One Last Pitch to Include Harlan Ellison in the LOA
DiscussieLibrary of America Subscribers
Sluit je aan bij LibraryThing om te posten.
1Truett
Earlier in this year, or last, one of the visitors was encouraging me to start up a Get Ellison into the Library of America thread. Told him I'd do it, one last time. I'd already done so once (or twice) since Harlan's death in 2018. During the interim, Ellison's wife passed away. This year, in fact. So there would likely be few, if any, hurdles anyone would need to jump regarding rights and such. I imagine they are being handled by Jason Davis (who was going about the work of digitizing all of Ellison's writings (stories, essays, scripts, etc.). David, if you need it, I can provide you with Jason's email (I actually helped him find a LONG overlooked typo in one of Ellison's stories, that had been reprinted several times). But I imagine you could get it pretty easy on the internet (FB, or otherwise).
In the meantime, in case LOA is reticent about reprinting one of his books -- DEATHBIRD STORIES; THE ESSENTIAL ELLSION; THE TOP OF THE VOLCANO (all of his award-winning short fiction) -- I put together a selection of 25 pieces of fiction and 25 pieces of nonfiction: suggestions for an LOA original volume, provided the board is ever interested in publishing something. (Don't forget: in addition to helping Le Guin get one of her many awards -- for "The Word for World is Forest" in his AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS anthology -- Ellison was largely responsible for helping usher in the incredible career of Octavia E. Butler -- two solid LOA connections, already).
SHORT STORIES:
"Daniel White For the Greater Good" - 1961
For me, this is the story -- with some of the narration written almost in the form of teleplay, noting what the camera sees in front of it -- wherein Ellison truly "feels his oats", comes into his own, so to speak. It's a stunner, about racism, written as the Civil Rights movement was in full swing. Dorothy Parker also found it brilliant. She gave it, and the rest of the stories in Ellison's paperback book (GENTLEMAN JUNKIE) a five star write-up.
"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Tick Tock Man" - 1965 (winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards) One of Ellison's most reprinted stories (and reportedly one of the most reprinted stories in America, for a time), it deals with the theme of fighting authoritarians, pushing back against barriers, speaking up and acting out (civillaly) when The Powers That Be are aligned against you. And it does it all with a unique sense of humor.
"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" - 1967 (hugo) One of Ellison's most notorious stories, and also much reprinted (even by LOA). The last five people on Earth, trapped inside of a sentient, insane, computer, that chooses to torture them, endlessly, for its own enjoyment. The themes: personal responsibility and courage. (Some LOA readers might be familiar with this one, since it was included in the American Fantasy double volume collection).
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes" --1967 Robert Silverberg (a noted SF writer) once said this story has the most perfect last sentence ever. It certainly does. And the rest of the story -- about a man who "connects" with the spirit of a dead call girl, trapped inside of a slot machine -- is a corker, too. Ellison wrote most of it, while staying in hotel in Las Vegas, while he was slowly falling into a coma (true story).
"A Boy and His Dog" -- 1969 (Nebula) Another one of his more well-known fictions -- partly because of the B++ movie that was made, largely adhering to most of the words (except for the last, sophomoric lines, written by the director) -- this short novella juxtaposes the animal cruelty of humans with the civilized, intellect of the mutant, formerly military, dogs which now try to cling to a solo rover for survival. It is set in post apocalyptic world.
"On the Downhill Side" - 1972 One of the most beautiful stories about love, featuring a rainbow-maned unicorn, some remarkably spot-on observations and descriptions of New Orleans,and some insightful observations about the human condition.
"The Deathbird" -- 1973 (Hugo) One of Ellison's flirtations with both form and substance. The form of the story goes from narration, to multiple choice test questions, and back again. The subject of the story? Was "god" -- little "g" -- the actual "bad guy"? And was "snake" the good guy (sent from across time and space), trying to save humankind?
"The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" - 1973 (winner of the Edgar Award) Based on a once famous case - the Kitty Genovese murder -- Ellison's storyline once again deals with responsibility: the responsibility of acting (in some form or other) to help a fellow human in peril...and what it means for us all when we fail to do so.
"Adrift, Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W" -- 1974 (Hugo) A man goes in search of his soul. The man's name? Larry Talbot. His friend Victor is doing his best to help him along in his task, offering up a machine that will allow Larry to shrink down and travel inside his own body. (A little bit of "Wolfman", "Frankenstein" and "Fantastic Voyage" -- and a LOT of brilliant writing).
"Croatoan" -- 1975 One of Ellison's darker, creepier short stories. A guy helps his girlfirend -- one of many -- have an at-home abortion, during a time in the USA when it is illegal, countrywide. She freaks out, and insists he go down into the sewer to find the just-flushed fetus. Ellison manages to mix alligators and Roanoke into the whole thing, and it all works in a Twilight Zone-meets-EC comics kinda way.
"Mom" -- 1976 One of the funniest ghost stories ever. A Jewish guy is haunted by his mother's ghost, as she nudhzes him, endlessly.
"Jeffty is Five" -- 1977 (Hugo, Nebula) What happens when the immovable future butts up against the irresistible past? The narrator of this story, and his friend, Jeffty, who never ages beyond his fifth year, find out together.
"All the Birds Come Home to Roost" - 1979 An unsettling story of dread, this time involving a man whose past wives and lovers come back to visit him -- one at a time. It's also one of over 30 stories that Ellison actually wrote in the windows of various bookstores (mostly in the USA, but also in Paris, etc.) Many of them were written after a celebrity (Tom Brokaw) or a friend (Robin Williams) handed Ellison the title of the story and a "kickstart" sentence suggesting what he should write about.
"All the Lies That Are My Life" - 1981 The ultimate biographical story, this novella mixes facts about Ellison's own life with those of other people he has known, along with a healthy portion of fiction, to create one the few (maybe one fifth of the fiction he wrote) mainstream stories in his oeuvre. It's a good one.
"Grail" - 1981 A man goes on a quest for the Holy Grail -- True Love. Along the way, the protagonist finds himself prepared to sacrifice anything. Unfortunately for him. This was one of Ellison's favorites.
"Laugh Track" --1984 One of funniest stories -- if not THE funniest -- Ellison ever wrote. A struggling screenwriter hears the voice of his long-dead Aunt Babe in the laugh tracks of various old TV shows. Pretty soon, Aunt Babe is acknowledging him and his presence.
"Paladin of the Lost Hour" - 1985 (Hugo) This award-winning story was written IN TANDEM with Ellison's Writer's Guild of America Award-winning script for "The Twilight Zone" (1980s revival), therefore both creations informed the other. And BOTH stories deal with an aging old man who guards the last hour on Earth -- inside of a special pocket watch -- and how he helps a young man deal with ghosts of the past. Interestingly, I think many who knew Ellison would agree that the old man -- Gaspar -- is a great fictional depiction of the author, in many ways. (Incidentally, Ellison is still the only writer to have won the WGA award four times for solo efforts -- no co-writers).
"Soft Monkey" -- 1987 (Edgar) A mentally disturbed, homeless black woman witnesses the murder of a man by a Mob boss. Ellison uses that situation to explore the boundaries and depths of a mother's love and determination.
"The Function of Dream Sleep" -- 1988 Written after the loss of a good many of his own friends, this mystical story deals -- obviously -- with the trauma of loss in the lives of those left behind. It also involves something called the Thanatos Mouth.
"The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" -- 1993 (included in the Best AmericanShort Stories) The very definition of "tour de force", this story combines Ellison's humorous prose with his straight-forward, pull-no-punches style of writing. And it does so while paying homage to Shirley Jackson's, "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts". The moral of the story: personal responsibility (a frequent refrain in Ellison stories).
"Mefisto in Onyx" -- 1993 (winner, Bram Stoker Award) A young black man -- who once had a "thing" with his white female best friend (a District Attorney) -- also happens to be cursed with what he calls an ability to "shrike": to jump into the minds of other people, reading their thoughts, feeling their emotions, everything. Now, a year later, his best friend -- who knows about his ability -- talks him into coming with her to Ossining Prison, where a serial killer she convicted is on death row. Because she believes he may just be innocent. Good stuff, and one of the stories picked by James Ellroy for his 100 best Noir Fictions of the Century, volume. Like most of his fiction, it was up for a multitude of awards, but "only" came home with a Stoker.
"Darkness falls On the River" -- 1994 Beginning in the late '70s, mid-80s or so, Ellison started aiming for a more pared-down style. Frederick Brown-cum-Jorge luis Borges-style short fictions. In 1993, he was asked to do an introduction to a book of fantastic paintings by Jacek Yerka. Instead, he wrote 33 new -- short -- fictions around each of the paintings. This short-short story is one of them. It is, in my opinion, one of Ellison's most poetic. And the book itself -- MIND FIELDS -- is one of Ellison's most egregiously overlooked, escaping the notice of many reviewers that year (likely because they thought it was "just" an artbook). The stories in the that collection deal with everything from genocide to old age.
"The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon, Pays its Way and Makes Change" -- 1997 Another thing Ellison "got into" in the 80s and 90s and 00s, was occasionally writing a very autobiographical tale. This is another of his rare mainstream stories, wrapped around various events that took place in his own life. To my mind, it reads like a "New Yorker" story, only not quite as stiff as many of them.
"From A to Z, In the Sarsaparilla Alphabet" -- 2001 Another of his Borgesian-Frederic Brown tales, this one done in 26 parts: once again, Ellison mixes some truly humorous pieces with some (the one that deals with racists comes to mind) truly horrific stories; and (in this case), he manages to cobble up a minor masterpiece. He also throws around some casually poetic prose (especially in the "H is for Hippogriff" story) which is, quite frankly, pretty dazzling (like watching Fred Astaire do his thing without breathing heavy). FYI: Ellison wrote a story entitled "From A to Z, In the Chocolate Alphabet", his first stab at writing 26 short-shorts around an abecedarian theme. That fist one (from the 1970s) was quite good; this one is far superior. And he was planning to do one or two more (the next one would have been "From A to Z, in the Lemon-Lime Alphabet", and been centered around lost, magical places Liliput; Shangri-la", etc., but the stroke and a recently diagnosed clinical depression laid him low in that regard).
How Interesting: A Tiny Man -- 2010 (Nebula) A brilliant, end of career, short story that deals with aspects of creativity as well as the creator and his "audience". It won Ellison his fourth Nebula Award, and made him the only writer -- thus far -- to win that award three times for the short story.
-----------------------------
ESSAYS:
"The Tombs: Memos From Purgatory" -- 1961 (excerpt) Ellison edited a proper excerpt from his MEMOS FROM PURGATORY. A book about the time he joined a Redhook gang (to write about them) and then, years later, got tossed in the slammer (New York City's once infamous "Tombs") because of a related matter.
"From Alabamy, With Hate" -- 1965 Ellison was, quite literally, more connected than Kevin Bacon. Hung out with James Baldwin and some others during the '68 Democratic convention riots, rubbed shoulders with "the Rolling Stones" while doing an article, and more. He also joined in on the March to Montgomery. This is the essay that came about because of that Civil Rights involvement.
"Our Little Miss" -- 1970 (excerpt from The Glass Teat) An essay, done for his "Harlan Ellison's Hornbook" column, about America's fascination with Beauty Pageants. In this case, pageants involving young girls.
"Valerie: A True Memoir" -- 1972 A warts-and-all account of the time Ellison spent getting romanced and taken by a beautiful young con-woman. And yeah, he admittedly behaves like a besotted putz.
"Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto" -- 1974 One of Ellison's many (many!) accounts of dealing with the producer-type schmucks in Hollywood (incidentally: Ellison was a featured character in "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", the seminal essay by Gay Talese).
"My Mother" -- 1976 A moving, and frank, portrait of his mom (Ellison did likewise about his dad, who had a heart attack in front of him when was 9 or 10).
"Tell-Tale Tics and Tremors" - 1977 One of his many, informative, essays about writing. It's a good one.
"True Love: Groping For the Holy Grail" --1978 An essay Ellison agreed to do on computer dating -- when it was still very new (looong before Tinder). It makes for a very interesting essay about what people will or won't do for "love", and just how we humans define that word.
"Revealed at Last! What Killed the Dinosaurs!" -- 1978 One of Ellison's most famous essays on television. It was reworked as the introduction of a book of short stories AND was used in one of his two, legendary (among college campus types, as well as television types) books of essays (originally written for L.A.'s free press) about television: THE GLASS TEAT, and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT. The second book was actually blocked from proper publication, after Ellison had already been blacklisted the Nixon administration. Why? Because Ellison said something unflattering about Spiro Agnew, Nixon's vice president.
"The Three Most Important Things in Life" -- 1978 In my book, this may be one of the best essays I've ever read. It is written in three parts: Sex, violence and labor relations. And, one has to remember -- especially after reading the first section, and the way it ends -- that Ellison, like all good writers, was prone to exaggeration. The essay takes the reader from the humorous, to the somber (and unnerving) and back around again to humor -- flat out comedy, in fact (great last, punch, line).
"An Edge in My Voice Installment # 55, 19th Dec" -- Silver Pen Award -1982 Yet another column Ellison wrote (in his lifetime, there were approximately half a dozen or more), this one -- "An Edge in My Voice" -- attracted the attention of PEN International, and this particular installment won an award for "continuing commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship". The installment had to do with the Reagan administration's handling of a mentally unstable old man who was threatening a Washington Monument.
"A Love Song to Jerry Fallwell" -- 1984 A tirade against organized religion.
"The Song the Sixties Sang" -1988 A celebration of "the sixties" (which, weirdly, covers the years from around the mid-1960s to the early '70s).
"Did Your Mother Throw Yours Out?" -- 1988 A nostalgic stroll through yesteryear, and the pleasure of reading and owning comic books (one of three or four identifiable -- according to Ellison -- American artforms). Ellison was a lifelong fan of great comics (his house even had a secret compartment where he kept a huge collection).
"The Streets, installment 1, 19th July" -- 1990 A later, short-lived, column that Ellison wrote for a Los Angeles magazine, this first-published piece dealing with Richard Nixon and a Yorba Linda Presidential Library, and the fact that Americans SHOULD hold a grudge against some humans.
"Xenogenesis" -- 1990 A truly eye-opening, often horrifying essay about the callousness of fans (specifically, SF & fantasy & horror literature fans, but...this applies all around, I think: mainstream fiction, TV & film fans, etc.). The last lines -- "Warm vomit. Have a nice day." -- will ring in your ears for a long, long time, after you read it.
"The Forties" - 1992 A beautiful piece of reminiscence -- and a paean to a decade that Ellison fondly remembers (written for a book about movies, along with essays by other writers -- Stephen King, etc. -- who covered other decades).
"Where I Shall Dwell In the Next World" - 1992 Not quite a how-to essay on writing -- more of an answer to the oft-asked, "how do you (and others) do it?" Writing, that is. Ellison answers via short pieces of fiction, followed up by short nonfiction pieces explaining, in part, what inspired those bits of fiction.
"Toiling in the Dreamtime" -1993 For my money, the best piece on writing (on the mysteries of writing) that Ellison ever wrote. And he wrote a LOT of good essays on the subject.
"Strangers in a Strange Land: Harlan Ellison on Heaven's Gate" -- 1997
An essay about the crazy cults, and how ordinary people become nutjobs. A shortened version ran in "Newsweek", but the longer unedited is the best.
"Struggling For Interior Logic" -- 1998 Another great essay that uses writing for it's foundation, but also links to things like the "Heaven's Gate" cult and the "X-files" TV show.
"Terrorists" -2002 Ellison -- along with guys like John Updike -- was asked to contribute to collection by modern writers, offering up their thoughts about the 9/11 terrorist act.
"Infamy, Infamy! They've All Got it In fa' Me!" -- 2003 A genuinely funny essay about the on-going cult of celebrity.
"The Soul of Solomon: What is, is; Sometimes, What Ain't, Shouldn't Be" -2009 An essay describing Ellison's failure to complete a commissioned short story (involving the meeting of "The Phantom" and "The Shadow"), which delves into the act of writing -- bits of the unfinished essay are included -- as well as artistic hubris.
"I Had a Thought Today, 1: 15 November" -- 2013 This is one of the last pieces Ellison every wrote (from another, short-lived column), before a stroke that laid him low for the final time in late 2014 (Ellison completed another late-in-life, brilliant, short story -- "He Who Grew Reading Sherlock Holmes" -- sometime earlier that year). It's not as mind-blowing as many of the aforementioned, but it's a terrific, and terrifically funny, read. About the time a young-up-and-coming writer in Los Angeles -- a guy who was known for being tough (traveled the road at an early age, ran with a gang in Brooklyn for research, survived a short stint in the Army, and Ranger training, etc.) was introduced to a youngish, "up-and-coming" mobster: Whitely Bolger. As I mentioned above, the funny thing about Ellison: he was even more Kevin Bacon than Kevin Bacon. The list of people he actually met -- and often befriended -- was staggering.
In the meantime, in case LOA is reticent about reprinting one of his books -- DEATHBIRD STORIES; THE ESSENTIAL ELLSION; THE TOP OF THE VOLCANO (all of his award-winning short fiction) -- I put together a selection of 25 pieces of fiction and 25 pieces of nonfiction: suggestions for an LOA original volume, provided the board is ever interested in publishing something. (Don't forget: in addition to helping Le Guin get one of her many awards -- for "The Word for World is Forest" in his AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS anthology -- Ellison was largely responsible for helping usher in the incredible career of Octavia E. Butler -- two solid LOA connections, already).
SHORT STORIES:
"Daniel White For the Greater Good" - 1961
For me, this is the story -- with some of the narration written almost in the form of teleplay, noting what the camera sees in front of it -- wherein Ellison truly "feels his oats", comes into his own, so to speak. It's a stunner, about racism, written as the Civil Rights movement was in full swing. Dorothy Parker also found it brilliant. She gave it, and the rest of the stories in Ellison's paperback book (GENTLEMAN JUNKIE) a five star write-up.
"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Tick Tock Man" - 1965 (winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards) One of Ellison's most reprinted stories (and reportedly one of the most reprinted stories in America, for a time), it deals with the theme of fighting authoritarians, pushing back against barriers, speaking up and acting out (civillaly) when The Powers That Be are aligned against you. And it does it all with a unique sense of humor.
"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" - 1967 (hugo) One of Ellison's most notorious stories, and also much reprinted (even by LOA). The last five people on Earth, trapped inside of a sentient, insane, computer, that chooses to torture them, endlessly, for its own enjoyment. The themes: personal responsibility and courage. (Some LOA readers might be familiar with this one, since it was included in the American Fantasy double volume collection).
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes" --1967 Robert Silverberg (a noted SF writer) once said this story has the most perfect last sentence ever. It certainly does. And the rest of the story -- about a man who "connects" with the spirit of a dead call girl, trapped inside of a slot machine -- is a corker, too. Ellison wrote most of it, while staying in hotel in Las Vegas, while he was slowly falling into a coma (true story).
"A Boy and His Dog" -- 1969 (Nebula) Another one of his more well-known fictions -- partly because of the B++ movie that was made, largely adhering to most of the words (except for the last, sophomoric lines, written by the director) -- this short novella juxtaposes the animal cruelty of humans with the civilized, intellect of the mutant, formerly military, dogs which now try to cling to a solo rover for survival. It is set in post apocalyptic world.
"On the Downhill Side" - 1972 One of the most beautiful stories about love, featuring a rainbow-maned unicorn, some remarkably spot-on observations and descriptions of New Orleans,and some insightful observations about the human condition.
"The Deathbird" -- 1973 (Hugo) One of Ellison's flirtations with both form and substance. The form of the story goes from narration, to multiple choice test questions, and back again. The subject of the story? Was "god" -- little "g" -- the actual "bad guy"? And was "snake" the good guy (sent from across time and space), trying to save humankind?
"The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" - 1973 (winner of the Edgar Award) Based on a once famous case - the Kitty Genovese murder -- Ellison's storyline once again deals with responsibility: the responsibility of acting (in some form or other) to help a fellow human in peril...and what it means for us all when we fail to do so.
"Adrift, Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W" -- 1974 (Hugo) A man goes in search of his soul. The man's name? Larry Talbot. His friend Victor is doing his best to help him along in his task, offering up a machine that will allow Larry to shrink down and travel inside his own body. (A little bit of "Wolfman", "Frankenstein" and "Fantastic Voyage" -- and a LOT of brilliant writing).
"Croatoan" -- 1975 One of Ellison's darker, creepier short stories. A guy helps his girlfirend -- one of many -- have an at-home abortion, during a time in the USA when it is illegal, countrywide. She freaks out, and insists he go down into the sewer to find the just-flushed fetus. Ellison manages to mix alligators and Roanoke into the whole thing, and it all works in a Twilight Zone-meets-EC comics kinda way.
"Mom" -- 1976 One of the funniest ghost stories ever. A Jewish guy is haunted by his mother's ghost, as she nudhzes him, endlessly.
"Jeffty is Five" -- 1977 (Hugo, Nebula) What happens when the immovable future butts up against the irresistible past? The narrator of this story, and his friend, Jeffty, who never ages beyond his fifth year, find out together.
"All the Birds Come Home to Roost" - 1979 An unsettling story of dread, this time involving a man whose past wives and lovers come back to visit him -- one at a time. It's also one of over 30 stories that Ellison actually wrote in the windows of various bookstores (mostly in the USA, but also in Paris, etc.) Many of them were written after a celebrity (Tom Brokaw) or a friend (Robin Williams) handed Ellison the title of the story and a "kickstart" sentence suggesting what he should write about.
"All the Lies That Are My Life" - 1981 The ultimate biographical story, this novella mixes facts about Ellison's own life with those of other people he has known, along with a healthy portion of fiction, to create one the few (maybe one fifth of the fiction he wrote) mainstream stories in his oeuvre. It's a good one.
"Grail" - 1981 A man goes on a quest for the Holy Grail -- True Love. Along the way, the protagonist finds himself prepared to sacrifice anything. Unfortunately for him. This was one of Ellison's favorites.
"Laugh Track" --1984 One of funniest stories -- if not THE funniest -- Ellison ever wrote. A struggling screenwriter hears the voice of his long-dead Aunt Babe in the laugh tracks of various old TV shows. Pretty soon, Aunt Babe is acknowledging him and his presence.
"Paladin of the Lost Hour" - 1985 (Hugo) This award-winning story was written IN TANDEM with Ellison's Writer's Guild of America Award-winning script for "The Twilight Zone" (1980s revival), therefore both creations informed the other. And BOTH stories deal with an aging old man who guards the last hour on Earth -- inside of a special pocket watch -- and how he helps a young man deal with ghosts of the past. Interestingly, I think many who knew Ellison would agree that the old man -- Gaspar -- is a great fictional depiction of the author, in many ways. (Incidentally, Ellison is still the only writer to have won the WGA award four times for solo efforts -- no co-writers).
"Soft Monkey" -- 1987 (Edgar) A mentally disturbed, homeless black woman witnesses the murder of a man by a Mob boss. Ellison uses that situation to explore the boundaries and depths of a mother's love and determination.
"The Function of Dream Sleep" -- 1988 Written after the loss of a good many of his own friends, this mystical story deals -- obviously -- with the trauma of loss in the lives of those left behind. It also involves something called the Thanatos Mouth.
"The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" -- 1993 (included in the Best AmericanShort Stories) The very definition of "tour de force", this story combines Ellison's humorous prose with his straight-forward, pull-no-punches style of writing. And it does so while paying homage to Shirley Jackson's, "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts". The moral of the story: personal responsibility (a frequent refrain in Ellison stories).
"Mefisto in Onyx" -- 1993 (winner, Bram Stoker Award) A young black man -- who once had a "thing" with his white female best friend (a District Attorney) -- also happens to be cursed with what he calls an ability to "shrike": to jump into the minds of other people, reading their thoughts, feeling their emotions, everything. Now, a year later, his best friend -- who knows about his ability -- talks him into coming with her to Ossining Prison, where a serial killer she convicted is on death row. Because she believes he may just be innocent. Good stuff, and one of the stories picked by James Ellroy for his 100 best Noir Fictions of the Century, volume. Like most of his fiction, it was up for a multitude of awards, but "only" came home with a Stoker.
"Darkness falls On the River" -- 1994 Beginning in the late '70s, mid-80s or so, Ellison started aiming for a more pared-down style. Frederick Brown-cum-Jorge luis Borges-style short fictions. In 1993, he was asked to do an introduction to a book of fantastic paintings by Jacek Yerka. Instead, he wrote 33 new -- short -- fictions around each of the paintings. This short-short story is one of them. It is, in my opinion, one of Ellison's most poetic. And the book itself -- MIND FIELDS -- is one of Ellison's most egregiously overlooked, escaping the notice of many reviewers that year (likely because they thought it was "just" an artbook). The stories in the that collection deal with everything from genocide to old age.
"The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon, Pays its Way and Makes Change" -- 1997 Another thing Ellison "got into" in the 80s and 90s and 00s, was occasionally writing a very autobiographical tale. This is another of his rare mainstream stories, wrapped around various events that took place in his own life. To my mind, it reads like a "New Yorker" story, only not quite as stiff as many of them.
"From A to Z, In the Sarsaparilla Alphabet" -- 2001 Another of his Borgesian-Frederic Brown tales, this one done in 26 parts: once again, Ellison mixes some truly humorous pieces with some (the one that deals with racists comes to mind) truly horrific stories; and (in this case), he manages to cobble up a minor masterpiece. He also throws around some casually poetic prose (especially in the "H is for Hippogriff" story) which is, quite frankly, pretty dazzling (like watching Fred Astaire do his thing without breathing heavy). FYI: Ellison wrote a story entitled "From A to Z, In the Chocolate Alphabet", his first stab at writing 26 short-shorts around an abecedarian theme. That fist one (from the 1970s) was quite good; this one is far superior. And he was planning to do one or two more (the next one would have been "From A to Z, in the Lemon-Lime Alphabet", and been centered around lost, magical places Liliput; Shangri-la", etc., but the stroke and a recently diagnosed clinical depression laid him low in that regard).
How Interesting: A Tiny Man -- 2010 (Nebula) A brilliant, end of career, short story that deals with aspects of creativity as well as the creator and his "audience". It won Ellison his fourth Nebula Award, and made him the only writer -- thus far -- to win that award three times for the short story.
-----------------------------
ESSAYS:
"The Tombs: Memos From Purgatory" -- 1961 (excerpt) Ellison edited a proper excerpt from his MEMOS FROM PURGATORY. A book about the time he joined a Redhook gang (to write about them) and then, years later, got tossed in the slammer (New York City's once infamous "Tombs") because of a related matter.
"From Alabamy, With Hate" -- 1965 Ellison was, quite literally, more connected than Kevin Bacon. Hung out with James Baldwin and some others during the '68 Democratic convention riots, rubbed shoulders with "the Rolling Stones" while doing an article, and more. He also joined in on the March to Montgomery. This is the essay that came about because of that Civil Rights involvement.
"Our Little Miss" -- 1970 (excerpt from The Glass Teat) An essay, done for his "Harlan Ellison's Hornbook" column, about America's fascination with Beauty Pageants. In this case, pageants involving young girls.
"Valerie: A True Memoir" -- 1972 A warts-and-all account of the time Ellison spent getting romanced and taken by a beautiful young con-woman. And yeah, he admittedly behaves like a besotted putz.
"Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto" -- 1974 One of Ellison's many (many!) accounts of dealing with the producer-type schmucks in Hollywood (incidentally: Ellison was a featured character in "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", the seminal essay by Gay Talese).
"My Mother" -- 1976 A moving, and frank, portrait of his mom (Ellison did likewise about his dad, who had a heart attack in front of him when was 9 or 10).
"Tell-Tale Tics and Tremors" - 1977 One of his many, informative, essays about writing. It's a good one.
"True Love: Groping For the Holy Grail" --1978 An essay Ellison agreed to do on computer dating -- when it was still very new (looong before Tinder). It makes for a very interesting essay about what people will or won't do for "love", and just how we humans define that word.
"Revealed at Last! What Killed the Dinosaurs!" -- 1978 One of Ellison's most famous essays on television. It was reworked as the introduction of a book of short stories AND was used in one of his two, legendary (among college campus types, as well as television types) books of essays (originally written for L.A.'s free press) about television: THE GLASS TEAT, and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT. The second book was actually blocked from proper publication, after Ellison had already been blacklisted the Nixon administration. Why? Because Ellison said something unflattering about Spiro Agnew, Nixon's vice president.
"The Three Most Important Things in Life" -- 1978 In my book, this may be one of the best essays I've ever read. It is written in three parts: Sex, violence and labor relations. And, one has to remember -- especially after reading the first section, and the way it ends -- that Ellison, like all good writers, was prone to exaggeration. The essay takes the reader from the humorous, to the somber (and unnerving) and back around again to humor -- flat out comedy, in fact (great last, punch, line).
"An Edge in My Voice Installment # 55, 19th Dec" -- Silver Pen Award -1982 Yet another column Ellison wrote (in his lifetime, there were approximately half a dozen or more), this one -- "An Edge in My Voice" -- attracted the attention of PEN International, and this particular installment won an award for "continuing commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship". The installment had to do with the Reagan administration's handling of a mentally unstable old man who was threatening a Washington Monument.
"A Love Song to Jerry Fallwell" -- 1984 A tirade against organized religion.
"The Song the Sixties Sang" -1988 A celebration of "the sixties" (which, weirdly, covers the years from around the mid-1960s to the early '70s).
"Did Your Mother Throw Yours Out?" -- 1988 A nostalgic stroll through yesteryear, and the pleasure of reading and owning comic books (one of three or four identifiable -- according to Ellison -- American artforms). Ellison was a lifelong fan of great comics (his house even had a secret compartment where he kept a huge collection).
"The Streets, installment 1, 19th July" -- 1990 A later, short-lived, column that Ellison wrote for a Los Angeles magazine, this first-published piece dealing with Richard Nixon and a Yorba Linda Presidential Library, and the fact that Americans SHOULD hold a grudge against some humans.
"Xenogenesis" -- 1990 A truly eye-opening, often horrifying essay about the callousness of fans (specifically, SF & fantasy & horror literature fans, but...this applies all around, I think: mainstream fiction, TV & film fans, etc.). The last lines -- "Warm vomit. Have a nice day." -- will ring in your ears for a long, long time, after you read it.
"The Forties" - 1992 A beautiful piece of reminiscence -- and a paean to a decade that Ellison fondly remembers (written for a book about movies, along with essays by other writers -- Stephen King, etc. -- who covered other decades).
"Where I Shall Dwell In the Next World" - 1992 Not quite a how-to essay on writing -- more of an answer to the oft-asked, "how do you (and others) do it?" Writing, that is. Ellison answers via short pieces of fiction, followed up by short nonfiction pieces explaining, in part, what inspired those bits of fiction.
"Toiling in the Dreamtime" -1993 For my money, the best piece on writing (on the mysteries of writing) that Ellison ever wrote. And he wrote a LOT of good essays on the subject.
"Strangers in a Strange Land: Harlan Ellison on Heaven's Gate" -- 1997
An essay about the crazy cults, and how ordinary people become nutjobs. A shortened version ran in "Newsweek", but the longer unedited is the best.
"Struggling For Interior Logic" -- 1998 Another great essay that uses writing for it's foundation, but also links to things like the "Heaven's Gate" cult and the "X-files" TV show.
"Terrorists" -2002 Ellison -- along with guys like John Updike -- was asked to contribute to collection by modern writers, offering up their thoughts about the 9/11 terrorist act.
"Infamy, Infamy! They've All Got it In fa' Me!" -- 2003 A genuinely funny essay about the on-going cult of celebrity.
"The Soul of Solomon: What is, is; Sometimes, What Ain't, Shouldn't Be" -2009 An essay describing Ellison's failure to complete a commissioned short story (involving the meeting of "The Phantom" and "The Shadow"), which delves into the act of writing -- bits of the unfinished essay are included -- as well as artistic hubris.
"I Had a Thought Today, 1: 15 November" -- 2013 This is one of the last pieces Ellison every wrote (from another, short-lived column), before a stroke that laid him low for the final time in late 2014 (Ellison completed another late-in-life, brilliant, short story -- "He Who Grew Reading Sherlock Holmes" -- sometime earlier that year). It's not as mind-blowing as many of the aforementioned, but it's a terrific, and terrifically funny, read. About the time a young-up-and-coming writer in Los Angeles -- a guy who was known for being tough (traveled the road at an early age, ran with a gang in Brooklyn for research, survived a short stint in the Army, and Ranger training, etc.) was introduced to a youngish, "up-and-coming" mobster: Whitely Bolger. As I mentioned above, the funny thing about Ellison: he was even more Kevin Bacon than Kevin Bacon. The list of people he actually met -- and often befriended -- was staggering.
2Stevil2001
Just yesterday J. Michael Straczynski announced that he is the literary executor of the Ellison estate: https://www.facebook.com/officialjmspage/posts/203430954495181
3Truett
Steve Evil -- from the old Ellison board, maybe? Thanks for the info. That Mr. Straczynski is the person -- via the literary agents he chose -- is the person whom LOA would deal with is even better. Only met him once (a dinner with him and Harlan and their wives -- not memorable for him, I'm sure), but from everything I've read (essays, stories, etc.) he's the perfect man to handle it all fairly and wisely. :)
5Podras.
I would love to see an LOA main series Harlan Ellison edition, too, but I doubt very much that campaigning for it will make a difference. Because this has been brought up several times already, there is no doubt that LOA is aware of Ellison. Any decision it makes about him will be based its own assessment. That includes the timing for the release of such an edition within the context of everything else on LOA's plate. I don't have much insight into what LOA has to do leading up to the release of a new edition, but I have the impression that it is a process that takes years to complete. Look at how long it took to get the volume of Melville's poetry out.
As an aside, when can we expect to see an LOA edition of Ray Bradbury's works?
As an aside, when can we expect to see an LOA edition of Ray Bradbury's works?
7Truett
Podras -- I'm not sure the Melville poetry and whatever problems (rights?) were encountered would be a good yardstick. Also, from my own experience (of over half a century) I can state without exemption that most of people, most of the time, tend to forget what was discussed last week, nevermind last month or year. So putting his name out there now and again isn't a bad idea. And, personally, I believe the matter of _influence_ -- someone advocating in the "corner" of the author being discussed -- is just as important as all the rest of it. Otherwise, how to explain THE COLLECTED STORIES OF BREECE D'J PANCAKE? It's not like he was anywhere as fine a short story writer as was Harlan Ellison -- and her certainly didn't influence as many writers as did Ellison. I have the original Pancake collection, so I'm not deriding that long dead author; but, he is, basically, a slightly more successful version (albeit with short fiction) of, say, John Kennedy Toole (I have copy of one of the original printings of HIS book, too). So why did he suddenly come to the forefront of LOA's publishing list? After all, between those two writers, I'd be willing to bet that there is a larger, more appreciative audience for A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. Pancake's stories were likely championed to LOA by people such as Jayne Anne Philips, a 1980s wundkerkind herself, and resident of Virgina (Pancake's homestate). Her early work was celebrated, and her novels and stories continue to be published. More importantly, she's part of the "accepted" literary establishment.
And, while _I_ am not -- and never will be of -- any great influence on the Literary Establishment/academia, I'm certain there are some with good standing to whom the LOA board might listen. And writers as varied as Joyce Carol Oates and Neil Gaiman are fans of his writing. In the meantime, I figure it wouldn't hurt to call some attention to just which stories -- and why -- could be included in such a collection (never know: someone at LOA might get bored and read this), as well as pointing out that Ellison wrote stories and essays which addressed racism and civil rights, was championed by no less literary light than DOROTHY PARKER, and that it is likely Harlan Ellison for whom we have to thank for the published fiction of Octavia E. Butler. No reason, then, for him NOT to be at forefront of consideration for _at least_ a one-off publishing project like those given to Pancake, Edgar Rice Burroughs, or Nancy Hale (and others).
As to your question about Bradbury: THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY is currently being published by Everyman's Library, and his books -- various collections, as well as the few novels (SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, FAHRENHEIT 451, etc.) still sell well; and they are still being published, and selling, as special, artbook, editions. So the negotiation of rights and issues there would likely be a LOT more complicated than it would to publish a book by Ellison. Hence, it's probably not likely anytime soon.
BSC20: Same deal with Ralph Ellison: Everyman's Library publishes his one book of real interest, INVISIBLE MAN. Yeah, JUNETEENTH was posthumously published, but not a whole lotta clamor for it. And the rest of his stuff (incomplete manuscripts) is/was published by Modern Library.
Personally, I'd rather see HARLAN Ellison in LOA before RALPH. Harlan was a more interesting, visceral, storyteller.
And, while _I_ am not -- and never will be of -- any great influence on the Literary Establishment/academia, I'm certain there are some with good standing to whom the LOA board might listen. And writers as varied as Joyce Carol Oates and Neil Gaiman are fans of his writing. In the meantime, I figure it wouldn't hurt to call some attention to just which stories -- and why -- could be included in such a collection (never know: someone at LOA might get bored and read this), as well as pointing out that Ellison wrote stories and essays which addressed racism and civil rights, was championed by no less literary light than DOROTHY PARKER, and that it is likely Harlan Ellison for whom we have to thank for the published fiction of Octavia E. Butler. No reason, then, for him NOT to be at forefront of consideration for _at least_ a one-off publishing project like those given to Pancake, Edgar Rice Burroughs, or Nancy Hale (and others).
As to your question about Bradbury: THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY is currently being published by Everyman's Library, and his books -- various collections, as well as the few novels (SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, FAHRENHEIT 451, etc.) still sell well; and they are still being published, and selling, as special, artbook, editions. So the negotiation of rights and issues there would likely be a LOT more complicated than it would to publish a book by Ellison. Hence, it's probably not likely anytime soon.
BSC20: Same deal with Ralph Ellison: Everyman's Library publishes his one book of real interest, INVISIBLE MAN. Yeah, JUNETEENTH was posthumously published, but not a whole lotta clamor for it. And the rest of his stuff (incomplete manuscripts) is/was published by Modern Library.
Personally, I'd rather see HARLAN Ellison in LOA before RALPH. Harlan was a more interesting, visceral, storyteller.
8bsc20
Truett: Read the collected essays of Ralph Ellison (Shadow and Act; Going to the Territory) and then decide which writer had the most to say. I’m not denigrating HE, for whom you make good arguments, but Ralph Ellison is about more than Invisible Man, which in its own right is one of the most important American novels ever written. You are right that RE’s work is with Modern Library, but LOA would not require a campaign from anyone to jump on it if the rights became available. Them’s just the facts. Meanwhile, I should get better acquainted with Ellison, Harlan.
9Podras.
>7 Truett: Are you advocating that an Ellison (Harlen) edition be one of LOA's special publications rather than part of its main series? Many of your comparisons above seem to suggest that you would settle for that. I think it is more likely that like me, you would prefer that Ellison be part of LOA's main series of works to be perpetually kept in print.
10Dr_Flanders
I'd love to see Harlan Ellison's work in print. I'd particularly be interested in the short stories. It would be great to see two or three volumes collecting the definitive editions of some of his best short fiction collections. Some of those seem to be getting harder to come by in physical book form. I'd certainly settle for a volume or two collecting a broad selection of stories as well.
Either way, I'd certainly order them as soon as they became available.
Either way, I'd certainly order them as soon as they became available.
11Truett
Podras -- Well...when you say it like _THAT_ (insert laughing emoji), I guess it does sound that way. What can I say? Maybe, like the actually liberal, always-left-leaning, part of the Democrat party, I am "voting" for whatever can be had, hoping that if the LOA acquiesces to that notion it will see the wisdom of doing more. (Has that ever happened? A one-shot publication giving way to the inclusion of an author or group of authors into the "main series"?). The un-wishy-washy answer: I'd MUCH rather see Harlan Ellison -- in one or two "editorially" (see the above for an example) constructed volumes, or in a reprint of one or two or three of Ellison's own books -- included in the _MAIN_ series. But the way I see it, the current "atmosphere" of New York Academia/publishing (both feed each other) act to "color" the thinking of the LOA Board members. And, at the moment, that society is undergoing a slow, but certain, change. A move (if I may) toward a "new" world order, wherein genre fiction (finally, _finally_!) is accepted, the same way that influence and importance of fiction by women was finally accepted into that society (to head off silly arguments: yeah, a _very_ small few number of women have always been accepted, but, more often than not, in a "supporting" role to the greater importance of men. It was part and parcel of the patriarchal society. Want an example? Shirley Jackson, who SHOULD have been included a loooong time ago in LOA. Even when SHE was creating work of greater importance and interest, at home, she was secondary; and her role as mom (which she rightfully found important) was set above her role as writer (largely, I believe, because her husband, like most men, felt parenting _first_ was beneath a male, and HIS contributions were the most important in their family).
Yes, things have changed: women writers were finally given their due, and black writers -- men AND women -- are finally being _given_ their due. But the disdain afforded toward "genre" (and asinine distinction, given the best writers -- Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain -- never bothered with it) is starting to become less so. Hell, even Charles Schultz (a writer of comic strips -- which Ellison, rightly, pointed out was one of only 4 or 5 truly American art forms) has been given his due via one-shot volume (which I quickly purchased) at LOA.
Without getting deep into it, in a post elsewhere on the web, I said, "it's time for a new world order", referring to the largely patriarchal (often Caucasian) control of society. I think literature has already started on that path, but there's still a long way to go.
Bsc20: No argument. I'm not familiar with Ralph Ellison's essays. I shall endeavor to correct that as soon as possible. Hope your journey into Ellison's work affords you with some entertainment, at the very least -- by the way, _that_ is was getting at when I said _Harlan_ Ellison was a more interesting storyteller. I wasn't trying to denigrate R. Ellison, either. INVISIBLE MAN pretty much bought HIS ticket to literary heaven. The rest is lagniappe.
Dr. Flanders -- Anything resulting in the inclusion of Harlan Ellison into the LOA is fine with me. Definitive editions, editorially constructed editions, you name it, I'll take it.
Yes, things have changed: women writers were finally given their due, and black writers -- men AND women -- are finally being _given_ their due. But the disdain afforded toward "genre" (and asinine distinction, given the best writers -- Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain -- never bothered with it) is starting to become less so. Hell, even Charles Schultz (a writer of comic strips -- which Ellison, rightly, pointed out was one of only 4 or 5 truly American art forms) has been given his due via one-shot volume (which I quickly purchased) at LOA.
Without getting deep into it, in a post elsewhere on the web, I said, "it's time for a new world order", referring to the largely patriarchal (often Caucasian) control of society. I think literature has already started on that path, but there's still a long way to go.
Bsc20: No argument. I'm not familiar with Ralph Ellison's essays. I shall endeavor to correct that as soon as possible. Hope your journey into Ellison's work affords you with some entertainment, at the very least -- by the way, _that_ is was getting at when I said _Harlan_ Ellison was a more interesting storyteller. I wasn't trying to denigrate R. Ellison, either. INVISIBLE MAN pretty much bought HIS ticket to literary heaven. The rest is lagniappe.
Dr. Flanders -- Anything resulting in the inclusion of Harlan Ellison into the LOA is fine with me. Definitive editions, editorially constructed editions, you name it, I'll take it.
12bsc20
The genre issue is interesting. Claire Messud recently said she prefers to read fiction that can’t be readily classified in terms of genre, which makes it “literary fiction” almost by default. Dickens and Twain certainly make that cut, but it is also true that “literary” writers have increasingly drawn on the conventions of genre to make something new.
LOA has shown a willingness to support genre fiction without much qualification, but there would be no LOA without Melville and James. There certainly can be one without or with very little genre fiction. It was that way for a long time and I suspect merit was not the only consideration at play when they took the plunge. These are popular authors, after all. Not a sci-fi fan myself, but I do have the Dick set, have preordered Butler and will also give Le Guin a try. LOA’s imprimatur certainly nudged me.
My last thought on this is that LOA is just as capable of keeping a wish list as we are, and there is probably no author of any merit who isn’t on their long list, both Ellisons included. Still, wouldn’t we like to see it?
LOA has shown a willingness to support genre fiction without much qualification, but there would be no LOA without Melville and James. There certainly can be one without or with very little genre fiction. It was that way for a long time and I suspect merit was not the only consideration at play when they took the plunge. These are popular authors, after all. Not a sci-fi fan myself, but I do have the Dick set, have preordered Butler and will also give Le Guin a try. LOA’s imprimatur certainly nudged me.
My last thought on this is that LOA is just as capable of keeping a wish list as we are, and there is probably no author of any merit who isn’t on their long list, both Ellisons included. Still, wouldn’t we like to see it?
13Podras.
>12 bsc20: I'd give up my left ... uh ... well, I'll just say that I would love to see LOA's wish list, too, except that it is more likely to be a potential or TBD authors list instead. I suspect they won't show it because too many people would interpret the contents as commitments before LOA is ready to make up its collective mind.
14Truett
bsc20 -- maybe I was too subtle -- or too longwinded. The heart of my. point was: LOA's "support" (as that were needed) of genre fiction is recent, brought about ONLY because of the success of things like Atwood's THE HANDMAID'S TALE, things like Neil Gaiman's fiction and/or the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, awarded to Stephen King. But the "support" is more of a begrudging acknowledgement: of the fact that "genre" is woven into nearly EVERY facet of literature, no matter how "mainstream" it is supposed to be (Updike's CENTAUR and WITCHES novels, are good examples; Malmud; Singer; and so on).
And, if I misunderstood your reply -- because of a typo on your part? -- nevermind. But: Melville without genre tropes isn't Melville. Go back and re-read. Same with James ("Turn of the Screw" anyone?). And gimme a break: Poe. He's a foundation of American literature -- heavily steeped in genre tropes. The problem isn't on the _writerly_ side of things -- it's on the side of things wherein reside "professors" and "teachers" of literature; and, gawd help us, blow-hard "critics" like Bloom, who was the epitome of the White-bread, patriarchal self-important, WeKnowWhatIsBest, school of "literary canons". Without genre, the LOA couldn't exist. Problem is, too many people are busy pointing their noses up, instead of down, where they can better study the fiction they too often disdain. :)
And, if I misunderstood your reply -- because of a typo on your part? -- nevermind. But: Melville without genre tropes isn't Melville. Go back and re-read. Same with James ("Turn of the Screw" anyone?). And gimme a break: Poe. He's a foundation of American literature -- heavily steeped in genre tropes. The problem isn't on the _writerly_ side of things -- it's on the side of things wherein reside "professors" and "teachers" of literature; and, gawd help us, blow-hard "critics" like Bloom, who was the epitome of the White-bread, patriarchal self-important, WeKnowWhatIsBest, school of "literary canons". Without genre, the LOA couldn't exist. Problem is, too many people are busy pointing their noses up, instead of down, where they can better study the fiction they too often disdain. :)
15bsc20
>14 Truett: Using genre is not the same as writing genre. Did you have a bad experience in literature class? Why the hostility toward professors? They are usually the ones who rescue texts from obscurity (Melville and Hannah Foster are but two examples) and if you look on Open Syllabus, which tallies assigned texts, you’ll find a wide range of writers, including those thought of as genre. Butler, Le Guin and others have large academic followings and get taught plenty. If anything, academe has expanded the canon over the past thirty years and taken a lot of heat for it from the self-appointed guardians of tradition looking on from outside the field. Bloom didn’t even have a home in an English Department because he was so retrograde. You seem to be arguing that they haven’t done enough.
16jroger1
>14 Truett:
Professors, teachers, and critics are entitled to their opinions without being insulted by members of this forum. Anyway, most of them probably read “genre” literature recreationally. This is at least the second time you have taken aim at the late Harold Bloom, who knew more about classic literature than all of us put together. If you don’t like his work, don’t read it.
Professors, teachers, and critics are entitled to their opinions without being insulted by members of this forum. Anyway, most of them probably read “genre” literature recreationally. This is at least the second time you have taken aim at the late Harold Bloom, who knew more about classic literature than all of us put together. If you don’t like his work, don’t read it.
17Truett
jroger1 -- I didn't know you were keeping count of what I have or haven't said about the self-important, Bloom (anyone who believes HE knows what to read above all others is a blow-hard). There. I have now said an critical thing about him three times. Pretty sure that falls in line with "entitled to opinions", n 'est-ce pas? And, gee, thanks for the advice (would've NEVER thought to NOT read Harold Bloom).
As far as what BLOOM knew about literature -- and a great many other things -- I disagree. Vehemently. If you choose to take umbrage, so be it. But please don't pretend that I am being discourteous to anyone by having that opinion.
Same goes for nameless professors or teachers. Yeah, they have their right to an opinion. Just like me. And, incidentally, I'm of the opinion that I have NOT insulted ANY particular professor or teacher. And any professor or teacher reading my comments should NOT be offended. Unless they are of the school of teaching that presupposes that self-anointed men like Bloom are the end all and be all of literary canon (they are not; HE was not).
As far as what BLOOM knew about literature -- and a great many other things -- I disagree. Vehemently. If you choose to take umbrage, so be it. But please don't pretend that I am being discourteous to anyone by having that opinion.
Same goes for nameless professors or teachers. Yeah, they have their right to an opinion. Just like me. And, incidentally, I'm of the opinion that I have NOT insulted ANY particular professor or teacher. And any professor or teacher reading my comments should NOT be offended. Unless they are of the school of teaching that presupposes that self-anointed men like Bloom are the end all and be all of literary canon (they are not; HE was not).
18Truett
bsc20 -- In my opinion, your opening sentence -- _using_ genre is not the same as writing genre -- shows a serious lack of understanding as regards the act of writing. Don't be offended: I recently read some comments by an epidemiologist working for the Trump administration who is actively pushing for "herd immunity" as regards Covid-19. My PhD daughter and I have discussed this -- a LOT. Both of us rolling our eyes at how many times a "scientist" proves he or she is not by either ignoring the best, greatest, amounts of scientific data, and/or by refusing to admit he or she is/was wrong.
Same goes for literature. There are a LOT of people who profess or teach literature simply by following the words and instructions of Those That Came Before. The assumption is: they can't be wrong.
Using genre is, literally, writing genre. "The Tempest" is genre fiction. So is "A Christmas Carol". If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it's a duck. Just because some snake oil salesman -- who has a particular disdain for cocoa powder -- stands in the middle of Times Square and tells you chocolate milk is actually vanilla, doesn't make HIM right. It makes YOU an easy mark. And, sadly (for you) another "tin soldier" who will only believe what the designated "people in the know" (literary or otherwise) say is right or wrong, left or right. So you salute, fall in line, and are happy to do so.
Also, while I _have_ had some "bad" experiences with teachers -- the crappy Raytown, Missouri, Middle School Teachers my kid got stuck with (but that's another story) -- I DON'T believe stating facts means I have an agenda or an underlying psychosis. Fact: the majority of teachers and professors stick to the syllabus (my daughter, who has already been asked to assist her professor at a local university) has seen this (in those who taught her during her Masters courses -- literature AND microbiology, more so on the literature side -- and in a few, fellow colleagues, now that she is assisting with teaching while working as a research assistant).
It's NOT as if that should come as some great revelation: people often do what they are told to do, rarely straying outside the defined lines. Teachers and professors fall victim to that thinking as well. Especially if they want to "fit in", or be thought well of by their bosses and peers. Heaven forfend that they should have an original thought, or point out that something doesn't sit right.
Finally, yes: I AM arguing that not enough has been done in the halls of academia when it comes to inclusivity. Much in the way that BLM is arguing a similar point over matters of far greater import. (As for Bloom: sorry, I don't feel as beholden or in awe, as do you and roger).
Same goes for literature. There are a LOT of people who profess or teach literature simply by following the words and instructions of Those That Came Before. The assumption is: they can't be wrong.
Using genre is, literally, writing genre. "The Tempest" is genre fiction. So is "A Christmas Carol". If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it's a duck. Just because some snake oil salesman -- who has a particular disdain for cocoa powder -- stands in the middle of Times Square and tells you chocolate milk is actually vanilla, doesn't make HIM right. It makes YOU an easy mark. And, sadly (for you) another "tin soldier" who will only believe what the designated "people in the know" (literary or otherwise) say is right or wrong, left or right. So you salute, fall in line, and are happy to do so.
Also, while I _have_ had some "bad" experiences with teachers -- the crappy Raytown, Missouri, Middle School Teachers my kid got stuck with (but that's another story) -- I DON'T believe stating facts means I have an agenda or an underlying psychosis. Fact: the majority of teachers and professors stick to the syllabus (my daughter, who has already been asked to assist her professor at a local university) has seen this (in those who taught her during her Masters courses -- literature AND microbiology, more so on the literature side -- and in a few, fellow colleagues, now that she is assisting with teaching while working as a research assistant).
It's NOT as if that should come as some great revelation: people often do what they are told to do, rarely straying outside the defined lines. Teachers and professors fall victim to that thinking as well. Especially if they want to "fit in", or be thought well of by their bosses and peers. Heaven forfend that they should have an original thought, or point out that something doesn't sit right.
Finally, yes: I AM arguing that not enough has been done in the halls of academia when it comes to inclusivity. Much in the way that BLM is arguing a similar point over matters of far greater import. (As for Bloom: sorry, I don't feel as beholden or in awe, as do you and roger).
19bsc20
>18 Truett:
Bloom? Means little to me. Anxiety of Influence had a few points to make. It ain’t gospel.
I should hope a professor sticks to the syllabus—what is on the syllabus in the first place is the issue. Again, for a look at what is actually being taught nationwide I recommend a glance at Open Syllabus rather than anecdotal evidence. If you don’t think there is enough inclusivity in academic literature courses, at least argue from the data you find there. You may come to a very different conclusion than I did, but at least we are looking at the same evidence pertinent to the discussion. Otherwise your critique comes off as vague yet vociferous fulmination against people whose professional and personal preferences and motives you presume to know by some special art of divination.
And I’ll not belabor the difference between writing literature using genre and writing fiction by writing genre. I’m sure you would have a rejoinder that assumes an ignorance in me that may or may not be true. Tone is a real issue in this discussion.
Bloom? Means little to me. Anxiety of Influence had a few points to make. It ain’t gospel.
I should hope a professor sticks to the syllabus—what is on the syllabus in the first place is the issue. Again, for a look at what is actually being taught nationwide I recommend a glance at Open Syllabus rather than anecdotal evidence. If you don’t think there is enough inclusivity in academic literature courses, at least argue from the data you find there. You may come to a very different conclusion than I did, but at least we are looking at the same evidence pertinent to the discussion. Otherwise your critique comes off as vague yet vociferous fulmination against people whose professional and personal preferences and motives you presume to know by some special art of divination.
And I’ll not belabor the difference between writing literature using genre and writing fiction by writing genre. I’m sure you would have a rejoinder that assumes an ignorance in me that may or may not be true. Tone is a real issue in this discussion.
20JacobHolt
It may be worth pointing out that Bloom was a champion of both Le Guin and John Crowley (in particular, Little, Big), and he included many more speculative fiction writers on his long list of 20th century works worth reading.
21Truett 
Dit bericht wordt niet meer getoond omdat het door verschillende gebruikers is aangemerkt als misbruik. (Tonen)
bsc20:
Regarding the use of a syllabus: had you given it any thought, you would realize hat someone who teaches _strictly_ from the syllabus is about as interesting -- and about as apt to actually _educate_ -- as someone who refers back to one point of knowledge, one "canon" as it were. Reading, a in a monotone (as many teachers so often do), or pointing to certain pages and saying do this exercise, is not teaching. It's reciting. It's referring back to, say, an online batch of words and claiming they are the end-all and be-all.
When I began this side discussion -- which, to my mind, is beginning to take over this thread NOT because I want to keep it going, but because you & Roger do; so, heads up here, I'm done beating my head -- I DID say a "new world order" is needed in terms of literary canons, etc. I also _clearly_ explained my thinking (old white guys, patriarchal systems, etc.). Your pretending I didn't, sounds a lot a video of an ex-George Bush employee I just watched -- after _he_ watched a 60 minutes clip of Biden explaining his thoughts on courts and judicial appointees -- with said employee suddenly claiming that Biden is lying. I didn't expect ALL old, or middle-aged (30ish) white guys to agree. Case in point: Bsc20. As your "umbrage" about my tone: In point of fact, YOU (and to some extent, roger) are the knucklehead(s) who came in with a semi-ad hominem attack on what I believe and think, all due to my -- what? -- "saying something bad" about unnamed professors and teachers, or Harold Bloom.
You've got no room to get holier than thou, spanky.
JacobHolt -- I've addressed (in the above comments, and elsewhere on this forum, when someone pointed out the same thing) the propensity of certain academics to use the "some of my best friends are Jewish (black, gay, whatever)" equivalent when trying to defend the fact the women, blacks, genre, etc., have been "accepted" into the halls of academia (Bloom included, because he was no quicker to accept any of the above, and no more likely to say, okay, maybe we have a LOT of men (or, a lot of WHITE men) in "the club", because... well, a LOT of _white_ and a lot of _men_ have been doing the accepting and vetting of memberships.
TO ALL: THIS thread was started IN ORDER TO CALL ATTENTION to THE FICTION & NONFICTION of HARLAN ELLISON. Ya wanna keep whipping out your "pen" and showing how witty and educated and online savvy you are? How about starting up a discussion thread somewhere else. I'm not impressed or interested. (Thankyouverymuch).
Regarding the use of a syllabus: had you given it any thought, you would realize hat someone who teaches _strictly_ from the syllabus is about as interesting -- and about as apt to actually _educate_ -- as someone who refers back to one point of knowledge, one "canon" as it were. Reading, a in a monotone (as many teachers so often do), or pointing to certain pages and saying do this exercise, is not teaching. It's reciting. It's referring back to, say, an online batch of words and claiming they are the end-all and be-all.
When I began this side discussion -- which, to my mind, is beginning to take over this thread NOT because I want to keep it going, but because you & Roger do; so, heads up here, I'm done beating my head -- I DID say a "new world order" is needed in terms of literary canons, etc. I also _clearly_ explained my thinking (old white guys, patriarchal systems, etc.). Your pretending I didn't, sounds a lot a video of an ex-George Bush employee I just watched -- after _he_ watched a 60 minutes clip of Biden explaining his thoughts on courts and judicial appointees -- with said employee suddenly claiming that Biden is lying. I didn't expect ALL old, or middle-aged (30ish) white guys to agree. Case in point: Bsc20. As your "umbrage" about my tone: In point of fact, YOU (and to some extent, roger) are the knucklehead(s) who came in with a semi-ad hominem attack on what I believe and think, all due to my -- what? -- "saying something bad" about unnamed professors and teachers, or Harold Bloom.
You've got no room to get holier than thou, spanky.
JacobHolt -- I've addressed (in the above comments, and elsewhere on this forum, when someone pointed out the same thing) the propensity of certain academics to use the "some of my best friends are Jewish (black, gay, whatever)" equivalent when trying to defend the fact the women, blacks, genre, etc., have been "accepted" into the halls of academia (Bloom included, because he was no quicker to accept any of the above, and no more likely to say, okay, maybe we have a LOT of men (or, a lot of WHITE men) in "the club", because... well, a LOT of _white_ and a lot of _men_ have been doing the accepting and vetting of memberships.
TO ALL: THIS thread was started IN ORDER TO CALL ATTENTION to THE FICTION & NONFICTION of HARLAN ELLISON. Ya wanna keep whipping out your "pen" and showing how witty and educated and online savvy you are? How about starting up a discussion thread somewhere else. I'm not impressed or interested. (Thankyouverymuch).
22Podras.
IMHO, the original purpose of this thread has been accomplished, and I don't see that further discussion about it can be fruitful. As for side comments, not all are worth reacting to. Perhaps it is time to let this thread end.
23Truett
Podras: Should I delete it? I, of course, was happy to end the discussion -- and, apparently, after making ad hominem attacks on me but deciding turnabout wasn't allowed, bsc20 & roger (after going out of their way to get only my comment flagged) now agree, too. Since it's starting to remind me of a forum run by Dan Simmons -- wherein groups of conservative types would "talk smack" and the loudly complain about others -- I definitely won't be posting and commenting from here on out.
DO keep up the good work -- Amazon or no -- with the posts alerting everyone about forthcoming books. Cheers!
DO keep up the good work -- Amazon or no -- with the posts alerting everyone about forthcoming books. Cheers!
