie didn't like your description of baby induction. I told her that Russian Jews have a sense of humor undetectable by Rumanian Jews.
TO MIKE LANE
Thanks Jay for the correction. I read it wrong.
TO MIKE LANE
Thanks for the info Mike I will try and see the Aurora caused by the X factor Solar flare. We got cloud cover here now, but they (those never-wrong weather people at our local glass teat
stations) say we will have hot and clear weather by Wednesday.
I apologize for mistaking your message as from Jay...but hey...I make misteaks (ur...mistakes) all the time!
STAN
sorry
double posts
Rick, it's the fault of the stupid library computer, and i'm sorry.
pls don't hold it against
Neal
SUSAN and RYAN
Lady Susan,
I you could hold that copy of the ESSENTIAL ELLISON for me, I will gladly let RYAN have my dj.
I need to wait two weeks until payday. Just got a new job. Is that ok?
RYAN, stand down a minute.
Regards,
Rick
SUSAN and RYAN
Lady Susan,
I you could hold that copy of the ESSENTIAL ELLISON for me, I will gladly let RYAN have my dj.
I need to wait two weeks until payday. Just got a new job. Is that ok?
RYAN, stand down a minute.
Regards,
Rick
Stan,
That was Mike.
FOR JAY SMITH
Thanks for the information Jay...I live in area where the city lights might interfere with seeing the Aurora...but I will give it a try anyway.
Do you know that NASA is sending the Discovery back home during the Perseid Meteor Shower? Some are predicting disaster if they come home at that time.
Hey Harlan! That would make a dandy "what if..." story providing either of us has the time left to do it! Hmmm. A solar flare frying the Earth like a thick steak on a barberque pit.
STAN
Harlan, to be fair to your lovely, vivacious wife, you misspelled George Santayana's name the other day, calling him 'Santana.'
Maybe you were listening to Black Magic Woman at the time. We know you have this fetish for the brown sugar.
Don't squish me, I only come in love.
--------------------
Pluto is an ice carving, made by a chainsaw, manned by God. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.
Praise Jesus.
DOUGLAS--YOU'RE Confirmed.
TODD--Glad you enjoyed Diana's essay.
RYAN--We do not have an extra dust jacket. We do have one copy of THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON--35th (Morpheus). If you wish to purchase the book--the price is $40.89 (includes shipping and tax). My other suggestion is to write to the Publisher, they may have an extra dust jacket. Morpheus International: 125 E. Reno Ave., #17, Las Vegas, NV 89119.
All best--Susan
Solar flares
For Stan
Take a look at spaceweather.com. Another NASA site with forecasts of solar flares, meteor showers, near earth asteroids etc. Apparently there was an X-class flare yesterday that
will spew some coronal material into our atmosphere. Since you're in oregon you might see an aurora as a result but the chances seem slim for this particular flare because it wasn't pointed directly at Earth when it occurred. Chances could increase for a light show if the flare keeps up long enough for it to rotate around in our direction.
Jay Smith
Yes excitement is the word for it. And I think it is, in no small part, because of guys like Harlan, Asimov, Poul and all the other science fiction writers that we feel all this excitement about discovery of new worlds beyond our own. And that's why I'm always lurking about this board.
It is a certain hour of twilight glooms,
Mostly in autumn, when the star-wind pours
Down hilltop streets, deserted out-of-doors,
But shewing early lamplight from snug rooms.
The dead leaves rush in strange, fantastic twists,
And chimney-smoke whirls round with alien grace,
Heeding geometries of outer space,
While Fomalhaut peers in through southward mists.
This is the hour when moonstruck poets know
What fungi sprout in Yuggoth, and what scents
And tints of flowers fill Nithon's continents,
Such as in no poor earthly garden blow.
Yet for each dream these winds to us convey,
A dozen more of ours they sweep away!
--HPL
Here's a picture of the mysterious new body
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050731.html
that has just been discovered at the outer reaches of our solar system--yeah right! How naive do these liberal scientists think we are? All this was foreseen long ago by the prophets of old, filled with the spirit of the Lord!
Do you think all this violent weather is mere coincidence? Tsunami, hurricanes, frogs falling from the sky...and now a mysterious new body suddenly "appears" at the edge of the known solar system.
Planet? Ice world?
"Then, whispered Castro, those first men formed the cult around tall idols which the Great Ones shewed them; idols brought in dim eras from dark stars. That cult would never die till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom."
--HPL
Repent? Much too late for that...
Paging Susan Ellison
Susan,
Please put aside a slipcased ESSENTIAL ELLISON for me. I can't make Foolscap, but a pretty book should keep my mind off that disappointment. For a little while.
Thanks,
D.
p.s. I forgot to mention that I received the marvelous-looking RH #37. That takes care of one of the earth's four corners ...
Thanks...
SUSAN:
Found a RABBIT HOLE in my mailbox on Friday--thanx for including the bit from Lady Di (I think I can see the Pyramid on the distant horizon...).
Hope you and the Mister are doing well (pandas and wombats notwithstanding).
Long days and pleasant nights.
Todd Haney
My misteak (ur...mistake)
I know guys and gals...I spelled awful wrong....but dammit I am tired, hot and need a beer right now! Tee hee.
Solar flares
Anyone in here know of or heard over the grapevine, that an X type solar flare (I suppose one of the bad ones from our Sun) is heading toward as now?
Maybe that is why it is so god awfull hot up here in Oregon!!!
CORRECTION
That's AN APE, A DOG, AND A SERPENT of course. THE SONG OF THE FLEA crept into me befuddled wee brains at the last possible second. Happens. Your patience is adored.
Gerald Kersh
I've just come across a copy of Gerald Kersh's AN APE, A DOG AND A FLEA, which in addition to being one of the most enjoyable novels I've read in quite some time, has a curious bit of scribbling on the opening page, written in blue pen. It appears to say: "Mawwaram [??], Best Wishes, Gerald Kersh. Back Bar. '45." Beneath the signature is an underline with a little circle hovering over the end of it. To anyone who would know: Am I looking at a legit Kersh-signed book or is this just the random scribbling of a lunatic? I ask merely because I only ADORE signed books and Gerald Kersh. Thanks.
Justin
REPLY TO RYAN LEASHER
Ryan:
Let me look around through my copious files. I usually have a spare dj or two. If I find one, we'll roll it in a tube, mail it to you, and no cost.
If not ... well, that's between you and the Comptroller of The Kilimanjaro Corporation, the darling of the dyslectics, my Electric Baby.
We'll get back to you, one way or the other.
Harlan
Big Rocks of Coolness
Douglas & Mike, I think it's great to be excited by the discovery of a new body. I share your enthusiasm for it because it's one of those things that makes us feel part of something...big. Not political big, not society big or civilizatoin big...but universally HUMUNGO.
It's just too bad that astronomers and/or the press feel that it has to be a PLANET to be exciting news.
Mike, thanks for the links. I did some searching after Sedna was announced last year and I was excited. I think I even posted a note here close to what Douglas posted the other day. I found the orbit models and maps online and...well, the orbital models really took the wind out of my sails. Thinking of it as a planet just doesn't work since it shares almost none of the characteristics of our terrestrial variety or those massive gas giants we'll be using as stopover ports in the next four hundred years. I just think saying we found a new planet is like spotting an atoll and calling it a continent.
Still, It's like mapping the world all over again. We're slowly documenting our neighborhood. Finding this new piece is like stumbling on a new island in the Pacific hundreds of years ago - except we can't land there yet. No more worlds to discover? psh.
autistic spectrum
i don't know what's the big deal.
i suffer from a mild dyslexia but i still i LOVE to gick on pirls.
Kneel
SUSAN-
You wouldn't happen to have any hardcover copies of the 35-year Essential Ellison lying around in storage, would you? I really only need a new dustjacket but expect I'll need to purchase a new hardcover. And, of course, I'd rather send the money straight to you two. Thanks.
--
Ryan
Dear Alan--Thank you for your kind thoughts...but it is not necessary. I saw the message before my sweetie put it up. It was funny! And from now on, I have decided it would be best for me not to use the words YOUR and YOU'RE ever, ever again. I'm substituting WOMBAT and PANDA. So much easier.
All best--Susan
Attention Susan Ellison.
I think you should make your husband apologise for picking on you in public. He is damned lucky to have you and should treat you much better than this, at least in public.
For those who have dyslexia, the effects of dyslexia become much worse when you are fatigued or dehydrated. So make sure you get enough sleep and always drink plenty of purified drinking water. (Most tap water is not fit to drink.)
Astronomers detect '10th planet'--er, perhaps
All right, please excuse my recent outburst of misplaced enthusiasm. Do NOT change the textbooks just yet.
Jay is quite right that this recent announcement will reopen the debate on whether Pluto is or ain't an authentic planet. And it will be some time before the International Astronomical Union decides whether 2003 UB313 is the real deal. But still I feel a rush.
Ten. Such a nice round number.
D.
Planet What?
If Pluto was discovered today, it would not be labelled a planet. When we were kids, the best info we had was that Pluto was an iceball about the size of Earth, maybe smaller.
Then about a decade ago we began discovering medium sized balls of frozen ice waaaay out beyond Neptune's orbit. The latest? Two discoveries, both announced this week, of two new "worlds:" one smaller than Pluto but with a tiny satellite, the other a world scientists are saying could be 50% larger than Pluto.
None of which are technically "planets" as we have come to view the definition.
However.
It is not likely that we have discovered the largest of these objects. Astronomers speculate that Mars sized and even Earth sized objects may exist way out beyond the orbit of Pluto. If any are Earth sized, there is a chance they may be large enough to hold onto an atmosphere. If there is radioactivity in the core, there could be large oceans of liquid water underneath the surfaces.
Water, life, etc.
What a time to be alive.
Thanks for the update, Susan!
Harlan: As a tonic for your distress, read "Magic For Beginners" by Kelly Link, in the Sept. "F&SF." I read it this morning and I think it cured my allergies. The story is filled with joyful magic.
sincerely,
R.Wilder
Tom Snyder leaves the Internet & an note to Harlan
I read on Mark Evanier's blog at
http://www.newsfromme.com/
that Tom Snyder's website at
http://www.colortini.com/index2.html
will shutdown Monday August 1st.
Harlan: I'm working on getting copies of the material you've requested. Sorry for the delay, but I'd missed your missive from last week.
PLEASE NOTE:
I rescued my wife twenty years ago from a land of barbarism, an island whereon the decent rigors of proper spelling and traditional punctuation were not taught in the creche where she was inculcated. The poor sloth also suffers from a mild, but persistently annoying, dyslexia.
So what it meant when it wrote "your" was ackchully "you're."
Why me, lord, why me????
Yr. woebegone pal, Harlan
Planet Count
Pluto/Charon, Vulcan/Mercury, Sedna, and with the ecosystem found under the Polar Icecaps, speculation on Europa.
Time to Dig out the old SUN-RA and Wesley Willis Starcharts and send copies to NASA. They may have been right the whole time =)
For Jay Smith,
Much of all the planet / not planet debate is like alot of the
classification work in all aspects of science is, if I may wax
entomological, simply slicing setae on the butt of Culicid (a type of gnat). There is an article on NASA's science news page you might be interested in. Its about the latest 10th planet
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/29jul_planetx.htm?ist49393
There's another that relates the discovery of another Kuiper Belt Object called Quaoar, discovered before Sedna, which has some links that discuss this question. Here you go:http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/07oct_newworld.htm.
I guess there are many astronomers who, without the historical precedence, wouldn't consider Pluto a planet either. Of course the media probably presents the storywithout relating any of the complexities of the debate and the other discoveries which really make the story interesting. Last thing, if you aren't already you might consider signing up for with NASA newsgroup which has lots of really interesting articles, at least one new one a week. Here's one last link for you http://science.nasa.gov/default.htm
Susan,
THE RABBIT HOLE arrived yesterday at the new address. Thanks so much. Great work as usual.
Bill
Kristin--Your confirmed.
Ryan--The ESSENTIAL will be coming out. I was talking about IF I can get a discount for HERC members. I'm working on that request.
All best--Susan
ANOTHER 10th Planet?
How many 10th Planets does this make? It seems every year some astronomer puts out a press release with a picture of a big red arrow pointing to a pinhole of light discovered floating through the Kuiper Belt.
Last year, it was Sedna: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/14/planet.discovery/ a fleck of dust 3 billion miles beyond Pluto.
By some counts there are more than 35,000 Kuiper Belt Objects floating out in the outer planetary junk yard that are larger than 100km-wide candidates for planethood. They all have odd inclinations, orbits and much more in common with asteroids than planetoids. This latest body (2003 UB313) is larger than Pluto, but this merely feeds the debate about the legitimacy of Pluto/Charon as an "official" planetary system given its orbital irregularities, size and other characteristics.
It seems that, after Neptune, the solar system disintegrates into a shell of cosmic dust and ice with irregular chunks of debris and cosmic jetsam reaching out into the Oort Cloud. But I find the elements of that to be as fascinating as all the other neighbors we're trying to explore.
Astronomers detect '10th planet'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4730061.stm
Time to change those textbooks.
D.
November ESSENTIAL ELLISON
SUSAN-
I'm confused about your reference to the November printing of THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON. Maybe I missed something in a previous post. The Rabbit Hole reads that there will be a new, fourth printing of the hardcover in November. But in a recent post you wrote:
"To answer questions about THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON in November. No promises, but let me work on it. If anything comes of it, you'll know in the next newsletter."
Is the November printing happening or is it still uncertain?
Thanks.
Hope to see you and Harlan tomorrow at the Ray Harryhausen portfolio show.
Susan: Okay I'll splurge - reserve me a copy of Essential 50! (Signed to Kristin) that will mean a check for, hmmm, $165.38 for ya soon.) Are they bound so you can, like, read them?
kristin
Peg--Confirmed. Will wait for new address.
All best--Susan
John--You're still current. It's still a little early to be worried. If your RH hasn't come by Monday, let me know.
All best--Susan
oh please oh please oh please...
Susan,
Reserve me one of those nifty limited slipcovered hardcover Essential Ellison 50 Year Retrospectives please!
Change of addy off to you tomorrow for the newsletter Check should be on the way in the next week or so, once we bring moving mayhem under control.
Thanks,
Peg
Grace Abounding the Untutored
In the tradition of the family turncoat, I was planning to post this in John Byrne's site. Well, his house is being refurbed right now. So, since the crowd here is savvy enough on the topic...
I was really bugged by Roger Ebert's review of Fantastic Four. Not because he was wrong in any way about this disappointing potboiler, but because the review itself seemed so detached and uninformed about the source. He discarded (seemingly) the creation of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, and the fact that it was this title alone that altered the course of comic book history. It this very reason I'd put so much hope (even though I KNEW better) on this movie adaptation.
If you heard or read Roger's review then you know what I'm talking about.
Well, some guy finally spoke for all of us:
"I don't expect you to do all the homework in reviewing these films, with long and storied histories in other mediums. I do wish, however, that if you don't know what you're talking about, don't act as though you do."
That's how I felt when I first heard Roger and Roeper review the movie; and this feller brought Roger out to address the matter.
I DO feel if you are a PROFESSIONAL film critic, it helps to know a little about the importance of the source, whether it's a book, a comic, or a play (at least if there is a significant history behind it). Roger meant to, in effect, separate the movie from the comic; it's a good tact to state you are doing so from the outset.
(Look: it's HOTTER than HELL and I couldn't think of anything else t'YAP about. OK?)
writer Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd inspired by Ellison
David Lloyd on V for Vendetta
Written by Scott Collura
http://www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/1954/2/
. . .“We were both inspired by various movies, and one of them was The Abominable Dr. Phibes, the Vincent Price movie, and things like Theatre of Blood, and these were all mixed up with Fahrenheit 451, Harlan Ellison stories, all this sort of stuff,” recalls Lloyd. “And Alan was interested in having a very theatrical look to things. And also part of the plot was that V wanted to bring down the government and create chaos. [So] the idea that Guy Fawkes would be the hero, this historical anarchist, I thought that would be great. And it would make him very theatrical if he was dressed like Guy Fawkes.” . . .
Minicon
HARLAN OR SUSAN:
I remember hearing something about a lecture the night before the Minneapolis convention begins. Is anything set yet, or is it just fantasy? I'm doing the Unofficial Ellison Tour* of 2006, and I'd like to know how much time to set aside. I certainly wouldn't mind an extra day in Minneapolis/St. Paul--even in April.
* -- My husband gets a Lotus Exige; I get to see Harlan. I definitely got the better deal.
Ray--Your ESSENTIAL confirmed. When you send in your checks (Ray, Greg and Keith) remind me about your HERC bonus.
All best--Susan
Essential Ellison Reservation
Susan,
Please reserve me a copy of the Limited/Slipcased/Hardcover Edition of THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON: 50 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE.
Many thanks,
Ray Carlson
My apologies, Rick, for the double post today.
Susan, can I check and see if I am still current with HERC? I'm going on memory but my number may be #1286. Lawrenceville NJ. Haven't seen #37 yet so if I'm in arrears I'll get a check out asap.
Thanks!
THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON
Greg and Keith--Confirmed.
Thank you.
Essential Reservation
Susan,
I'd like to reserve a copy of the Limited/Slipcased/Hardcover Edition of THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON: 50 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE (published May 2001), please, if possible.
I found the first one (the 35 Year Retrospective) at Attic Books in Laurel, MD (primarily a used bookstore) back in the late 80s or early 90s sometime. What a surprising and enjoyable find that was, seeing as how I was a new fan back then.
I'm really looking forward to the new one!
-keither
RH #37
Just popped the latest open + have to get my name on the wish list for The Essential Ellison, esp. since I got the whole bound/unbound thing started. I'd rather have the $$$ go into Harlan's pocket than some nob at amazon.com. Thank-you!!!
Susan: F.Y.I.
Yesterday, received the latest greatest edition of Rabbit Hole. Can't wait to dig in. Thanks,Susan.
Roald Dahl may not have cared for Gene Wilder, but remember, Steven King didn't like Jack Nicholson, in the Shining either. Talk about a major fuck up from a major writer--or at least a major commercial writer.
The Shining would have been a joke with all that nonsense about living shrubbery.
------------
What is with this Ellison interview, with Robin Williams, that costs almost six bucks? That sure seems like a piece for an interview. It's not like you can listen to an interview, like it was a music single. Interviews should be free--at least.
STUFF
Thank you for your kind remarks regarding the Rabbit Hole. I'm basking in glory right now.
To answer questions about THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON in November. No promises, but let me work on it. If anything comes of it, you'll know in the next newsletter.
Re: The Limited/Slipcased/Hardcover Edition of THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON: 50 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE (published May 2001). We only have about 26 copies left from the publisher. Right now, I'm looking at #133 (limited to 350). If anyone wants to reserve a copy:
$150.00 plus postage of $3.00 (and yes, Kristin is correct, the real cost of the postage is NOT $3.00--but we try to keep it low for HERC and WEBDERLAND people). CA Residents please add $12.38 sales tax. Just let me know if you wish to reserve a copy. Send the check to THE KILIMANJARO CORPORATION, P.O. Box 55548, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413. If you want the book personalized, just let us know.
Once again thank you for the kind Rabbit Hole words--it helps!
Susan
Rabbit Hole
Susan,
My copy arrived here in Indianapolis on Wednesday and it was fine. Folded and stapled in all of it's yellowy-orange (I'm sure there's a better name for it) glory.
Thanks,
Tony Adams
"AS is the way of your people" - B.
** Susan ** Three people in PA. [including myself] received Rabbit Holes on Thursday.
Terrific job. I believe this is the most complicated layout and the most data intensive one so far. Your ambition and attention to detail is noted and much appreciated. I say that in a distant and non-gushing manner is the way of your people. ;-)
Eighteen hours of the WORTHING CHRONICLES by Orson Scott Card? Tell Harlan I said "what did I ever do to you?" Is this any way to treat someone who has professed he would take a bullet in the "love handles" for him? Honestly.
The mailing envelope was much appreciated. Not a stone cold promise of better treatment by the U.S. mails, but a definite hedge against flagrant abuse. A couple of mine look like they came via lawnmower. This one arrived in MINT condition, Until the drooling and coveting began.
- Barney
The other object remains a wonder. - B.
I opened my mailbox today and what did I find? Why, the latest Rabbit Hole (#37), that's what. Thanks, Susan, for the peek at the new Dream Corridor. As usual, the newslette is nicely done.
As my sister likes to say, cool beans. The check will be in the mail in a week or two so I can get more of these little goodies.
Thanks, nice lady.
Chuck
Hi Susan. Kudos for another out-standing editon of Rabbit Hole.
Can't wait for Dream Corridor Volume 2.
In re to the numbered edition of The Essential Ellison; after paying $150 for the five-volume Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith (plus bonus book)and having to budget Fingerprints On the Sky and the future HE titles, will HERC be offering the trade hard cover edition? If not, is it still available from Morpheus with the HERC discount? Thank you and looking forward to seeing you and HE at Foolscap VII.
David
Willie Wonka
For what it's worth I've read on IMDB that David Seltzer rewrote Roald Dahl’s screenplay and that Dahl was very angry about the rewrite.
Hi Susan. I received the latest Rabbit Hole in the mail today here in Des Moines. Fabulous edition of the newsletter. I especially liked the info about the Harlan rat sculpture. Great to hear of the new publications coming. I've got "Fingerprints In The Sky" on order all ready, and will be camped out at my favorite comic book store in December for Dream Corridor. I'm anxiously awaiting Minneapolis in April 2006 for a visit from both of you. It will be nice to have you at an event a little closer to home. Roger Gjovig
great green gobs of....
i care about tim burton because he wrote THE MELANCHOLY DEATH OFOYSTER BOY and i care about Quaker Oats because my parents worked there up until their retirement, and because Quaker makes Peanut Butter Captain Crunch which is yum.
i think Pepsi owns Quaker now.
Regards,
Neal and his greasy grimy gopher guts
Henry Selick directed Nightmare Before Christmas. He also did James and the Giant Peach and is in the process of bringing Neil Gaiman's Coraline to film. All are animated, which is why Burton did not direct, I guess, though it seems Burton is doing Corpse Bride himself, so we'll see what he's picked up.
I'm not ready to call Burton out just yet. I have liked far more of his work than I've disliked (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Beetlejuice, Big Fish, Sleepy Hollow, Pee Wee, Batman Returns-- how can you call him a hack?!?). I look forward to Corpse Bride.
Perhaps the Wonka remake wasn't a great idea, but it wasn't an embarrassment either. Wilder & Co. were a hard act to follow (I agree that Burton should have just done the second book instead-- remake fever is an annoying trend).
PAB
Jim Wilson: "Hate to burst anyone's angelic views of the first "Wonka" movie. But, it was financed by Quaker Oats"
I hate to burst your muckrakin'dream bubble, but that's actually pretty well-known.
It doesn't diminish the fact that Dahl himself scripted the original, and that the screenplay was actually considered an improvement in many ways over the book. (To my knowledge, the only real departure was the totally awful 'Sesame Street' outtakes; push those to the side, and ya got Dahl.) You're right about the "transpositions" in the movies' strengths. Yet, the story (at least in the MOVIE) is all about Wonka; without that it's really all pretty pictures, and even Charlie's character is dependent on the strength of Wonka's character. So, this remake was pointless.
However haughty you want to be about it, it is Gene Wilder who embodies the film's odd quality; nothing in the remake could complement it. He is so unpredictable, mysterious, and aloof - so disorienting - and, by far, the best thing about the film. Wilder himself had thought out the character and the psychology with inciseness: "We all grew up on movies with scenes where the actor is lying. You know he's lying, bue he wants to make SURE you know it's a like, and so he overacts and all but winks at you, and everybody in the world except for the girl he's talking to knows he's lying. I want to do the OPPOSITE. To REALLY like, and fool the audience. I wanted people to wonder if Willy Wonka was telling the truth so that you wouldn't really know until the end of the picture what Willy's motivations were."
Wilder succeeded completely. And NO ONE should try to minimize that. WHO the hell gives a fuck about Quaker Oats OR Tim Burton?
(Had the director been interested in integrity he'd have done the second Dahl book; that could have stood on its own merits)
Roald Dahl was unhappy with the choice of Gene Wilder as Willie Wonka (He wanted Spike Milligan), and he disliked the emphasis on Willie Wonka in the final cut of the movie because he felt it should be Charlie's story not Willie's.
Yet, he did write the screenplay.
Charlie is no more the focus of the new movie than he was the old, so I imagine Dahl would have disliked the new version too, despite the blessings of Dahl's widow. (The new movie even creates an elaborate back story for Wonka, making him even more the center of the film).
Paul Dini, of Batman the Animated Series fame, has an interesting critique of the new film over on his blog. He objects to Wonka being cast as a young man in both movies.
Dini explains that, in the book, Wonka is a 70-ish imp, and this helps to explain why he is passing the Chocalate factory on to a child.
As for Burton, I do feel that there is a great sameness in his films, but I will admit to loving Martin Landau, Johnny Depp and Bill Murray in ED WOOD.
I've seen BIG FISH and was not as fond of the movie as many critics. I thought it was a good, but familiar, version of the "known-liar's-Shaggy-Dog-story-that-finally-comes-true-in-the end" plot. Of this type of film, I would much prefer Terry Gilliam's ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN.
Steve Dooner
Hate to burst anyone's angelic views of the first "Wonka" movie. But, it was financed by Quaker Oats, with the intention of selling, timed with the film's release, "Wonka Bars," a new Quaker Oats chocolate bar. The film's exec. producer, David Wolper, pitched the movie to them with this intention. The candy was produced--the name of the movie was changed from "Charlie and..." to "Willy Wonka and..." in order to maximize "Wonka Bar" identification. However (and this is amusing) it seems QO couldn't produce a choco that didn't melt into goo in the stores. No shelf-life to speak of. And so, they were removed from stores. A new line of Wonka-sugar-crap did appear in stores many years after "Willy Wonka" shlepped quickly out of theaters, but the high-impact of movie-product-identification-propaganda had long since fizzled. Source for this? The documentary on the DVD. Wolper likes the irony of the story.
There are tons of things to admire about the old film, but I dare anybody to sit through the treacle of the Newley-Bricusse songs "Cheer Up Charlie," or "I've Got a Golden Ticket" without benefit of the fast-forward button. (I'll grant you "Candy Man" and "Pure Imagination")
Personally, I liked the Tim Burton darkening-down, though curiously the best thing about the first (Gene Wilder's cruelly manipulative Willy Wonka) is the weakest part in the second (Depp's Willy Wonka is...unfocussed...no, that's too kind...he's clueless). My favorite thing about the first was the revelation that the perpetrator of the "Fifth Ticket" hoax was a Argentinian Industrialist who looked like Martin Bormann.
As far as Burton is concerned, my favorite film of his used to be "Ed Wood," but is now "Big Fish," which apparently no one saw. Hence the "need" for a "boffo" opening week-end draw, like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." We'll see what "Corpse Bride" does.
Child Rape
Time-Warner & Tim Burton nutritionally Rape & Exploit children for Corporate Profit.
http://chocolatefactorymovie.warnerbros.com/partners.html
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory does have a weird look that one can admire--makes the fantasy more fantastic. But, I still love the older movie. Gene Wilder made more sense because he was a real person--a good thing to be in a movie more about human emotion, then just fantasy preening or sets.
--------------
Harlan, did you know that Steven King lauded War Of The Worlds and Spielberg? I'd love to hear the phone convo.
Ok one more and I'll quit.
The van that towed 'Cucumis sativus' to the store.
Oh well, half a wit is better than none I suppose.
So, Tim Burton goes from being a genius to being a hack. Perhaps he's neither, but I will admit he's made some poor choices. (I thought PLANET OF THE APES was real bad.)
But the enabler of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS can't be wholly lost to us I would think. (And for you 'auteur' theorizers, who exactly was the auteur on that one since Mr Burton did not himself direct?)
Susan - Got Rabbit Hole #37 in today's mail. Is the limited edition Essential Ellison the unbound one, or the bound one? OOOOOh!
lol didn't we already do title parodies awhile ago (and make Harlan sick on it?) Ooh, some of those are just incredibly awful.
Can't wait for the new DREAM CORRIDOR; wish I could afford all the Harryhausen stuff. Wasn't "The Silver Corridor" in the ELLISON WONDERLAND book? I remember checking it out of the library and that was one of the stories I really found memorable.
Kristin
(THREE BUCKS postage for shipping that heavy a book? Alright what does it really cost????)
$$$$$
i would pay real money for a genuine Harlan Ellison shopping list.
Dear Brian Siano and Harlan,
Thank you for turning my vision of Stephen King into Gene Wolfe. How I came to disremember the Wolfe as the King I shall never know. (I hope I have made up for this egregious error in the post-script below.) Blame my faulty memory on the 5 dollar case of beer my friends and I bought the night of the original PBS showing.
I would still love to have a copy of this show; and Brian, your "Ghandi is dandy" reference sent my head a' reeling with memory when I read it. Yes, that's one of the few things I remember from the wonderful program that night. Thank you very much.
P.S.- Let me apologize for the following "you can get anything you want at Ellison's Restaurant" addendums:
JEFFTY IS FRIED
IN BOLOGNA BRANDS
NEVER SEND TO KNOW FOR WHOM THE LETTUCE PREYS (special bonus points for those who can site the Wolfe/Ellison connection in this last lame attempt at humor.)
Sincerely,
Aron Devin
Harlan's Grocery List - late entry
Hi guys-n-gals,
Forgive the intrusion, I’m still kinda new here. But I just had to get a post in on the grocery list thing. Here are the regrettable results:
Plain Cod and Other Provisions
Thyme (of the Eye)
a pound of Balonleyache
Procrustean Bread
Prunesmith
(also must remember to visit the Cream Corridor)
All the Birds (Come Home to Roast)
(also must remember to visit The Cheese Stands, Alone)
Dreams Whipped Sharp Cheese
We should all be ashamed of ourselves.
Cheerio(s),
Paul
Robert Culp and Half-Life 2
Brian (and those folks here who don't play PC games),
Before I played "Half-Life 2" last November, I'd read that Culp was one of the VO artists on the game, and I was looking forward to hearing his work. When I started playing, though, I became so engrossed in the game that I completely forgot that Culp's voice was in it, as the "benevolent dictator" in the story, until I was at least half-way through the game. You hear his soothing tones throughout the game, urging the oppressed citizens of the city to comply with the authorities, and it's creepy as hell. What's also interesting is that, even though the character has the voice of Robert Culp, the 3D model of "Dr. Breen" used in the game (I swear) looks like the current white-haired, bearded David Hedison. I may be crazy, but the resemblance is startling, to me, and makes me wonder if there're some fans of 1960's TV cult shows on the Valve design team.
Also, here's an interesting Robert Culp trivia note: in one of his "I Spy" DVD commentaries, he mentioned how he used to teach voice and elocution in New York City in the 1950s... and one of his students was Bettie Page! As I recall, Culp wryly comments, "Beautiful girl... but a terrible student!"
-- Jon
I'm in my new apartment and keeping the old P.O. Box so my HERC info should still be good.
The biggest thrill is that I'm about 80% reunited with my library! I can only go so long without looking at a Hiroshige or a Mucha print. I thought I was stronger than this.
Oh, the joy when I opened a random box and saw all my Ellison books!
Thanks, guys, for understanding. Most folks think I'm nuts.
John H.
Rabbit Hole
Susan,
The newsletter made it to Phoenix. Excellent as always. Thank you for all the work.
Mike
Neat Robert Culp Comment
Over at gamespy, they're running a shiort interview with Robert Culp over his work in the _Half-Life 2_ computer game. Since Harlan's praised Culp's _writing_, I figured this comment of his might be of interest:
"The first rule about acting is, What is the scene about, really? If the writer is any good, the scene will look like it's about one thing, but it'll actually be about something else. And without that irony, it'll never work. I wrote with Sam Peckinpah for 10 solid years, and he always said the same thing, and so did I before I met him: look for the irony. If you can't find the irony in the scene, go to another scene; if you can't find it in the story, forget the story, don't do it at all. And the three guys who were directing these sequences I recorded, they knew this as well. That's what made it work."
http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/half-life-2/636347p1.html
RICK: It's funny you bring that up, as I was going to mention it, but forgot. That menu on the intro page is BRILLIANT--I originally thought Harlan had written it!
Oh, and I posted this on the other board, but it's too good not to put here: What if William Faulkner based THE SOUND AND THE FURY on the Bush White House? Go to http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/fiction/2005/faulkner.htm for the answer . . .
Newsletter
Susan,
Newsletter arrived yesterday (Tuesday). Granted Orange County isn't that far but it is a remote canyon of Orange County, or as remote as you can get. Haven't read it yet but I'm sure it is up to your usual excellent quality. Thanks, Tom Morgan
Steve,
I've been shouting the same sentiments about Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl and the original film on the other side of the hill.
And the same umbrage about this remake.
But overall Burton was doing just fine until he took this strange, dorked-out road down Remakeville. ED WOOD is one of my favorite films ever; and I like the first BATMAN very much. EACH of his films, in fact, whether success or failure, had something fresh to offer.
Naw, he got his registered trademark of HACK in Remakeville. I pay absolutely no attention to him now. And it's a shame because I really used to look forward to his projects.
WRITTEN BY magazine
Susan/Harlan,
Thank you both for your quiet grace and generous hearts.
Yours,
Rob Ewen
I swear, you people would crumble without my input.
The Deathbird, extra spicy chili
Croatoan, alligator skin lotion
Paladin of the Lost Hour, diarrhea tablets
Angry 'super Cinnamon' candy mints
The sword of parmesan, stinky spaghetti cheese.
Glowworm 'super small' condoms
Pulling Hard Time intimate lube
I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream banana ripple ice cream
I liked Burton when he made original films, like Ed Wood, Bettlejuice, or Edward Scissorhands. Even Sleepy Hollow, which drowned in a glut of headlessness, was different.
But these "revisitations" of classics like Planet of the Apes and Willy Wonka just misfire. It must be the same impulse that is driving Peter Jackson to remake King Kong...you love a film as a child, so know you are going to relive that moment by remaking it.
I'm sure the Jackson big ape flick will be entertaining. I'm equally sure that the first one will remain king.
I liked Burton when he made original films, like Ed Wood, Bettlejuice, or Edward Scissorhands. Even Sleepy Hollow, which drowned in a glut of headlessness, was different.
But these "revisitations" of classics like Planet of the Apes and Willy Wonka just misfire. It must be the same impulse that is driving Peter Jackson to remake King Kong...you love a film as a child, so know you are going to relive that moment by remaking it.
I'm sure the Jackson
On Roald Dahl
I watched Tim Burton and Johnny Depp on TV plugging their misbegotten "Charlie and The Chocalate Factory," and they seemed to speak with derision about the original film version with Gene Wilder. I've also heard many others who suggest that this new film was somehow truer to the book and that Roald Dahl would have liked it better.
But they all forget one thing: ROALD DAHL WAS THE SCREENWRITER OF "WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCALATE FACTORY"!
Sorry to shout, but if I read one more reviewer lauding the Burton film at the expense of the old film, I think I will go insane.
What's more (and I know this is purely subjective) I am deathly sick of Tim Burton's quirky, gothy, 1980's sensibility. It seems to me that this man has made one movie: "Pee Wee's Big Adventure," and everything else has been footage for the extended edition of that film.
But one thing makes me happy. Christopher Nolan's Batman has completely eclipsed Burton's travesty.
Hooray!
Steve Dooner
Not to mention
Hitler tasted rosé.
Blood's a sausage.
I,rutabaga. (If it's any comfort this movie didn't get made either.)
The Hunger
I think I saw THE HUNGER all of once (and flensed it from my mind so completely I don't even recall which story was adapted in that episode). It wasn't quite as bad as HBO's THE HITCHIKER, but it came close. Remember when HBO's original dramatic series could be counted on to suck?
shopping list without coordinates
I'm having a hard time picturing Harlan Adrift in the Aisles of Albertson's.
i win,
Neal
My favorite dessert:
Angry Candy from the Man on the Meal Wagon,
With a Strange Wine chaser from the Man on the Juice Wagon.
Sprinkle with Opium till its Thicker Than Blood.
He is indeed one hell of an entertaining man. Memories of listening to him and my classmates at Odyssey and the laughter of one particular day makes me smile.
Stacy
Love Ain't Nothing But Lox Misspelled (an Edgewurst Abbey offering)
I wonder how many people have seen this...
http://harlanellison.com/whimsy/cafe.htm
Harlan's Grocery List, Part #4
Peanut butter (Jiffy is fine)
Pretty Maggie Curly Fries
The Deathburger (and hold the relish)
Post-its from Purgatory
Film for camera (I'm looking for Kodak)
Lox
Yeah, "The Hunger" was a real piece of crap, wasn't it? In addition to doing a number on Harlan's work, it aired piss-poor adaptations of stories by Robert Bloch, Poppy Z. Brite, Kim Newman, and Robert Aickman, as well. (Despite some guilty pleasures like "The L Word" and "Penn & Teller's Bullshit!", Showtime's original programming is pretty substandard. If it's aiming to be Cinemax without the mental ravages of venereal disease, then it's doing GREAT. If, however, its goal is a little more lofty, well, let's just say HBO isn't losing any sleep at night.)
ON SPECIAL: Plain Cod and Rock Cod
(That) Stuff Ain't Nothing but Specs Misshelved (or maybe Chex?)
A Throng, With Seeded Fruit
Grange Swine
Dangly Brandy
Grail Mix
Fresh Knish-kins, and Hold the Licorice
Knox-wurst
Chamois with the Class Goblets
"Soft Chunky" Peanut Butter
Adam-Troy you forgot
THE DEATHBRISKET
MEFISTO IN OMELETS
SEARING
or my favorite
THE SHOPLIFTER IN THE AISLE ON THE EDGE OF THE DAIRY SECTION (looking for the Monterey Jack cheese that stretches of course, sorry)
As Per Frank, Harlan's Grocery List
Again, Dangerous Onions
The Beets Who Shouted Love At the Heart of the World
Jeffty is Five Dollars Off
Pretty Maggie Chicken Thighs
Demon With a Glass Cleaner
I Have No Mop and I Must Clean
The Whimper of Whipped Cream
Partners in Wonder Bread
Feel free to chime in at any time
Harlan would make a grocery list entertaining.
And the word is YOU'RE. Not "your."
Rob--We'll send you one. Your money's no good with us. It's our last copy, anyhow.
--Susan
Message for Susan
Hi Susan,
Do you by any chance have a spare copy of the Oct '04 WRITTEN BY that you could let me purchase from you? Can't get hold of a copy anywhere....
Thanks
Rob Ewen
Somewhere, there is a 28,000 year old cantaloupe with a hole in it.
Three things
Hi Harlan -
First off, I've been listened to and enjoying the hell out of your appearances with Robin Williams that are available on Audible.com. I'm not sure how well these are known on this message boards, but I would strongly encourage ANY Harlan Ellison fan to check them out. It's basically an hour - in two parts - with Harlan and Robin talking about every subject under the sun, from Science Fiction to stand-up comedy, threats against Harlan's life, the creation of Scientology, and a million other things. Seriously, if this were a weekly show, I'd never miss an episode! :-) As it stands, though, they're in heavy rotation on my iPod.
Secondly - Harlan, what did you think of BATMAN BEGINS?
Thirdly - You and I have a weird history. I was the teenager who wrote you a fan-letter asking about the genesis of THE WHIMPER OF WHIPPED DOGS, which resulted in an amazing bit of education in recent social history for me (from one of its greatest and most astute commentators) and resulted in an installment of "Harlan Ellison's Watching" in F&SF for you.
And, if that weren't weird enough, a little over ten years later I was working as an assistant at Shapiro-Lichtman, having come to L.A. to pursue my writing and needing to have a day job. We only met once, but it was cool - not sure if you remember, but you had come into the office for something and were chatting with the assistants pool and I introduced myself to you.
Finally, and I hope this isn't in violation of any rules, but my girlfriend would love to get a copy of her latest book to you. Her name is Amy Wallace (of BOOK OF LISTS fame, daughter of Irving Wallace) and the book is called SORCERER'S APPRENTICE and it recounts her time in Carlos Castaneda's inner circle. She thinks you might find the book of interest. She also notes that you and she have a mutual friend, one Jon Winokur.
Anyway, I just wanted to chime in - I just discovered this site - take care all...
Scott Bradley
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Harlan, "Footsteps" will be finding its way to you via priority mail.
For those who may have missed this one, "The Human Operators" (with Jack Noseworthy & Malcolm McDowell)made a dvd appearance on "The Outer Limits-Sex & Science Fiction (The New Series)".
Mark--your welcome.
Note: the newsletters went out yesterday. If a couple of you could let me know when they arrive, I would appreciate it. The Post Office gve some conflicting info.
Thank you.--Susan
Many thanks for the information. Sorry if you found my question obvious, but I was under the (clearly mistaken) impression that the 'Cordwainer Bird' pseudonym had been 'retired', so I thought perhaps somebody had revived it as a joke (this was around the time that certain filmmakers started crediting themselves as 'Allen Smithee' for no particular reason except that they thought it was funny).
no ulterior motive, just curious
Harlan, any thoughts on Joss Wheldon as a writer? He seems to be interested in writing deeper than average fare into settings (Firefly, Buffy) that could coast on much less. Heaven forbid I should imply the fellow is the modern Shakespeare or Hemmingway; I'm just looking for a sounding board to see if the aforementioned impression is the result of cultural deprivation on my part, or if he holds water in the estimations of the Good and the Wise. (yes, you)
Thanks
Susan,
Demon with a Glass Hand arrived last night with your note and enclosure. Thank you so much for brightening an otherwise dreary day.
Best wishes,
Mark
ST. PETE CHARLIE:
I admit to asking for a copy of "Footsteps" with fear and trembling, not to mention the sickness unto death. But if you've got a spare VHS or DVD of that seg, I (gulp) would like it for my files.
Trembling as the aspen, yr. pal, Harlan
Harlan,
Let's face it: it's the SWELL times that count most!
That silent pause was one helluva moment. A tu-wiffic post! Your time - or leastways OURS - was not wasted!
Thank you.
A flint knapping phallus of the ice women.
Freud spins on.
HE, if you need a VHS copy of either of the aforementioned Showtime productions, just say, as I taped them at the time of broadcast.
Thanks
Unca Harlan,
Thanks for that, from all of us inside my head.
Respectfully,
a Multiplicity of Neals
Thanks
Unca Harlan,
Thanks from all of us inside my head.
a Mult,
Neal
HE, awesome tale from the trenches. It's a real education, or should be, to the thousands of would-bees (some whom frequent this board) who want to "break" into television writing. If this is how a major name with major talent is treated, imagine how it might be for the young and untried.
Whether or not it pained you to relate it, Harlan, thanks so much for taking the trouble to share the story of "Face" and Showtime.
Despite their astounding sameness, these stories about working in television remain fascinating as studies of human character -- or more to the point, the lack of it.
REPLY TO BRAD STEVENS
Here is the answer to your fine query.
My film agent, Martin Shapiro, was contacted back in (ah, faded memory) 19whateveryearitwas, by a young blue-sky producer/writer type Marty knew, Jeff Fazio, who somehow was "partnered" with Ridley Scott's brother, Tony. At that point, back in the day, Tony had made a bit of a rep for himself shooting "cutting edge" tv commercials, as well as the awful 1983 vampire film THE HUNGER.
(Pardon the profligacy of """""" marks. I fear there may be more, for nothing was ever, even for a moment, quite as it appeared, as it/or who was represented...nor even reliably as promised. Thus """"""" serves to indicate "taken with a grain of salt.")
The guy chatted me up, told me he and Tony had sold a series of half-hour shows to the cable network Showtime under the umbrella title of "The Hunger"; and as he was a big fan of mine and wanted to do both "Footsteps" and "The Face of Helene Bournouw," we entered into contracts for me to write the two teleplays.
I was told they would be shot in the UK with major stars, that Ridley Scott--with whom I'd had meetings at my home, years before David Lynch wound up directing DUNE, when Ridley was the choice to do Frank Herbert's novel for the big screen, and he wanted me to do the screenplay--that Ridley was also a long-time admirer of my work, and had expressed interest in himself directing at least one of my teleplays for the proposed series.
But because there were so many high-priced talents "affiliated" with this project, that Showtime's head honcho Jerry Ufsay had greenlighted, would I be willing to take "short line" (i.e., less money) to be a part of this magnificent project?
It was said to me that the "Rod Serling" interlocuter would be a distinguished Brit, on the level of Sir Ralph Richardson or Sir John Gielgud or Sir Lawrence Olivier. (It turned out finally to be a scarily dissipated-looking Terence Stamp in an embarrassing series of cameos that filmed as if they'd been shot in an Algerian whorehouse.) To be filmed in a major English studio. And it was suggested to me by young Mr. Fazio that I would make extra money--bringing me within horizon-sight of my usual fees--by writing these apocryphal intros and outros for Sir John or Sir Ralph or Sir Larry (by me, flown to England all-expenses-paid, of course) since he liked the "Twilight Zone" story-intros I had written for the 1985 revival of the CBS series.
Well, this sounded as good as anything gets in tv, and so we entered into contracts and I started writing "The Face of Helene Bournouw." A few pages into the script, and here comes this Fazio kid, hemming and hawing and embarrassed to ask me if I could "sex it up" as Jerry Ufsay had a thing for bare tits and had been impressed by how well "Red Shoes Diary" had done with said bare tits...and how easy it was to cut out said bare tits scenes when the show was resold to commercial television.
Oddly enough, I had no problem with the request, as I'd had in mind for many years an additional scene in the story that would encapsulate the depravity of Helene's "mission." A scene that had come to me after the story was published in magazines, and in one of my own collections, and anthologized a number of times. And it was a scene so strong, in my view, that I felt ex post facto it would unbalance the plot. But here was an opportunity to let my darker carnality of imagination loose. So what was clearly a cheapo sleazo commercial use of nudity...was for me, creatively, right in the ballpark. I included that scene in my final draaft. Like 90% of my script, it was never filmed.
But I wrote it. Nice script. Mean, very mean.
I delivered it to the Producer-Kid, Jeff Fazio, who enthused over it without let and then, as is often the case here in Hollywood, once they get the actual words, I heard nothing, not a squeak, for months and months and months and months. Heard nothing more. Not a sound.
I'd almost forgotten the deal, when I read in the Trades, or somewhere, that Tony Scott and this Producer-Kid were already shooting the series, including "The Face of Helene Bournouw" by the multiple-award-winning fantasist Harlan YouknowWho. In Montreal. Ridley, of course, had bailed. If he ever HAD BEEN involved, save in Tony Scott's fevered longings. Suffice to say, n o t h i n g of what had been originally vouchsafed, had come to pass. No shoot in England; they were in Montreal.
MON tree AWLLL?????
So I tracked the sphinxlike Fazio down after considerable telecon-time with this clue and that lead...and I called him. (On the graves of my mother and father I swear that what I am about to relate is absolutely telephonically reproduced sans alteration.)
Brrrrinnnggg. Brrrrrinnnngggg.
"Hello?"
"Jeff?"
"Yes."
"It's Harlan. Harlan Ellison."
Silence.
More silence.
A deeper, more ominous silence.
"Hey...Jeff...Harlan...can you hear me?"
Silence.
Then, so help me, his first words: "I've been dreading this phone call."
Well, need I expand? They were shooting in Montreal. Under the cheapjack runaway-production terms of government-subsidy...
All "Canadian content," which meant Canadian actors, writers, directors, staff, effects personnel, production cadre, et al.
And the producers, in league with the ego of Tony Scott, had shoved Mr. Fazio to one side; and were shooting this show their own way, at the behest of the imbecile at Showtime, Mr. Jerry Ufsay. Not one of the great entrepreneur geniuses of the visual media.
Fazio fumfuh'd and backpedaled and responded to my ire with tiny sqeaks and squirms, explaining that my script had had to be rewritten by some nameless hack in the production office in Quebec because "it was too expensive to shoot as written." And gee, sorry, but I guess the office never sent you a copy of the uh, mmm, heh heh, rewritten version. And when I reminded him that our deal--for "short line"--had been built on the bedrock non-negotiable term that no one else would write behind me, that if there were changes needed that I WOULD MAKE THEM, for free if necessary, he damned near wept with fear and chagrin.
I was, of course, furious beyond the explicating.
I told him I wanted to see this "new version" of my script NOW, NOW do you understand, before it was shot.
Er, uh, heh heh, well, gee Harlan, sir...
It had already been cast, directed, shot, edited, and was ready to go on air. So I told him he had 12 hours to get me a copy of the tape to view, BEFORE the credits were burned, or he would be facing charges not only from the Writers Guild of America, West but from the Canadian Writers Guild, and my attorneys on both coasts. He vowed to get it to me.
He did, and I saw it; and I called him back and told him the words WRITTEN BY HARLAN ELLISON would instantly be replaced by the words WRITTEN BY CORDWAINER BIRD, because this steaming pile of orangutan offal bore so little resemblance either to my story-as-published or to my teleplay, that only the Bird stigma would save me from the brickbats and disillusionment of my readers, who
might not (as does Brad Stevens) know the opprobrium imprimateur C. Bird, nor why it had been created, to alert my readers that I not only despised what was being viewed, but to make a public statement of it.
(So lemme ast ya this, Mr. Stevens: if you indeed know the b.g. and the raison d'etre, why did you go on such a silly flight-of-supposition as to who/why/what, requiring me to explain to you that which you might have reasoned out yourself? Should I just give up on you, or is it that you never heeded Einstein's warning, "Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler," ????)
To conclude:
"Helene Bournouw" aired with Cordwainer Bird on it, a crippled version of my writing. I withdrew my writing services withal on "Footsteps" and recast the purchase option to say it was "based" on a published story by Cordwainer Bird so I wouldn't get cheated out of my residual payments (if any...none to date). The show bombed, I never spoke to the weakling Fazio again, Jerry Ufsay somehow invented a demonized version of me and my peripheral involvement, which he blamed for the crash&burn of the ill-conceived series, though I had no more to do with it than what I've reported here...mostly on the basis of my having appeared on a Tom Snyder talk show right around the time of "Helene Bournouw's" airing, and remarked what a piece of shit it was.
He made sure I never again worked at Showtime.
La dee dah.
He was retired last year, but I'm still persona non grata at Showtime. La dee, and if I may, dah.
It waas such a debacle that the series was never picked up for mainstream video release, and the cockamamie outfit that has released, oh, maybe four or five of the segments, some years ago, are such cheapass fuckers that when I called to ask when/if they'd be releasing a cassette with "Footsteps" on it, and could I kindly get a comp copy, as the writer of the work (off which they were making a substantial buck, one presummes), I was vilified and told to piss off.
So. All in all, it was just a S W E L L experience.
Does that answer your question, Mr. Stevens? And do you now understand why I don't answer most of the nonsensical, "I'd have figured it out for myself if I'd stopped to think about it rather than rushing to the blathernet because I have no reference volumes in my house," weary and ancient history queries of popular culture minutiae?
Be polite now, and say thank you.
Wearily, Harlan Ellison
Not to change the subject or anything (which is what you say when you're about to change the subject of course). But here's another example of ancient tool-making skills and the effect this had on human evolution.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4713323.stm
Apparently a very versatile tool indeed.
"It may also have been used to knap, or split, flints"
ooooowwwww!!!
SCOTTY'S WISH
I read somewhere that Doohan wanted his ashes sent in space. Hey!
Why not! He can join "The Great Bird of Galaxy" (his boss Roddenberry), circling the Earth or taiking that eternal journey
to where no one has gone before! R.I.P. James Doohan wherever you are.
Harlan, you do know that when you croak the rats and the trash eating birds will be trying to dissect your corpse, starting at the sensitive parts--greying pubic parts in repast. The Harlan hating media will do its best to make your life look like one long horrorshow of crazy outbursts and manic acts of elitist fence burnings.
But don't worry, we who know the real Harlan will tell the real story. Our love will be the unquenching flame, that the hose armies will not drown out.
Your memory is safe with us Daddy.
But try to stay with us for many years to come, ok? Cranky minds never die.
Eulogy for Ellison - All CompletelyTruthful and Absolute Memories
For future reference upon the demise of our fav'rit writer, this shall be my posting:
I remember the first time I met Ellison. It was on the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster at The Old Country Williamsburg. He was in the second car, riding in circles composing as many stories as possible in a short period of time. A publicity stunt, according to his detractors.
It was 1942. The war was raging in Europe, and Harlan's head was in the clouds.
He was pounding out a story as we rounded Turn One. I couldn't read it exactly (too much turbulence), but saw the words "No" and "Mouth" in large letters at the top of the page. By Turn Three he had started anew on something to do with "repenting" but suddenly began energetically banging his Luddite brand typewriter on the woman in the car ahead of us. (I had heard in line that she worked as a Controller at Big House Publishing.) By the last and final downward spiral (the one through the tunnel), he was back to work on something about a kid named Jeffty and his birthday. I saw a tear drip slowly down his cheek as he wrote the last words.
Harlan and me, we became fast friends that day and met for coffee at Starbucks almost on a weekly basis thereafter. He ordered Venti, I went with decaf.
"Live life to the fullest," he would say before beating the cashier up when she forgot the foam on his latte. "I am. And fuck anyone who tries to stop you."
I'll miss him.
The Hunger
In 1998, when I was writing a regular column for THE DARK SIDE (a UK-based magazine), I made a few comments about a television series entitled THE HUNGER (it was produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, and ran from 1997-1999). Here's what I wrote:
"A(n) episode directed by Richard Ciupka entitled THE FACE OF HELEN BOURNOUW provides a curious puzzle, for the credited screenwriter is one Cordwainer Bird. As some of you may be aware, Mr Bird does not actually exist, being rather the pseudonym used by the distinguished writer Harlan Ellison when one of his televison scripts is so badly mangled that he refuses to have his name associated with it. But as far as I am aware, this pseudonym has been in retirement since the 60s. Is this a genuine case of Ellison removing his name from the credits, or has the pseudonym simply been revived by an admirer as a kind of tribute? Adding to the confusion is the fact that, though there is no indication of this on the credits, THE FACE OF HELENE BOURNOUW has been adapted from Mr Ellison's short story of the same title (it can be found in the excellent 1975 collection DEATHBIRD STORIES), though the adaptation is extremely loose (the episode actually functions as a sequel to the original). More confusingly still, a later episode, FOOTSTEPS (directed by Jimmy Kaufman), claims to be from "a story by Cordwainer Bird". Can anyone provide any further information on this?"
This question was never answered. Perhaps Mr Ellison could provide a solution to the mystery.
Ben - Get Hold of Yourself, Man...
"For that one time when Doohan outright lied about Harlan on the Snyder show....(sontinue until freaked out)"
Now, I read that post and it read to me like "Though he lied once, he DID do the man a proper by speaking truth to power about that whole Scotty/Drugs thing."
Your modifer might have been a stumbler, but your point was missed entirely! I didn't see it as you speaking ill of the dead.
Jay
With all due apologies to Rick and Harlan, I'm going to post twice today, because I'm seeing the first spark of a fire I started, and I've got to stamp out at once!
The whole "Doohan lying" thing: YET ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF ME STICKING MY FOOT INTO MY PROVERBIAL MOUTH, a curse that's been hounding me throughout my entire life. A REALLY BAD CHOICE OF WORDS. IT WAS A BLUNDER ON MY PART, NOTHING MORE.
Good God, I think my heart stopped for a moment there...
>Tell me, please do, Mr. Martin, that when I go south...that you'll be there, chum, to say softly but firmly, "Jeezuz, the guy ain't even a worm-feast yet, howzabout we don't yet start calling him a useless shithead whose passing enriches us all?"<
Harlan, you have my word on it.
--Mr. Martin
I remember staying up late and watching the Tomorrow Show with Doohan and Harlan, but thru the fog of years I can only remember one great moment:
Somehow the conversation turned to Star Trek merchandise, and Doohan mentioned the Federation Trading Post, a store on Bleeker Street in the Village that sold Trek paraphernalia (it later became the Science Fiction Shop, now long gone). So Snyder goes: “What’s the Federation Trading Post?” and before Doohan can answer, Harlan says: “It’s a store in New York City that sells Star Trek garbage . . . er . . . items”.
ZING!!! OUCH!! As I recall the only riposte Doohan could manage was something along the lines of “aaacchh . . .”
Mark
who remembers this, but cannot recall for certain what he had for breakfast this morning. Go figure.
Hey,
I got dibs on Harlan's Superman T-Shirt.
ERIC MARTIN, OTHERS:
It waasn't so much that Doohan "lied." Wrong word, wrong emphasis on his intention. He was, then and thereafter, a Protector of the Faith, and his remark was patently not-so; but he wasn't LYING. He was just sniping at me for having been so brazen as to challenge Holy Writ. Which is why it never bothered me a-much. Not at the time, not for all the years since, and sure as hell not now. It was a non-event. So all this LIAR stuff is jiggery-pokery, as Mencken used to say.
But give us all a break and kindly knock off the "he's not yet cold in his grave" crap, Mr. Martin. You, of all contributors here, have thin claim to speaking with propriety. Calumniation is your conversational hallmark, your stock in trade. And doing it to the living is supremely more odious than dissing the dead. Take note of yourself, dear Whited Sepulchre: you are ever the first to pop in with a disrespectful (usually off-topic non sequitur)and, in some wonky way, accusatory barb; you are ever the one who jims and jabs at two others to set them at each other's throat; you are ever the one who, having sprayed fusal oil on the pyre, runs about waving his tentacles and shouting for respite. Mediator in res.
But even if you were Mother Teresa, the facts of a life ended go unaltered by the additional subsum of demise. I fear I'll provide you with further coal to stoke your oast, pal, but I am not a bleeding heart at EVERY leavetaking. Not all who meet the dark Ticket Collector were 100% saints. Like most of us, James Doohan--and Byron Preiss and Will Eisner and Jim Aparo and Julius Schwartz and my Mother and you, Mr. Martin, and I fer shur--are a congeries of good and bad, sloppy and neat, thoughtful and careless, misunderstood and understood perfectly.
When we go, we go; and only George W. (Pinhead) Bush and his brand of empty boosterism speak-no-ill-of-the-dead mendacious, disingenuous, loathesome flagwaving is left for the crocodile-teared. A kind of pro forma softening of cultural recollection that insures Santana's "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." Freud said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," and by the same token "sometimes what a guy did is what that guy did, good or bad, call a spade a spade." Except above 110th Street in Harlem.
Yes, Mr. Martin, a long way from "don't call the newly-planted a liar." I agree. He wasn't "lying" about me. He was being childishly snappish, which was not uncommon for Mr. Doohan, according to those who knew him. For those who came to ogle and praise him at a Trek convention he was, as are most meetable and greetable celebrities, a nice guy. He may have been a nice guy in private life, too; I wouldn't know. We never hung out. Of all the cast-members, I was (and remain) good friends with Leonard and Walter and George and Nichelle and Grace Lee, and I adored De Kelly, whose death I deeply mourned. But James Doohan and I ran into each other only occasionally, and I had nothing against him, not even his snappish remarks now and then. His death, after a long illness, is impoverishing, as is the death of ANYONE we know. But he was merely an acquaintance to me, neither friend nor enemy. We were shadows to each other. I wish his family the best, I respect the sadness expressed by those who knew him or only met him for a moment, but here in MY HOUSE, if someone has a recollection that is not 100% as laudatory as the driven snow, well...
That's how it goes, chum.
We live our lives, and we are the sum total of what we've done. That that sum total is enhanced by billions of ill- and well-intentioned half-witted and half-heard and third- ninth- fiftieth-hand opinions/anecdotes/"did you hear that he..." mythology and urban legend, interpreted through the sieve of fan expectations and personal animus or adoration, is a sickly sad reality. But that's the way YOU set up the game, Mr. Martin.
You and all the bystanders like you who express your much-vaunted feelings and opinions, flooding us with crocodile tears about people you've never met. They print PEOPLE and THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER and celebrity written-by volumes for people like you; they air "Hollywood Insider" and VH1 and the E! Channel and "Entertainment Tonight" for onlookers with opinions galore...like you. It's YOUR game, Mr. Martin. You commenced it, you rigged it, and you seem to get honked when one or another chooses not to play it by your rules. Aw. Boo hoo.
Tell me, please do, Mr. Martin, that when I go south, that within FUCKING INSTANTS this very same artery of communication, this estimable Infobahn, this web of blather will not be engorged with truths, half-truths, non-truths and utterly impossible absolutely-accurately recorded truth-tales of Ellison Redux. Tell me that you'll be there, chum, to say softly but firmly, "Jeezuz, the guy ain't even a worm-feast yet, howzabout we don't yet start calling him a useless shithead whose passing enriches us all?"
Tell me you'll be there, Eric m'love. It's all that sustains me as I hear the sound of the ticket-puncher in the next car."
Cheerfully, Harlan
Harlan: "I came straight from hurrah'ing the office of Grosset & Dunlap's comptroller, whom I physically assaulted in full view of my then-editor"
That's called getting your EDD check with STYLE!
>For that one time when Doohan outright lied<
The guy's corpse is barely cold. Calling someone who generally was a decent person a liar for he-said/he-said talk-show prattle of thirty years past is pretty lame.
This treknoid stuff about Roddenberry vs. Ellison ad yawneum just won't go away on this board, will it? Why don't we call it a tie, and move on.
For that one time when Doohan outright lied about Harlan on the Snyder show, there was another time when he did come to his defense about another TREK debacle, the "Scotty/drugs" rumour invented & perpetuated by Gene Roddenberry. From BEAM ME UP SCOTTY, on a section concerning the episode THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER:
"A lot of people think this was the best show we ever did. I never read the original script that Harlan Ellison wrote. He was very upset with what they did with it. I've learned that since then. Actually, Scotty's involvement in the script's original draft was widely misreported. Gene told people that the script had Scotty dealing drugs, and although I didn't see that first script, my understanding is that that is definitely not the case. Unfortunately it was reported that way, repeatedly."
I just wish Doohan had said something along these lines in public or in Harlan's presence, instead of only in his own autobiography.
I have a tape of that show
Harlan
-I'd like to send you a copy of the show w/ you, Asimov, Turkel, Wolfe, Trillin.
I'll send it off today,
best
MF Korn
www.geocities.com/rachmaninoff_70815/
Kevin--Address change noted.
Please, from now on, if the business is with HERC, send your info to the HERC address. That way, I don't miss it.
With kind regards--Susan
To Aron devin: I remember the show you're talking about. It was called _Nightcap: Conversations on the Art of letters_. Its hosts were Stud Terkel and Calvin Trillin, and their guests were legendary: I recall that they'd done a show about Sid Caesar's _Your Show of Shows_, and the guests included many of Sid's writers: Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon, and Woody Allen. Hell of a lineup, eh?
The show you may be thinking of was one devoted to science fiction, and the guests were Harlan, Isaac Asimov, and Gene Wolfe. I remember the show very well; Terkel asking if the writers predict the future, and Harlan's first words are "That's bullshit, Studs." Gene Wolfe joking that dropping Gandhi on Hiroshimw might've made a small hole, but impressive: Asimov counters with "Gandhi is dandy, bit liquor is quicker." Harlan groans, "That's _terrible_" while Asimov nods his head gleefully. Wonderful show. It'd be great if you could find it.
ARON:
It wasn't Stephen King.
If I remember correctly--and I don't have a copy of the show myself--but if I remember correctly, the third conversationalist with Isaac, Studs, Calvin and me was Gene Wolfe.
I remember that day and that taping because I came straight from hurrah'ing the office of Grosset & Dunlap's comptroller, whom I physically assaulted in full view of my then-editor at Ace Books (which had been bought by G&D in the interregnum before it wound up with Putnam/Berkley), Terri Windling.
Ah, the good old days.
Yr. pal, Harlan
Does anyone here remember a show on PBS many years ago, the early 80's at least, hosted by Calvin Trillin (sp?) and Studs Terkel featuring a discussion among Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, and Stephen King? I am wanting, needing, a copy of this broadcast. Please let me know if you can help.
HERC MEMBERSHIP - ADDRESS CHANGE
Susan, please note that my address has changed -- but it's a simple change: just change the address number from 2116 to 1754. Everything else, the street, the city, the ZIP code, remains the same. Thanks in advance for updating your records. My best to you and Harlan.
Harlan and Steve,
Thanks for clarifying. Even though I'd forgotten those details (assuming I ever knew; as I said, I was quite young and I believe I even came in late on the interview), I was, in fact, going to follow up my own post with an afterthought. Doohan's ad hominum seemed practically NON SEQUITOR. What the hell was the point, whether or not it had been an accurate perception, in bringing up listeners' reactions to Ellison readings? Had nada to do with TREK. It DID seem like childish mean-spirited ploy; and now we know deluded as well.
I like the BEST Trek episodes very much; I ran the 2nd pilot (with Gary Lockwood) just the other night upon Doohan's passing, and I love its quiet, intelligent style (an approach that dissipated before the middle of the first season in lieu of the more "action packed" ). Yet, there is no doubt the series IS essentially a cop show, and a WAR series too; a couple of episodes are literally lifted from movies. BALANCE OF TERROR is straight out of ENEMY BELOW, a 50's WWII sub movie directed by Dick Powell. Not to condemn the show for such things, because many shows, including Outer Limits, often DID this; but it DOES make Doohan's whining defensiveness pretty MOOT.
Anyway, glad the two of you talked about that.
STEVE:
You're absolutely correct on both points. Good memory.
There we sat, first time for me on Snyder's show, and Doohan was claiming that over-the-top kind of flagwaving for the show; and I innocently pointed out that MOST tv shows at that time were a) cowboys acting like cops, b) doctors acting like cops, c) social workers acting like cops, d) lawyers acting like cops, e)private eyes acting like cops, and f) cops acting like cops. I was making a general observation about the limited nature of weary templates in tv-of-the-time, and said TREK was often spacemen acting like cops.
Doohan didn't like having The True Faith questioned, a lot like Tom Cruise and the obiter dicta of Scientology, so he avoided the point being made, the topic being discussed, and in a fit of pique he pulled a snotty ad hominem, saying that when I appeared at a TREK convention--insisting to the audience that I wasn't there to discuss TREK, take it or leave it, now here's what I'm about...one of my new stories--that "everyone walked out."
Which was not only utterly untrue, as anyone who was at one of those conventions, who attended my section, will attest, but was manifestly a touchstone of Doohan's view of the world because HE WAS NEVER AT ONE OF MY APPEARANCES TO HAVE DELIVERED SUCH A BRICKBAT.
As for THE TERMINATOR lawsuit, all of which is long-since public record, you're right again. Though Cameron clearly filched elements of DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND and even my story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," the basic material he mined was my OUTER LIMITS script SOLDIER, which I adapted from my 1950s-era novelette of the same title. Gooood memory.
Yr. pal, Harlan
HEY, SHANE !!!! A LITTLE HELP HERE!
1) Can you obtain for me -- the full section in situ -- that tv log listing anent THE TERMINATOR for my scrapbook, the archive, Tim's FINGERPRINTS ON THE SKY and at least one other? Payment, as usual, of course!
2) A few Shaneposts ago, you listed two URLs for news items about Tim and the book. When we tried to pull down the first one, the headline was totally covered within a moment or two by repro art of some of my book covers. The other site to which you made reference...well, all it would pull up was some bit of newsitem about an oil spill. Can you get me a) at least one downloaded hardcopy of the first one, sans those obscuring book covers and b) at least one hardcopy download of the second newsarticle that was beyond my meager abilities?
Thanks, kiddo. As always, you are a magnificent resource, and a good friend. Ah owes yuh.
Yr. pal, Harlan
ROB,
I remember the Snyder show you mentioned very well. If I'm not mistaken, it was Harlan's first appearance with Snyder. I seem to recall Harlan saying that he had been watching Snyder's show for a few days in order to prepare for being on the show. What had nettled Doohan, I believe, was that he had just finished saying that Star Trek was superior to most TV shows because it offered something more than just another cop show, and Harlan had replied that, to the contrary, it WAS essentially a cop show, only in an outer space setting.
SHANE (or anyone who knows, especially Harlan if he cares to comment),
Is that TV Log entry accurate? I was under the impression that the subject of the "Terminator" lawsuit was "Soldier," not "Demon With a Glass Hand." I can see, upon reflection, how certain elements from "Demon" might also have found their way into "The Terminator," but was that actually part of the lawsuit?
Steve J.
Keith--You are renewed. Last issue 42.
Selina--The Harlan Ellison Recording Collection address is:
P.O. Box 55548, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413.
$15.00 (for 6 issues).
Rabbit Hole #37 will be going out Monday.
Note: As well as the exclusive DREAM CORRIDOR essay, there is time-dated material, so don't delay.
Kind regards--Susan
Tv Log Entry for "The Terminator"
WHIO-TV, Channel 7 Dayton, Ohio
Science fiction author Harlan Ellison sued over the film’s similarities to his own works, especially the OUTER LIMITS episode "Demon with a Glass Hand," and won acknowledgement in the film’s credits.
http://www.whiotv.com/programming/4753196/detail.html
TO DUANE
You are forgiven.
Stan,
Forgive my lame attempt to be clever.
Enjoyed your book on "The City on the Edge of Forever." Guess the city wasn't the only thing on the edge, eh? Love the barbed and deadly accurate words you expertly hurl.
Bernard Goldberg has a message board simular to Harlan's, but trying to ask him an honest question is next to impossible, since he ducks the question and goes with this, 'you are not being civil enough' come back.
The dude has really been whining on O'Reilly, as well. If you dish it out but can't take it back, then you just need a good kick in the ass, and and a cultural abyss to crawl into and die.
---------
Star Trek just does not hold up today. There is just way too much cheesiness for me to take.
But God Bless Scottie.
------------
For those with a love of those Bob Hope road pictures, Prince did a campy tribute to those films in 1986. The film Under The Cherry Moon is good, campy fun, and a sly poke in the eye at the not so gentle racism of those times.
This film gets way too many bad reviews. Camp is in the eye of the beholder.
----------
Saw Pink Flamingos again and I am still shocked that John Waters gets a pass for making this. What a disgusting, moronic, hateful film this is. And this coming from a very open minded cat.
WAAAAAY TOO MUCH DIET COLA
my favorite scotty moment is when captain nemo sez "Open the pod bay doors, Forrest." and scotty is like, "Holleee Haggis, ye brain-locked tommbullweed! We hain't gots a pod bay doooor, nohow!" and then he hits his head and falls over and his last words are like, "Thank ye gods. No more conventions!!"
that's my favorite fookin scotty moment.
flat-lining and hyphenated,
Neal
P.S. But seriously and respectfully: R.I.P. James Doohan, you stud.
"My favorite Scotty Moment was the scene in which he attempted to communicate with the PC in ST IV."
Ah, yes. That one definitely worked. AND shortly before when he and McCoy are posing as corporate reps from Scotland, and Scotty (hysterically shouting, "here I come MILLIONS of miles..."; McCoy: ""thousands! thousands!") refers to McCoy as a subordinate, and an annoyed McCoy advises him from the corner of his lips, "Don't bury yourself in the part!"
Those two were good together.
Doohan and Ellison were ALSO good together when making appearances. I remember when I was a kid I saw the two on Tom Snyder. Doohan, annoyed with Harlan by his discarding of the Trek scripts, tried to point out that when Harlan did his readings (at least that's what I RECALL his going for) people would walk out.
Harlan replied, "My audience is a small one but an intelligent one."
That's when I was first discovering Harlan, but I LIKED Doohan's brazen frankness.
The simplest of things
Susan,
Is my HERC membership renewed? I know #36 was my last issue, and I KNOW I sent a check in to renew...but I have NO records indicating it, except for a missing mysterious check number for an unknown amount that has not been deposited or recorded anywhere. I should be sent back to kindergarten for this. This is almost as bad as losing control of my bowels at a Bar-be-que. Maybe worse. Well, that depends.
-Keither
Whoa!
I stumbled upon this site while trying to find the address to send my renewal payment (note to Susan, you might want to print the address on the coupon portion of the renewal letter for dolts like me who clip the renewal part and throw the rest away because some dolts like me may not stumble uppon this site and retrieve the address, then again a HE dolt is a little more sophisto than a regular dolt so nevermind)
Where was I? Oh yes! Harlan uses a computer now? WHOA! Way cool! I mean, you know, I really like the idea that HE still types his stories on a real machine, but it's nice to know he isn't a stubborn luddite (sp?)... not that I ever thought that mind you! ::grin:: Dont hit me! ::ducks::
Love to the two of you,
Selina!
P.S. How many cool watches does he have anyway? Never have seen the same one twice!
Scott--Your membership is current.
Thank you.--Susan
Scotty
I'm shocked to read that Doohan loathed that scene -- it was a highpoint of the movie IMHO. I met Doohan at a Philly ST Con way back in 1973 or '74 (Bellevue Stratford Hotel). The entire secondary cast was there. He was, without a doubt, the one who was most taken aback by the adoring fans -- though he got used to it very quickly as I remember.
My favorite Scotty Moment was the scene in which he attempted to communicate with the PC in ST IV. After a few tries at verbal exchange Scotty proves himself a reluctant but quite capable typist. Truly capable, even if annoyed.
_______________________________________________________
Separate comment: PA Berman noted "There's a long article in Rolling Stone last month (the one with Jessica Alba on the cover) about Norman Mailer"
There were articles in that issue?
(Actually, I was amused that for the first page or so of the piece you could insert "Ellison" in place of "Miller" and it would be just as accurate.)
Doohan, Wonka, Norrell, Other Tidbits
Re Doohan: He did resent having his character made a clown while everybody else got to run around being heroic. I do think he was wrong. It was a fun moment and didn't really distract from Scotty.
Re Wonka: Just took my wife to CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, an astounding total misfire.
Re JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL: After months of trying, I have now successfully gotten fifty pages further than Harlan. Whoo. (Pumping fist). Seriously, I think the book overflows with cleverness, and there is much to like there, but it also suffers from an elephantiasis that makes reading it in any other than small chunks a grim undertaking. I keep taking breaks by reading other books.
I believe it was like this. Doohan liked the scene originally and certainly didn't object to it, since Shatner thought it was a riot, but when fan reaction to the movie was bad, the comedy approach as a whole was questioned in retrospect by many participants (although it's the only aspect of the movie that worked). Doohan then felt the laugh was at the expense of the character. (Which is exactly why it's funny.)
UP YOURS TOO
DUANE- As far as I am concerned...UP YOUR SHAFT TOO!
ADAM TROY-CASTRO- i did not know Doohan loathed that segment in the movie...but it was a funny moment..at least for me, since it was kind of ironic that Scotty did not know how much the new ship might have changed! Big deal! So what! I liked Scotty and it showed me he was human...not infallible.
Chevrolet product
unca Harlan wrecked that damn Camaro
glad he's ok,
Neal
UK-based contributors to this website may like to know that Any Amount of Books on Charing Cross Road in London's West End are selling back issues of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION from the 60s and 70s for Ł1 each. I was in there this afternoon, and found quite a few with stories by Ellison. I bought a handful of copies, one a Ray Bradbury special, another with a story by the great William Eastlake (I'd never even heard of him writing science-fiction before), but AAOB still has close to 200 issues in stock (mostly in the basement, though there are a few in the racks outside the store).
Doohan
Minor point on a minor subject: Doohan loathed and resented that moment when Scotty knocked himself out in the Enterprise corridor.
Dear Stan:
"Up your shaft."
Sincerely,
Scotty
ANOTHER SCOTTY MOMENT
My favorite was in I believe in the Star Trek movies (for the life of me I can't remember which one), when Scotty is walking through the Jeffries Tube of the new Enterprise...Kirk had just given him an order...and haughtly Scotty starts walking down the tube saying..." I know this ship like the back of me hand--"
THUMP! He hits his head on a steel outcropping. Now that
was a true knee slapper for me.
The Misremembered Key
Hi he.
I bet it's the Camaro that figured in this key incident, if indeed such an event exists in the annals of marginalia. Was it in an article, an intro, or just imagination?
It matters not -- great to see you again!
Also, the Brian of note truly is my father; also of the baby, my half-brother, as mentioned in Again Dangerous Visions.
Mailer's maelstrom
Barney: There's a long article in Rolling Stone last month (the one with Jessica Alba on the cover) about Norman Mailer and how he's sparked controversy throughout his career. He's been accused of misogyny (there's a new one), stabbed one of his wives, has had a very long feud with Michiko Kakutani, and most recently has spoken out vociferously against the Bush administration. Check out the article if you're interested... it's what made me decide I needed to read him.
PAB
***Doug *** Man, that almost begs the question - just how many times did Bones have to say that line?
*** Harlan *** Oh, sure - thanks. Last night I wrote something I was sort of kinda happy with. Then I re-read that paragraph from THE DEER PARK you posted and just wanted to drown myself in a bathtub. Not a feeling I was particularly looking to understand from the inside.
So, what was the divide about. I only know Mailer in very broad strokes, and while I have a very good handle on critical reception of Twain and Kipling and Hemingway from decade to decade the exact things that made Mailer so controversial in the 1950's are lost on me. Born in '59. But I'm INTERESTED is what I'm saying.
- Barney
Saw Brazil again and loved it, but was freaked out at how Gilliam seemed to forsee our terrorist bombed out culture.
It was eerie to see the terrorist bombing scenes, and how simular they were to now. Then there is the dream sequence, where these pillars jump from the earth--looking a lot like the World Trade Towers.
Real life is beating fiction by a mile.
Doohan also did some work on a soap in the 90s (The Bold and the Beautiful) as an abusive father...I taped one episode and he was good.
The wire story/obit that appeared in our local paper this morning quoted Doohan to the effect that he liked Captain Kirk but he did not like "Bill, because he is so insecure he can only think of himself."
That's Jimmy Doohan To You And Me...
It's kinda a kick when the man pops up like the Great Gazoo in old shows and movies when you least expect it.
He was in the great film 36 Hours with James Garner, Rod Taylor, and Eva Marie Saint .
He was in The Satan Bug (a flick that unfortunately becomes boring fast).
He was Lt. Branch (with the flat American accent we're unaccustomed to) in the Outer Limits episode "Expanding Human", which comes just short of celebrating LSD experimentation! (LSD was legal until 1964 for those of you who weren't aware of it; in that time, many were "discovering" themselves through acid trips, often under the supervision of a therapist. Cary Grant was well known for it. So, in 1965 the idea was interesting to many)
On cable, I also saw him pop up in an old Bonanza, a Fugitive, a Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, and even a couple of Star Treks.
Jimmy Doohan, along with DeForest Kelley, was one of the unsung heroes of the original TREK, they added the much-needed humanity that we identify the show with. Scotty was fallible, he was a good friend to everybody, he had character, background, and a sense of humor.
Some of you pointed out episodes he was heavily featured in, but I think it's more important to appreciate that he was genuinely part of an ensemble and did his best work on TREK as a supporting actor. Without Scotty the show would simply have been less exciting, less entertaining, less colorful. Check out "The Apple", where Scotty had the bridge, and you can see that the writers had fun with the character and the actor, whose main job it was to act convincingly worried and to state reasons for this. Another good example was "The Devil in the Dark", in which Scotty was beamed down to the planet in the middle of the show in order to repair something - he somehow helped the episode break out of its rut. Also catch his marvellous drinking duel in "By Any Other Name", and his reawakening-after-death in "The Changeling". It was mostly the staff writers (Fontana, Coon, Roddenberry) who had a good handle on Scotty - in many episodes there just wasn't much there, although Doohan may have been on screen.
Doohan's best performance of all that I've seen is in STAR TREK IV, which came along a bit late in his career, but every time I see the movie I'm glad it came at all.
In Germany his name was moved into the main credits of the series, which I think is just fantastic. I assume, they probably would have done the same in the US, if it hadn't meant more bargaining power for the actor (who actually took a pay cut in order to stay on).
While openly wishing for a seventh movie with the original cast, Doohan swallowed his pride to be in STAR TREK GENERATIONS (1994) in which he had about two lines. Again, he was a supporting actor to William Shatner, being there to make the Kirk character work better. It was his job, and he was there to do it while many of the others didn't show up. I think we didn't appreciate at the time that it would be his last appearance as Scotty.
If you have a chance catch Doohans funny cameo in LOADED WEAPON I (NATIONAL LAMPOON'S), and a very similar one in the KNIGHT RIDER 2000 tv movie (which I believe was arranged by Hasselhoff).
He was also good in THE NEXT GENERATION episode "Relics" (1993), although the writing (by Ronald D. Moore) was a little obvious.
Check out this article in which TV writer Ron Wilkerson remembers Doohan: http://trekweb.com/articles/2005/07/20/42df352c730e1.shtml "It's so rare in Hollywood to meet someone who lives up to your expectations of them."
Peg and Bill--will wait (via P.O. Box)for your new addresses before sending out the newsletter.
All best--Susan
New Address
Susan,
I too have moved recently and sent you a HERC renewal check and address change notice back in April. I never received the cancelled check from the bank but my bank account seems accurate. Just wondering if you remember receiving them so I may continue to receive the newsletters uninterrupted. Thanks!
Scott Clark
Boston, MA
Dumas
“Ghosts” are alive and well. Claude Shopp, a scholar and lecturer on Alexandre Dumas, has unearthed a “missing” novel written by Dumas in serial format for the 19th century journal “The Universal Monitor.” He had it published, and it's on the bestseller lists in France now. But get this: He intends to write the “sequel,” because he has Dumas’ own copious notes outlining what was intended.
Relevant here at the Pavilion because Harlan has written and spoken about the fate of his work post-death (I hate the word posthumous, sorry). If Dumas were still around, he might very well be pushing this hack into a Guillotine for attempting it. If Dumas had been smarter (or had more loyal friends) he’d probably not be cyclotronning around in his grave right now.
So, Harlan, please finish “Pet.” Or when you go, many of us will go as well, killed by our own curiosity. Help a brother out, babe.
-Keither
John, get thee to a library, for god's sake, man! Don't do this to yourself.
I know how you feel, since I just finished unpacking them after moving here in April. My new house has an entire wall of built-in bookshelves. That's a dangerous thing for someone who, at the last move, had 25 boxes of books.
This too shall pass, my friend. You and your paper friends will be reunited soon.
PAB
The best memory of I have (well, one of them) is of James Doohan standing on a furball free deck of the Enterprise, calmly telling Captain Kirk that he beamed all the tribbles on board the Klingon ship "Where they'll be no tribble at all."
He did it with such a straight face while I laughed myself silly. (And I'll never believe for a second that Mr. Gerrold didn't write that line, no matter what he says.)
I'm going to miss him, but the memories he left are priceless.
James Doohan
James Doohan is one of the few celebrities I've ever met. I was 9 or 10 and he attended the opening of the Internation Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico. After the opening, he stuck around to sign autographs. It was the middle of the summer, terribly hot, and the line tremendously long. He asked that the kids be allowed to come up first. Swell guy...
Thank you FinderDoug,
A friend of mine across the county line's got all the original series on videotape. I'm driving over there tonight and, on your suggestion, watching Scotty start a bar fight. I'm sure we'll quaff some ale in honor of The Doohan. I remember the scene now that you responded. It was strange tonight. I turned on NPR and heard Judy Collins singing "Amazing Grace" which, for those of us who know, has a special place in the Star Trek canon.
It's great to think that even though someone's gone I can always pop a tape in now or a disc in the future and experience a part of them that is no longer.
Oops!
Susan, I just realized I forgot to send my new address to you for HERC. Is there a way I can send it to you via e-mail or something? I believe my e-mail address is in my profile on the other bulletin board. If not, I'll send it to you regular USPS in the next few days.
Bill
P.S.
Are you Brian and Lorraine's kid?
he
KEVIN KIRBY:
I have never owned a Mustang.
If you're referring to my Austin-Healeys, my Camaro, my Pinto, my 1947 Packard, or the hideous Ford in which I came to LA and which I owned for only a year or so ... I still have no idea what you're talking about as the "missing key" incident.
Respectfully, Harlan Ellison
Aron:
"Wolf In The Fold" - Scotty is accused of the brutal stabbing murder of a woman in a peaceful society.
"The Lights of Zetar" - Scotty's new squeeze becomes a host for a traveling colony of malevolent entities.
Great subplot moments:
"The Trouble With Tribbles" - Scotty starts a drunken bar fight.
"The Changeling" - Scotty gets a "He's dead, Jim."
James Doohan
For some reason I'm in the mood to watch some Star Trek the original series tonight. Can anyone recommend any of the original series where Scotty figured prominently? Thanks in advance.
Deferred success. . .give me strength. Yeah, it really stinks that some people can't make the grade, but if you keep cushioning the blow the difference between bettering yourself and just backsliding into complete and utter spoiled bratdom becomes nigh unrecognizable. Did failing the sixth grade hurt? Yes, it shattered my self-esteem and left me a shadow of my normal self for about three years afterward. But life has to cut sometimes, or we never learn. We -exist- maybe, but we never learn or try to grow from the experience. I think these professors' hearts are in the right place, but it's a misguided altruism at best and unfair to the kids regardless.
Clifford Meth wrote his piece on Jim Aparo at
http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/news/112182723759133.htm
if you have the need to see where it came from, but it is complete as posted here.
James Doohan's star on Hollywood Blvd. might be a good place to be right now.
I'm wondering if anyone recalls an anecdote about Harlan Ellison's Ford Mustang car, from a few years ago. I remember reading somewhere that the key turned up missing one time. Was that missing-key issue ever resolved?
John, I went without my personal library for six months when I moved to Texas. I had to live with my in-laws while my house was being built.
I ended up hitting the used book store on a daily basis and increased my collection by about 20%. Bad, bad thing to try to do without reading material. Well--not BAD--just hell on shelf space.
GIVE ME BACK MY BLANKET YOU STUPID DOG!
I'm losing it here, folks... Packing for the inevitable move, I boxed up my entire library and put it in a storage unit (climate controlled of course, poor babies). An-and I'm beginning to suffer withdrawl symptons.
No comic books, no Papa, no Baum, no Dickinson, No Ike, NO HE! ARRRGH! I can't wait to get the keys to the new apartment! I don't need furniture, I just need some Joyce Carol Oates. All I need's a little, man (with shaky outstretched hand).
All I got is Lain Levison's "A WORKING STIFFS MANIFESTO." Never read it but it's all I got. Something to keep me going.
And all my music too! It's all stuffed away in some crypt like William Kidd's booty! Two more days. Two more days... I can do this.
Had to get that out. Nobody else out here understands.
Hi, my name's John. And I'm a biblioholic.
Regarding deferred success:
When I was a student working summer term in a small research center, I once sat and listened to the Site Manager explain how we had "achieved negative progress, leaving us with enhanced opportunities to gain against objective".
As far as I remember no one laughed, and he didn't get shit-canned on the spot. So maybe teaching these students to see failure as deferred success is good preparation for corporate leadership roles.
James Doohan
Jim Doohan would probably have given a wry smile upon being told that he would eventually pass away on the anniversary of the first Moon landing....
interrupting the wake for a moment, with all due respect ...
LONDON (Reuters) - The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.
Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.
A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. "We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said.
"But I recognize that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.
The PAT said it would debate the proposal at a conference next week.
James "Scotty" Doohan
I first saw Jim Doohan at a Star Trek conference here in Portland in the mid-eighties. He was indeed, one of the nicest guys ever to come out of the Hollywood scene. Now it is his turn to be "beamed up".
STAN
A small synopsis of a life fully lived:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-072005doohan_wr,0,5552281.story?coll=la-home-headlines
****
James Doohan...met the man one time, in 1976, at the only ST convention I ever attended. I was 12 and he was the nicest guy. Still have the photo he autographed for me. There was a costume contest in which Jimmy judged. Of course, every one dressed up in their best ST gear and outfits and Jimmy picked the winner...a guy who dressed up as Commander Koenig from Space 1999. Pissed the trekkies to no end.
James Doohan may be gone, but I still like to believe that Scotty is out there somewhere, attending to various oddjobs throughout the universe on the tiny shuttlecraft Picard "lent" him.
This news really stings me deep, and I've never even met the man. From what I've heard, he was one of the kindest human beings to tread upon the Earth's surface (and beyond), and he treated his fans - even the worst of the worst - with genuine grace and humility.
Rest in peace, Jimmy. Be content that you've left a legend in your wake.
Scotty, Aparo
For me, this is a sad sad day. Scotty.....Aparo.....I just wish all these people would live forever, or at least be given another 100 years to start all over and grant us more memories. You know the day that Captain Kirk really dies-I mean really dies-I'm just gonna call in sick at work and watch Star Trek all day. And if Harlan (if!) ever goes and leaves us all alone, I'm just gonna go the mountains and sit on a log and read, read, read. ...and cry, of course.
Hope you all have a good one in spite of it all...
m
Doohan, Aparo
And the hits keep coming.
James Doohan, 1920-2005.
Pneumonia and Alzheimer's.
HERC newsletter
Susan,
*EGADS* You remind me that I haven't sent you a new address. Is there enough time before the newsletters go out to send you a postcard with the new address?
Peg
MARK and HERC
MARK--Check arrived/book will go out today. Please start breathing now.
HERC--The next newsletter (#37) is being printed. Great exclusive HERC STUFF!! (upcoming book discounts and essays). Finally!...this one was 6 months in the making.
All best--Susan
Coupla' things
Harking back to a couple of topics about special effects, Richard Schickel's Time Magazine review of "The Island" ends with the following comment:
"Sci-fi was more powerful when its special effects were cheap and crude, its ideas simple but potent."
Halleluh...
___________________
HG Wells' name shouldn't be in the title or anywhere near it on the current War of the Worlds film. Spielberg's version is a revamping and updating, making it significantly different from the book -- therefore while Wells may have written the original, this isn't his book. He deserves the "as suggested by" or "based upon characters created" credit, but not that for the movie. For good or bad. Otherwise he'd be being used for marketing purposes and no more.
A certain Mr. Cordwainer Bird and his buddy Noah Ward may back me up here.
_________________________
ComicCon was big, loud, at times obnoxious, and I loved every minute of it. Companies, promotions, old friends, arguments and glitz notwithstanding, tens of thousands of people gathered in SDG to celebrate an art form created by pure imagination.
Man what a rush.
As a kid I took a heavy Phantom Stranger imprint so here's a hail and farewell to Mr Jim Aparo.
Gone
Gone beyond
Gone beyond beyond
Praise for the one who has gone...
- a Tibetan prayer for the dead
Wm. Messner-Loebs & Jim Aparo
cj hurtt:
Feel free to write a check to Nadine Messner-Loebs and post it to us at Aardwolf Publishing, 179-9 Rt. 46 West, Box 252, Rockaway, NJ 07866 -- We'll see that it gets to William. Also watch for the charity auction that Clifford Meth & Neal Adams are putting together for the Messner-Loebs family.
Kristin:
Cliff's obit on Jim Aparo ran this morning at www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com -- Jim was a friend of Cliff's
Literature/Politics/etc
Harlan: Thanks for the recommendations; I know we've got a copy of THE NAKED AND THE DEAD lying around here somewhere. Unless it got stashed away in storage (at one point there were 2 of them here) due to overflowing bookshelf problem...besides, I still have to finish reading Dostoevsky's THE IDIOT.....
Euch. This board is getting uncivil again. Frank, my own politics are probably closer to yours than Stan's but that post was pure flame bait, and I generally don't agree with dancing on anyone's grave, despite their sins. Well, maybe a true monster like Hitler who had NO redeeming qualities or at least who people don't argue about whether he was good or bad. By "war criminal" I suppose you are referring to the My Lai massacre? I was a baby then, but the journalist who exposed that did win a Pulitzer. I don't know how much Westmoreland had to do with that (it was probably more rank and file soldiers berserking) but he did allegedly say some rather callous things about the Vietnamese villagers not having human feelings, or something - at any rate people saw it that way. Yeah, I had flamin' left Pacifica radio on this morning but even they weren't rude enough to stoop to your level of rhetoric. Jeez, the man's dead and he was over 90.
Clifford: Nice obit/appreciation essay (although it looks reposted from somewhere else - where do we find it online?) but I was thinking oh god, not ANOTHER one.
kristin
hey jim
in addition to the book to benefit the messner-loebs' is there an address or paypal account or something where i can make a donation directly to them? if so, could you email me that information?
it breaks my heart that they've fallen on such hard times.
TO FRANK CHURCH
Well, Mr. Church. You have again stirred the juices up in me again! Westmoreland may not have been (in your eyes) a great man, but he was the Commander of the Forces in Vietnam.
Oh...by the way...he was picked buy President Johnson to be the military leader of our troops there. Maybe we should indict
President Johnson (a DEMOCRAT BY THE WAY!)...OR ...Hey...Why don't we indict and convict JOHN F. KENNEDY TOO! After all...he is the one stepped up the advisory role of our military there.
You libs crack me up! You say how much a war criminal Bush is and yet you do not look back at your own history and see where
your esteemed leaders fucked up too! Examples: Carter missed the boat on the Hostage Crisis in Iran in 1980...it cost him the election....Clinton threw a few bombs at Iraq and at Saddam, and quite possibly is the one responsible for the hatred the militant Islams have for us today, back in 1998.
By the way Mr. Church...did you serve in the military either during the Vietnam conflict or anytime thereafter? Hmmm?
Jim Aparo
Jim Aparo, Remembered by his Peers
Comics legend Jim Aparo died early this morning. Spencer Beck, Aparo’s agent and friend of many years, announced that the 72-year-old artist died from complications relating to a recent illness.
Born in 1932, Aparo considered himself a self-trained artist. Following years of commercial fashion design in Connecticut, he entered comics in 1963 with the strip “Stern Wheeler,” written by Ralph Kanna, which was published in 1963 in a Hartford, Connecticut newspaper for less than a year. In 1966, editor Dick Giordano brought Aparo over to Charlton Comics where his first assignment was “Miss Bikini Luv” for Go-Go Comics. Subsequently, Aparo drew multi-genre stories for Charlton—westerns, SF, romance, horror, mystery—and was recognized as one of the few mainstream comics artists to pencil, ink and letter all of his work. Then, as now, these tasks were typically divided between artists.
In the late 1960s, Aparo joined National Publications/DC Comics, where he gained prominence on Aquaman and then The Phantom Stranger, along with DC's horror titles. But it was in 1971 that Aparo made his greatest mark. After a startling beginning with issue #98 of The Brave and the Bold (featuring the Phantom Stranger with Batman), Aparo took over the title beginning with issue #102, where he continued penciling and inking nearly every issue until the series ended with issue #200. “Jim's work on Brave and the Bold was his favorite work of his time at DC,” said Beck. “He truly considered the series his baby.”
Following B&B, Aparo co-created Batman & The Outsiders and also worked on the Batman and Detective series throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, most notably penciling the “Death in The Family” storyline, which featured a phone-in vote deciding the fate of Robin II (Jason Todd). Following a run on The Green Arrow, Aparo moved into semiretirement, contributing an occasional special or cover and doing private commissions before he fully retired.
I first met Jim in the early 1990s when his Batman work was winding down. He was always pleasant, humble and generous. The Batman drawing he gave me is framed and hangs in my office. I considered him one of two finest Batman artists ever. I asked the other one to share a few words.
“The thing people don’t know about Jim Aparo is that he never believed that he could be so lucky as to draw comics,” said Neal Adams. “Any time you met or spoke with Jim he'd let you know what a joy it was to do comics. In fact, everything he talked about was with enthusiasm. He never complained and certainly never bad-mouthed anyone; never felt sorry for himself in any way. He always felt lucky and happy. His artistic style was similar to mine—he was kind enough to tell me I was his inspiration relative to Batman. There’s lots of great artists but there are some people in the world that are guileless. And that was Jim Aparo.”
“We only did a few jobs together,” said Marv Wolfman, “but what a pleasure Jim was to work with. He had a terrific work ethic—a page a day, everyday. And that was pencils, letters and inks. Few guys in the history of comics can fill those shoes.”
“I wish I’d known him,” said Gene Colan. “He was an excellent artist. You could recognize his style right away, and that’s something special on a character that everyone wants to draw.”
“I only worked with Jim once,” recalled George Perez. “It was on a Batman-Outsiders crossover and Jim inked it. It was a great thrill for me because I was such a fan of his. Jim Aparo was one of the people who inspired me to get into the business. I loved his Batman but the ruggedness he brought to Aquaman—that was great. Later, when he was on Brave and the Bold, I envied his ability to draw so many different characters with Batman. I thought what a cool gig! I had all of that fanboy pickiness, but he did all the characters so well—even Sgt. Rock—that I was never disappointed.”
“It’s kind of sad that we’re such a cottage industry,” said Walter Simonson. “I met Jim just once and that was in San Diego. I think he was with Spencer and we were out on the boardwalk. I was delighted to meet him—I’d followed his Charlton work before he came to DC, and I loved his Aquaman work. When I was doing Manhunter, cover assignments were considered graduate work and I was still new, so when we got to the last issue, I still wasn’t quite up to being ‘allowed’ to do the cover. So Archie [Goodwin] asked Jim to do it. I think I got to do the rough cover sketch, which was cool because I was such a fan.”
Jim Aparo is survived by his wife Julie, his three children, his four grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and at least three million fans. The Aparo family has asked that in lieu of flowers or gifts, anyone wishing to honor Jim’s legacy make a contribution to any worthy charity, as Jim believed that all charities were worth donating to.
For those wishing to send along their condolences and best wishes to the family, a P.O. Box has been set up for the family to receive cards. The address is:
THE APARO FAMILY
P.O. BOX 28
NORWALK, CONNECTICUT 06852 - 0028
Mailer pick: Tough Guys Don't Dance.
It's not long, like Ancient Evenings or Harlot's Ghost, and it's a true work of fiction, unlike Executioner's Song or Armies of the Night.
All the major themes of Mailer's work are there, and it's a murder mystery as well. Outlandish characters keep it interesting. Some of this ground was covered in An American Dream, but this book is a lot more fun, and Mailer's theories and philosophies, some of which are quote provoking (like his cure for cancer) are better presented. A great read, and always my first recommendation to a first-time Mailer reader.
Mailer himself directed a movie version with Ryan O'Neal and Isabella Rossellini, but the book is much better.
The early Mailer is all great, of course, but I'd suggest those as follow-ups. I just bought Naked and the Dead for the first time (I'd read it, but never owned a copy), and on the re-read can see that it might not be so urgent and ground-breaking to today's young readers. Barbary Shore is considered an interesting failure, which it is, and The Deer Park also can get a little dated.
The 60s novels are better for me personally. An American Dream is a masterpiece, and Why Are We In Vietnam is an experimental work that many have over-looked. Armies of the Night is also fabulous, but it's not fiction...still, it's my second Mailer recommendation, or my first for his non-fiction.
Later things get a little spotty...Marilyn was heavily sourced, and Of A Fire on the Moon is just not as good as Armies, primarily because Mailer was a passive observer, not a key player in the events. I haven't read the recent "for money" bios of Oswald or Picasso, and I confess to not having finished Ancient Evenings, although the first section, a retelling of Egyptian mythology, is really good. Harlot's Ghost is a long walk, not for the uninitiated.
Waiting for his next work (which is well-along, according to a recent article in Rolling Stone), Eric
I would never miss out on Harlan's recommendations.
It's like downloading the best software.
Mailer
I was going to suggest _The Naked and the Dead_, since it's a way-back classic.
_The Executioner's Song_ was undeniably vividly written, but frankly, I felt dirty (or ashamed) after reading it. The author had peered deeply, mercilessly, into these sorry people's lives, without -- I felt -- much if any sympathy or care for them. I coined the term "psychic porn" for that style of writing.
Does anybody know what Mikal Gilmore, rock critic and author of _Shot in the Heart_ about his brother Gary, thought of Mailer's book? If I remember correctly, longtime journalist and novelist John Hersey was outraged by Mailer's technique in that book.
I've read a few other Mailers (psst, Barney: I think it's _OF a Fire on the Moon_), but it's been a long time. Any opinions on his Marilyn Monroe books? I'll never forget Barbara Grizzuti Harrison's review of _Of Women and Their Elegance_ in "The New Republic": she quoted Pauline Kael, I believe, who wrote (maybe in reference to the big white Marilyn book), "America's greatest writer is a bum."
P.A.:
Ignore them all. Yes, those are fine, wonderful Mailer books, every one of them, as well as ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF, but why not read what made him famous, before he became a cult figure?
Ignore everyone else. They mean well, but they're young. First read THE NAKED AND THE DEAD and then read THE DEER PARK. Once you've drunk in the extraordinary elixir of those two modern classics, you can read anything else you please. But trust me, I'm steering you straight here.
Here is the last paragraph of THE DEER PARK (1955):
"Then for a moment in that cold Irish soul of mine, a glimmer of the joy of the flesh came toward me, rare as the eye of the rarest tear of compassion, and we laughed together after all, because to have heard that sex was time and time the connection of new circuits was a part of the poor odd dialogues which gave hope to us noble humans for more than one night."
That's the end of his third novel, a book considered shocking in its time, and a book that absolutely divided the literary community.
But don't forget, if you get your knickers in a twist over Hemingway and Ruark and Steinbeck's views of the world they knew as young men, Mailer may be a stiff draught. But these two books, and BARBARY SHORE, are the reason he's an icon today.
Yr. pal, Harlan
Norman Mailer
I enjoyed;
PRISONER OF SEX
A FIRE ON THE MOON
HUCKLEBERRY FINN: ALIVE AT 100
I wonder if Mailer gave a speech when he presented Harlan with his PEN award and if those remarks happen to have been preserved.
- Barney
Mailer
i've neve read a book more carefully written than ANCIENT EVENINGS. i recommend it.
Regards,
Neal
P.A. Berman
I third the recommendation of Mailer's THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG about the life and death of Gary Gilmore. Gilmore was eventually executed by firing squad, and a good thing too, since he was truly nothing more than an oxygen leech.
Despite the revolting nature of its main character, the book remains a favorite of mine because I like well-written drama.
***
Re: Harry Potter
Of course there are those who will buy the new Harry Potter book merely because it is a fad. There are many different reasons why people buy things. I'm not much into fads, but I have been known to buy a book just so I could enjoy the artwork on the wrap. For example, the new wrap on the Spectra reissue of Bradbury's THE ILLUSTRATED MAN is wonderful, and I'll probably end up buying it just for the cover art (I read the story many years ago).
O.T.: Messner-Leobs Tribute ships this week
Posting this non-Ellison piece here because Harlan has spoken well of troubled author Wm. Messner-Loebs:
Cockrum, Lieber, Meth, Milgam, Netzer, Sim & Spurgeon
Lock Arms for Wm. Messner-Loebs Benefit Book
The Three Tenors: Off-Key, an illustrated collection of short-fiction, ships this week from Aardwolf Publishing. Assembled to support artist/writer Wm. Messner-Loebs, whose work dominates the 138-page book, the collection also features oddball stories and art by Dave “X-Men” Cockrum, Steve Lieber, Clifford Meth, Al Milgam and Michael Netzer, as well an introduction by Dave Sim and an afterword by Tom Spurgeon.
A limited number of signed/numbered copies are still available from Aardwolf Publishing (www.aardwolfpublishing.com).
Messner-Loebs is best-known for the Inkpot-award winning Journey series, which began as a back-up story in Cerebus in 1982. His most prominent work included four- and three-year stints on The Flash and Wonder Woman, respectively, as well as Image Comics’ The Maxx with partner Sam Keith.
“It’s no secret that the Messner-Loebs couple has been in bad financial straits for quite some time,” said editor Clifford Meth. “They lost their home and key sources of income. This terrific book will show fans and publishers alike that Messner-Loebs still has the right stuff."
Aardwolf offers this book with its usual money-back guarantee. All proceeds directly benefit Messner-Loebs.
P. A. Berman:
I'd second THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG as Mailer's best book - that, or THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT; the man excels at long-form journalism. If you're interested in fiction, though, try WHY ARE WE IN VIETNAM? (a metaphorical hunting trip) or HARLOT'S GHOST (the first of two Le Carresque novels about the CIA) - in those, Mailer's excesses are perfectly balanced with his rare lucidity, and they're as funny as they are harrowing.
Mailer
Strange...I've been a fan of Ellison's work for so long, and it's a post about Norman Mailer that makes me finally pipe up. I often become partial to the book that introduces me to an author (Deathbird Stories for HE - the whole warning about not trying to read the book in one sitting hooked me and I never looked back), and for Mailer it was Tough Guys Don't Dance, Mailer's "noir" book. However, my personal favorite is The Executioner's Song. But if you don't want to try an 800+ page book for your first go-round, Tough Guys Don't Dance makes a nice intro.
The Pavillion Potter Thread Redux (Rdr's Dgst Vrsn 2.0)
Poster 1: Harry Potter is great and has gotten kids to read again!
Poster 2: Harry Potter sucks!
Poster 3: Harry Potter sucks, but it has gotten kids to read again!
Poster 4: But what are they reading?
Poster 1: Harlan, what do you think of Harry Potter?
Poster 2: Yes, I wonder what Harlan thinks too!
Poster 5: I prefer Philip Pullman myself.
Poster 6: JK Rowling makes more money than the Queen. That is cool!
Poster 7: Why can't we talk about Stanley Kubrick?
Cheers, Jon
Harry Freakin' Potter!
Frank, what it all comes down to is storytelling. By any means necessary. If, literally, millions of kids, young adults and adults are reading JK's work and ENJOYING it, then she is doing something right.
What JK has done in my opinion is nothing short of revolutionary. She has persuaded an entire generation of kids to PICK UP A BOOK AND READ, something a number of people on this board have been lamenting the loss of.
For that alone, she should receive all her income from her Harry Potter books tax free.
How do you like me now? ;)
Advice wanted
If you were going to read only one Norman Mailer book, which one would you pick and why? I was reading an article on the donation of his archive to the University of Texas, and now I feel I should something from him to fill in the gap in my literary knowledge.
Thanks,
PAB
The Harry Potter books are well writen, eh? Hell, so are a lot of tv commercials, but it doesn't mean that commercials are art.
Hell, Will And Grace has amazing writing, but the damn thing is as empty as any republican's crypt.
Harry, the geek will never own me.
--------------------------
Good bye, General Westmoreland, you cretin! Death didn't come soon enough for a war criminal of such low esteem. Vietnam will be the iron ball that will be tied around your neck, when you are rafted out into the river Styx.
The air is cleaner when another retch kicks.
That's it. You can quote as many figures and statistics about Hollywood and its businesses as you like - THIS is how collective apathy and indifference is ultimately rewarded:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/050719a.php
Remember: We've brought this upon ourselves.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" fuckin' rocks! I burned through it with delight, but my youthful neighbor beat me by a country mile. Though I've seen a few Harlan Ellison opinions on the series, I wonder what fellow UK beauty, Susan, thinks of Ms. Rowling's work.
Harry Potter
I would echo Adam-Troy's comments, while many kids are buying the books because it is fashionable to do so right now, I know of a number of kids in my neighborhood who ran out with their parents to buy the book as soon as it arrived.
To be honest, I really do not understand why there is such a huge fuss over whether or not it is a good thing that kids are into Harry Potter. They are fairly well written books increasing in scope and complexity as the series progresses. It is certainly not the greatest piece of literature for young adults, but on the whole it is an enjoyable work and is bringing in at least some kids to the joys of reading that would not have previously picked up a book.
Maybe those kids will then be interested in some other works and may move on to Tolkein, then to Dickens, and to Shakespeare, or perhaps they will stop reading once the series has ended. However, without that initial exposure to literature through Harry Potter, some people may never even get started down that path.
I keep hearing about the death of the printed word, and how people are reading fewer than at any point in history. However, whenever I go into a Barnes and Noble or Uncle Hugo's (local science fiction book store), there are always quite a few customers. While I know that the numbers for the first print run for the new Harry Potter book is grossly inflated by people who will never read the book, the fact that they were able to print 10 million in the first run makes me think that there have to be significant numbers of people reading this book. Regardless of your opinion on the novel, that number of people reading can only be interpreted as a good thing.
On the Other Hand
Well, sure there are a lot of kids who are only interested in the movies and the toys. That's a given. My own niece is one; she is adamant that she hates reading and isn't even all that interested in movies. (She's a musical-theatre girl, who has already performed professionally. Not at all somebody swallowed up by the curse of tv/videogame zombie-ism.) But then there's the other side of the coin. I can name at least half a dozen kids, in my immediate circle of experience, who were in that store on the release date, who snatched up their copies, and who had the book read, in its entirety, by the second day. Several of those have been rendered insatiable for other fictions.
Give kids a book they love, and they will read for life. In my case it was TOM SAWYER, with Asimov following close behind. If HARRY POTTER owes much of its success to the freight train of cumulative eventhood, then, hey, it just exerts more pressure, on the kids, to try that first book.
To Susan and Harlan
Susan:
Just got my copy of "Demon With a Glass Hand" today...after a paticularly brutal day on the phones, it was heaven to come home and find a package waiting for me. Thank You!
Harlan:
I was blown away, mesmerized, and yet again bedazzled. "Demon" rocked my brain and made me think like no other story ever has. The graphics were beautiful as well. Brilliant!
Auteurs, etc
To me it is important to distinguish between an auteur and auteur THEORY. The latter asserts that it is always the director's movie, no matter what. It's something for egotistical and less-talented directors to hide behind, claiming they are "auteurs" and refusing to share the credit.
A real auteur filmmaker is someone who both directs and writes his own films and does it WELL. There are a handful of such people around, but of course Sturgeons Law applies to Hollywood.
There is no doubt Hitchcock was a great director, one of the greatest of all time. I pity those who lived in his shadow, though. People will always remember PSYCHO as Hitchcock's movie, not Joseph Stefano's. The average person might be able to name the director of a great film, but how many people remember who wrote the screenplay?
Great directors put their stamp on films. So do great writers, but writing is not as glamorous as directing.
(incidentally, it's often even worse for the person who wrote the BOOK....how many people outside of the sf/f/horror community remember that PSYCHO started life as a Robert Bloch story? The poor guy really gor screwed.)
Um. What do you suppose is the TELEVISION equvalent of an auteur? Somebody like JMS?
Onto other things....It's sad that so many people more or less friendly to Harlan are speaking of him as a has-been, or something to that effect.
The World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award is a Hugo???? Huh? I thought Hugos were given at the World SF Convention (which thousands of people attend, these days, and any member can vote although many of them don't) while the World Fantasy Award is given by the smaller, more elite (heavily professional) membership of the World Fantasy Convention.
The SFWA grandmastership would certainly help Harlan as far as publicity goes, but maybe they don't feel they owe him anything since he hasn't been a member for years (has that changed?). According to the article "Bugfuck" which is up on this site (a very evenhanded look at one of Harlan's major feuds) he publicly punched somebody out in front of them. (Harlan, did you really cross the country just to crash a post-Nebula party and sock that guy? I forget his name) I'm not saying he doesn't deserve the Grandmastership - he richly does - but justified or not, that doesn't strike me as the way to win a medal! Too bad. He DOES deserve an award - for achievement, not for antics that will likely be forgotten by future generations.
Kristin
TO FRANK CHURCH
There was a story in our local paper about the the new Harry Potter book. One of the kids who was in line early to get the book was asked by the reporter what it was that he liked about the books. The kid stated that he doesn't even read the books, he just likes the movies.
Go figure.
truth
it absolutely IS the "greatest thing" that kids are devouring Harry Potter
absolutely
Regards,
Neal
According to Rob, "Harlan argued, and I've always agreed with this completely, that an ever minute handful of directors out there genuinely warranted the label "Auteur"; those few whose personal voice and vision dominate every aspect of the film, elevating it to genuine art. The others, as he would put it, are all craftsmen of varying degrees in ability."
Fine, but surely all you are doing here is suggest that 90 per cent of everything is crap. The point is that all the good films - all the really significant works of cinema - are made by this minute handful of directors. I don't actually think this group is that minute, but it's certainly true that most directors - like most writers, most painters, most musicians, etc. - are hacks.
"Brian said something about "the story having to have come from someone". In these few cases, the story began and ended with the director."
Why place such an emphasis on where the story came from? Shakespeare took most of his stories from other sources. Max Ophuls is the author of LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, even though he didn't write a single word of the screenplay, just as Mozart is the author of THE MAGIC FLUTE, even though he didn't write a single word of the libretto.
"Just glimpse the 2 camps: in one, you have Bunuel and Altman; in the other, you've Verhoeven and Spielberg. The differences become clear."
But even if you hate the films of Verhoeven and Spielberg, surely you don't deny that they are the true authors of their films. Aren't CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, E.T., EMPIRE OF THE SUN and JURASSIC PARK clearly products of the same artistic personality? How about THE FOURTH MAN, BASIC INSTINCT, ROBOCOP and STARSHIP TROOPERS?
Incidentally, I was amused to see Gore Vidal's name crop up here, since Vidal is an outspoken opponent of auteurism. He always claimed that Arthur Penn screwed up THE LEFT HANDED GUN, an adaptation of Vidal's play about Billy the Kid. In 1988, Vidal wrote a television film about Billy the Kid so that his own vision could finally reach the screen. The onscreen title was actually GORE VIDAL'S BILLY THE KID. I watched this film several years back, and all I can say is that this is one credit Mr Vidal is more than welcome to. Does anyone believe that this film is superior to THE LEFT HANDED GUN? As far as I'm concerned, GORE VIDAL'S BILLY THE KID proves just how completely amd utterly wrong Vidal's theories about the cinema are.
Harlan, keep up the good work.
You're doing a great job.
Just thought you should know.
-Keith
A new version of something I just wrote over the past 20 minutes, only to lose because my hand slipped, hit a couple keys and magically zapped away everything, to be lost forever and ever:
Anywho, we just got back from Comic-Con: our first visit…..quite a weekend! Prior to hopping into the car overloaded with purchases and heading back into the 115 degree heat of the desert we call home, we attended one last panel on Sunday afternoon as it was the only panel we had noticed that included Peter David; someone we enjoyed seeing with his pal Harlan at the various I-Cons we attended when we lived back East. Peter was on a Spider-Man panel with JM Straczynski and Reginald Hudlin, though we were hoping the panel would head off in the direction that it would if Harlan were participating: Harlan, growling, “What’s the topic of this panel? Spider-Man? Who gives a shit! Let me tell you this joke about………”
Alas, the panel stayed on topic as one of the main Marvel marketing reps was running it and keeping it focused, and the fans wanted to keep asking Spider-Man topics of these three Spider-Man writers. So it was fun, but not the riot we were hoping.
The point of this tale: next to me sits a girl, 10 years old…maybe 12. She pulls out of her bag a copy of the new Harry Potter book. Debbie leans over and excitedly says, “Wow, you got it already!” not because Debbie is excited by Harry Potter, but because she likes to encourage kids who actually read, and the girl beams “Yes, I already finished it!” Not being a Potter reader, though I’ve seen the movies, I refrain from asking “Cool, who dies?” because that’s all I’m interested in but I don’t want to burst the kid’s bubble by her meeting an adult who wants her to summarize this 500 or more page book that she proudly read in one day to “Glibglob dies” or something like that.
The key to my story is that this book has been out for just over 36 hours, going on sale at 12:01 am Saturday morning, and this child has already read it, and kept it in pretty good condition to boot. She’s in San Diego with the distraction of the glitz of the humongous dealers floor and outlandishly costumed folks drifting all about and panels and movie previews and movies and cartoons and all sorts of colorful froofraw, and this little girl chose to spend her entire Saturday reading the Harry Potter book.
Granted, after the panel, she and mom head up to Peter David and they all hug and chat and it’s obvious that they know eachother, so the kid probably comes from good breeding in a home of books, but still, she read the book in one day and was quite proud of it.
Why do I mention this? Because, when the previous Potter book went on sale, this board filled up with a few silly comments about how it’s not necessarily the greatest thing that kids are reading this and it doesn’t prove that kids will continue to read and a bunch of other putdowns, even the same putdown I read on this board just a few entries down: the kids are buying them but not really reading them. Folks always want to take the negative tact on big event topics to pursue their intellectual growth (shrinkage?), but all I know is that this little girl, while dodging more distractions than a shark swimming in a pool of babies, this little girl read this huge book in one day and couldn’t wait to tell two strangers and Peter David. I’m sure she’s read them all…..and, y’know what? I’m sure that she isn’t going to go two years in between Potter releases before she reads another book.
The world isn’t always going to hell in a handbasket. Sometimes it’s o.k.
-TODD
Every Picture Harryhausen Portfolio Show?
SUSAN/HARLAN-
Will you two be part of the Ray Harryhausen portfolio show on July 30th at Every Picture Tells a Story?
--
Ryan
The multiplex is just plain too expensive. I took one of my kids to a matinee last week (Fantastic Four) and it cost over $20 after corn.
Nope. We're pretty much rent-the-DVD folks, which is cool since we don't have cable at present.
The best deal, though, is the drive-in. When we go to the drive-in, we get two movies for the price of one and tickets are $6 apiece. I don't have to pay for the little one so it comes out to $18. MUCH better deal than the theater. And I like to see the movie on a big screen in the sky. So far this summer we've seen Batman, Revenge of the Sith, Madagascar, Willie Wonka, and War of the Worlds at the drive-in.
The drive-in food is better, too. Popcorn's only 2.50. The candy and other stuff are reasonable. They have hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, onion rings and pizza, too. Usually when we go, we bring our own food and drinks.
It's an hour drive to get to the drive-in but well worth it, IMO. I enjoy sharing the experience with my kids. I have many fond memories of drive-ins from my childhood and I'm glad they have the chance to experience it for themselves. They love it, man.
Ezra,
We all know about the days of the studio system.
Harlan argued, and I've always agreed with this completely, that an ever minute handful of directors out there genuinely warranted the label "Auteur"; those few whose personal voice and vision dominate every aspect of the film, elevating it to genuine art. The others, as he would put it, are all craftsmen of varying degrees in ability.
This has always been the case, and it remains so. It's not a myth; it's not something determined by the pointer on a Ouija Board. It is simply the propriety of a very few, but is misused, twisted, and taken advantage of by filmmakers who would otherwise be worthless without their collaborators; the latter often take credit from others, and pick the bones of someone else's vision.
But even during the studio system there were the exceptions whose personal visions superseded the rules of Hollywood: Hitchcock (because he'd earned a rep in Britain), Fritz Lang (though unable to duplicate his success in Germany), and Billy Wilder (note all immigrants). This is not to say they weren't occasionally forced into a compromise, or that their films weren't fucked with later in the editing room by the studio (happened to Lang and, obviously, to Welles). YET, even when vicitimized by the system - "raped" if you will - it is impossible to remove the deserving label: I can't think of Orson Welles as anything other than an auteur even when studios were putting the plunger stick up his ass.
Brian said something about "the story having to have come from someone". In these few cases, the story began and ended with the director.
I'm not afraid to say I believe in the "auteur"; I just happen to know it is the propriety of a few, but corrupted and misused by many who've no TRUE claim to it.
Just glimpse the 2 camps: in one, you have Bunuel and Altman; in the other, you've Verhoeven and Spielberg. The differences become clear.
Harlan, and you too are right on the money, but I bet Spielberg is very convincible; he is just too nice of a guy maybe; but I will let it lay.
---------------
Adolf Reed did do a good hatchet job on Farrakhan, so I will give Paula her props.
The black community half respects and half fears Farrakhan's power, especially with young males. Until a strong voice of reason comes from the community, you will always get the Farrakhan's, to take over.
------------
I wonder how many lumpin children will actually read their Harry Potter book? Kind of reminds me of the flag lapel pin wearing craze. And we remember how patriotic those yokels turned out to be.
Hitler stew with lots of gristle.
Masters of Sci-Fi
ComingSoon.Net
IDT & Industry Team on Masters of Sci-Fi
Source: IDT Entertainment July 15, 2005
... "We are excited to have legendary writers such as Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison adapting their own short stories for this project," said Brad Mendelsohn, Partner, Industry Entertainment. "We are concurrently completing deals for other distinguished writers to adapt these fascinating stories." Final conversations are underway for writer Michael Tolkin ("The Rapture," "The Player," "The New Age") to adapt and direct Heinlein's "Jerry Was a Man." ...
http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=10394
Varity.Com
IDT 'Masters' of sci-fi series
Company will provide all financing on hourlong skein
By DAVID S. COHEN
... writers are ongoing. Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison will adapt their own short stories for the series. Industry Entertainment's ...
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=upsell_article&articleID=VR1117925966&categoryID=14&cs=1
"Fingerprints in the Sky" links
Bibliographer for his idol
Pearly Baker guitarist has a new gig: compiling life's work of the sci-fi legend Harlan Ellison
http://www.s-t.com/daily/03-02/03-17-02/e01li131.htm
City man writes book
ATTLEBORO -- Between teaching, playing in a rock band and collecting science fiction and futurist literature, Tim Richmond might not seem like a guy who'd have spare time to document one of the most prolific and temperamental writers of our time.
But where noted journalist and short story writer Harlan Ellison is concerned, there's little he doesn't know.
http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2005/07/18/city/city3.txt
I will be convinced of the success of the multiplex system when I can get a soda and a popcorn without spending more than the price of the tickets. It's one thing to pay your fare solo or as a couple, but to take a family of four to the movies it requires a credit card or a big chunk of the week's wages.
That said, I expect more when I go - especially from summer blockbusters. We'll only see 2, maybe three all season and if it's a "grown-up" flick like Hotel Rwanda or Sideways or even Land of the Dead, it's second-run on the soda-stained screen at the mall.
...where, interestingly enough, I can get a soda and popcorn for $2.00 - the price of a ticket.
Jeez...the AUTEUR theory? Some old myths die hard, do they not? As Mr Ellison has pointed out, and Gore Vidal also (see an essay called "Who makes the movies?") that ain't the way it works.
Historically, and especially under the so-called "studio system", most movies were directed by contract directors who were assigned films on a Friday before shooting began on a Monday. Many movies rightly considered "classics" were created in just this way. Producers call the shots and make most of the money.
Well, I guess I've been completely and thoroughly slammed. I concede - Tinsel Town is victorious. The figures prove it.
Steve is absolutely right. The illusory "decline" of revenue from U.S. theatrical exhibition over the past ten years has been so (and so repetitively) overstated by _every_ mainstream news outlet I encounter. It's as though there's a nation-wide conspiracy to make this seem bigger than it is.
Take this graph from The New York Times, published just a week ago: http://tinyurl.com/ch4ah (click on Multimedia: Graph). The thing is meant to show DVD revenues eating into revenues from three other categories: theatrical releases, video rentals, and "other" (licensing, product placement etc.). The way this graph visually sets up its categories creates an optical illusion -- the kind of thing graph-designers are usually taught to avoid -- so that, at a glance, it appears that DVD revenues have significantly diminished theatrical revenues. In fact, DVD revenues are eating into the "video rentals" category almost exclusively. While theatrical revenues "declined" over the decade of 1996-2005 from 24.5% to 23.1% of total revenue, total revenue itself leapt from 11.3 to 19.1 billion USD. Therefore annual theatrical revenues now are $1.64 billion more than they were nine years back -- a 60% increase. Although there _was_ an odd, one-time significant drop in theatrical revenue as percent-of-total from peak year 1999 to 2000, which can be attributed to competition from DVD, theatrical revenue has held steady as a percent-of-total (and therefore has increased in real dollars well beyond 1999 levels) in the four and a half years since.
This is such a non-issue, but the Hollywood-obsessed a&e press in this country keep coming back to it, yea as a dog to its vomit, because it's an easy intersection between the interests of good people (who are interested in culture) and evil people (who are interested in business).
To echo Doonermania, I'm not sure where you're getting "the recent spate of dismal box-office performances by summer "blockbusters", but the 'blockbuster' is as strong as ever and the movie-going public is as dumb as ever. Well, except for all of us here on Webderland, of course. See the stats for 2005:
http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Years/2005/top-grossing
and more recent information: http://www.imdb.com/chart/
So I'm sure we'll be getting such sequels titled: "Yes, We're Here", "The Sippy Cup", "Hitched", and "The Second Longest Yard".
Ben: I'm not sure if you are obliquely referring to it, but if you know the much touted recent claim that patrons are not going out to theaters any more, you might want to know that it has been shown to be a canard, a ruse, a wild goose, a slice of baloney, a maltese falcon and the reddest of herrings.
Apparently, it's a lot of hype worked up on very thin evidence, perhaps by the the theater consortiums themselves.
Rob wrote,
"The dictionary's definition of "AUTEUR": A filmmaker who has a personal style and keeps creative control over his or her works."
A term which has become somewhat negated in recent years, probably beginning in the early '80's and evolving to the point where even the slightest SUGGESTION of a concept that hadn't already been tried-and-proven by American audiences would be stalked and executed at once by Those In Charge.
But never fear. The recent spate of dismal box-office performances by summer "blockbusters" could well indicate that the movie-by-committee style of filmmaking is finally imploding. People are getting sick and tired, and not just individual "film snobs" alone; the masses are throwing up their hands and actually spending a day outside rather than putting up with another two hours of Will Smith's loathsome mugging. The Age of the Money-Man is drawing to a close, and you can be damn sure the suits will do everything in their power to take as many as they can with them to hell. The Tinsel Town climate portrayed so accurately in Robert Altman's THE PLAYER is dying, drowning in its own self-made blackpool of snot, urine, shit, bile, and sneering malice. The end is nigh.
In pace requiescat.
Frank etc. It doesn't matter what you say because you're going out of the ass end of the universe when all your trumped up "causes" have been rendered moribund. Along with much of Ellison's writing for that matter. When all you socio-political props have been kicked out from under you by time or "progress" your pamphleteering will go down with it.
Immortal artistic masterpieces will remain. Like Birth of a Nation and everything else Griffith did, not just in the National Film Registry either.
Brian wrote: "you have to remember that, in filmmaking, there isn't always a clear distinction between a Director and a Writer. No matter what, _someone_ had to write the story and the dialogue... if you want to make distinctive films, you have to be a _writer_ at least as much as a director."
Of course someone has to write the story and the dialogue. Just as someone has to act, someone has to design the sets, someone has to be the cinematographer, someone has to write the music, someone has to carry out the editing, etc. The director's job is to supervise and coordinate the work of all these individuals, ensuring that their efforts contribute towards the creation of a film in which each component comes together harmoniously to represent a coherent individual viewpoint. I used Alfred Hitchcock as an example, but I could just as easily have cited Nicholas Ray, Max Ophuls, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, Robert Altman, Arthur Penn, Joseph H. Lewis, Anthony Mann, Stanley Kubrick, Michael Cimino, Abel Ferrara, Monte Hellman, Fritz Lang, Frank Borzage, George Cukor, Joseph Losey, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Douglas Sirk, King Vidor, Raoul Walsh, Don Siegel, Jacques Tourneur, John Huston, Sidney Lumet, etc.
Anti-auteurists seem to assume that, for example, John Logan decides to write a screenplay about Howard Hughes, works on it in isolation, then hands the final draft to Martin Scorsese, who faithfully transfers it to the screen. Now that might be the way things worked in Monogram's 'B' pictures, or in the world of Gene Saks and Neil Simon, but it's certainly not how films of any genuine interest are made.
I believe writers should get their due; I also think certain directors should be credited THEIRS.
Hitchcock was the architect of his films; he was invariably responsible for the blueprints (indeed, he'd been trained as an artist and an engineer) of every one of his precious neurotic ventures. (He'd routinely outline and storyboard his adaptations - dispensing with all but the core of the plot to set up his own elements - then bring in a writer to work wih him closely; invariably, it was HIS voice that would dominate the film) And no director was more fair to writers because he always gave them full credit, regardless of the degree of his own participation on the script (on Lifeboat, for instance, he re-wrote all of Steinbeck's dialogue himself). Most likely because his name above the title had been enough to sell his films since early sound!
These are the films for which he'd had direct involvement in the writing:
Notorious, Spellbound, Forever and a Day, Saboteur, Number Seventeen, Rich and Strange, The Skin Game (1931), Murder! (1930), Juno and the Paycock (1930), Blackmail (1929) (NEARLY MY FAVORITE HITCHCOCK), The Farmer's Wife (1928), Champagne (1928), The Ring The Lodger (1927), Die Prinzessin und der Geiger (1925), The Passionate Adventure (1924), The Prude's Fall (1924), The White Shadow (1923), Woman to Woman (1923).
The dictionary's definition of "AUTEUR": A filmmaker who has a personal style and keeps creative control over his or her works.
Hitchcock fit that definition in every way. He was the man who, in style, voice, and substance, made the director the STAR. Just ask Truffaut and David O. Selznick.
The two WRITERS who probably shined brightest in Hitchcock's factory were Lehman (North By Northwest) and, a newcomer, Joe Stefano (whose dialogue in Psycho is PURE Stefano; you can tell because so much of it emerges in his later Outer Limits shows). In story conferences he gave their ideas an unusually enthusiastic stamp of approval (often he either replaced a writer or rewrote the thing himself as a ghost writer); I'm not sure if any other writers (Steinbeck and Raymond Chandler included) had as much freedom under Hitchcock.
Yet, even THEY had to shape plotting and character transition through conferences with the director and adhere to his trademark devices.
I don't recall this being posted; is it was, mea culpa.
Harlan can be heard interviewed by CNN's Renay San Miguel as part of the podcast entitled "Hollywood's Sci-Fi Summer", posted June 27th, which you can download as an MP3 file under "Special Programming" at
http://www.cnn.com/services/podcasting/
Harlan's segment runs about the first eleven minutes of the 43 minute program.
Harlan - was a copy of the interview audio supplied to you for your archive?
Question
Hello,
I became a fan the night of 10/17/64, the night "Demon with a Glass Hand" first aired.
I figure you were in your late teens, early twenties when "The Adventures of Superman" was new.
Did you ever watch that show and think of what kind of episode you would write?
Thanks,
Skip
I like to think that in some cases, the actual story writing credits are lost in supposition--they 'assume' that the audience already knows from where the narrative originated, but then again, I often find myself wondering if most of the gods on Hollywood Hill are married to their siblings. Therefore, it would neither astonish nor galvanize me to learn that Wells got screwed, again, by a bunch of square dickheads--poltroons so dim that they look in a bowl of Cheerios, and say: "Oh gee,' I have donut seeds."
It's the nature of the beast.
Moorcock Improved
Hi Harlan-
First, hope I didn't double-post.
Wanted to let you know Mike Moorcock is much improved. No danger of amputation, and down to a small spot of infection on the bone. He still in France. (He has non-diabetic neuropathy, BTW, not gout.)
Hope a bit of good news brings some sunshine into a gloomy couple of weeks.
Best,
-M.
Brad, I agree with your comments _somewhat_-- but you have to remember that, in filmmaking, there isn't always a clear distinction between a Director and a Writer. No matter what, _someone_ had to write the story and the dialogue.
And the more distinctive and "authorial" directors have also tended to take a large role in the writing of scripts. Consider how often the names of Francis Coppola, Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Sergio Leone, Billy Wilder, Alexander Payne, Orson Welles, John Huston, Oliver Stone, Terry Gilliam, and many, many more have turned up on the screenplay credits.
Sure, there are directors who aren't known for their scriptwriting credits: Hitchcock, Tim Burton, Brian DePalma, and even Steven Spielberg. But they do write, and in the cases of Spielberg and Burton, they tend to stamp a lot of themselves onto the project regardless of how much time they spend at the typewriter. Hitchcock was known for long story and script conferences.
In other words... if you want to make distinctive films, you have to be a _writer_ at least as much as a director.
Hi Harlan & Susan,
Just wanted to let you know that the 1933 "Alice in Wonderland" is being shipped to you by Fed Ex. You should see it on Monday. It has been a rough week for Cindy and she sends her love to the both of you.
Auteurism
In a recent post, Harlan mentioned "the lack of perception by the mass of the lay audience, that it is not director's (sic) who are the architects..it is the writers...and the directors are the carpenters".
As Paul Schrader (who is both a writer and a director) once pointed out, all good films have a personality, and this is usually the personality of the director. Sometimes it's the writer, or the producer, or even an actor, but 90 per cent of the time it's the director. Surely a few moments of honest reflection will prove the validity of Schrader's claim. Would anyone deny that THE 39 STEPS, SABOTEUR, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1955) and NORTH BY NORTHWEST are clearly the work of the same 'personality'? Or should we believe that the appearance of the name 'Alfred Hitchcock' in the credits of all these films is nothing more than a coincidence, and that the real authors were Charles Bennett, Peter Viertel, John Michael Hayes and Ernest Lehman?
*Was a time when I couldn't imagine a film adaptation selling WITHOUT Wells' name. Even Cameron's The Abyss came from a Wells story (w/o any credit natch).
I'm still astounded when I continue counting the templates the author created for sf. Only recently I even learned he was the Father of Miniature Wargaming as well. Seeking a more structured way to play with toy soldiers, Wells wrote Little Wars - recognized today as the first recreational wargame!
**I agree with PAB's comments about Farrakhan.
I disagree about her comment about Spike Lee’s incentives for doing spots. His exposure through ads, among OTHER things, strengthens his connection with the public which, in turn, tends to strengthen his odds at the box office; obviously, that, in turn, pretty much reassures financing for his next film. That's marketing yourself. Now one of the oldest tricks in the book; a device practically invented by Hitchcock. Since Lee always sought alternate routes of distribution, financing, marketing and exhibition to maintain greater control of black on screen images I would think he would try EVERY commercial resource.
I wanted to stop by here, if I can, and say a final apology to Harlan Ellison and others here to whom I've been rude and ugly over the past year or two, coming mainly in those two angry spurts, if I remember right. I've since been sorry about my past actions, I've felt stupid and ashamed. (Rick Wyatt, if you would, don't be quick to delete this. I'm not trying to wedge myself back in here to stay, this is only peeking through the cracked door of the bar before continuing down the street). The best moments in Ellison's fiction is some of the most dazzling and entertaining I've come across. They certainly brightened my days when I was younger.
FRANK:
I don't think you're wrong at all. In fact, I suspect you're dead on. Not the point, though. We aren't talking about some fresh-off-the-turnip-truck amateur here, directing his first film. Powerless; dancing to the Studio's tune. We're talking about an auteur who has his say. 100% of the time. Absolutely. If Spielberg says "frog," the Studio says "how high, and what color do you want it?" It's HIS production company, it's HIS studio. He's not some enslaved contract-player. He's the Grand Poobah. Had he not had his head up his own hubris, he would have done the gracious thing, and given credit where due...and in that way he would perhaps alter, if even in a minute way, the lack of perception by the mass of the lay audience, that it is not director's who are the architects..it is the writers...and the directors are the carpenters.
He may not have had it dawn on him, any more than Walt Disney could back out of the shadow of his own godhood long enough to admit that Felix Salten wrote "Bambi," Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "Treasure Island," Jules Verne wrote "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote "Tarzan." Oh yes, I know Wells and Verne and Salten appear somewhere in the credits briefly, consistent in importance with the credit for the caterers and the Best Boy, but I say that's all spinach! It's like the size and placement of the retraction of the paper's assertion that you are a child molester, months later, in two point Lilliputian Bold, in two lines of smarmy apology.
In my book, great power means great responsibility, so neither Disney nor Spielberg get off the hook by such a flimsy device.
But, as I say, you're not wrong, you're right.
Yr. pal, Harlan
I do not defend Spielberg here just to be a butt, but it is very possible that the studio itself may be responsible for why H.G. Wells' name is not on the poster. I doubt any writer's name is going to sell a film--since the public is as non-reading as ever.
I may be wrong. Kisses.
Masters of Sci-Fi
Well, that's surprising news... Not only would that mean that Harlan will be writing something for television, he's also doing it for a show that has the much hated abbreviation "sci-fi" in its title. He's also encouraging the audience of that show to see him as primarily a science fiction writer. He's in good company though, and I wouldn't have turned down the offer either. He IS a master of science fiction, and hopefully more people will be turned on to his books.
Popmatters article
Earl: I think it's a nice thing of Gibron to say that Harlan should be more famous. It doesn't mean he doesn't understand the reasons why he isn't famous. What he's saying there is that fame and quality don't always go hand in hand, nothing else. We all know, as does Harlan, why people find it easier to read King than Ellison. To write an article about someone or something that the author feels the readers may be missing out on, is more than legitimate.
What I don't like about the article is that it focuses mostly on fame (or lack thereof), and even evaluates the lawsuits from that perspective. (To me, the biggest problem with Harlan's lack of fame is that foreign publishers don't take much note of him, although in some countries they do. He needn't be famous everywhere, but he should be *available*.)
The author also says something to the effect that Harlan is going stale with age... I think everyone including Gibron himself will be unable to work quite as much when they get older and have to deal with health problems and things like freinds dying off. Also, while the number of books has been decreasing, they did get bigger in volume (SLIPPAGE), and as far as I can tell from reading his occasional updates here, he's been doing a gread deal of work, which I presume will be published.
"Here's hoping he finds his way back to the fans who used to think it mattered as well."
This is also strange... it's like his (?) fans left him when he turned stale, and now he has to find his way back to them, so he can be happy again, because fame and a large audience is what matters: "But to paraphrase the old saying -- if a screed falls in the marketplace of ideas, and no one is around to hear it, does the message still matter? Harlan seems to think so." Ugh.
I think Harlan has an audience that has discovered him for a reason, and a lot of people who aren't discovering him, probably wouldn't know what to do with him anyway. There's audience size, and then there's audience composition.
Popmatters Article
This is an interesting piece -- I especially enjoyed the rattling off of Harlan's credentials, convincing me more than ever that Harlan certainly deserves the SFWA Grandmaster Award. Quoting the non-laundry list: "10 Hugo Awards, including the Hugo World Fantasy Award in 1993 for Lifetime Achievement, three Nebula Awards, 18 Locus Poll Awards, as well as the Bradbury Award, six Bram Stoker Awards (for horror), the Edgar Allan Poe Award (for mystery), and two Georges Méličs Fantasy Film awards."
Sounds pretty damn grandmasterish to me, but what do I know? (Then again, if a picture's worth a thousand words I'm up to a dozen novels or two...)
The author has done considerable homework and prances upon things that will echo to Harlan fans (referring to HE as "not exactly a Luddite") and also add to a bit of the personal aspects of a writer who is all too often more of an icon than a person.
I found that one thing he missed is that the "fate" he ascribes to Harlan -- obscurity -- also applies to a number of other New Wave writers: Norman Spinrad, Ursula Le Guin, Philip K Dick, Silverberg, Moorcock. By obscurity I mean that the general public doesn't have a clue as to who these people are, but undoubtedly know a number of their works.
Yes, I agree with the typos problem. My personal favorite is an inadvertent but howlingly funny "It was a major victory for Ellison, who now had the conglomerate in his sites." ("Sites" being a synonym for locations, used in particular to describe web pages. "Sights", on the other hand, are what Harlan had the conglomerate in. However the concept that Harlan had AOL in his sites is, well, amusing. To me. Okay, you had to have been there.)
Thanks for the link, Mr Cramer. It would be interesting to hear from Unca Harlan on his opinion whether the piece is balanced or not.
On Stalin:
>However, please remember that the extent of the atrocities that Stalin committed did not begin to surface until a few years after his death.
No, considerable information was available before then; some chose to ignore, deny, or explain away. I don't blame Paul Robeson for looking for a better place, but if he thought he found it in Stalin's Russia, he was a fool.
On Bill Gibron's "Lost In the Islets of Langerhans: In Search of Harlan Ellison":
I didn’t care for the Gibron essay. Its premise is shaky – it asserts pretty much as a given that Ellison should be as widely recognized and highly regarded as Tom Wolfe or Stephen King; the body of the essay attempts to explain why he isn't. I don't accept the premise – I think Ellison is a better writer than Wolfe or King (and I like Wolfe; not so much King), but I don’t know why that would translate into the level of renown enjoyed by those writers. So the body of the essay seems kind of an odd collection of observations and speculations of dubious significance, e.g. Ellison has feuds. Books have been written about literary feuds carried on by people of continued great renown, but for some unexplained reason Ellison’s feuds somehow permanently damaged his reputation. Facts please. Gibron seems genuinely concerned that Ellison's literary reputation may be waning, but he would have better served his purpose by analyzing the literature rather than the reputation.
Ellison Alert!
IDT Entertainment has announced the greenlighting of a new, hour-long series, as a companion to their "Masters of Horror", filming in Vancouver as we speak -- called "Masters of Sci-Fi"
One Mr. H. Ellison has been signed to adapt his short story "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said The Ticktockman" for the show...
http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=10394
informationally,
the mite
With respect to Harlan's diminishing circle of friends.
I can't confidently say that I'll remain stoical when it's my turn to die. I'm sure that I will recant and start blubbering and begging God to have mercy on this poor, ignorant, miserable, piece of mortality.
Keith--
I liked the article, although I would have liked more of a focus on the stories themselves, and on the prose. There are a few errors ("its" when "it's" would be appropriate, for instance); the piece could use another polish. But I admire its contentious, outspoken quality.
Ellison's high-octane persona has probably brought some readers to the important thing, the work, while it has probably pushed others away. He knew that going in, I'd imagine. We wouldn't throw him bouquets and rotten fruit if he hadn't seized the stage.
But posterity, Christ, who knows. It's all a crapshoot. I know that the best of Ellison's work has inspired, shocked, saddened, amused, and deeply touched me. I know that I'm not alone in that. If the earth opened its mouth and gulped down of all his work, it'd be upsetting, yes, but the work has already done enough, made enough of us feel connected, for the briefest time, connected and understood.
Regardless of how many people he's kissed or knocked out.
Eric, you peacenik hippy freak, you take the fun out of everything! I've spent all evening practicing my psychokinetic death ray, and now you're telling me I can't use it?!?
He does, of course, have a point. Whether this person had it in for Ben, or (as I suspect) thought in some bizarro way that he or she was helping, what's done is done. However good it may feel, throwing a Two Minute Hate for whoever did this won't get Ben his gig back. Ben, if you haven't done so already, I suggest writing to the editor and telling him you realize your mistake in posting the review to a public website. You never know, he may be willing to give you a second chance.
Oh, and it's sad that in the twenty-first century, some people still find it necessary to rag on Paul Robeson, who had more grace, fortitude, and sheer courage than any twenty of us put together. Shame on you, Andrew, for dredging up that old "Stalinist" canard.
>so we can all direct bad thoughts at him/her.<
Sadly, Keith, that's one activity in which all of us has participated.
We should all reflect on your suggestion, and wonder if we are pleased that it's so expected.
Article on Harlan
Pretty good article, Keith! There are some small errors. For example, the White Wolf anthology series did not begin after Harlan's heart attack. I clearly remember discussing the second or third volume with HE in preparation for an online event with him the very weekend he went into the hospital. Similarly, the "strange literary stunts" of writing a story in a bookstore window do not come as late in Harlan's career as the article suggests.
But the overall thrust of the article seems dead-on to me, and I'm going to promote it on CompuServe's Books Community (which, yep, I still run after all these years).
By the way, folks, another item of interest to Ellisonomaniacs is this terrific Tom Tomorrow cartoon about internet piracy and "content providers." http://www.salon.com/march97/comics/comics1970324.html
CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE!
Could you just imagine what would happen to Falwell and the rest of the Christian Pharisees of today...not to mention all those who have believed in God, Allah, Buddha or any of the hundreds of religions in this World....if we all came into being through genetic manipulation performed on manlike apes to bring US into this World...by aliens from another world?
If it were true...oh my....the chaos that would follow.
Stan (Ever doubtful and beginning to be skeptical)
Harlan Article Spotted
at
http://popmatters.com/books/features/050714-ellisonharlan.shtml
Called "Lost in the Islets of Langerhans: In Search of Harlan Ellison," it deals it detail with the public history of Harlan. I'm not sure of accuracy, as I'm not on Barney's level of fanaticism, but it seems well considered. It's not a short article.
Ben: After reading, over a period of days, of what happened to you (and less importantly your review), I can only express my sympathy and suggest that when you catch the bastard, you publicly out them here, so we can all direct bad thoughts at him/her.
-Keith
Check sent (again) and Robeson
Susan, I have just placed another check in the mail and sent it to the address at HERC, as I am unable to access the posting you made back in June with the address for the Kilmanjaro Corporation. Please let me know if you do not receive it in a week or so. Rick has my contact information should you need it.
Andrew, I probably should not even respond but when you start bringing in and trashing Paul Robeson, one of my personal heroes, I cannot sit by silently. Robeson was one of the true Renaissance men of the 20th century and his being forgotten by history for the false crime of being a Communist is a true crime.
Robeson was an All American athlete in multiple sports, a scholar whose law school thesis talked of the legal basis for the 14th amendment 50 years before its inclusion in the Constitution, and an accomplished performer whose acting and, especially, singing skills were legendary. (For additional background on Robeson, I would highly recommend reading his biography by Martin Duberman)
He was also fluent in many languages, on the CD of his works that I possess; he speaks in no fewer than 8 languages. All this and the man still had to sit in the back of the bus and could only stay in certain hotels when he traveled in the US. Is it any wonder he was so bitter?
If you learn about his history, you discover that Robeson was not truly a Communist, but rather was looking for a society that treated people of color with greater equality than the US. He was a man who traveled extensively and observed the conditions of minorities wherever he went. In Russia, he felt that he had found a place where everyone was dealt with equally, and thus the positive tone in the speech to which you linked. However, please remember that the extent of the atrocities that Stalin committed did not begin to surface until a few years after his death.
In short, do some research before you call someone a war criminal.
Frank, you know I love you, but your defenses of Spike Lee and Louis Farrakhan miss the mark. I'm sure Spike Lee didn't do Nike commercials because he is desperate for funding for his films. He did it for the same reason anyone does it-- it pays well and it's high profile advertising in the right demographic.
As for Mr. Farrakhan, I'm sorry, but he is undermining his own cause with comments like, "The Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man." Ouch. Can't get behind that AT ALL, and neither can a lot of African Americans. Fortunately, he does not represent the majority of black people's views on the subject. In fact, black women were quite ticked off that he excluded them from the Million Man March. He's just making friends all over the place.
Also, Frank, have you seen Bernard Goldberg's new book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America? Your favorite guy is #11. Check out the thread in the forum for further discussion.
PAB
Frank: re: Spike
"More than likely he did those commercials so that he could have funding for his films. A sad fact of our corporate movie culture."
Of COURSE! Obviously! The only way any filmmaker can stay faithful to his voice and heart w/o compromise to a ceo.
Again, Frank, you are saving me time in having to address Andrew's obtuseness.
Your point about Robeson - a brilliant talent of his era, however erratic - was also correct.
Good job.
There, not their. hehe.
JEFFTY IS FIVE
For anyone interested, or for those who have been following the discussion about this story on the S.P.I.D.E.R. commentary aeyrie, I've just spent a long while posting a reply to Velvet--and a merciless attack on tke3 at that site.
he
Andrew, will give you a dimwit brush so you can paint yourself into yet another corner.
Spike Lee is no worse than many other people in our crazy, corporate society. More than likely he did those commercials so that he could have funding for his films. A sad fact of our corporate movie culture.
Sad fact of life: their is little purity in America.
And your immoral rants againt King and Robeson are black bile.
Times were different in the 50's, Robeson did what he had to do to feel sane in Jim Crow America.
Farrakhan is a complex charactor; his ability to clean up black men who come from the gutter is commendable. The main reason African Americans support him is because of the lack of black leadership, especially after the deaths of King and Malcolm X. When white people tell other other black people to denounce ole Louis, black people get angry, because they do not like white people telling them who their leaders should be. The main reason Farrakhan is popular, especially with young blacks, is because he is not afraid of white power--which is important in the hood.
Sure, Farrakhan says dumb things; some of these things are based on paranoia, others on true disdain by the fact that some Jewish people buy buisinesses in their community, taking jobs away from blacks. Their has been anamosity on both sides, ever since the civil rights movement.
I just give blacks more slack than other groups, because of their situation on Planet Jim Crow.
Sue me.
--------------
By the way, David Cronenberg is going to be at Comic Con.
BIG change of topic
OKAY, I'LL ADMIT I'M NO FAN of "Dubya" and his adminstration, but I never thought of them in this light until reading the following article: http://secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm#1
The kicker is the "14 characteristics" of fascism (compiled by Dr. Lawrence Brill, a Professor of Political Science): they _absolutely_ define the Bush Administration (other administrations and politicians in America have been guilty of one, or more, of the items on the list -- but this is the _first_ time in my lifetime that ALL of the 14 items have applied to one President and his administration).
Yikes! And Swing Heil! (The more I live in modern, conservative America, the easier it is for me to imagine how most of Germany --during the Wiemar Republic and especially afterward -- could so easily wake up to a society like the Third Reich).
Yours in information,
the Man
Susan
Thank You! I was going to ask if the check had finally arrived. WhooHoo! Color me happy!
Harlan--I hope that there is a turn in events, and for the better. My best to you and Susan. I enjoyed reading the essay on the ending of "Jeffty is Five." As a matter of fact, I'm on my way to read it again.
Here if needed for anything,
Mary
Mary--Your copy of DEMON will go out tomorrow.
Sorry mark--picked up the mail today--still no sign of the original check. Will pick up the mail again on Friday and let you know.
All best--Susan
Concrete and Ray Garton
A lot of people have turned me on to a lot of great things. But no one hass pointed me in the direction of more stellar entertainmants than my Unca Harlan.
Concrete is not the least of these.
It never ceases to amaze me how many friends Harlan has. As a matter of fact I was talking to Ray Garton this week, and when he spoke of Harlan shiny bright pearls fell from his mouth. He hasn't forgotten your myriad kindnesses, Harlan.
Dig it,
Neal
Harlan,
I’d like to add my own condolences. I was rereading the introduction of ANGRY CANDY not so long ago and then I heard this news.
I know of no way of dealing with loss other than clinging tightly to what you still have.
Jon: Your reminiscence reminds me of an incident in my career in small-town journalism. I was an English major in college and ended up with the school paper. After that, I went looking for work while vacationing with my Uncle in Texas and found work in a little town.
I landed the job of managing editor, meaning I did a lot of layout, photography and most of the hard news. We had one reporter for city council and one sports guy. They left after about a year, meaning my workload increased quite a bit. I eventually left the job.
I learned a lot about the idiosyncrasies of that little publication, but not as much about A.P. style as I would have liked. I learned more in the first month at a more urban weekly than I did in two years there.
In theory, the chain of command went Publisher, Me, reporter, typesetter, but really went Publisher, Office Manager, Me, etcetera. I had no proofreading staff besides our beleaguered typesetters, some of whom quit within a few days. Most managing editors lasted less than a year. We also had community correspondents, as recently as three years ago! They still exist!
We got our obituaries faxed from the funeral parlor, which then had to be entered into a computer document for pagination. Sometimes the intern at the funeral parlor would bring a photo or two to be scanned in. Despite the impersonal method of delivery, I took great care with the obituaries, knowing how much they can mean to the family now and also for future generations, either clipped in a scrapbook or researched on microfilm.
One week, a few circles of Hell broke loose. The office manager said we had a call from an upset family member: something akin to calling a black hole a minor spatial disturbance. We had two pictures that week, with their names transposed.
The two men had been friends, but a feud developed, transforming them into MORTAL ENEMIES before they died. I learned this from his sobbing daughter, who informed me her Daddy didn’t look a thing like that other guy, but resembled a movie star until the day he died.
I clearly remembered getting the designation from the funeral home. When I suggested this, she replied, “But the director KNEW my Daddy! He wouldn’t put his name on so-and-so’s picture!” Also, she added, anyone working in the paper should have known her father. She’d worked in a paper in college and knew how things went, she added. “Who does y’all’s paste-up?” she asked.
I stared at my computer, thinking about the distance technology had put between her working knowledge and mine, trying to boil it down to a few sentences. Not only did we not have paste-up, we paginated the paper entirely on computer, a process I’d helped usher in.
In panic, I looked at our competitor—yes, even in a small county in a small town we had competition—and saw the exact same caption. I told her the “other paper” had it wrong too and suggested they contact the funeral home, who had someone new working there as well.
“I’m new here myself, ma’am,” I added.
“Really? Well, where are you from?” The same force who’d sounded as if she was marshalling The Furies themselves after me became quite chatty, a 180-degree shift into full hospitality mode.
The next day, we learned the intern had indeed made the mistake. The other, far more sober daughter came into the offices. Apparently, her sister had a reputation for tying it on, another fact neither I nor the intern knew, further compounding our ignorance in the baroque weirdness of small Texas towns. She apologized for her sister and we ran a correction.
We heard from the quieter daughter quite a lot over the next few months. I never heard from the distraught one again, but her voice remains tattooed in my memory.
Harlan: I hope today was better than yesterday, and tomorrow will be better than today. Hang in there.
Ben: Did this person who e-mailed your editor specifically mention that the review was posted on Webderland and direct him here? That is incredibly obnoxious. I'm surprised that your editor would react so harshly towards you and wouldn't realize that you have no personal affiliation with this crank, who obviously acted alone. Maybe he was just freaked out by the dog's head comment. I hope he changes his mind.
This hasn't been the best summer, has it?
PAB
"The Journey" at Comic-con
Some of you may recall my mentioning that I voiced a character in a computer-generated 3-D animation called "The Journey." Last year. It premiered at the Vail Film Festival in March and has been making its way through various other festivals, including Atlanta, Stockholm, and Rome. Later this summer it'll screen at the Reno-Tahoe FF.
I hear that it will also be screened at Comic-con this week, so if any of you guys are going to be there, let me know if you see it and how it goes over. That's my voice as the hero Sanford, aging from 20 to 70 years old in less than 7 minutes.
Thinking of Harlan and Susan
Harlan and Susan...
Once again, I won't be one of the hordes descending on you in the wake of Comic-Con. But I wanted to let you know that you have been in my thoughts. It's been a rough go, hasn't it?
When the dust has settled from those hordes, I'll give you a call. In the meantime, consider this an online hug from someone who loves you madly and respects you greatly.
Tony
The e-mail may have the IP Address of the writer and it may connect up with someone who visits the boards. May not lead directly...but it might.
HARLAN: Late to the party I come, I know. At first, I was loath to join the flood of consolers because it all, I fear, might begin to run together, and seem all too me-too meaningless.
But then, upon reflection, I relized that I was entirely wrong--not just to withhold my own felings for your (and the world's, really) losses, but that I was personally very much obligated to throw some condolent electrons your way.
I've no idea if you've ever slogged through the incredibly-long review of ANGRY CANDY I wrote for Rick on this site. There's only so much time in the days, aftr all, and you likely have far more prssing demands to answer for your hours.
But the main theme in that review was that the book itself could in one way be read as a journal of and a handbook for coming to terms with loss; for dealing with death's callous theft of loves. And the reason that theme was so important for me is that writing it, and radin the book again to do so, helped me immeasurably in coming to terms with the death of my grandmother--and, to a lesser extent, with the death of my dog.
YOU helped me immeasurably, Harlan--and for that, I have nothing but thanks and admiration. Sure, the two of us have only met for a few moments, in the most superficial of ways, but I cannot stress the importance your work has had for me, even past the enjoyment it's given. And I could do no less than try to return the favor.
My advice, such as it is, is simple: TAKE THE TIME.
I don't mean to say that you should slow down; after all, it's the opinion of a great many that such would be impossible. I mean that you should take the time you have with friends, the time you HAVE had with friends, and grab tightly to it. Snatch it greedily from the maw of passage, squeezing all the juice from it you can. The many books of Evan Hunter will forever remain with us; cleave to your enjoyment of them. Cleave even tighter to the friendship you had; take the time of that friendship and cradle it in your heart like the bounteous gift it was and is.
Will Eisner, Julie Schwartz--the mere fact that you were friend to these men should be taken as a gift of the highest order. Be honest, I think of you as the embodiment of luck that you got to share so much of these men's time and heart. Though I too bemoan the fact that they're not here anymore, I realize what an amazing treasure we were given to have them, and to have them as long as we did.
Hold the appreciation you have for Byron Preiss--business problems and fallings-out be damned--tightly; think of all the good accomplished by your friendship and your association, never mind what happened to close the door, and cherish that. Even taken too soon, his presence in the world was a gift we all of us who read shared. The gift has been returned, it seems; but the memories of the gifting live on.
All of those you have lost; all those you still have, take that time. Take the time to call someone you've not spoken with in too long; take the time you have with those you see every day and strive to enjoy it all the more.
An easy way to think of it is this: Think of the appreciation you have for and with Susan. Try to take the time to open yourself to the idea of showing and enjoying even the slightest fraction of that appreciation with all those who brighten your life, even temporarily. Because, in the end, it's that brightness we all need, and that brightness which should light our life. Though some of those candles may have gone out, the light they shed goes on forever.
Look, I sure as hell won't say it doesn't or shouldn't hurt. It does, I know. I feel the pain for a lot of these passings as well, and I never even MET the people in question, let alone be befriended by them. But the hurt should never be allowed to overwhelm all the good that their just being here gave.
Take the time, and realize just how much it would have hurt to NEVER have had inspirations, influences, friends like those lost. And realize how lucky we are to have had them shine for us.
It's all stuff you've heard before, I know--but that makes it no less true. Please try to take the time, and listen.
Cry if you must, Harlan ... but smile, too, thinking of all the good times with these good people and their oh-so-very-good works.
(Oh--and a nice letter to Sandi Preiss would probably give the both of you a bit of succor. Couldn't hurt.)
BEN: I feel bad for you. When you first posted your review here, I immediately thought that it was a mistake--this could, of course, be considered as an abridgement of "First North American Rights" which you sold, in effect, to the publisher. In retrospect, I regret that I didn't e-mail you then and get you to ask Rick to remove it.
Still, I think you will be able, with the help of many, to get back to where you were, albeit after you are duly chastised. At the very worst, it's still a life lesson, I guess.
PAUL CHADWICK: Though I hate the fact that it's such a sad reason which brings you here, I just have to let you know of the enjoyment your work gives me. Thank you for that enjoyment.
So I was 18 going on 19, and I'd been hired by the town newspaper for the summer going into my freshman year as reporter/jack-of-all-trades. The second half of that equation meant that everything the other reporters didn't want to do for the summer got handed off to me to supplement doing the same reporting load as they did.
It's a good learning experience, btw, though if I never see another community happenings piece written on pink-lined paper, it may be too soon. This was a small-town newspaper, keep in mind, when they still had community correspondents who wrote up birthdays and weddings and graduations and strawberry socials from the various little places scattered around the slightly larger little places that surrounded the largest little place with a newspaper.
And when someone went on vacation for two weeks, the editor (not the editor-in-chief, the editor -- more anon) handed over obituaries to me as well. Field the calls from the funeral homes, write them up.
So, comes a day...
Angry call from the director of one of the funeral homes, followed by an even angrier call from a grieving daughter.
Instead of typing that someone had been survived by two sons named John and Gene, I'd typed that they'd been survived by two sons named John.
Yes, 'typed.' I checcked my notes -- I'd written it down correctly.
So the editor-in-chief calls me in, having fielded yet another phone call. Unlike the editor, who'd been doing things for about three years and had decided to just pass this up the food chain without saying anything, the EIC (who really did, and does, resemble whatever model you might imagine for Perry White if he lived in a small town for fifty years) did have a few words to say, in between puffing on a cigar.
He looked at the obituary, shook his head, and when I tried to apologize, waved it off. "You won't do that again, will you?"
"Um, no, definitely not."
"Why the hell are you on obituaries?"
I explained.
"One of the receptionists handles that when [so-and-so's] off. She'll do it. Proofread your printed copy for context as well as spelling in the future." And he waved me out.
Keep your chin up, Ben.
Cheers, Jon
Susan:
Thank you. I received my books yesterday, and they were in perfect condition (natch). Twelve days of delivery time was not unexpected, given Canada Day, the 4th of July, and sick-day extensions to the long weekend. Still, I felt like the anchor for the world's slowest relay team.
How much more would it be for the pony express?
---------------------------
Ben:
I agree with Steven that you should reapproach the editor after a suitable cooling-off period--provided you still want to write articles for the guy. I don't know what your working relationship with him was like, but I know from experience that getting fired ain't necessarily a bad thing.
Someone who writes as well as you won't have trouble finding another gig.
D.
Benjamin,
Let me add my voice to the others supporting you. Sounds like you've got some good people on your side.
Chuck
I'm not terribly worried about the disappearance of the book. Electronic devices might replace the mass market paperback and such but there will always be those who want the physical artifacts of books. Especially special editions that are well made works of art in themselves. Computers can't replace that. And even a paperback doesn't need batteries.
Ben,
I wish your employer considered the virtue of giving someone a second chance. I'm a bit numb right now from a hectic day, so I can't articulate my thoughts as well as I'd like to. But that sucks and I hope you find other opportunities soon.
Your talk with Harlan should be or must have been interesting.
To Benjamin:
While I've never had the pleasure of meeting you, for what it's worth, what happened to you stinks. The well meaning person who thought they were helping you should have thought twice about what they were doing. I hope they have the decency to come forward and apologize. (Who would do something that stupid?) Best of luck to you.
Some Highlights from Readercon
Readercon was, by and large, a fine time--very serious, no Klingons, just readers of fantasy and science fition.
Kate Wilhelm told wonderful stories to a near empty room! Fortunately, my buddy Mark Walsh and I were able to sit with her at the coffee talk. She told us about her days at Milford. One story involved Harlan doing exercises in the livcing room at Anchorage--very funny stuff.
Scott Edelman and Joe Haldeman were both terrific, straight forward guys who went out of their way to extend kindness to their audience.
Barry Malzberg had tremendous energy and impressed evceryone with his encyclopedic recall of nearly everything in the publishing biz.
Harlan: Kate and Barry both look great. I thought you would want to know.
Steve Dooner
Brian, as you note, "But, Harlan stressed, these letters should be polite." If my recollection is correct, Harlan took much the same tack when he was conned into leading an unnecessary letter-writing campaign on behalf of the original "Star Trek." I won't guaranteee it--memory is hazy after thirty to thirty-five years--but that's how I remember it.
Harlan has always understood the difference between blowing up a bridge and inviting another person to cross it with him.
Whoever sent that e-mail behaved idiotically. If that person is here, and didn't intend to screw Ben, Harlan or anyone else over, now is the time to speak up. If in no other way, then in an apologetic e-mail to Ben. Because the ante is ratcheting up as long as this remains undetermined.
For what it's worth,
Alex
If Ben was fired over an e-mail, he should be able to get a copy of it. I think it needs to be posted here, with all headers, so we can make an effort to determine the writer. Effectively everyone on the board has been accused of this, so it's only fair that the evidence be presented by the accuser.
BENJAMIN WINFIELD
Call me the moment you read this. If you don't have my phone number, fax me yours. Rick can give you both numbers.
If the quote you used in your post--nailing his pet's head to a table--is verbatim, I want to find the sonofabitch, too, because
he/she has used a phrase identified with me, a phrase I devised some long while ago, and this appears, at first blush, to be an attempt not only to screw you...but to set me up, as well.
Call.
Harlan
IGONORAMUS ALERT
i knew it was you, Rob, I KNEW IT.
someone turned on the ignoramus magnet and up pops my old brother-in-arms Rob.
Rob Rob Rob
shut my mouf
Gut bustedly,
Nil
Rob and Frank and Kristin
Thanks for your more or less (in Rob's case less) civil response.
1. Birth of a Nation is a work of fiction based on a trilogy of novels by Thomas Dixon Jr. It's irrespective that Griffith thought it was historically accurate. It is fiction.
2. Birth of a Nation is an extraordinarily Beautiful film. Exactly what von Stroheim (Greed) believed.
3. If Birth of a Nation has no artistic merits then no film proceeding it does either. Pretty much every film ever made. Since they wouldn't exist as they do if not for Griffith.
4. Within the fictional narrative of Birth of a Nation it would have been craven and worse if the character that killed the Negro lieutenant had done otherwise. Doesn't show how he was killed, Rob.
5. There are no "watermelon" patches. Part of the scenario involves cotton fields that provides for a poignant character development scene that Gone With the Wind is indebted to.
6. There are no blacks tarred and feathered in the film only one white person is. As actually happened to Jefferson Davis. So Rob proves himself to be the ignoramus, not I.
7. The rest of Rob’s commentary dribbled away into incoherent non sequitur’s where he seems to acknowledge Griffith’s undisputed Genius “but obviously that’s not what this was about”. Huh?
8. Spike Lee has made Nike commercials for that mega corporation and therefore has materially supported third world sweat-shops (where you’re locked in) that are no better then slavery. And is therefore a perfectly self-conscience bloody hypocrite. He is also married to a corporate defense lawyer. Get On the Bus is one of his more recent films, and is the one featuring Farrakhan, O.J. Simpson, Johnny Cochran and his other friends.
9. Frank you’re glossing over the fact that Farrakhan has made voluble statements regarding interracial couples and how they shouldn’t exist. Or the fact that he’s probably the most visible spokesman in the U.S.A. for a religion that has blown up 6th century Buddhist statues in Afghanistan, somewhat similar to the radicals who torched the apartment where Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind. Intemperate is an understatement.
10. Martin Luther King was an adulterating Baptist minister.
John Brown was a religious terrorist.
Paul Robeson was a Stalin Prize winner and war crimes apologist. http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc9804/robeson.htm
Anyone who can read As I Lay Dying and derive pleasure from it deserves it.
Walt Whitman’s pseudo Indian mysticism and travel diaries are boring. Thomas Hardy disliked him and thought he wrote free verse because he was too ignorant to understand meter. Edgar Allan Poe is superior, but he supported slavery and considered himself a Virginia gentleman, so.
Several Points, the first of which is about the fellow who lost Ben his job. Here's something to keep in mind. Back when Terry Gilliam was having trouble getting _Brazil_ released, Harlan gave it a phenomenal review in _Fantasy and Science Fiction_. He urged people to write to then-Universal exec Sid Sheinberg, urging him to release the film. But, Harlan stressed, these letters should be _polite_; I think he added something about knowing how people can get with such letters.
I think of that coment every time I read through Harry Knowles' site, where bad movies aren't ever merely bad: they "suck the hairy banana" or "suck ripe gorilla balls" or "chow down on the foetid entrails of Cthulhu's foreskin." And the fates they wish upon those who make these films are, well, _florid_. One can easily imagine the letters they work up when they hear about a studio firing a director, or a network cancelling a show. Lord knows whether this is due to passion for film, a desire to come up with a really striking and vomitous image, or some short-circuit of dementia that encourages extreme and out-of-proportion venting. But it's a sad mark of many fanboys... even well-meaning ones.
If this is the case, then I sincerely hope that the letter-writer in question is asking him- or herself some really hard, serious questions about their conduct among civilized people. If not, then may his ir her fate be... florid.
My exposure to Byron Preiss' work was through Harlan, actually: his _Illustrated_ collection and the Dillons' anthology were wonderful, and I liked his attempt to do _The Stars My Destination_ with Howard Chaykin. Such men are always welcome and needed in publishing.
Oh, I gotta give Paul Chadwick a shout-out. I love _Concrete_, enjoyed _The World Below_ immensely, and I'm glad you have a good gig with the Wachawskis' online venture. (For one thing, it oughta give you enough freedom to do more _Concrete_. I missed him.) Met you at a convention in Philly where Harlan was in attendance: I used to write for the _The Humanist_ and _Skeptic_.
Google, Books, etc.
Google's "scan/download/print" program (purposely riffing on Apple's ad campaign) is being watched VERY carefully indeed by a whole bunch of people. And some of us have shorter tempers than Harlan.
As an aside, a corollary to the Googleprint controversy: The Copyright Office will be holding "public roundtables" on the "orphan works" issue shortly--the last week of July in DC, the first week in August at Cal-Berkeley's law school. Although not formally representing Our Gracious Host, I'm currently slated to be at one or the other of those sessions... at which time I will link up the "orphan problem" with Googleprint (etc.) and sheer laziness.
Ben,
You and I have disagreed in the past, but what was done to you was irresponsible at best and malicious at worst. I am sorry to hear about your predicament and hope you do find better avenues with better editors (ala comments by Steven Barber). Good luck.
Harlan,
Truly sorry to hear about the latest.
Byron Preiss
I just learned of Byron's accident and death. A sad day. I only worked for him once, but we discussed many projects -- the guy had the energy of a swarm of bees in a human body. I always admired the high caliber of design and illustration of the books. He could sweet-talk great illustrators better than anybody (which is what it took, since his budgets were never top end). A wonderful body of work he produced...he's missed by many.
There will be an informal rememberance at Comicon on Sunday, July 17, room 22, starting at 11:30 AM.
KRISTIN RUHLE: I sent you an email.
FRANK CHURCH: Copyright might be in danger, but BOOKS will never go away, as folks prefer reading words in print. There's a sound physiological reason for this: reflected light is more pleasing to the brain than transmitted light, and it's more conducive to contemplation. The funny thing is, PDAs will probably one day become almost indistinguishable from regular books--they'll be lightweight, low-energy, and the display screens won't beam anything to the reader's eye. It'll be the perfect example of a new technology that exactly emulates an older one.
BEN: If there's one thing I've learned about the Web (and life in general), it's this: Be open, be honest, but NEVER volunteer any more personal information about yourself than is absolutely necessary. Always ask, "Is there anything here I wouldn't want my worst enemy to see?" before you post, and you'll prevent crap like this from happening. The sad thing is, this person probably though he/she was doing you some kind of a favor by emailing your boss.
A sad visit
Harlan, I don't need to tell you what Byron was to me. Byron Preiss Visual Publications was the beginning of my career, and now we are all made less. This is the way of the universe; I have nothing to give you, or Howard, that I imagine would help. I would like to say to the hearing of this very well-plugged-in community at the Pavilion that I didn't know Byron the man well, but I knew he was the rare businessman-dreamer -- the kind who dowsed and mined precious fantasy, AND kept the trains running on time. I didn't know how I'd miss him -- we never do.
I admire you, Harlan, for thinking of the Preiss family before your own needs. Needs which I can only imagine. I have no advice; you will do the unerringly just thing. My heart goes out to you. I learned this awful only yesterday. I still don't know what to do, or who, or if to call. Be well.
Mark Zug
Sorry, I said 'stick,' I meant 'stickler.'
This, from a law site at Duke University about Google's attempt to digitalize books online:
"Last December Google announced the formation of partnerships with select major libraries to begin digitizing and storing the libraries’ collections online. Google aims to provide individuals with the ability to search the full text of these books from anywhere using the Google search engine. This project will greatly increase access to those works in the public domain, but what about the books still under copyright protection?"
I bet this will be a stick one for the future. Books may actually be obsolete very soon. A sad state of events.
Trolls and Foul Play
Benjamin -
As are the others, I am deeply disturbed by the actions of the person who contacted your editor. As I have referenced previously, I take serious offense at anonymous trolls who love nothing better than use the internet to cause trouble for others. They have ethical and sociological issues no one on this board is going to help them resolve. I would echo Mr. Castro's advice about personal info.
It does seem, however, that the editor overreacted. In rereading your original post it seems to me that he should certainly have rejected what would be a republication of the review, but not terminated the entire relationship. You indicated that the piece had merely been submitted, not approved, for publication. You acted naively, not maliciously.
It's a mistake, granted an annoying one, but something the editor should note, express unhappiness, but talk to you about. Let him cool down and then reapproach him.
TROLLS
Are there really folks who get up in the morning with the sole purpose of who-can-I-screw-with-today? Unfortunately, we all know the answer is yes. I just can't fathom that mind-set.
To the douche bag who screwed Ben, there's a spit in hell waiting just for you.
Best of luck Ben.
Ben...
Let me know if a professionally-worded apology and explanation from the webmaster to your editor would help in any way. - Rick
Trolls Running Amuck
Before this is permitted to get divisive, I must report my strong suspicion that the culprit was not one of this forum's more voluble regulars, but one of the many invisible trolls who lurk about, just aching for a chance to cause serious trouble. (One reason we should ALWAYS be careful about personal information, posted here.) Nevertheless, whoever did it should be deeply ashamed of himself.
Benjamin: I wish you good luck finding something else.
I committed a disastrous mistake here a few days ago, when I posted my review of BATMAN BEGINS. I found out later - much to my regret - that making unpublished material available at other media outlets is considered to be the height of unprofessionalism. This was simply a case of me being naive and, well, stupid.
However, what REALLY depresses me is the probability that my one act of naivete and stupidity will somehow automatically negate the responsibility of the other party in this mess. I've seen this kind of mentality before, and I hope it isn't becoming a trend.
Anyway, one of you apparently went out of his/her way to contact the editor of my newspaper (whose title I idiotically supplied in my BATMAN BEGINS post) and threatened to "nail his dog's head to the dining room table unless he found space to publish my critique of BATMAN BEGINS."
I really would like to know what exactly was going through that individual's head at the time he/she wrote a malevolent e-mail to my own boss, thinking that it would actually be beneficial to me in some way. In any case, whoever you are - I'd just like to let you know that you got me fired.
Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You're a wonderful human being.
Not ragging on anyone (yes i know its a doublepost)
I am truly sorry for Harlan's loss and didn't intend any "snide remarks" but I see how it could have been read that way. So if I'm in trouble for breaking the rules rick, you could delete the EARLIER post. It's midnight plus and i gotta get up.
I don't know what to say.
kristin
Guys, you all can post whatever you like, but I think turning this place into the "Rag on Sandi Preiss" forum would be a HORRIBLE idea. So what say we show as much restraint and class as Harlan has, and keep the snide comments to ourselves?
Harlan, as always, you have my deepest sympathy in this awful time.
Oh. "Unresolved issues?" Bitterness? *Sigh* sometimes I guess you just have to accept people aren't going to forgive you in this life...what do they think, that you're a mad dog or something? You didn't offer any insult to his *wife*, did you? It's just so unfair. You have my sympathy, Harlan.
Harlan,
I simply don't know what to say. I can only give my condolences and hope this is all that life dumps on you. It's been enough, for anyone.
Chuck
Oh my god.
so sorry to hear that, harlan.
I'd ask if you and Susan would like to go for some chinese, maybe watch a showing of Fantastic Four on me, but I understand that it's a bit of commute. Hang in there.
Okay...I think you're due for a break from all of this...again, anything I can do, let me know. My heart goes out to you.
Hadn't heard the news yet when I called this morning, Harlan. Add my sadness...
Love to you and Sue from Chantzie & I.
Oh, fuck, Harlan.
I'm so sorry.
I love you, and I'm here if you need me. Any time.
Close mutual personal friends spoke to Sandi Preiss.
I was called this morning and was told by Byron's editor in chief, and my longtime friend, Howard Zimmerman, that
(quote) "the family would prefer I not attend the funeral" (unquote)
That's that.
Harlan
NOT ANOTHER!
Oh shit Harlan....I wish the Grim Reaper would take a vacation!
Let us not have another loss.
STAN
Harlan, death is a rat, and your humor and style is the rat killer, my friend.
Read that National Lampoon piece, it will give you a good smile, if that is what you need.
We live in a sad world, where the shadows try to sweep us into a corner. Better that you have the bigger broom, Harlan.
Much peace to your deceased friends--and to you.
:(
I'm also moruning the loss of some great people:
http://www.saskatchewanairshow.com/main.php?group=/entertainment&action=/flying
http://www.aero-news.net/LinkToArticle.cfm?ContentBlockID=ac06a205-0f48-432c-86fc-a94cae23e638
If you don't quite get the significance of their loss, think NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt's death.
I met Jimmy Franklin once, and had a brief conversation with him. Seen him fly many times, and he was unlike nyone else in that jet-powered Waco. I've also see Bobby Younkin fly, but don't remember if I've met him.
:(
F.Y.I., everyone: Harlan HAS reached out to Byron's family, so let's leave it alone. Here's the obit the New York Times ran today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/nyregion/11preiss.html
Harlan, she may not be happy to hear from you. But you'll never know unless you call. Why spend the rest of your life wondering if you should have called? Please call.
Harlan, far be it for me to offer advice, but I was in a similar situation. A friend that I grew up with and was very close to for decades, we had a falling out in our 20s. When she lost her sister in 9/11 (a girl I'd watched grow up and for whom I never lost affection), I was in the same awkward position of being completely griefstricken and at a loss for what to do.
I decided to send a card to my friend offering my condolences, giving my contact information, and intimating that I would make contact in the near future. My friend was gratified to hear from me despite our past differences, and while we're not back in each other's lives, we are back in contact.
My deepest condolences on the loss of your friend. My dad is your age so I can imagine what you've been going through. Take care of yourself through this grieving process, painful as it is.
PAB
Mike Moorcock et al
Harlan-
Glad you talked to Mike. He's keeping a stiff upper lip and hoping for the best. I know you have had many losses in a short time. I'm thinking of you and praying for your strength through this. We met briefly twice, and I'm sure you don't remember me; but consider me a friend who cares.
With sorrow, but hopes for brighter day,
-Miqque
Mr Preiss and shit happens
Sounds like you need to reconcile....do show your compassion for the family in their time of loss as well as your own grief. I know it could be awkward and you could feel like an interloper, but you are VERY human. I don't feel qualified to say whether you should use the phone or not (maybe Susan should do it? Wife to wife or something?) but am impressed by the outpouring of sympathy on this board. Amy's post speaks for a lot of people like me, too.
Gawd, whata lot of shit to happen in one week. I know how I'd feel if someone I'd known but been out of touch with, or had parted with on bad terms the last time...if I heard they had died. I mean, even with good fiends if they have a long list of contacts and you aren't first on it....One of my friends lost his mother and niece in a tragic accident and I only learned about it from the newspaper obituary. I never blamed him - he and his wife were going thru an emotional rollercoastser since their daughter was born the same week! - aznd I went to the memorial service. And that was with good acquaintances, not ex-friends or anything.
And I was going to say what a good television show was on tonight, Robin Williams on "Inside the Actors Studio" on Bravo. Wrong time, wrong place to bring up anything cheerful.
Take care,
Kristin
Perhaps a good initial approach would be one that's a step removed in terms of intimacy. Instead of calling, write what you'd want to convey and include that you'd like to talk if she's up for it. Via email, you could get it to someone such as Steranko who's already in contact with her quickly and have them pass on a printout. Or ask someone similar to discreetly inquire if she'd like to hear from you?
This might be relevant
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/nylifata104338169jul10,0,6545616.story?coll=ny-main-tabheads1
Harlan,
You should call. Business is just buisness, this is far more important.
Ai, ai, ai, Harlan, this has been a lousy two weeks for you! I will hold a good thought for you and hope your grief eases soon.
Sincerely,
Mark W.
Ah Harlan, I'm so sorry. Jeez, I knew life was cruel but I'd no idea it was a sadist. I never new Mr. Priess, but the Ibook editions of Weird Heroes and Wild Cards hold a prized place on my shelf, and the Lensman books as well. All these dreamers being taken from us, and the banal just keep chugging on, producing/consuming consuming/producing. I don't know what to say.
Byron Preiss
I saw and heard Byron at the Will Eisner memorial earlier this year - a man whose work I had much admired over the years ever since THE ILLUSTRATED HARLAN ELLISON came out. I wanted to speak to him there and then, alongside all the other greats present - but it didn't seem appropriate, given the occasion.
I'm still a little shell-shocked from the London bombings that I could so easily have been caught up in.
And now this awful news...
God is indeed a malign thug.
Call
Harlan, you should call. Regardless of the circumstances of the last few years you cite a 40 year friendship with Byron Priess that trumps any recent difficulties.
More importantly, if you call you will doubtless help someone in agony cope just a little bit better.
If you do not call, you will forever worry that you should have.
"We can't amend the past, but we can amend the future."
Harlan, call Sandi, if she rejects your sympathy that is her problem not yours. All you can do is offer your help.
If she is angry it won’t be your fault.
At times like this, we're reminded to cherish the good friends that we still have. Based on my personal experience, I can only recommend that, if you've stopped speaking to an old friend because of a molehill that somehow got blown up into a mountain, get in touch with the person and straighten things out, NOW!
I put off trying to repair a serious rift in a certain friendship for years. When i finally decided that it was time, she was dead.
And, Harlan, please be strong. My thoughts are with you.
Jim Steranko on Byron Preiss
http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=003970
THE FINAL WORD
Sadly, it's true.
I spoke to Jim Steranko.
He got the word yesterday from Byron's daughter, Karah.
It's true, it's horrible, and it's numbing.
Harlan
BYRON PREISS
Byron was a friend and more, for forty years. If we had, at long last, after extensive associations, reached a business glitch, it in no way dims my horror and sadness at losing such an integral part of my life.
I find myself in an awkward position: I am desperate to speak to his wife, Sandi, and find out if there is anything Susan and I can do for her and the kids, but these last few strained months businesswise make it a conundrum. I don't know what to do.
But his death is shattering and stunning.
Right now, I am at a loss.
Harlan
Ron Moore comments on Harlan Ellison
Apologies if posted here before but Battlestar Galactica's current scribe, Ron Moore, has written a tribute to Harlan at:
http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/archives/2005/03/index.html
Scroll down and you'll find it (Dated March 4th 2005).
FAQ
It Continues
Not a close friend, by any stretch; I know there have been serious recent disputes between him and Harlan (as well as him and myself).
But needs to be noted.
Publisher Byron Preiss was killed in a car accident, apparently yesterday at noon.
Linking to S.P.I.D.E.R.
Mr. Leslie,
Your question is fine, fret not.
You will see at the top of this very page, a few paragraphs sketching out the rules here. You will find a mention of "another place". It's blue colored. Click on it.
You will now be on the "other side" of the Webderland "chat" experience. A lot of the limitations invoked on this side are gone (though the guidelines about being civil remain, even if broken ocassionally). This is a "threaded" board -- meaning that discussions can be divided into topics, rather than being the mish-mash of ongoing conversation here.
One of those forums is labeled "S.P.I.D.E.R." -- in that forum is a topic labeled something on the order of: "S.P.I.D.E.R. #6 -- Jeffty is Five" -- THAT is were Mr. Ellison's latest essay on his writing will be found.
Enjoy it, it's great (as always).
informationally,
the mite
At the risk of sounding like a total idiot,how exactly do I link to the S.P.I.D.E.R. forum?
I am excited to hear Harlan is finaly writing about the ending of "Jeffty is Five". Maybe he has written on it before and I have not seen it but the last thing I remember readind was Harlan saying the ending should be obvious.I have always taken the ending to imply that Jeffty's mom killed him in the tub as an act of mercy but it was not exactly obvious in the story.
So any help getting to S.P.I.D.E.R. for an internet apprentice?
Thanks
Paul
Amy,
Whatever you're reading into my post, it's not there. It's only another example of me putting my moron foot into my moron mouth at the worst conceivable time. I was ATTEMPTING to imply my respect for Harlan's inner strength in unbelievably difficult times, but I see that I've left even THAT open for misinterpretation.
Steve's post really echoes my feelings. I cannot add much more that has already been said. My condolences to Harlan, Susan, the families, and all those who held these folks so close.
I did see an interesting post at:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050708/en_nm/leisure_writers_dc which opens an all new debate on writing etc. My fave link from there deals with a certain Mr. Shore, whose 'reality' show could only be named "Who Wants to Beat the Crap Out of Pauly Shore?"
MY MISTEAKS--UR--MISTAKES and Other things
Harlan...My last post I made some booboos. The fact that Ed McBain was really Evan Hunter...and the novels I read were the McBain books of the 87th Precinct and not the 82nd...so sorry. I mean...at 59 I tend to forget minor details...along with being sick (oh by the way...my doctor tells me it was not pneumonia...THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL I GOT! Geez! Maybe I am very lucky to be breathing now)
STAN
Oh, and thank you for the good words. I'm wallowing in work, such as that "Jeffty" post, so I don't give myself downtime to ruminate. But oh what complex troubled dreams I'm having these nights. This must be what it was like inside Clark Ashton Smith's head all the time.
Notwithstanding, you are all kind and fine. Thank you again
Harlan
FOR THOSE INTERESTED:
I have just entered a very long, perhaps 2-3000 word explanation of the ending of my story "Jeffty is Five" on the Forum thread called S.P.I.D.E.R. FORUM #6.
Harlan
Harlan,
Despite having encountered you in person only a handful of times, I have, in common with most of the denizens of Webderland, developed a considerable affection for you through your open and friendly posts here, to say nothing of your vast corpus of intensely personal published works. So when I read that you have endured a series of painful losses in a short time, it feels almost as if a personal friend has been wounded. In response, I can only add my voice to the chorus of consolations. If nothing else, the sheer volume of this outpouring of sympathy should tell you that your grief matters to a great many people. I hope that knowledge may be of some comfort to you, and that those who are closest to you, especially Susan, will be able to provide the solace that you need to weather this difficult ordeal.
With best wishes,
Steve J.
"show us what you're REALLY made of"? Oy.
Harlan,
My sincerest condolences. Bear through it - show us the stuff you're REALLY made of.
Harlan:
My deepest condolences on the loss of your friends. You're a fortunate man sir to have known such wonderful people.
Colleen
Sympathy
My deep felt sympathy goes out to you and Susan at the loss of ED McBAIN...I read some of the 82nd Precient stories when I was a kid.
STAN
Harlan,
My condolances to you in this troubling time.
Readercon
Hey Everyone,
I'm out here at Readercon in Massachusetts. Barry Malzberg's here. Along with Samuel R. Delaney, Scot Edelman and others.
Don't mean to tell tales but Harlan's name keeps coming up whenever someone needs an example of genius or wit--quite an extraordinary thing.
Malzberg told a wonderfully funny story about Harlan and C. L. Moore--more on this later. Can't say much now because I'm off to Day 2, but I'll report back in full tonight.
Steve Dooner
Better days, Harlan. Better days.
D.
Harlan, just wanted to add my condolences to all the others here, and perhaps a small particle, a frission of comfort concerning Terry Dowling and his heart.
I've carried a stint around inside me for two years so far. Haven't missed a beat. I have a feeling he'll do even better.
It's not much, but I wanted to offer something.
Chuck
Rick please forgive double post.....Moorcock's MB says
on multiverse.org (see the Moorcock Abroad thread in the forum) Moorcock says the infection is in the bone - "if only" it were just gout! - and that he enjoyed talking to Harlan "even if he does get stuff wrong" (sic) also that he's sorry McBain died and that if he needs surgery he'll have it done back in Texas for logistical reasons. Hum, who was it here posted verbatim from Webderland but didn't give their own name? I know you have to register to post as anything but "guest" and even Mike himself sometimes has a hard time getting on! I might post, but I'm not registered either - just occasional lurker.
Kristin
OMG Harlan! I was being so sassy, I didn't know when we saw you again it would be this way!
My deepest condolences. (Wasn't Terry Dowling the one who edited the Essential collections?)
I hope Moorcock recovers all right. I saw his posting on his website the other day..he said French doctors are very good...
Please do take care...
Kristin
The one thing I really don't like about the internet is that you can't reach out to those you care about and give them a hug. Wish I was there to give you one sir...just know that you have my condolences. I wish I could do more...
Adding to Lynn's offer, if there's anything, just let me know. I'd be happy to help.
With bowed head and quiet heart, my condolences on the losses you've experienced. Take care, sir.
My thoughts are with you in this dark week of loss.
------Patty
Harlan, my condolences on you recent losses, and my thanks for the information on Terry Dowling’s heart attack. I had no idea he had one, and have sent off a get well email.
You keep well too, OK?
Kerry
Delurking to pass my condolences to Harlan & Susan for recent losses and to pass on good wishes to them, Mr. Moorcock & Mr. Sheckley.
Harlan & Susan~
My deepest and most heartfelt condolences. If you need anything, you know where to find me.
L.
Harlan,
Condolences on your recent loss. We're still dealing with the aftermath of the bombing here but all the best to you and your friends families.
FAQ
I'm saddened to hear of Ed McBain's passing, all the more so because, thus far, my summer reading has consisted of a massive anthology called TRANSGRESSIONS ... edited by Ed McBain. It's ten original novellas by Donald Westlake, Stephen King, Lawrence Block, Joyce Carol Oates, Walter Mosley, Anne Perry and others, including a new 87th Precinct story. It was obviously a labor of love on McBain's part, and just the most recent of his many achievements.
Harlan and friends,
I've deposited bits of myself with my friends throughout my life, so that when things get bleak I've been able to reclaim those bits just by being near the people who matter the most. When those people die, we lose those parts of ourselves, and this seems to be heading to a point where there is nothing left of you. Those bits are still there, though. Remember that love is generating the sorrow, and the memories of a writer never die. Be kind to yourself, Harlan.
-Jim
ah, Harlan
I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your good friends. If I had advice that could take the hurt away or assign it reason and meaning, this would be a longer message.
May you find what peace of mind exists.
I'll keep a thought for you and the fallen.
HARLAN,
Please accept my heartfelt condolences during this difficult time. And know that we, your "newer circle of friends", share your grief.
Harlan,
I'm very sorry.
Take care.
Condolences
Though my words cannot salve the holes ripped in your heart by the pain and passing of your friends, know this:
Grief is a burden none of us -- not even you -- need carry alone. Once, not so long ago, you told us, "when it is all written, there remains nothing more important than the lives you touch, and that touch you. You are not alone."
None of those you lost -- we have lost -- were alone. Through magnificent words and countless casual kindnesses, they touched many, many lives. Yes, the world is colder, sadder, less colorful for their passing. But they all, each one, left the place a little brighter than they found it. And we are all better because they were. That is as fitting a memorial as any I know.
I can do nothing more than tell you -- though there are those you loved who have passed or are in pain, you are not alone, Harlan. Most importantly you have Susan -- and significantly less so, you have us.
And together -- we had them.
Bern
Loss
Harlan -
I add my trivial little voice to the chorus below. There are no words, only thoughts.
Steve
Harlan: deepest condolences from both Alia and myself. If we can in any way lighten the burden, please let us know.
Harlan:
Sorry to hear so many good people and true have checked out or are taking it on the chin. My condolences to you.
Try to soldier forward, man; the losses are great, but you're still kicking, as are lots of other terrific folks.
As others have suggested here, perhaps the thing to do is get out and see some of the fine ones that are still around and accessible.
harlan
i'm so sorry
respectfully,
neal
I'm sitting here wondering what I could possibly say, or write, that might lift Harlan's spirits a little. Anything that might alleviate the pain, or provide some uplift. I'm basically a stranger a continent away. All I can offer are words.
Then Barney had a damn fine suggestion. Harlan, Barney's right. Get on the phone, talk to someone you haven't chatted with in a few years. Invite some old friends over for a coupla rounds of pool. Losing old friends may be inevitable in life, but there's no sense in simply accepting that. Keep the bonds you have fresh and strong.
Harlan,
I would give you a hug if I could. That boundless depth of heart that allows you to articulte what the rest of the world feels is a two edged sword. It comes with a similarly pronounced capacity to experience pain and grasp loss. Knowing that, I feel miserably helpless. I wish I could say or do something.
Susan,
I know you are doing everything possilbe to comfort him. You're his rock. Hug him for me, please?
Y'all are in my prayers.
Cindy
A Lighter Note
It has been a rough week, Harlan. Condolences, and I am with you in my hopes for those on the list who are still with us.
Lighter note: one of your more widely-disseminated recent pronouncements earns some ribbing on this site.
http://www.nationallampoon.com/nl/08_features/war_of_the_worlds/war_of_the_worlds.asp
Design of the Bram Stoker award
Horror award triggers tearful response from local writer
By ROGER MCBAIN, Arts Beat
July 8, 2005
... Several of her (Judi Rohrig) stories have made it into published anthologies, and more are due for publication in the future. Now she has a new creative problem to solve - where to put the Bram Stoker award.
"It's really a rather expensive trophy with a plaque," she said. "It's specially designed by (author) Harlan Ellison, and it's in the shape of house - a haunted house." ...
Requires Registration:
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/arts_beat/article/0,1626,ECP_792_3909785,00.html
*** Harlan *** Like the others, I'm incredibly sorry for your losses. I'm not naive enough to wish Mr. Moorcock a "speedy" recovery since I got my own little preview with regard to speedy recoveries this year but, well, he's in my thoughts.
If you talk to him and he's in a good mood, please tell him one of your atheist friends said GOD was fucking with him for writing BEHOLD THE MAN. It's as good a thing as any to say to the bed-ridden.
At the risk of offering advice to my elders I'm going to suggest taking Susan out and hooking up with whoever is in the rolodex that YOU are over due for a re-connection. As old Jews are fond of saying, "It couldn't hurt." Better than waiting for the phone to ring.
Kyla is having her 18th birthday/graduation party today and we've rented a space and are having about 40 adult friends of ours to chaperone about 60 kids. Two parties for the price of one and I'm using it to hook up with many old friends. Tempus fugit infuckingdeed.
- Barney
Depressing as hell....
I had no idea Mike Moorcock was sick. He's one of my personal heroes, and even bought my first short story when I was 17. There seems to be nothing on the web about this, and I'm loathe to ask Harlan to be the newsboy. If anyone knows a site to keep track of, post it, won'tcha?
Harlan, condolences on Hunter, Bunch and Lehman. God, it's depressing to watch your acquaintances die--not just sad, but frightening. It's as if bits of your world are breaking off at the edges, vanishing forever, and leaving you a narrower space on which to stand.
Condolences; a note to Stan; some recommended reading
HARLAN: Condolences on your losses. Hope you're able to put them behind you soon and go on enjoying everyday -- and every sandwich -- with Susan. I've a feeling your friends would like that.
STAN: Now I sent you a personal email. Courage has nothing to do with my moniker. And the merits of living in America had nothing to do with my message to you. I'm just not into Blind Faith or misdirected patriotism.
ALL: If you dig John Irving, I recommend the July/August cover story in "Pages" magazine, written by Dorman T. Shindler You can get peek at the cover here: http://www.ireadpages.com/
But you'll have to go to your local Borders, Barnes& Noble or other local book store to pick up a copy (support your semi-local Webderland writers).
Yours in Information and consolation,
the Man
Harlan and losing old friends....
Man, losing dear relatives and friends is one of the sadder things about growing older. To me, death is an indignity and I still can't figure out why it has to happen. It just doesn't make any sense. In the end, the only comfort we have are our memories, our books(!) and those who remain. Thank God for those remain. I'll be thinking of you and all those who are still with us. All the best....
Mk
Harlan - you have my deepest sympathy.
Mark W.
Condolences
Harlan and Susan,
You have my deepest condolences on your losses this past week. If I make it to services tomorrow I will say kadish for them.
Take care sir,
Mark
I'm sorry, buddy.
Harlan,
My heart goes out to you. What a shitty week to have to get through.
Moorecock sounds like he's in need of some serious moral support, too.
Take care: both of you.
-keith
Best Wishes
I read much of your stuff Harlen, and I loved it. I don't know if I ever was a part of the particular milieu that you are, but kudos to you. I consider you a great craftsman of the English language. And moreover a great sci-fi humourist of inimicable stature.
So I just want to reemphasize to you what I got from you as a reader, and that is that life's a trip. I'm sorry that your friends are passing. But consider that America also is passing. Even the hugest and greatest achievements and notions are all passing.
Everything passes. The massage was clear when God gave us asses.
Peace Dude. You Rock!
God damn, Harlan. Your post breaks my heart. Hold Susan close, and know that your friends here care very much about you and will do anything they can to help you through this ordeal.
--Jim
P.S. It's too bad about Evan Hunter; his novels SADIE WHEN SHE DIED and ICE were favorites of mine.
Christ Harlan, I'm so sorry to hear all this. I know there's nothing I can do or say to ease the pain, but if you need anything just let me know.
My heart goes out to you, Harlan.
Harlan,
My sincerest condolences.
Steve Dooner
Old friends gone
I feel for you, Harlan. But remember to celebrate who they were, and what they meant (and still mean) to you. Sooner or later we're all going to be gone, but being remembered as they are by you, and by the rest of us (few of whom had the luck to know them as well as you did) has to count for something.
Celebrate them.
FOR INFOMAN
Since I believe you aren't brave enough to give out a true email...I can tell you this...I would rather live under the laws of the United States, no matter how unfair they seem or how dumb or stupid they seem to be....than live under a political entity under the guise of religion, that will behead you for blinking...and subject your women to live under a tent called a "burka". So there...punkinpuss...put that in your pipe and smoke it!
My Sympthies...
Good lord, Harlan...let me express my condolences, from all your readers.
Many of those you mentioned have touched all of our lives with their work, and will be sorely missed by any who love good writing.
Tim
My circle of friends is narrowing.
Dead in the last week.
Evan Hunter. And along with him died Ed McBain, Richard Marsten, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, and the seed from whom they all sprang, Sal Lombino.
Chris Bunch. Allan Cole fax'd me of his death on the 4th of July. I wrote an obit for LOCUS.
Ernie Lehman, who taught me half of what I know about screenwriting, from our days at 20th, when he was prepping HELLO, DOLLY and I was the first writer, adapting VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.
Spoke to Moorcock in Paris. Bedridden. Infection in the leg with gout. They may have to amputate.
Sheckley back in NYC, had heart surgery, addled, lost, penniless.
My dear beloved pal in Australia, Terry Dowling: heart attack. Now with a stint.
I cannot stop crying.
harlan
THE TRUE WAR OF THE WORLDS
TO STAN IN BEAVERTON: Wake up Mr. Van Winkle, the U.S. hasn't been a true democracy in a long, long time. Plutocracy, yes; maybe even mixed with a bit of theocracy of late. Otherwise, you're livin' a pipedream, pumpkin. (Or didn't you notice those folks in the black robes recently handing local governments and big business -- via Eminent Domain -- carte blanche to take your house and property anytime they want?)
Yours in information and smelling salts,
the Man.
To Susan
Okay, chalk one up for the platinum blonde (that's me!) They sent my letter back to me. It would help if I had put three 5's instead of just two for the post office box number. I am such a dork! I will re-send with the correct address. (Grumble, grumble, grumble!)
Thanks again! :)
Adam-Troy:
"D.W. Griffith
Why can't both positions be true?"
Who said they WEREN'T?
Jack Black is awesome. He's probably the only reason I'd go to see the King Kong remake.
"Jack Black, entrepreneur, raconteur and film maker struggling to make a name for himself in the entertainment industry."
How stupid.
www.kingkongmovie.com
THE TRUE WAR OF THE WORLDS
Yes friends...the true War of the Worlds is happening right here and right now. The true war is between a world under
democracy and a world under the thumb of Islam...that...is the true war of the worlds.
Brian
I checked that out yesterday. :) Very nice work, and kudos to you for saving that forty-buck slab of mahogany. So when do I get to see pictures of the finished product?
Just to trumpet some skills here: I've updated my website with a page devoted to my recent woodworking project. It's at http://www.briansiano.com, and click on the "Radiator Cover" link at left. Praise me. PRAISE ME!!!!
Barn E.: Sorry to let you sit on that one. I thought I emailed you the answer to the Rogue question. I (me) Tim, was stupid enough to get in touch with the seller and asked directly if the item was indeed credited. And the answer come back... "Yes." I buy the freakin' thing and find no reference credited or otherwise. I've since spoken with the fellow and he'll make good one way or the other. Lum, Lum, Lum. TR
D.W. Griffith
Why can't both positions be true?
Why can't we say, D.W. Griffith's contributions to the language of film are incalculable, and should be recognized on that level, he was also a racist even by the standards of his time?
I know the first is true from the several Griffith films, including WAY DOWN EAST, I've seen. I know the second from those parts of BIRTH OF A NATION I could stand to sit through. As movie-making, even the latter was magnificent. It was also loathesome. It's a shame such innovations had to be made by a guy who later said he hadn't even been aware that his film was that offensive on a racial level -- and who made the classic INTOLERANCE out of (inadequate) penance for what he had done.
The problem is, Griffith was not alone. Such attitudes were so prevalant at the time that they were rarely even questioned. As brilliant as Harold Lloyd was, his films are sometimes polluted with brief gags involving offensive stereotypes of Blacks and Jews, and as good as CASABLANCA is, there is that unsettling moment when Ingrid Bergman refers to Sam as a "boy". I recall the disgusting plot twist in SANTA FE TRAIL, with Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan, in which escaped slaves decide that they're gonna go back to the plantation, yassuh. The problem is, when we look at old movies, we're looking at time capsules, which contain the attitudes and opinions of other times, opinions which might be alien and offensive to us: which is why it makes perfect sense for the James Dean character in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE to be upset that his Dad DIDN'T slap his Mom around.
On another issue: one of my personal writing heroes has died.
Evan Hunter, who also wrote under the name Ed McBain, was one of the all-time best authors of police procedurals, most of which featured the detectives of the 87th Precinct in a fictional city known as Isola. The characters didn't age (most would have been in their nineties by the more recent installments), but they did develop from book to book, with the hard-luck cop Bert Kling and
the family man Steve Carella being two of the series' central personalities.
Within the procedural formula, the 87th Precinct offered amazing variety. There was one story written from the point of view of a murderer, who spent the entire book shadowing the cops as he tried to work up the nerve to confess. (He finally got around to it several novels later.) There was one street-scene novel, about
how a neighborhood is affected by a hostage situation in its midst. There were several super-villain stories in the person of a recurring malefactor known as The Deaf Man, who was many many times smarter than the cops but about a thousand times more unlucky. There were hard-hitting tales of terrorism, drug trafficking, racial tensions, serial murder, kidnapping, massacres in bookstores, and low comedy. There was even one honest-to-gosh supernatural story: the odd GHOSTS. All written in the same half-tough, half-smartass style, with some of the all-time best dialogue mystery fiction has ever produced. (You want to write characters who actually sound like they're talking to one another, study McBain.)
McBain also wrote another bestselling series about a Florida attorney, Matthew Hope, whose adventures crossed over with the 87th at least once. He also did several stand-alones, including one (CANDYLAND) that was billed as a collaboration between himself and his real persona, Evan Hunter. Damned if the two halves of the book didn't read like they were in fact written by two different people.
Under his own name, Hunter wrote several novels I also enjoyed quite a bit, and a number of screenplays, including THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE and one that deeply embarrassed him, for Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS.
Among the several movies based on the 8th Precinct: FUZZ, with Burt Reynolds, and HIGH AND LOW, by Akira Kurosawa.
I had the good fortune to meet Hunter once, making a special trip to Manhattan to attend a reception at a mystery bookstore. I was taken by surprise as he came up to me to say hello before I was emotionally prepared to greet the author of literally dozens of books I'd loved, and I fumfuhed like a loon. But he sized
up the situation at once and spoke to me as if I was actually making sense. (He was a little taken aback when I told him my favorite character in his series was Fat Ollie Weeks, a viciously racist cop who thinks he's as funny as W.C. Fields -- but who, as an investigator, shows more talent than any of his actual heroes.) The gravelly-voiced Hunter struck me as a gentleman in every sense of the word: modest, self-deprecating, appreciative of his fans, and possessed of a quiet good humor.
My sad first thought upon hearing this news: "Aw hell. Steve Carella will never catch the Deaf Man now."
Kristin,
I don't think Rick actually disallows political discussion on the Pavilion, but it does get real old real fast 'cause we all know where we lean. So when Stan or Todd give an opinion, there's about ten of us jumping all over that thing saying blahblahblah hurumph-harumph...so not a lot of new ground is covered.
As far as what to talk about, how 'bout this from CJR Daily:
http://www.cjrdaily.org/archives/001657.asp
Nice write-up regarding the recent news about the one reporter going to jail and the other naming the source regarding the 'outing' of a CIA agent. By the way, why the fuck isn't Novak going to jail? I tell you, the guy won't say boo about this to anyone and I'm assuming he's made a deal with the special prosecutor. I wish someone would give him his, though.
Love that bumpersticker, Kristin. :)
My favourite bumper sticker? "Freedom of religion also means freedom FROM religion."
*sigh* Must go to work now.....
Velvet
I should have said "don't feed the troll," In Harlan's absence we seem to be getting trolls and they are the only conversation starters!
I doubt HE is doing a whole lot in public soon, but he is going to be GOH at the Foolscap convention in Bellevue(Seattle area) in Sep, right? The hotel might be sold out by now.
I find even the descriptions of BIRTH OF A NATION so revolting that I don't think I could stand to watch it. It was an EVIL film. It actually inspired people to join the KKK and did its part in encouraging the 1920s Klan revival. Maybe it was art, but it was art in the service of the vile and loathsome.
otoh Lee should distince himsself from people like Farrakhan...there is a long standing anti-semitic strain in some of the really extreme black-power/black Muslim movements and you can't deny that. Hating Jews is no better than hating African-Americans and if you ARE African-American it makes you look like a hypocrite.
So Hollywood is left leaning (and during the red scare some of them really WERE communists) Duh. And Harlan is an outspoken liberal (if you don't know that where have you been?)
as Rick noted this board is NOT for politics so political threads should be nipped in the bud. What CAN we talk to each other about?
"101 Ways to Internet-Enable a Manual Typewriter?" When I first say HE's postings here I literally had weird dreams of computer ports on typewriters...apologies, this must be the third time I've said that this year. It's not fair to make old people type on computer keyboards if they hate it. I bet Harlan could type "Mary had a little lamb" on his Olympia, sign it and auction it off - Authentic Manual Typescript from the Same Machine Used to Write (insert name of famous work here). Every precious and rare drop of real ink is worth a fortune in the age of laser toner!
I wouldn't call this site "the Internet." It's on the Internet, but if you never hit anything else, are you on the Internet?
Awww. I'm sorry for bugging you about spelling my name. Come back Harlan, and you can have my "Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible" bumpersticker. (Really, I have that lying around.)
Kristin
Susan
Thanks for the heads up. I will be waiting with fingers and toes crossed. Merci beaucoup, madame!
In the meantime...as much as I enjoy these brilliant and witty posts...I confess to missing Unca Harlan. Come back to us soon!
To Alan Coil,
It's so nice to know there's men out there who appreciate women. You're a jewel!
Any HE appearances in Los Angeles this month?
Susan...I just arrived in the Valley and will be here for about three weeks for work. Does Harlan have any signings or speaking engagements scheduled in the L.A. area this month?
Thanks to Frank for slamming the door on Andrew/Noah Lemkin or whoever he may be. I seem to remember that same tactic used by The Order or some other slime organization. Knock black folks for any hints of anti-Semitism, then once you have your audience in agreement, start in on the Jews. It's Racism 101 and any way you present it- it still stinks. Taught in the backwoods of America + some of our finest prisons. Thank god I was educated in riot era Detroit with some of the greatest + most diverse schoolmates!
Frank,
I have to say that was probably the best post you ever cranked out. No hollow idealistic rhetoric, just straight to the facts. Saved me the trove of gorgeous insults I had ready to hurl at Andrew for his ignorant diatribe.
I liked your list a lot too.
...and Andrew,
Try running BIRTH OF A NATION sometime and bask in the sublime heroics of the KKK, and such glorious images as a lynched black man tossed on a governor's porch and stupid funny niggers scampin' through watermelon patches before our good comrades can tar and feather him; paranoid tracts about mulattoes and blacks subverting the Legislature: notions about what's "RIGHT" not merely of a director but emblematic of an era; passages of HATE to which President Wilson responded, "it is all TOO true" and "It's like writing history with lightening".
Try factoring all that into your cockeyed equation, Andrew.
And perhaps you should consider that when Griffith's work was touted as revolutionary it was when film was considered a whole rather than an assemblage of parts; cameras had been inert simply to record action and do nothing more (only Georges Melies and Edwin S. Porter had utilized the new technology with some imagination; but even they hadn't seen the broader advantages). So, of COURSE it came to everyone's astonishment when a director came along and recognized the potential visual language for storytelling through editing techniques, varyied shots, continuity, and economy of action.
But obviously that's not what this was about. And Spike Lee had something of a point. And Spike Lee has transcended mediocrity far more often than the Spielbergs and Michael Bays out there; at least he has something on his mind every time he does a film and that alone is refreshing, whether I agree with his arguments or not.
Ryan
Final Wars!!! How was it?
it's a "weird magnet"
ERIC MARTIN:
you pointing out the presence of loonies is akin to Ma Kettle callin her husband "whack" (joke. you may now email me butt photos fer smoochin')
yer favorite,
kneel
Dear Noah:
http://www.harlanellison.com/heboard/forum/
Sincerely,
Duane
Up yours!
FIRST WORD
Widely Red
by Martin Peretz Only at TNR Online
Post date: 07.06.05
Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance With The Left
By Ronald Radosh and Allis Radosh
(Encounter Books, 292 pp., $25.95)
Click here to buy this book
The rest of this giant block of copied material was deleted. Please read the board rules. Thanks! - Rick
Ernest Lehman has passed away at 89 - he wrote two of my favorite movies, "Sweet Smell of Success" and "North By Northwest."
Ellison in Minneapolis and a question
While I was at the ConVergence convention this weekend, I picked up a couple of bits of interesting news. First, that Harlan is scheduled to appear at MiniCon on April 14-16, 2006 and will be doing a speaking engagement the night before the Con. I am eagerly looking forward to both events.
Second, I had a chance to talk at length with Harry Knowles, the creator of Ain't It Cool News, and he showed me some of the pre-production work on a movie he is producing on the John Carter of Mars series.
The initial look is very impressive, but unfortunately I cannot say how true it is to the original story, as it is one of the few classic science fiction series that I have never read. I am familiar with the general storyline, however, and would agree with the assertion that Harry made that it is the most influential science fiction series that has not yet been brought to the screen.
Susan, did you ever receive the check I sent for my copy of Demon With a Glass Hand? If not, then I will cancel that check and have another sent out immediately.
Thanks,
Mark
SUSAN:
Been away from my computer (ah, bliss) for the past two weeks and just wanted to wish you a very happy belated birthday. You're a peach.
Best,
Ray
Barney,
Kissing a girl is a useless enterprise.
Kissing a woman------------ahhhhh. Many a story has been inspired by a woman's kiss.
Andrew, let me get this straight, you go after Spike Lee for his musings on Farrakhan, but you gloss over the Klan loving instincts of the awful, horrible D.W. Griffith? The Klan has evil as their vanguard policy, but all you can say about Farrakhan is that he says intemperate things against certain Jewish leaders. There is an ocean of moral difference. Sure, Farrakhan says crass things, but cultic rantings are not in the same league as the cross burning evil of the noxious Klan.
Lee, as you know pissed off Farrakhan years ago, when he did the Malcolm X film. I doubt Lee supports him as much as he did when he was a young film maker. Just as some young radicals say dumb things in their infancy, Lee has grown up. Lee even uses white people in his films now.
Lee is a great film maker, no doubt, and he does have the right to throw his bile on the Griffith name. It is no different then the fuss over the Oscar for that rat Elia Kazan. I would say racism is worse morally then Kazan's red scare guff.
I love you Andrew, but you may have to re-load your marshmallow cannon.
--------------
Here is my top ten Greatest American list:
1.Martin Luthor King
2.John Brown
3.Noam Chomsky
4.Paul Robeson
5.Cesar Chavez
6.Malcolm X
7.Emma Goldman
8.William Faulkner
9.Walt Whitman
10.Duke Ellington
LETTER TO ANDREW
Andrew...It all comes down to everybody bending over backwords for multiculturistic and political correctiveness (in the liberal sense). I just wish Spike, Mike Moore, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins...and the rest of the Hollywood Left just make their damned movies and keep their politics to themselves. Because of the political rhetoric from these people I will not spend the money to go see their movies...except for Robbins in War of the Worlds...I will probably go see it, but not just to see him act.
Dear Mary--Not yet. But give it until Friday. The mail can be slow sometimes.
Sorry to rub it in...David, your package went out yesterday.
All best--Susan
United States
Another bout of loonies on Webderland. Has anyone charted this...I'm wondering if there isn't an astronomical component behind it all...
I would like to know Ellison's position on the efforts of the mediocre opportunist Spike Lee in successfully getting the Directors Guild to "decommission" their Griffith award.
Orson Welles called Griffith "the greatest director of all time," Erich von Stroheim said "he brought poetry and beauty to a cheap and tawdry kind of amusement," Eisenstein said he was a "revelation" to film makers living under the Soviet yolk
"a magician of tempo and shadow."
And here comes a niggling little up-start who thinks he is adequate enough to second guess cultural history. A self-conscience hypocrite who casts anti-Semites in his films (the religious fanatic Louis Farrakhan) and supports third world slave labor by doing Nike commercials.
As the man whom many credit as politicizing the fantasy literature genre and thereby with the assistance of the other 1960's era radicals providing the impetus for no-talents like Lee to build up the social confidence to smear artistic masterworks under the rubric of "social justice" I would genuinely like to know his thoughts on this matter. Or that of any other civil person.
Thank you.
Welllll. Tom Cruise is human, all too human.
www.scientology.org
To Susan
Greetings! Hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July...I was wondering if you had received the check yet for "Demon with a Glass Hand." If not, please let me know so I can put a stop payment and send another check for Unca Harlan. Apparently the mailperson is a few fries short of a Happy Meal, according to my neighbors (if their description is correct, this person's missing the special toy, and perhaps the hamburger as well--it's pretty bad!)and either never picked up my letter or did something mysterious with it. Oi vay...
Thank you! :)
A Thurber question
One of the odder eBay problems I encountered lately was this item;
Rogue Vol.7 No.5 May 1962. Features Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison (eulogy for James Thurber), William F. Nolan story "The Gentle Man", rare behind the scenes pictures of Anita Ekberg and Brigitte Bardot (2 pgs), and more.
No point in posting a link. The auction finished a month ago with no bids - no harm, no foul as it were. Tim, Doug and I could neither confirm or deny that Harlan wrote this piece since none of us own it and the earlier bibliography didn't mention it. I thought about buying it "on spec" but didn't want to until the dealer got back to me/us, which he never did.
Now, there is an odd Thurber/Ellison connection in that they both attended O.S.U. and both worked briefly on the long defunct O.S.U, humor magazine, THE SUNDIAL. That, and the fact that Harlan enjoys Thurber's work [see one of the GLASS TEAT books] would have been enough to get Harlan to write this - and Harlan did SOME uncredited ROGUE work, but still, this Blue Monkey would like to know. So, if anybody owns this [Phil? You out there bubba?] and wants to send me the True Gen, it'd be a nice thing. That, and kissing a girl. I'd like to know what that's like. Then I can die happy.
- Barney
Greatmystery, PA.
Cindy--the longer I live here, the more I discover...I'm a New Yorker, baby. :)
But of course, that could be that smooth liar memory fucking with me. I've been missing a few of the old haunts lately. I've also got my trip North coming up, and for the first time, I can't go home. Parents sold the place a couple of years ago, and it's just not mine anymore. I won't even be visiting New York. Now it's ::brrr:: New Jersey.
Okay, Texas, New Jersey, who else can I piss off today? ;)
War of the Comets
I saw WAR OF THE WORLDS REDUX and thought it was crap overall. The scientific and common sense plot holes were stultifying even for a Follywood production, much less one by Spielberg. And it seems that Spielberg has graduated from the George Lucas School for SF melodrama since MINORITY REPORT. Pfft. Read the novel.
Far more interesting is the news that the Deep Impact comet probe has successfully smashed into the nominated snowball at 10 km/s. Apart from shots taken by Earth-bound telescopes and another probe in space called Tempel 1, the doomed machine actually took images down to three seconds before impact. Regular astro-news like this makes me feel like I'm already living in a science fiction novel.
One question: What's the insurance policy excess charge to NASA for driver-at-fault bingles like this one? :D
For more details (and tasty photos) concerning this intrasolar vandalism, go here...
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html
Come back to the Webderland, Harlan Ellison, Harlan Ellison!
Mark
OK, OK, the Discovery Channel list of top 100 Greatest Americans is asinine. It's shameful. What's just as bad, though, are the comments from the few who have made note of it here; comments that show that all folks, regardless of politics and smarts, will exaggerate to make their point:
One mentioned that there are few "left of center" people on the list, but I see MLK and Malcom X and JFK and RFK and Michael Moore (ha!) and Frederick Douglass and Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and Cesar Chavez and FDR and Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama (?? isn't he just getting out of puberty??) and more.
One mentioned that there are no writers or jazz musicians on the list, but I see Mark Twain and Maya Angelou and Ray Charles and Carl Sagan and and and (ok, there aren't many writers and jazz musicians....but my point is that this person said there were NONE).
Another person mentioned how the stupid people who voted in this deserve the leaders they elected. To that, I must point to that first list I supplied above. The "stupid people" appear to be evenly spread in their politics.
The Discovery Channel list is not worth the spit in my mouth, the boogers in my nose, the pus in my whiteheads. It's a silly list that should not even be debated: but the very few reactions it has elicited here are telling. Mock the list, but don't do so by giving disinformation.
-TODD
"Taking into consideration the different nature of the mediums involved does anyone else think that Jessica Alba is an improvement over the original invisible girl?"
Not when you believe bleaching an Hispanic can pass for the blatantly obvious hot Swedish features rendered on Sue Storm.
But I can't handle the look of ANYONE in this cast; they really missed the unique visual opportunities here - having, it seems to me, used mainly the X-Men movies as their reference - ESPECIALLY for one of the greatest pop abstract designs in comics history, the ever lovin' Thing.
Hey Brian,
I honestly tried to let your comments on the "Stupid People" go, figuring they didn't deserve any response from me. But I had the opportunity to go to a family reunion over the 4th and revisit the extended family and community in which I had the privilege to grow up.
I'm not going to go through all the gasoline responses that occurred to me when I deigned to reflect on your words. Suffice it to say that unless I missed some big cosmic joke, your words lack any semblance of humanity and compassion, and a profound _ignorance_, perhaps, of the sacrifices your own community, family and otherwise, made in order to see you through a fully formed adulthood.
No response but this: We're all in this together, "Stupid" or otherwise.
What Spielberg does best is he goes beyond the usual CGI popcorn flick fumblings, and shows us a human story beyond all the things blowing up and other random rah rah excitements.
His love of film shines best. That is why he is da man.
------------
Harlan, don't down the internet too much. Google is how you avoid the dreck. It is not perfect, but either is democracy.
Did you ever see Kingdom Hospital the Stephen King tv miniseries? Well the Antubis creature in that program was completely a CGI. I thought at first that it was an animatronic Jim Henson muppet like thing. The more realistic CGI becomes the more it just looks indistinguishable from traditional special effects.
I didn't like Peter Jackson's, Lord of the Rings very much. Ever since Squatting Tiger Dances with Dragons, or whatever, there have been a lot of films with medieval European knights who fight like Bruce Lee. Especially that blonde elf guy. Medieval European knights didn't fight or use their weapons in such a manner. Don't you think so?
Regarding Spielberg, I think he's trying to build up his box office clout by pandering to what he regards as low brow popular entertainment so he'll have the financial resources to make another one of his "serious" films. Some strum und drang, holier then thou epos about Israeli history written by Tony Kushner.
Taking into consideration the different nature of the mediums involved does anyone else think that Jessica Alba is an improvement over the original invisible girl?
Kong, Cooper and Wallace
George / Mathiass, you can stop worrying. The Modern Library "King Kong" is a reprint of the original 1932 novelization done for the virgin release of the film. It states forthrightly that it's based on the script by Wallace and Cooper. I have a copy that was published back in the sixties, but I'm tempted by this new one, if Greg Bear's new introduction is substantial enough.
One of my earliest memories of Harlan is from the World Science Fiction convention of, hmm, 1969 I think. My twin sister and I went to the showing of "King Kong" down in one of the meeting rooms and found ourselves sitting behind HE and a young lady (mind you, Harlan was pretty young himself in those halcyon days). Harlan was holding forth, sotto voce, on many points of interest about the film. I was just close enough to overhear--and learn a lot about good old Kong.
Later that year, I happened upon a news article about Fay Wray, and, teenybopper fanboy that I was in those days, I mailed it to Harlan. Got back a friendly note of thanks that, alas, I have lost in the many years since.
Nice fireworks for the 4th of July some millions of miles out in space. Makes you wonder about the claim that smashing that probe into a comet had to be done now else it would be missed?
Aw now Amy,
Don't be talkin' smack about my family. Are you from Texas or are you an import?
;)
Cindy
Hey Neal,
What up?
:)
Cindy
The only thing cool today is the TZ marathon. I've been treated to loud explosions all day. Can't they wait until tonight? Yeesh!! (Grumble, grumble) Back to the TZ run. Happy Fourth, everyone!
Well, _someone_ is having an identity crisis.
I love the fourth of July, because it's the last day these Texas jackasses can sell fireworks to children and their equally careless parents. That is, until New Year's. *sigh*
Okay, okay. I also like the fourth of July because the Sci Fi Channel runs a TZ marathon. I'm all geeked out.
I know Harlan Ellison has a long history of defending authors rights what is his opinion of all the "King Kong" novels being published even by "reputable" imprints like Modern Library (owned I believe by Viacom perhaps not coincidently)none of them written solely by Edgar Wallace?
I know Harlan Ellison has a long history of defending authors rights what is his opinion of all the "King Kong" novels being published even by "reputable" imprints like Modern Library (owned I believe by Viacom perhaps not coincidently)none of them written solely by Edgar Wallace?
Hurrah for horror
latimes.com : California : San Fernando Valley
Hurrah for horror by By Nick Owchar, Nick Owchar is deputy editor of Book Review.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-bk-nickhorror3jul03,1,3257637.story?coll=la-editions-valley&ctrack=1&cset=true
Accepting on behalf of the ailing Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, himself a legend in the field, stole the moment. Ellison spoke of Moorcock's unique storytelling vision and, in one of many amusing asides, railed on the American Film Institute's ranking of the top 100 movie quotes, which had just aired on CBS. "I couldn't stand it, had to turn it off," said Ellison, who's done his share of TV and film work. The way they presented it, he said, you'd think there were no writers involved. You'd think this language just sprang from the actors' mouths like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. (His exact language was, shall we say, a little more robust.)
Guns
Not just the Nazis. The Germans also built them during WW1: one built by Krupp in 1912 fired a 2,100 lb shell over 16,000 yards and weighed 175 tons. They had to transport it in five sections by rail and assemble it at the firing site. Later they built 'Big Bertha' - a mobile howitzer named after Gustav Krupp's wife. It weighed 43 tons and could fire a 2,200 lb shell over 9 miles.
Big, Dumb Weapons
"I guess we'll just have to figure that the Emperor, Tarkin and Vader all had a fetish for big dumb weapons like the Deathstar."
Just like the Nazis. They went for weapons built on a positively Wagnerian scale. There was, for example, a gigantic railway gun called, Karl, if I remember correctly. I don't remember the actual dimensions, but this monster weapon made it's crew look like insects. The gun itself fired a shell that was more than thirty inches across and weighed several tons.
A terrifying weapon. However, it had no real effect on the outcome of a single battle. The steel, manpower and other raw materials would have been enough to make a Panzer division, or at least a battalion. In military terms, a collosal waste. It did, however, help some Nazi officials deal with some, shall we say, inadequacy issues?
Chuck
CGI and random thoughts
I actually like both older and newer films. Comparing different fx methods is apples and oranges. Actually, what's keeping me away from WotW is Tom Cruise, I guess. I *don't* want any of my ticket money to go to the Church of Scientology.
MMmmmm, I didn't mean to insinuate that working with CGI isn't work...you really have to be born an artistic genius to make the most of it. It's not something I can do. Some people get hold of a computer and mistakenly THINK they are artistic geniuses; the computer is just a tool and the talent does have to be there. The future is computer animated anyway; it's a lot cheaper than the old methods.
But just as there are hobbyists who still do "obsolete" things by hand, there will probably always be people here and there playing with hand animation methods for the fun of it.
You know what I was thinking when I saw Star Wars Episode 3? comparing the prequels with the original trilogy...Weapons technolgy de-volved in the Star Wars universe! Isn't deploying a lot of 'smart' weapons (like droids or an army of clones) more effective than one big dumb weapon (and hence target - all your eggs in one basket)?? Of course the real reason is that without the improvements of CGI you couldn't do huge droid armies (at least not without it being impossibly costly) or hire enough extras for all those clones, so the original trilogy just had a couple Deathstars and a few giant-elephant-walkers.
I guess we'll just have to figure that the Emperor, Tarkin and Vader all had a fetish for big dumb weapons like the Deathstar.
Kristin
Godzilla
You want Godzilla? How about this current news story:
TOKYO (July 3) - Japanese coast guard officials said Sunday they believe an underwater volcanic eruption has caused a 3,300-foot high column of steam to rise from the Pacific Ocean near Iwo Jima.
The vapor was reported Saturday after Japanese troops stationed on the small island observed the massive, cloudy plume rise from the sea about 30 miles southeast of the island, said Maritime Self-Defense Forces Hiroshi Shirai.
Defense officials who flew over the area in a helicopter said the surface of the water appeared red where the column was reported, which could indicate underwater volcanic activity, Shirai said.
----------------
I'm hardly the only one to have read this and had the immediate thought "But this is how all Godzilla movies start!". Peter David also had it, for example; for convenience sake I just copied the above from his blog.
Kristen,
"Young people are not going to appreciate how back in the analog days all that work was really, well, WORK"
You brought up ONE good point here.
While I have to sneer at your suggestion that computer graphics and effects work isn't REALLY work - ESPECIALLY the intricacies and long, LONG process and intense labor that goes into CGI - a ridiculous notion to say the least - there IS something to say about what more recent generations are missing in the appreciation for how tough the "analog" days could be.
I had training in lay-out and graphics, but everything that once had to be cut and placed by hand was done for us on the computer. Only when I saw the work our instructor did in his commercial art days - when he had to apply a razor knife for 12 hours and work with plates - did I feel guilty that what could take him a whole work day only took me about 30 minutes if not a few seconds.
So, I agree with your point in this respect.
Steve, the post was not directed at you but at an earlier post. Mine just went up right after yours.
Speaking of Godzilla, this is an excellent weekend to be in LA if you're a Godzilla fan. The American Cinematheque has had a week and a half of Godzilla movies on the big screen at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and the Aero Theater in Santa Monica (which is almost across the street from Every Story Has a Picture, coincidentally). The girlfriend and I are going to catch a showing of Godizilla: Final Wars tonight.
Having grown up on a steady Saturday diet of pan and scan Godzilla on the local Cleveland channels, it's a blast to see him on the big screen.
GOJIRA!
Hey, who mentioned CGI? Not me. All I said was I loved Harryhausen. And that's more because of what he chose to do rather than how well he did it. I just like dinosaurs, whether cgi, claymation or second hand rubber. Dr. Who/ Godzilla fans have long learned not to place too much importance on fx. . .
-Steve E.
I said that I'd never post here again, but...
Ryan Leasher,
So well said! That is, yes, an insult (and ignorance, too) to CGI art, because *is* creativity and requires some serious effort. Art is expression (well, we *could* get more philosophical than that); human creativity, and that evolves/changes as time flows on. It's dynamic, and there's nothing at all vain with this new form of animation. I'm not a graphic artist, but I can feel that I can understand the joy of working with small details to produce a larger work. As a pencil artist, I love details; my nearly three to four year (I think) portait (of Tobey Maguire) is an attest to that. So many people are sticklers to 'traditional' mediums of art, but as I said, it's so dynamic; ever-evolving. There is no 'tradition'; how can CGI be violating any purist idea of tradition? It is still art; still requires meticulous work. Hell, even meticulous effort doesn't always quantify something as art, but should inspire greater appreciation. There's nothing vain in exploring and embracing something new; to explore our potential with startingly new forms of art, is to embrace and broaden our creative potential. I could get deeper than that, but it's oh so late. Ideally, y'all git the point anyway.
But as is popularly said... Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Psychology teaches us that there is no scientific quantification and measurement of creativty. A philosopher so accurately said that there are no universal standards to art appreciation. True. Art is also philosophy (so calm down eveyone with all of this "I'm right" crap). Everyone looks at it differntly, and appreciates it uniquely. Unique forms of art, such as CGI, deserve awareness, at the least, for the effort, skill and imagination.
Speaking of, the effects for 'Stargate: Atlantis' are excellent and beautiful; particulary the shots of the partially submerged city. Wow. I'm also digging the effects on the new BSG.
I like CGI when it's done cleverly, which I guess means I like it in the same way I like old-time special effects and visual effects. Some moments that are, I think, as good as the Colossus of Rhodes or moments from the original King Kong would include:
-- the appearance of the Balrog in LOTR: TFOTR
-- the moment in The Matrix Reloaded when Neo grabs Morpheus and the Keymaker off the top of the exploding truck
-- the 'water tentacle with a face' in The Abyss
I don't expect an answer on this one, but I'd imagine the moments in which CGI 'fails' are a failure on the part of the people saying what they want out of the CGI people -- which sometimes results in what I'd call 'over-literalization' rather than verisimilitude in the realm of the fantastic.
I'll use an example from the dreaded Star Trek to illustrate this idea. In TOS episode "Arena", the Gorn is a guy in an interestingly off-kilter lizard suit -- because the lizard has what appear to be compound eyes. As this is science fiction and as our friend the Gorn is what appears to be a lizard from another planet, the original conception is interesting within the budgetary and prosthetic limitations of the day. Something from another planet does not have to look like something from ours.
But when it comes to showing us a CGI Gorn on Enterprise, the Gorn suddenly goes from lumbering bipedal alien quasi-lizard to something more superficially 'real' -- a lizard with golden non-compound eyes that looks and moves like a velociraptor from Jurassic Park. It's more conventional and thus more 'real' -- but the whole set-up ignores the previous depiction of the creature, which suggested something alien that wouldn't have to conform to what lizards on Earth look like or looked like.
But I imagine that failing was probably the result of someone in the production team higher up saying 'make the Gorn look more believable -- more like a giant Earth lizard.' Indeed, I'd imagine there must have been some CGI guys who would have loved to come up with a Gorn who looked and moved like the original, only while looking like there was no suit involved.
I think parts of the LOTR trilogy suffer from a similar graphical over-literalization -- a loss of the fantastic or the poetic, if you will -- but as I see the same flaws in some of the plot and dialogue reworkings of the original for the film versions, I'd tend to think they're a product of the top-down, and not something to be laid at the feet of those darned CGI guys.
Cheers, Jon
Chimin' in on WOTW:
Spielberg's version is terrific. There is nothing wrong with CGI when done right. There is nothing wrong with CGI when it is used to present scenes that could never have been done as cleanly without it. Spielberg's version of WOTW is better than George Pal's version for many reasons; it's become a cliche to put down remakes today, but Pal's version is not even the best adaptation of Well's novel prior to this weekend's fare. Orson Welle's radio version was far better.
But, the key to Spielberg's version being better is because it brings the tripods to life. And the key to bringing H.G. Well's nightmarish tripods to life is CGI done right, dammit.
Read the novel, then view Spielberg's film. Guess what: it's actually faithful version brought into today's world. Quite faithful. And yes, Well's gets a major sized credit at the end of the film. Right when it ends. And since there are no credits in the beginning, guess what? Well's gets the FIRST credit. So let's stop crying about crediting the source novel: this is not presented as Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. It is H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds directed by Steven Spielberg.
It is terrific entertainment. It is scary and tense and stunningly beautiful (if you grew up with H.G.'s tripods looming over you in your nightmares, that is). It's a great romp. Yes, it ends happily.....but don't call that a Spielberg ending. Read the novel. The protagonist travels across his country dodging tripods and witnessing the horrors they bring to his world. He hopes to reach his wife. Alive. And he does.
Nothing wrong with Spielberg's adaptation ending as it does.....that is, unless you want to take the original author to task.
Have some fun at the movies! There is no reason to squawk at this film. There is no reason to cry over CGI. If CGI was so 'easy', then why is there so much bad CGI floating around in film and television? Use it right, and damned if I ain't waiting for that other remake about the monkey in love with anticipation, use it right, and you get movies like the Lord Of The Rings trilogy that could never have been made in the past with such quality.
H.G. Well's War of the Worlds written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Spielberg is well worth multiple viewings.
So there.
-TODD
CGI, WoW......
Actually just saw the movie-with my own two eyes. Not through some hack reviewer. Yes, Mr. Wells does get credit, at the end where most everyone else does too. The whole thing does shift from low to high rather quickly...and stays there. As for Robbins, he seems doomed as the disposable schmuck in his last few roles and he falls right into place here. The ending was a little too much, but you have to remember-you still have a divorced family and not even a slow trip to Boston will put that train wreck back on track. Without saying too much, at least dad doesn't look like a total loser anymore. Cruise's character is flawed from the start, this is NOT 'Mission Impossible'. His real saving grace (from my vanatge point) was figuring out what to replace on a starter. I suppose some would only praise Spielberg if the Earth turned into a fireball or an ant colony at the end, but if you stick to a work of fiction you should at least stay within the storyline. As Ryan Leasher tried to explain, the effects are no different as a story telling device as was stop motion 35 and more years ago. It's a tool, fool and it works pretty damn seamlessly here. Hardly a frame went by without 'some' CGI and I'm sure the vast audience would not have picked up on it unless you told them about it. There were some very subtle moments in there. I don't hear anyone wailing about a return to clay tablets and a stylus. I did not hear one voice proclaim at the release of "The Incredibles" that it was no "Gertie the Dinosaur", so please, let's move forward, shall we?
Ok, enough.
You don't like newer, CGI-driven effects as much as traditional stop motion? Great. You think that something has been lost in this 'modern' era of big-budget effects for summer blockbusters? Cool, I agree. Huge Ray Harryhausen fan? Get in line--I'll be gawking at him with huge fanboy peepers at both the San Diego Comic-Con and the introduction of his new portfolio at Every Picture has a Story in Santa Monica.
But to say that current visual effects work isn't actually work? Are you kidding me? I just can't decide which is worse, the ignorance or the insult.
I'm a Lead Lighting Artist for a major animation studio in Los Angeles. I'm working on my fifth motion picture and have done both extensive visual effects work and animation--all CG. Harlan has called me "one of George Lucas' flying monkeys".
Do you have any idea the sweat and toil that goes into getting the effects or animation for one of these movies out the door? There's a reason that 'production babies' (all the babies born to artists and their families during the production of a film) are now listed in the credits of some movies: there's a whole damn lot of time and life that goes screaming by while you're working on a major project.
And a major project it is. Take your now-standard summer popcorn fare, say a tentpole movie like Spider-Man 2 or War of the Worlds. The VFX production cycle will last at _least_ two years, likely more. Animated movies are even longer. During that two years, you will have hundreds of artists working on the thousands of VFX shots that will appear in the final movie. Half of them you won't even notice, since instead of being super-whiz-bang-in-your-face Martian tripods of doom they're more benign like the reworking of a city skyline to match 1933 New York.
The artists are modelers, character riggers, animators, layout artists, look artists, lighting and compositing artists, and many more. The standard industry work week for any one of these artists is 50 hours. Still not enough working for you? That's just during the pre-crunch period. Once it hits the looming-deadline fan, this can easily jump to 60-, 70-, even 80-hour weeks. Let me tell you, after an 80-hour week you have problems recalling your own name.
We bust our asses on these films and do the best work we can because we're artists who care about the work. Undo comamnd? You betcha. It's really cool, a lot like that pink, rubbery thing on the end of a pencil.
I've been weary about the new "War of the Worlds" because I'm such a huge fan of the George Pal version, and the original novel. I think the point of them was that there are forces at work in the universe over which we have no control, and which can sweep us aside at any moment. I'm really not sure I want to see it injected with Spielbergian optimism. I'll see it eventually anyway, but I can't imagine it will hold a candle to previous incarnations.
You know, I love Harryhausen. He brought monsters to life. Dragons and dinosaurs, skeletons and gorgons. . . Without him, there would be far fewer monsters to look at, and life would be far gloomier.
Never question your seven year old self.
-Steve E.
Some thoughts on War of the Worlds.
I saw the latest screen incarnation of Wells' story (though mention of the novel is conspicuously absent, at least from where I was sitting) with my younger brother. We went mainly because it was a rare oppurtunity to spend some time together; our work schedules don't synch up and he'd gotten back early from a trip, so we attended a screening. I will give credit where I feel its due--the first 45 minutes of the film really ratchet up the panic. This isn't Independence Day or Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. It's not even Signs really. To use the King/Danse Macabre paradigm, this film isn't about terror so much as it is about horror. Big spectacle horror, destruction of neighborhoods, of property, of everything we hold dear. The actors do a decent job of getting us into this comfortable family rhythm that Spielberg promptly yanks out from under us. If you're looking for some fun fireworks for the July weekend by all means attend.
This film isn't something I think people'll see more than once though. Once the film arrives at the cabin with Tim Robbins, the story just slams into a brick wall, after which it wanders in a daze to the Typical Spielberg Happy Ending. Yes, we know the film will end with Earth Triumphant (humanity getting rescued by our microcscopic bacterium buddies), but Stevie just can't seem to resist the happy ending where everybody -hugs-. I nearly stuck my finger down my throat to induce vomiting from the sugary sweetness of the reunion scene. And c'mon, the entire civilization of the world is under attack, but one particular suburb in Boston is seemingly immune to any form of any kind of discernable physical damage? Please. Yeah, we can have triumph Steven, but sometimes the story has to -cut-, y'know? Otherwise if Everything Turns Out Peachy, what's the damn point of it all? What was the struggle, the conflict ultimately for? Then again, the film is clearly staged to be a summer thrill ride, and the safety inspectors clearly wanted everyone to get out of their cars absolutely fine. I can dig it.
I like a movie that hits the ground running with me as much as the next ADD case, but it's just been done. I wasn't a fool; I knew I was going to see the remake of Signs via the remake of Independance Day via the remake of Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. I wasn't naive, I knew I was getting the sugary snack instead of a steak dinner. But you can only devour snack foods for so long before you want something nutritious, something that'll stay with you. And of late with cinema I've been finding the helpings more and more heavy on sugary spectacle than on meaty meaning.
But what do I know. This is the culture where Hillary Duff's CD debuts at #2 on Billboard. Clearly the zeitgeist and I have issues.
Stacy
Susan: Got my package! Teeeerrrrrifffic! Thanks. Mm, I suppose your saying so much on Harlan's behalf (such as about Harryhausen) as well as your own means we really have scared him away for good. Bummer.
About special FX: I agree with those who say that something has been lost with the move to all digital technology. Young people are not going to appreciate how back in the analog days all that work was really, well, WORK. Like with manual typewriters versus computers. You couldn't just hit the undo key...you had to get it right, over and over and over, or start again from the beginning....
Kristin
Susan: Thanks.
Harlan: Just bought and have finished listening to the first Cd in the spoken word audio Midnight In the Sunken Cathedral. Fabulous! Thanks.
Everyone else: Happy Fourth of July!!
mk
Hi Harlan. I'm not sure why you feel the urgency to apologise on the Jeffty board on the other screen, but it is not necessary. We are discussing in all fashions our interpretations of your life work. I'm sure some of them I read are so off the wall that you or any of us would speculate on what that person was thinking to come up with such a wild idea. Indeed some of what I read on this part of the site is so beyond human compassion and decency I wonder why anyone would think that type of response is valid or warrented, but then that is just how I interpret what i am reading, and that is not even close to how we would be talking face to face. It is this increasingly impersonal method of responding, oft times just off the top of our heads, that makes what we read here so head scratching. So I can understand exactly why you spoke that way and have no need to hear any sort of apology, in fact I apologize to you for some of the really odd responses I read concerning your work on this board. I thank you for your kindness on the times we have met and thank you for your presence on this website, a gift you do not have to give us. Your fan and friend, Roger Gjovig
TO ROB, AND OTHERS ET AL
Well...I guess I will have to bite the bullet...spend the ten bucks plus another five for popcorn and go see for myself...I saw the 1953 version when I was seven years old...it scared the living hell out of me and my brother...so much that the room we shared we kept the blinds and shades shut for another five to six years afraid of those snake heads zapping us! Today...I have the VHS version of the Gene Barry and Ann Robinson movie...and I laugh at why the film scared me so much.
As far as the what I wrote down about the current WOTW...I just quoted what I read in our local paper. A ten year old screaming throughout the movie won't bother me when I see it. After all...Ann Robinson (who has a cameo in the recent one)screamed and bawled all through the '53 version...and she was a 24 year old woman at the time...tee hee!
"EXAMPLES....Cruise too over-the-top in his acting in it....Dakota Fanning screams entirely too much....and Tim Robbins was "underused" though effective in his role as the basement loner."
Stan:
The movie's well worth seeing; visceral is an apt description. As for those examples: Cruise manages to show a man struggling to retain his composure in the face of the apocalyptic without any haminess; ten-year-olds who don't scream when people are dying all around them are in shock; and Tim Robbins is only underused if one thinks the whole movie should have been set in a basement.
D.
p.s. This kind of movie is made for the big, loud screen.
I loved "War of the Worlds." Harry K. is right on with his analysis. It's the best summer popcorn movie and a ripping "sci-fi" yarn. I found it true to the Pal version and happy with its nods toward Wells and Welles. My only disagreement with Harry would be that "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" is the best hollywood flick of the year, FR.
Mitch--your package went off yesterday. Thank you.
Mary--your letter has not arrived yet. Will check on Tuesday after the holidays. Happy 4th to everyone.
Susan
I'll reply to the Harryhausen comments later. But for now, check out the CNN podcast interview with Harlan and others about SF films these days.
http://www.cnn.com/services/podcasting/
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/services/podcasting/specials/SCIFI.mp3
It's _goooood_....
Harryhausen is so cool because his work is primarily stop-action modeling. Try it some time, and you'll run screaming back to Photoshop.
Sure, Michaelangelo could have done the Sistine Chapel with crayons. And I'm sure some of you would find it great art. Maybe, but a hell of lot less effective, or interesting.
Try to live with the notion that an artist's vision and the tools he or she chooses to express that vision are inherently linked, and determine the quality of the art. We don't just value the message...we value the craft behind it. Harlan Ellison could present his stories in semaphore, and while I'm sure Barney would archive them, most of us would say that's weird, and move on.
Almost on topic and then completely off center
For those that care. I have just recently returned from a viewing of War of the Worlds. While I didn't leave the theater in an emotional awe I was very pleased with the film as a whole. I will have to agree that it is blurry in parts but one must remember that this is art produced by hundreds of people and not the singular vision of an author.
And now for the off center:
I am curious when Mr. Ellison will be publishing new fiction (or non-fiction). Please do not take this as a demand for works right now or even a nudge to get on the ball. I think we all know that you have been very busy in the past few years. I myself would not blame you if you never publish again after some of the dealing you've had in the past. I am only curious if there will be forth coming volumes (new or reprints) as it had been your work that has drawn me to this site. And like I stated before, even if you never publish anything again, you have given me (and the rest of us here) a life time worth of art and pleasure and for that alone I thank you.
Thanks for reading.
D.
Another
Here's somebody I trust a lot more than Knowles: Stephen Hunter, WASHINGTON POST critic and himself one of today's great writers of action thrillers (whose DAY BEFORE MIDNIGHT is a little masterpiece):
Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" is a close encounter of the blurred kind, an orchestration of chaos and panic and destruction as visceral as it can get.
Despite occasional flaws and misjudgments, it's a brilliantly told tale. It really rips along; it seizes you in its first seconds, holds you spellbound for two short hours and expels you, breathless and spent. It's your best summertime movie rush in many years.
Yeah, if Harryhausen had a computer his work be a lot better, its the artist, not the tools that he uses, etc. etc. Yeah and if thats the case why is it that I still find Phil Tippet's early work and the stuff achieved on Go-Motion far more belivable and better intergrated then the CGI stuff that comes out now?
Why is it that CGI creatures and human synthetics easily stand out when composited with human actors.?
Good stop-motion is about more then just fantastic creatures, you have to have good skills in physiology, sculpting, muscle movements and acting as well as a hundred other things. No surprise that any of Harryhausen's creatures could out-act the likes of Patrick Wayne off the screen. And if you're a stop motion animator, its easier to get that performance through tactile manipluation of your characters, rather then messing around in-front of a monitor. What CGI does is