This pretty much sums up how I feel, too.
I'd rather not read where Harlan's widow has gathered up a bunch of unfinished scripts and turned them over to someone else to work them over as a badly-developed scifi TV series....
Harlan Ellison says he is dying
- Thread starter Sir Rhosis
- Start date
This pretty much sums up how I feel, too.
I'd rather not read where Harlan's widow has gathered up a bunch of unfinished scripts and turned them over to someone else to work them over as a badly-developed scifi TV series....
It's the cliche, but it's going to be great loss when he goes. I hope he goes out giving Death the middle finger.
Talk about someone that makes you like him and hate him in the same breath. I can read his articles, watch his intereviews, and in the space of a sentence go from "you know, he's right!" to "I'm want to punch that fucker square in the nose!". And he'd probably get great joy out of that. Cause no matter how pissed off he made you, something about him (at least in his interviews and writing) made you like him for it.
I never had the honor of meeting Ellison, but I've read his work and his articles over the years, caught his interviews. And yeah, I think there's time he's a bit overrated, but even that he's better than 90% of the idiots out there publishing "sci fi" and "fantasy". Love him or hate him, you can't deny that man's got a 1 in a billion talent and earned his spot among the "Gods" of fiction.
Talk about someone that makes you like him and hate him in the same breath. I can read his articles, watch his intereviews, and in the space of a sentence go from "you know, he's right!" to "I'm want to punch that fucker square in the nose!". And he'd probably get great joy out of that. Cause no matter how pissed off he made you, something about him (at least in his interviews and writing) made you like him for it.
I never had the honor of meeting Ellison, but I've read his work and his articles over the years, caught his interviews. And yeah, I think there's time he's a bit overrated, but even that he's better than 90% of the idiots out there publishing "sci fi" and "fantasy". Love him or hate him, you can't deny that man's got a 1 in a billion talent and earned his spot among the "Gods" of fiction.
Last edited:
And I'm not.
It is so often a very, very bad idea for those we leave behind.
I think "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes" was the story that hooked me...so to speak.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
That's fine for you. You are perfectly welcome do do whatever you with with your estate.
If an artist wishes that their unfinished works be destroyed when they die then, as unfortunate as that may be, that is what should happen. If he wants all his papers destroyed, then that is what should happen.
They belong to him until he releases them. Until that time you have no right to read so much as a word of it.
If an artist wishes that their unfinished works be destroyed when they die then, as unfortunate as that may be, that is what should happen. If he wants all his papers destroyed, then that is what should happen.
They belong to him until he releases them. Until that time you have no right to read so much as a word of it.
Like I said, probably every unfinished story he has in his files is something where, at some point, he figured, "Nah, this is bullshit," and abandoned it in place so he could move on to something less bullshitty. And since he doesn't want to be known by leftover bullshit (and, more importantly, knowing full well that there are morons like me who would jump at the chance to put the finishing touches on one of Harlan's castaways), this is simply his putting the final stamp on his legacy.
I'm sure it's much the same thing as when Charles Schulz decreed that nobody was to take over "Peanuts" after he died. His creation, his decision.
Now, maybe, perhaps, there are finished, yet unreleased, stories floating around Harlan's files, and those may very likely be exempt from this order, and would therefore eventually see the light of day. But the unfinished stuff has already been condemned, so no point worrying about it. Just hope that he decides to finish some of them before he finally shuffles off this moral coil.
I'm sure it's much the same thing as when Charles Schulz decreed that nobody was to take over "Peanuts" after he died. His creation, his decision.
Now, maybe, perhaps, there are finished, yet unreleased, stories floating around Harlan's files, and those may very likely be exempt from this order, and would therefore eventually see the light of day. But the unfinished stuff has already been condemned, so no point worrying about it. Just hope that he decides to finish some of them before he finally shuffles off this moral coil.
Agree. That is one thing about Harlin Ellison he is a fun interview. He use to appear as the lone guest on the CBS Late Late Night with Tom Snyder in the '90s. He is intense and hilarious too.
It would be a shame to destroy those things he deemed failures.
Nothing gives more insight into the creative mind than the things that mind deemed a failure.
Another angle to consider is WHY a given work is unfinished. Is it because the author/artist decided it wasn't worth pursuing or because they just got stuck with how to proceed and put it aside to work on something else until inspiration hit them again?
I build Trek model kits. I routinely shift focus from one subject to another as I reach various stopping points or put kits aside because I want to modify it in some way that I don't have either the materials or ability to do at that moment. Just because I have something that's not finished doesn't mean I don't WANT to finish it.
I build Trek model kits. I routinely shift focus from one subject to another as I reach various stopping points or put kits aside because I want to modify it in some way that I don't have either the materials or ability to do at that moment. Just because I have something that's not finished doesn't mean I don't WANT to finish it.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
The why is not important. Harlan wants HIS unfinished material destroyed. Full stop. End of story. Nobody else gets to decide what he has done with his manuscripts.
Would you really want to get into a discussion on artists rights with a dying Harlan Ellison? He'd have noting to lose.
Would you really want to get into a discussion on artists rights with a dying Harlan Ellison? He'd have noting to lose.
He is a great writer, and it will be a great loss on that point. He is also a miserable human being.
He most assuredly is not.
He's certainly done great violence to the vanity of a lot of folks who think that their opinions are entitled to automatic respect.
The only thing that Harlan is miserable about is the sorry shape our planet is in, and how we, as a species, have very little excuse for it.
And Hot Pockets. For some reason they annoy the hell out of him.
And Hot Pockets. For some reason they annoy the hell out of him.
Well said.
or it could be a victim of one of his writer block periods. but even then if he wants his own work burned that is up to him.
to me the big issue is things like last dangerous visions where he is the editor and in control of other people's work.
I find it hard to imagine any writer's block sturdy enough to withstand Ellison for any appreciable period of time.
Creative dead end, though, or writing oneself into a corner, that I can see very easily.
Creative dead end, though, or writing oneself into a corner, that I can see very easily.
