‘Dying’ Harlan Ellison Says He’s Written Final Book

[n2doc]

By Lewis Wallace September 24, 2010

Award-winning speculative fiction writer Harlan Ellison says his appearance at this weekend’s MadCon in Wisconsin will likely be his last.

“The truth of what’s going on here is that I’m dying,” Ellison told The Daily Page. “I’m like the Wicked Witch of the West — I’m melting. I began to sense it back in January. By that time, I had agreed to do the convention. And I said, I can make it. I can make it.’”

A notice on the science fiction convention’s website says, “Harlan Ellison has informed us that he is feeling somewhat better … that he will be appearing during all three days of MadCon. The schedule that is up on the website may go through some changes to reduce the load on our guest of honor, and MadCon expects that there will be limitations during any signings.”

Ellison, an energetic and controversial writer who penned hundreds of short stories and novels, as well as the unforgettable Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever,” also told the publication that he’s finished his last book — and issued orders for his wife to burn any unfinished manuscripts the instant he dies.

“When I’m gone, that’s it,” he said. “What’s down on the paper, it says ‘The End,’ that’s it. ‘Cause right now I’m busy writing the end of the longest story I’ve ever written, which is me.”



Read More http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/09/harlan-ellison-2/

[Greyhound]

1. Whenever I read of another giant like Ellison falling to the inevitable, I look at

who is coming up to replace them, and usually get depressed.

So sad.
:kick: & R

[Solly Mack]

2. :(

K&R

[Romulox]

3. "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

Reading that story remains a formative event in my life. Mr. Ellison is a giant.

There are always those who ask, what is it all about? For those who need to ask, for those who need points sharply made, who need to know “where it’s at,” this:

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailors, constables, possee comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others—as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and officeholders—serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the Devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.

Henry David Thoreau
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

That is the heart of it. Now begin in the middle, and later learn the beginning; the end will take care of itself.

[beam me up scottie]

4. Never repent, Harlequin!

The Ticktockman can wait.

[Codeine]

5. God that's fucking depressing.

The man is a giant. One of the true greats of modern American literature.

[REP]

6. Shattered like a Glass Goblin