What's the deal with Harlan Ellison?

>>9167784
damn I thought he was black. guess I'll buy one of his books

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he's kind of a prick in interviews. he did write a pretty banging short story, though, so maybe that excuses it.

>>9167799
i always thought he was black too, desu. i think harlan sounds like harlem and ralph ellison is a famous black author, so its a subconscious kind of thing.

>>9167784
Download Uncle Harley's books. It infuriates him.

>>9167784
Pompous, prickly manlet.

Some anon awhile ago stated that I Have No Mouth is somehow an allusion to the Holocaust, but I forget the specific details. Can someone maybe remind me?

>>9167784
He's a bitter insecure old man who hates his peers.

>>9167784
He knows people too well

he was on an episode of scooby doo

>>9168252
Zoinks!

>>9168089
I dare you to say that three times in a mirror

search around a bit and you can find a free download of "the essential ellison". rather than reading the stories, read his introductions (plural - sometimes he writes two introductions) and postscripts for the texts.

his favorite pastime is name-dropping famous writers he's met. he's a tiny ball of relentless self-promotion. which he needs to be, because the stories "... aren't that much". "Shattered Like A Glass Goblin": dude comes back from Vietnam, moves into a share house and takes drugs. that's it; no development, no personal realization, just a lot of apocalyptic descriptions of drug use.

eventually you realise most of his stories are along those lines - lots of noise, smoke and mirrors, but very little substance. it's like eating bile-flavored candy floss.

but Harlan's greatest legacy to the world of literature has to be "The Last Dangerous Visions", a short story collection announced over thirty years ago, and still not released. reading about the book's tortured history will make you facepalm so often, you'll dislocate your jaw. here's a painfully detailed text that examines the catastrophe:

http://web.archive.org/web/20000902203835/http://sf.www.lysator.liu.se/sf_archive/sf-texts/Ansible/Last_Deadloss_Visions,Chris_Priest

i sometimes fantasize about breaking into his house, liberating the box full of stories, scanning them and putting them up on the web for free. just to make his head explode.

I read about the 3rd Visions book but I didn't find any satisfying reason for its abortion by Mr Ellison?

Either he disagreed with the nature of some material, or it wasn't strong enough, or he had a grudge against the publishers/and some writers. I can only speculate.

As for Harlan's fiction - I've tried reading I Have No Mouth and Repent Harlequin and couldn't like it at all.

>>9169310
i think what happened with the Last Dangerous Visions was that the idea was getting a little old. it could have stood one more outing, but there were problems with the first couple of publishers and pretty soon Mr Ellison found that the Dangerous Visions were looking a little tame. after that, i don't know. obstinacy, perhaps. you could ask him, but i doubt you'd get anything like a satisfactory answer.