I had dinner with Harlan Ellison!

[Aristus]

For those of you who don't know who he is, he is one of the most honored writers of speculative and fantastic fiction living today. Among MANY other things, he wrote the original inspirations for "The Terminator" (his story 'Soldier'), the first draft of the Star Trek episode "City On The Edge Of Forever" (widely considerd the best of the original series) and the short novel "A Boy And His Dog", which was made into a movie. He has written thousands of short stories and scripts for shows such as Route 66, The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

And I got to have dinner with him this weekend at a literary convention in Bellevue, Washington.

I'm thrilled! *understatement of the year!*

[crispini]

1. Get out, that's so cool!

I always got the impression that he was one of the "bad boys" of SF. Was he a lot of fun to talk to? Did he strike you that way? How many people were there? What were the topics of conversation?

[Aristus]

2. He was a spellbinding speaker!

He was also kind, funny, generous with his fans, irrepresibly energetic at 71, and not one to suffer fools gladly, or indeed at all.

[hunter]

33. He suffered this fool gladly...

... I was the worst sort of computer geek then, and hardly knew how to talk, but I had interesting friends, and they let me tag along.

"I don't hate the Internet, it's just that it's the same fucking assholes who were fucking illiterates before, it's just now they have COMPUTERS." - Harlan Ellison

http://harlanellison.com/interview.htm

So anyways, I've shook his hand and actually touched whatever leather bomber jacket he was wearing in the early eighties, since my girlfriend shoved me into him just to watch me panic. (The angels will make me take a shower before they let me into heaven.)

I had a good story to tell, and I was looking around the internet to see if it is safe to tell yet, safe because somebody else has already dared tell it, but alas it's still untold and I do not want to be sued for telling it first, but I did find this:

Ruggedly handsome, wearing a leather jacket, and with a facial expression like a constipated Ebeneezer Scrooge.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shuttle/6886/Harlan.html

I haven't seen Mr. Ellison for over twenty years, and in fact he doesn't know who I am, but I have seen that Ebeneezer Scrooge expression.

The last I saw this expression was when my wife and I passed him on the streets of Santa Monica. I whispered to her, "That's Harlan Ellison."

She tugged my arm and said, "I know, keep walking."

[khashka]

3. I am so fucking jealous

I can barely contain myself.

I think I might hate you.

Khash.

[Aristus]

12. Would you love me if I posted pictures?

I got a picture of me with him and with his wonderful wife, Susan.

Have to get them developed and uploaded first.

[China_cat]

37. If you don't,

I will find you and beat you about the head and shoulders with my copy of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream".

[Gothic Sponge]

4. Very cool!

He also was a script consultant for Babylon 5.

[sendero]

5. Harlan Ellison..

... is one of my handful of hero authors. His "Glass Teat" series on the vacuity of television is classic!

[Aristus]

13. I bought a vintage copy of "The Glass Teat" at the convention

and he signed it on the spot! B-) :bounce:

[philosophie_en_rose]

6. wow!!

So how was he? What did you talk about?

[Aristus]

14. He was a mind-bogglingly good speaker.

Very energetic. Also, he was the kind of guy who makes a personal connection with each of his fans. For example, I'm the third of my family to bear my name, so, obviously, I'm "Aristus the Third". :-) I put on my name badge my name and "III". When I met him at the first book-signing of the convention, he looked at my name badge and said: "The third? Tertius?" (Latin for 'the third') I think I impressed him when I recognized the Latin and answered "Yes; not "Secundus", not "Primus", but "Tertius".

He and I had a very nice conversation, and he signed my book: "To Tertius, Harlan Ellison".

Then we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was not so great but the company was incredible. I wasn't invited or anything; I just tagged along with his small literary entourage. Nobody seemed to mind, and in fact, he and they were all very welcoming. I was just kind of numb and knocked-out the whole time.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. You bastard! I'm so fucking jealous...

I got to meet him a couple years ago when the reprint of that short story collection came out - fuck, can't remember the name - it was a book signing, and I was the last two or three people, so we actually got to chat. I was so fucking nervous, I was stupid. Argh!!!!!!!!

But, man, that guy is a GOD! How can you not be nervous?

How many were at the table with you for the dinner?

[Aristus]

15. It was about twelve for dinner, including his wife.

I was nervous as hell!

He kind of 'held court' at the table, which makes him sound kind of arrogant and aloof, but he was so incredibly cool. He made it a point to include me in the conversation, and told everybody the little story about how he nicknamed me "Tertius". (See post above).

What did you guys talk about when you met him? Was the reprint "Strange Wine"? I heard that one was going to be reprinted. (I've got an autographed first edition of "Strange Wine"; my prized posession). B-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. No, it was Dangerous Visions, the 35th anniversary reprint

We talked about fountain pens and caffeine and nervousness (I was impressed that he was using a fountain pen, which I use, and he noticed my shaking hand, a result of too much coffee and nervousness at being in the presence of a fucking god genius).

[Aristus]

22. Yeah, he used a fountain pen last weekend at the con. Very classy.

What's even classier is he blotted his signature before closing the books so it wouldn't spot the facing page. He knows we readers LOVE our books! B-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. Yeah, he had a blotter for the signing I was at, too

He said he always and only uses a fountain pen.

We had a nice discussion on it.

I believe he might have been using a Mont Blanc, which is the only strike against him I can come up with, but, who cares.

[Doctor_J]

8. Also very liberal

Glad he's still around.

[Aristus]

16. Yeah, he's a real fighter. A decorated warrior for the left who

marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, and Cesar Chavez in solidarity with the produce workers' strike. He also got his head busted in Chicago during the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. The man has lived an AMAZING life, okay?

He doesn't have much use for political correctness, though, and despises "limousine liberals". He's very much a "get out there and DO it" kind of guy.

Every speaking engagement of the convention went over time by at least an hour-and-a-half. Nobody wanted him to stop!

[BikeWriter]

9. Color me green with envy! Ellison is an icon!

[peacefreak]

10. That is so freakin' cool.

His vision & humor still stuns me. How old is he? What is his take on out present situation?

[Aristus]

17. He's 71.

He embodies Stephen King's notion that inside, all writers of fantasy and speculative fiction are boys at heart; you can see it in their eyes. Ray Bradbury was his prime example, but Harlan Ellison is the apotheosis of that concept. Very boyish, bouncy, energetic, gloriously profane and eloquent.

Oh, boy! Does he DESPISE George W. Bush! He could do a whole weekend just on his take of the current political situation. This is a man who prizes intelligence, curiosity, learning, hard work, compassion for others and a burning desire to do the right thing for no other reason than because it IS the right thing to do. Naturally, Dumb-yah fails on all those counts.

[DerekG]

11. Unca Harlan's a hero of mine, but I wouldn't want to meet him

I'm a sensitive college student who occasionally confuses Dachau with Buchenwald. I couldn't endure the (notorious) wrath of that deathbird.

[Aristus]

18. You'd love to meet him! He's very kind and warm to those who

don't know, but want to. He would have made a teacher second-to-none. Keep an open mind, look out for others, and do lots of reading, and Harlan will love you. He's very self-deprecating, and effusive in his praise for others. His ego knows no bounds, but his egotism could fit in a matchbox. You know what I mean?

BTW, Dachau is outside of Munich; Buchenwald is northwest of Berlin. Hope that helps. B-)

[CanuckAmok]

20. Cool! He was a regular guest on TVO's "Prisoners of Gravity", too.

Always insightful, and a little bitter and cynical, which I like a lot.

[Aristus]

21. In person, there's loads of cynical, but very little bitterness.

This is a guy who loves life, especially his own. He seems happy in his marriage and is very proud of his career.

I tend to associate bitterness with failure. One thing he is not and that's a failure.

[tigereye]

25. this is very cool!

so glad you had the chance to speak with someone of that stature. He sounds like a fascinating person.

:thumbsup:

[hfojvt]

27. well it depends on how you define failure

and to think I was dissing Ellison on DU just a few days ago. I did not like his screenplay to 'City on The Edge of Forever' nor the way he rips on the finished product. And I would rather have written and published nothing at all than something like "A Boy and His Dog", but Terminator is a way cool movie. I wonder how closely it follows his book. I will have to see if the library has it.

[DerekG]

28. You didn't prefer Ellison's screenplay?

I can't even watch the televised version after reading the original draft. The butchering of the Kirk/Edith romance, and the exclusion of Trooper...it's just too upsetting. I actually liked that Kirk would have sacrificed everything for that noble woman. But then, I agree with Harlan that Roddenberry--"The Great Bird of the Galaxy"--never really plumbed the depths of his creation. Me? I'm still waiting for that so-called "human adventure" to begin.

Oh, and the story elements of Cameron's "The Terminator" can be traced, in part, to "Soldier," not "A Boy and His Dog."

[hfojvt]

31. it is just my poor writing

I jump from topic to topic. Thus I was discussing "Boy and his dog" and Terminator as two different things, one of which I liked, the movie, and one which I hated, the short story. You had already mentioned that Terminator came from the book "Soldier". (Edit: it also stands to reason that I would know that since I have both seen Terminator and read 'Boy and his Dog')

No, I thought the screen play stank. My main man Spock came across as a bumbling wimp who let the bad guy escape about four times. It may be truer to the pacifist that Spock was supposed to be, but it does not fit the Spock established from the three years which I was very fond of before I read the screen play.

Trooper was a great character, except, as I mentioned in my other post, Ellison has one person saying that "Trooper's life did not matter because his early death did not change history" or words to that effect and no one points out that his brave sacrifice was the key to fixing history and in that one act his life mattered perhaps more than anyone else's. (although, that is kind of a Christ message)

Also, Ellison's screen play does not include one of my favorite Trek lines: Spock: "I am attempting to build a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bear skins."

[Redstone]

24. Good Lord, I didn't even know he was still alive!

I did enjoy his "Dangerous Visions" anthologies many years back.

And I understand he's a champion of copyright law, which I admire him for.

Redstone

[EstimatedProphet]

26. He has written soem great stories-an icon, as you say

I've heard he's abrasive in person. Is that true?

[Aristus]

44. He can be, but only to stupid idiots

and people who waste his time; so you're okay. :-)

[EstimatedProphet]

45. Well, thank you

I figured I was safe, since I can't recall ever wasting his time.

[leftofthedial]

29. very cool!

I hope you had excellent conversation

[swag]

30. So cool.

Congratulations.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

32. Too cool! I miss his appearances on SciFi Channel...

The station hasn't been the same since. :(

[enigmatic]

34. No way!!!!

You lucky devil; the man is a God to me!Still one of the 2 or 3 best writers of Fantasy ever...

[gmoney]

35. Wonder if he's heard this song about him?

Beautiful song from one of the best artists nobody's ever heard of. Not sure how much of the song is to be taken entirely literally... if I had more familiarity with Ellison's work, I'm sure it would all click together. Give it a listen:
http://s43.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2FGI1RKV5HSBW28MRH2SYN1P72

"Harlan" By The Jazz Butcher (from "Condition Blue")

Well I've been bouncing off the walls
Cause that was all I had to work with at the time
I had nothing to say
I got a message from a friend
He keeps his number in the phone book
But I don't use it
I got nothing to say
We never ever spoke
But I listen what he tells me
Ooh I wonder what he'd tell me
I know I've got to think accurately
He doesn't suffer fools
Time's a-wasting
So now I've got no mouth but I'm still screaming

Chorus:

And Harlan
Harlan says we're not alone
But I'm still waiting
With all these rags
By this telephone

There's a mad old boy in a Batman baseball cap down at the intersection
Waiting till the cavalry arrives
Like every day had its own meaning
Every one would have its colour
So did numbers...
What the hell, it's only our lives.

Chorus

Jefty is the boy next door
Jefty is five
The same as he was in 1954
A boy and his dog
Alone against tomorrow
Alone against tomorrow
People could lose their grip
And deep below the Earth
In caves the size of Africa
Infinitely slowly
The pain is rarified and tainted to our special needs
Always
Cause I can't live with myself if living's without you

Chorus

Oh there must be millions like us
Millions
Outside

You know all about it...

And I'm standing here
While you know all about it
You know all about it

There's one more thing, girl:
It's so tough knowing where you are...

It's so tough knowing where you are
And I just don't seem to get out that much these days.
I want to hold you in my arms.

http://www.jazzbutcher.com/htdb/lyrics/harlan.html

[CBGLuthier]

38. Oh, of course it is about him

"I Have no Mouth and Must Scream" is one of his greatest short stories.

"Jefty is Five" is wonderful and so sad.

"A Boy and his Dog" , of course

Friend of mine has my Complete Ellison but there are certainly some more there.


Don't see a refernce to my personal favorite, "'Repent Harlequin,' said the TickTockman"

[gmoney]

40. Knew it was about him...

Just don't recognize all the references. :)

Did anyone download and listen?

[CBGLuthier]

42. Sorry, completely misread the title of your post

I thought it said I wonder if this song is about him.

Sigh, I guess 44 years not wearing glasses may have been enough. :-)

[Aristus]

46. "Croatoan" and "From A to Z In The Chocolate Alphabet" are

two of my faves.

[NMMNG]

36. What an opportunity!

I would be thrilled to have a sit down with a famous writer. Having worked in bookstores I've had encounters with published writers such as Robert Cormier and R.A. Salvatore during book signings, but to actually have a sit-down meal with someone would be quite an experience! Kudos to you.

[El Fuego]

39. Wow!

I know his work well and I am very impressed! What a thrill!
:bounce:

[myrna minx]

41. Wow-that is so cool! n/t

[Parche]

43. Harlan

His 2 writings for the Outer Limits were some of the best
even though they were the 2nd season which lacked the
punch of the first season
Soldier
Demon with a glass hand