Harlan Ellison has died.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is one of the most disturbing things I have ever read. Over 20 years after reading I still remember how appalled I felt as I finished the last sentence.
Ellison was a powerful writer. Some of his innovations have become cliche (e.g., Ellison pioneered time travel plots which have now become overused). One thing I remember from Isaac Asimov’s autobiography was how much he loved Ellison for his loyalty and devotion as a friend.
With his health failing over the past few years it is not surprising he finally died. But he surely lived a very full and eventful 84 years. Ellison made a difference, and he’ll be remembered.
My favorite book of his was the essays – Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed. One of the reviewers on Amazon says it perfectly – “Have you ever read some Harlan Ellison and said to yourself, I really liked the intros to the stories better than some of the stories ? If so, this is the book for you.” (By ‘Kindle Customer’.)
I, too, found IHNMAIMS an especially disturbing read. Elon Musk said the same (so it’s unanimous).
But my favorite Ellison story is about the time he had a Saturday night speaking engagement at Centenary College in Shreveport, winter ’71-’72 (my senior year in high school). On the previous Friday night a friend was having a party in her dorm room, and in a corner chair there was this little guy (almost a midget) in his late 30s. I figured him to be one of the hipper-looking faculty members. But no, he said he had just gotten out of the army (I wondered about the length of his hair, but let it pass). He spent the next hour telling me the most amazing stories about scrapes he had barely survived. That’s not how I had planned to spend my evening, but I was riveted.
The next night I attended Ellison’s talk, and there the strange little guy was, center stage. Odd as it may seem now, at the time it was very easy to be a big fan of a guy’s writing and have no idea what he looked like. Ellison spotted me in the audience, and read me from the pulpit, laughing his ass off. My date was delighted.
It turns out there was a suite off to the side of the freshman girl’s dorm for visiting speakers, etc, and Ellis had just followed his fundar to the party.
A number of years ago I was in a Borders book shop, and in their sci fi section they had what must have been a complete collection of Ellison’s writings. This would be screen plays, novels, short story collections, criticism. It consisted of a few dozen bound volumes, and it covered about 6 ft of shelf space.