"Harlan Ellison - Approaching Oblivion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ellison Harlan)

ELLISON'S GRAMMATICAL GUIDE AND GLOSSARY FOR THE GOYIM
6 SILENT IN GEHENNA
7 EROTOPHOBIA
8 ONE LIFE, FURNISHED IN EARLY POVERTY
9 ECOWARENESS
10 CATMAN
11 HINDSIGHT: 480 SECONDS

Foreword by MICHAEL CRICHTON

APPROACHING
ELLISON
Soon after I came to Los Angeles in 1970, I was called by a producer who offered me a job writing a
science fiction screenplay. I was tied up with a book at the time; the producer asked me if I could suggest
another writer for the project. I suggested Harlan Ellison.
There was a long, chilly silence at the other end of the phone. Finally the producer cleared his
throat and said, тАЬDo you, ah, know Harlan Ellison?тАЭ
No, I said, I didn't. I knew him only through his work. I had read some of his stories, and seen
some of his television scripts.
тАЬUmm,тАЭ the producer said. тАЬWell, let me tell you something-тАЭ and he launched into a short,
energetic, and wholly unprintable description of his feelings on the subject of Harlan Ellison. The outburst
ended as abruptly as it began, and he got off the phone leaving me completely mystified. I could only
assume that Ellison and this producer had had some acrimonious dealings in the past. But that is hardly a
rare event in Hollywood, and I thought no more about it.
As time went on, I ran into many people who had had acrimonious dealings with Harlan Ellison.
There was an odd sameness about the way all these people talked. тАЬHe's very inventive, very enthusiastic,
very talented,тАЭ they would begin, тАЬbut-тАЭ and then they'd launch into a long and heated harangue, cataloging
what they regarded as the innumerable abuses they had suffered at his hands. I was told that Ellison was a
perfectionist; that he cared too much about his work; that he fought for his ideas; that he was demanding
and quick to pull his name from any project which did not go as he intended-always substituting the
sarcastic pseudonym, тАЬCordwainer Bird.тАЭ
None of this elicited much sympathy from me. I saw nothing wrong with caring about your work
and fighting for your ideas. I had been doing the same thing, and for my trouble I had been fired by
Universal and then sued by that company. So I was in the position of admiring Ellison more with every
new complaint I heard about him.
The people who spoke so bitterly about Harlan Ellison all mentioned something else, too. At the
end of their diatribes, they would pause to catch their breath and then conclude with. тАЬ And besides, did
you see what Gay Talese said about him?.
Gay Talese had written an Esquire piece called тАЬFrank Sinatra Has a ColdтАЭ which reported an
encounter between Ellison and the singer. Ellison comes off as disrespectful, witty, and refusing to be
bullied. It is hardly the portrait of a blackguard and cur. which his critics felt it to be.
In the end, I suppose what impressed me most about these Ellison stories was the strength of
feeling with which they were told. The facts-so far as they could be determined-were never very
remarkable, but the emotional content was always fierce and highly charged. Somehow. Ellison had really
gotten to them, and they would never forget it.
Some time later, this same Harlan Ellison began to attack me in print. His argument was that I
wasnтАЩt writing good science fiction. which was fine by me-I didn't think I was writing science fiction at all-
but it was irritating to be placed in an unwanted category and then told I didnтАЩt fit it well. I was back at
Universal by then, and one day I was complaining about his attacks on me when a secretary looked up and
said, тАЬDo you, ah, know Harlan Ellison?тАЭ