Re: Ellison's LatestcericonversionJuly 24 2009, 07:06:30 UTC
He's always had this jerk bullying streak, though. It was evident in reading his essays and commentary when I was a kid in the '70s, and then in apas when I was reading them in the '80s. People sometimes forget how much of his work like The Glass Teat and the commentary around Dangerous Visions entry is exactly this tone.
Re: Ellison's LatestmsilverstarJuly 24 2009, 16:18:46 UTC
When he really was the young rebel, it was speaking truth to power. I remember those days too. I loved the Glass Teat 1 & 2.
The problem is that he still thinks of himself as a rebel but he has (or had) real power and uses that against people who are rebelling against the establishment.
Re: Ellison's LatestmsilverstarJuly 27 2009, 02:23:20 UTC
Yeah, I actually give him more props for supporting the ERA, because he never did have a clue about women, like most of the guys of the era. There were sterling exceptions (my dad, frex) but not many.
I was just thinking about him groping Connie Willis, as though she was a whore. And decided that there should be a Rule: no groping in public unless the gropee explicitly gives permission, beforehand, in public. Holding hands is not groping.
Some people never get over being Holden Caulfieldmarlowe1July 24 2009, 21:44:13 UTC
I think there's an age thing. When you are a rebellious pissy teenager, Harlan Ellison's bullying is awesome because he never got over being that kind of asshole.
When you are older and a little less prone to blaming everyone else for your problems, Harlan just sounds like a dipshit.
I liked most of Glass Teat, but there were times when he took potshots at way too easy targets (child beauty pagaents) and his whole "Here's my screenplay" series that ends with him bitch about the actors getting all the lines wrong was petulant and moronic. Especially since the script was a boring ass story about a guy who doesn't realize that his ex-girlfriend is a manipulative junkie.
Re: Ellison's Latestethereal_ladJuly 24 2009, 11:04:37 UTC
She has dummied-up a truly insulting mock-cover of REALMS that is intended to be offensive to anyone who values my sixty years' work. Now: watch your step. She is apparently a Woman of Color (which REALLY makes me want to bee-atch-slap her, being the guy who discovered and encouraged one of the finest writers and Women of Color who ever lived, my friend, the recently-deceased Octavia Estelle Butler). And she plays that card endlessly, which is supposed to exorcise anyone suggesting she is a badmouth ignoramus, or even a NWA. Ooooh, did I say that?
Sounds like Harlan wants a cookie for having 'discovered' Octavia Butler. "I discovered OEB, so I can't be offensive!" Yawn.
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Fucking shame he lost all that.
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The problem is that he still thinks of himself as a rebel but he has (or had) real power and uses that against people who are rebelling against the establishment.
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He was often a sexist ass to women even then, though. Even while he was supporting the ERA and what-not.
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I was just thinking about him groping Connie Willis, as though she was a whore. And decided that there should be a Rule: no groping in public unless the gropee explicitly gives permission, beforehand, in public. Holding hands is not groping.
I don't forgive him, but I do have some empathy.
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When you are older and a little less prone to blaming everyone else for your problems, Harlan just sounds like a dipshit.
I liked most of Glass Teat, but there were times when he took potshots at way too easy targets (child beauty pagaents) and his whole "Here's my screenplay" series that ends with him bitch about the actors getting all the lines wrong was petulant and moronic. Especially since the script was a boring ass story about a guy who doesn't realize that his ex-girlfriend is a manipulative junkie.
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card endlessly, which is supposed to exorcise anyone suggesting she is a badmouth ignoramus, or even a NWA. Ooooh, did I say that?
Sounds like Harlan wants a cookie for having 'discovered' Octavia Butler. "I discovered OEB, so I can't be offensive!" Yawn.
Playing the Race Card foolishness? Yawn.
Calling KTB a NWA? How edgy!!!!
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And she didn't publish a thing for 5 years afterwards.
Think that if he actually had the professionalism to publish the anthology on time she would have been unpublished for those five years?
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