Science Fiction Great Harlan Ellison Has Died

[RootBeerMan]

One of the grand masters of the science fiction world has died. Harlan was a favourite of mine and he had his fingers in every nook and cranny of the SF world for decades. He was a cantankerous SOB on his best day, but his wit and creativity shone brightly. The world is poorer for not having him in it.

https://www.tor.com/2018/06/28/harlan-ellison-1934-2018-obituary/

 

[D.T.]

Wow. Ellison was one of my favorite authors, loved his fiction, non-fiction, contributions to television, film - he contributed across a wide range of genres: speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, crime fiction, mystery, horror, film and television criticism.

How weird, just this week I was catching up on some podcasts from a couple of months ago, Incomparables #401 specifically, discussion the works of HE:

https://www.theincomparable.com/theincomparable/401/

I highly recommend if you didn't know who he was, to review his Wiki entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison

I think you'll be stunned at the volume of output that was almost always brilliant, and usually deliciously cranky

I think this is a pretty fantastic self-summary:

At Stephen King's request, Ellison provided a description of himself and his writing in Danse Macabre.

"My work is foursquare for chaos. I spend my life personally, and my work professionally, keeping the soup boiling. Gadfly is what they call you when you are no longer dangerous; I much prefer troublemaker, malcontent, desperado. I see myself as a combination of Zorro and Jiminy Cricket. My stories go out from here and raise hell. From time to time some denigrater or critic with umbrage will say of my work, 'He only wrote that to shock.' I smile and nod. Precisely."

 

[AlliFlowers]

Oh no! This is dreadful news. He has been amongst my favorites for many many years. I find so much social commentary on every re-reading of A Boy and His Dog.