Harlan Ellison (1934–2018)

I thought quite often about [a:H. P. Lovecraft|22272396|H. P. Lovecraft|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] while reading this. I think Ellison and Lovecraft are compelling in similar ways. They are both shitty people and not especially skilled writers (though Ellison has Lovecraft beat, there), and they are both struggling with enormous, genuinely compelling visions that stem from a weird combination of their shitty worldviews and, through those funhouse-mirror-views, some aspects of the actual enormity and pain of the world. I'm not sure that I'm being at all clear, but I'm glad I've read this, though I can't actually recommend that anyone do the same.… (meer)

I bought this for 2 reasons:
1) it was on sale on the Kindle for $1.99. I can't beat that price for a graphic novel.
2) My dad kickstarted the audio drama they're doing for the original teleplay (funded and over) and it tickled my interest to see this on sale.

I very likely saw the TV episode from the original Trek when I was younger. Dad swears I used to watch (and enjoy) it with him. I've been...less interested in the original Trek, far more fascinated by DS9, but I wanted to compare the two so I took out our DVD sets and watched the episode shortly after reading this.

So. Very. Different.

I don't just mean in overall tone--Ellison very clearly had a darker idea about Starfleet (which hey I agree and that's why DS9 is my go to love) then Roddenberry (who was notoriously possessive of his nie on perfect world utopia brainchild)--but in general.

The episode, if you haven't seen it, revolves around Bones McCoy getting himself infected, going batshit crazy and escaping into the mid-20th century past thanks to a somewhat smirky-sarcastic alien portal named the Guardian of Forever* that all but challenges Kirk and Spock to find the right answer OR ELSE.

Not one to let sleeping dogs lie, Kirk and Spock head back in time (not without Spock constantly getting sidetracked by science shit tho), but wind up slightly ahead of when Bones would arrive so they endeavor to live out in pre-WWII America...mostly by stealing, lying and romancing a lady. Yes Kirk gets his Kirk on and argues with Spock, who doesn't understand why Kirk would want to jeopardize their future when their ENTIRE MISSION is to save their future.

That's the episode. With some hijinks, mild racism (mostly Kirk about Spock being a "Chinaman"), and a whole lot of moralizing. Typical TOS Trek.

Ellison's original teleplay (which as I understand wasn't touched up at all really) was like FUCK UTOPIA STARFLEET WE GONNA MAKE THIS REAL WORLD. Drug dealing, insubordination of EVERYONE towards Kirk (including an epic argument between him and Spock), horrible (but accurate) racism, depression era horribleness, fascism (dude look Kirk's Lady was one step away from the bad kind of Socialist) and worst of all plausible morality. In the end, our drug-dealing enterprise crew member --who killed at least one man and was quite happily, and smugly, addicting folk to a really nasty drug -- chose to try and save Kirk's Lady (without knowing its Kirk's Lady) and ultimately died for the effort (so did the Lady).

In the show McCoy attempts to, but Kirk stops him having finally seen the logic of Spock's argument. It a painful scene to watch, as Bones (still rather crazy) accuses Kirk of allowing her to die and not caring. Spock, who was with Kirk that entire week he was seducing the Lady, tells Bones Kirk does understand and the three express a lot in just their tone and body language.

In the original teleplay and now the graphic novel, Spock asks Kirk why the crew man sacrificed himself after exhibiting nothing but selfish, greedy and destructive tendencies. He's puzzled by what prompted the man to try. Kirk says that's what it means to be human basically. We're selfish, greedy and destructive...but sometimes there's something we can't help but see as WRONG and want to correct it. For that crew man watching an innocent woman die when he could possibly prevent it meant he had to try. Despite being directly responsible for another's death.

In both cases I think there's an important emotional impact the other misses. In the televised version we see the direct result of Spock and Kirk's conversation--Kirk understands Spock's reasons and puts the needs of the many first. He does what a Starfleet Captain does--makes a heartbreaking choice knowing it will end in someone's death. In Ellison's version the conversation between Spock and Kirk is powerful--Kirk's condemnation of humanity is said in the same breath as his commendation. Spock's concise summation of "there is good in evil and evil in good" is on point.

While my natural inclination is to enjoy Ellison's original teleplay more, especially with the gorgeous artwork exhibited here, I do have a soft spot for the televised version and recommend both to be read/viewed together.

*Seriously I love the Guardian of Forever (who is a big pest in the formerly canonical tie-in novels--especially [b:Spock vs. Q Collection|18926899|Spock vs. Q Collection (Star Trek)|Cecilia Fannon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389119931s/18926899.jpg|26933682], [b:Imzadi|217890|Imzadi (Star Trek the Next Generation)|Peter David|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387669112s/217890.jpg|1192048] and the [b:Millennium Omnibus|131629|Millennium Omnibus (Star Trek Deep Space Nine)|Judith Reeves-Stevens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172002925s/131629.jpg|126773] books for DS9, but that's not here or there). His answer to everything is basically "You didn't ask".… (meer)

DNF @ 30%

CW: Obnoxious white dude writing offensive Black man and white woman, including a number of occasions wifh him writing the Black protagonist as dropping hard Rs.

I'm in a really annoying, impossible to please phase at the moment with my mental health and general existential crises, which made actually made me pick this up, as I had such a profoundly positive and strangely reassuring experience with I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. So much so I listened.lnronfihe different readings, including the BBC radio over the course of one evening. At first, that classic Ellis absolute lack of charm and nihilistic self-importance was a tone that was working for my own neurotic heads pace, and I was genuinely intrigued by the descriptions of the mind reading and their mental roll.

However, this didn't last because this is some Ellis at his most self-indulgent fart huffing, which is one thing, but while juggling a protagonist who is a Black man and his foil who is a white woman, is something else slenfifeor/entirely. Frankly, I for a feeling relatively early on that it was going to be a race between the story actually getting to the central conflict, before my discomfort levels with the desoltry characterisation becoming increasingly racist and misogynistic in their portrayal and language. Sadly, the action lost.

To be clear, I don't think Ellis is necessarily going out of this way to be gross. It just comes naturally. I think he genuinely believes he is really doing something with his awkward phonetics that edge towards AAVE and multiple hard Rs.
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On the whole it was just to full of itself and utterly insufferable Ellis that made me realise that there was no exploration of the oremins or pay off that was every going to be worth putting up with nasty white cis man writing a painful and offensive Black man and white woman.

Maybe I was just in the right place at the right time for No Mouth to really speak to me and my feelings of helplessness in this hell world. Not ready to abandon trying any more Ellis, but my opinion of him continues to plummet.… (meer)