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Harlan Ellison

TiberiusK said:
Duncan MacLeod said:
None.

I saw HE exactly once. At a reading he was doing at my first con back in the 70s. He was such an arrogant self-centered little prick that I wanted nothing to do with him or his writing. As a result, I have never so much as cracked the cover of one of his books. Nor do I have any intention of ever doing so.

Speaking of which, is there anybody here who hasn't heard the "little prick story" about HE?
Click to expand...

Do tell!
Click to expand...

I presume that you want to hear the story, so here goes.

It seems that Mr. Ellison has an attraction to tall supermodel types. He also seems to favor a direct, and imo rather crude, approach. Well, one day at some kind of event, I think it was an award ceremony, he spotted a tall, beautiful and quite famous supermodel and decided that he wanted to do her.

So Mr. Ego walks up to her and asks: "What would you say to a little prick?"

Now this woman, who is literally towering over him, is rather annoyed by this remark and decides to put Mr. Ego firmly in his place. She looks down at him from her great height and replies:

"Hello, Little Prick."
 
The God Thing said:

You mean Ellison verbally abusing me at a West LA booksigning circa 1996? One of my most profound life regrets is that I didn't beat the living shit out of that disgusting little oxidized cockroach right there in that Santa Monica Barnes & Noble.
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I worked at that barnes & noble for a week during its final setup in mid 1995 when I lived in L.A.

I'm sorry I missed that! :lol:
 
I tried to read HE's City book. Couldn't do it. (I did read his scripts though.) I couldn't understand how he could simultaneously say "they gutted the heart of my script and made it crap!" (SPOCK stopping KIRK from saving Edith) and then hold up TV Guide's 100 Greatest Moments (which wasn't talking about City overall, but about the heart-gutting crap moment specifically - Kirk stopping McCoy). I don't think anywhere does he give credit to GR or Fontana for creating that "greatest moment".

BTW, I'll give him that Edith's speech to the bums IS nonsense in it's specifics. This is the trouble with "and now a character gives a GREAT speech" moments. You have to write a GREAT speech. See why "These Are the Voyages" ended when it did?
 
Tallguy said:
I tried to read HE's City book. Couldn't do it. (I did read his scripts though.) I couldn't understand how he could simultaneously say "they gutted the heart of my script and made it crap!" (SPOCK stopping KIRK from saving Edith) and then hold up TV Guide's 100 Greatest Moments (which wasn't talking about City overall, but about the heart-gutting crap moment specifically - Kirk stopping McCoy). I don't think anywhere does he give credit to GR or Fontana for creating that "greatest moment".

BTW, I'll give him that Edith's speech to the bums IS nonsense in it's specifics. This is the trouble with "and now a character gives a GREAT speech" moments. You have to write a GREAT speech. See why "These Are the Voyages" ended when it did?
Click to expand...

"I once saw a gazelle giving birth..." :vulcan:
 
That's the way it goes. Sometimes you get "Risk is our business" or "In every revolution there's one man with a vision". And sometimes you get "Gazelles".
 
No realli!

We apologise for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.
 
Duncan MacLeod said:
TiberiusK said:
Duncan MacLeod said:
None.

I saw HE exactly once. At a reading he was doing at my first con back in the 70s. He was such an arrogant self-centered little prick that I wanted nothing to do with him or his writing. As a result, I have never so much as cracked the cover of one of his books. Nor do I have any intention of ever doing so.

Speaking of which, is there anybody here who hasn't heard the "little prick story" about HE?
Click to expand...

Do tell!
Click to expand...

I presume that you want to hear the story, so here goes.

It seems that Mr. Ellison has an attraction to tall supermodel types. He also seems to favor a direct, and imo rather crude, approach. Well, one day at some kind of event, I think it was an award ceremony, he spotted a tall, beautiful and quite famous supermodel and decided that he wanted to do her.

So Mr. Ego walks up to her and asks: "What would you say to a little prick?"

Now this woman, who is literally towering over him, is rather annoyed by this remark and decides to put Mr. Ego firmly in his place. She looks down at him from her great height and replies:

"Hello, Little Prick."
Click to expand...

Actually, that is almost a verbatim lift from a Robert Anton Wilson book I read a number of years back (but you have to substitute "little fuck" for "little prick" -- it reads better that way, too.)
Trouble is, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Harlan Ellison.

I'm sure he has gotten turned down plenty (anybody who sleeps with 300 women in 15 years must be asking almost everybody), but I think you're mixing fiction with truth (or truth with what you might want to believe.)

Honest to god, I figure most all of the hate and venom for Ellison is a mask for jealousy. I would shave a foot off my height to write half as well (and that would bring me down to about his height.)
 
Duncan MacLeod said:Sometimes you get "Risk is our business"
Click to expand...

Is that from "Return to Tomorrow"? I hate that speech, everyone else at the conference table seems to be cringing, its so totally out of place. Next time I watch it, I'll be expecting some Spartans to run and starting shouting "ah-huh!" at their new king Kirk :rolleyes:
 
Interesting thread, and great to read. Ellison is a great writer, and a dickhead that has a faulty memory and/or trouble with the truth. Stephen King slobbers all over him in "Danse Macabre", and he deserves it for his writing, but his stories, especially about Roddenberry, are anecdotel and filled with Ellison's interpetation of what happened, taken by King as verbatim with no other source of info. As for COTEOF, his version doesn't work for Trek. In having Spock stop Kirk, he kills the Kirk character. The TV version reinforces the Kirk character for all time. Until Meyer and Bennett kill him in "Wrath of Kahn" and beyond. But that's a discussion for another thread. ;)
 
I know of one person to whom Ellison was so mean (this was at a convention) that her brother almost started a fight with him.

Then again, I met him once at a Neil Gaiman book signing, and upon that occasion, Ellison couldn't have been any nicer or more polite; he was very charming and cordial.

So, go figure...
 
trevanian said:
Duncan MacLeod said:
TiberiusK said:
Duncan MacLeod said:
None.

I saw HE exactly once. At a reading he was doing at my first con back in the 70s. He was such an arrogant self-centered little prick that I wanted nothing to do with him or his writing. As a result, I have never so much as cracked the cover of one of his books. Nor do I have any intention of ever doing so.

Speaking of which, is there anybody here who hasn't heard the "little prick story" about HE?
Click to expand...

Do tell!
Click to expand...

I presume that you want to hear the story, so here goes.

It seems that Mr. Ellison has an attraction to tall supermodel types. He also seems to favor a direct, and imo rather crude, approach. Well, one day at some kind of event, I think it was an award ceremony, he spotted a tall, beautiful and quite famous supermodel and decided that he wanted to do her.

So Mr. Ego walks up to her and asks: "What would you say to a little prick?"

Now this woman, who is literally towering over him, is rather annoyed by this remark and decides to put Mr. Ego firmly in his place. She looks down at him from her great height and replies:

"Hello, Little Prick."
Click to expand...

Actually, that is almost a verbatim lift from a Robert Anton Wilson book I read a number of years back (but you have to substitute "little fuck" for "little prick" -- it reads better that way, too.)
Trouble is, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Harlan Ellison.

I'm sure he has gotten turned down plenty (anybody who sleeps with 300 women in 15 years must be asking almost everybody), but I think you're mixing fiction with truth (or truth with what you might want to believe.)

Honest to god, I figure most all of the hate and venom for Ellison is a mask for jealousy. I would shave a foot off my height to write half as well (and that would bring me down to about his height.)
Click to expand...

That is the story I heard attributed to HE. I've never even heard of Mr. Wilson, nor have I read anything he's written. I was merely relating the story that I'd heard, as I remember it.

I have no need to bring HE down. He brings himself down with his infantile behavior and requires no help from me. As for the quality of his writing, as I had previously stated, I've never read any of it. My first exposure to HE was in person and did an extremely thorough job of putting me off to the man and his writing.

But you can believe what you want.
 
As far as I know, I've only read one Ellison story.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
 
I'm sure I've read them all. But I should probably dig out the paperbacks and reread some - I'm sure that at 18, I didn't get all the nuances.

Though I can never read Deathbird again, having lost a parent and a dog. Damn story had me in tears even before that.
 
Whenever I read Ellison, I'm amazed at the depth and clarity of his writing. Whenever I read about Ellison, I'm amazed that he is the same guy. He's certainly accumulated his share of enemies over the years and ticked me off with some of the things he's said publicly.

I suspect the man is uncivilized. Not in the sense that he eats pudding with his fingers and wets his pants, but in the sense that he has discarded the behavior that keeps us civil. He doesn't hesitate to tell people exactly what's on his mind. He's just like the rest of us in every other respect. He can be kind and generous to a fault, but at the same time be an egotistical little prick who procrastinates and then makes lame excuses. His gift, overlooking his writing, is his ability to say exactly what we wish we could say to every arsehole who ticks us off.

So, like no other writer, I love reading his stories, and I love reading stories about him. I know I'm going to be entertained either way.
 
The thing that amuses and amazes me about Ellison is that I'm usually more upset when he LIKES the things that I like. After reading his introductions to Doctor Who and The Rocketeer my inevitable reaction is "Stay off my side!" He's twice as obnoxious defending something as he is attacking it.
 
Does anyone remember the Star Trek 30th Anniversary Special from '96? During Joan Collins' big speech, she totally screwed up the premise of City on the Edge of Forever! (You remember her claiming that Edith Keeler thought that Hitler was a good guy?!) Apparently she's done it before, and I know that this sort of thing really drives Harlan Ellison nuts...
 
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