chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/06/85)
It is with some trepidation that I murmur the words 'Harlan Ellison' to
this group. It is a subject for which there is no gray, no middle ground,
no truce. You love him, you hate him.
Regardless of which camp you pup your tent in, the fact remains that Harlan
is a powerful writer. He may on occasion write badly, but his command of
the English language permits us to say he never writes poorly. His is not
the airy vista of the heroic fantasy, the endless wastes of space; his turf
is here, and now, and much closer to home, the darkest closets of humanity
that serve to hide the deepest secrets that make us human.
As Harlan writes, so is he judged. With 'Croatoan', with 'Basilisk', with
'Deathbird', with every story that successfully fires the fury of those
found guilty by his words, Harlan is judged by the self-righteous, the
petty, the feafful. By the guilty. And by the rest of us.
Harlan the miscreant. Harlan the egotist. Harlan the lecher, the anti-man
anti-women anti-american anti-conservative anti-liberal gun-hating commie
pinko fag.
What most people forget, though, is that those stories are not Harlan.
Those stories are Social Conscience. 'Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean
Bed' (Borgo Press, $7.95), a collection of his non-fiction essays from 60's
to the 80's, show that the stories Harlan writes are simply mirrors held
forward to show the failures and foibles of people. Those who throw stones
at such a mirrow should beware-- the figure they stone is not Harlan, but a
distorted mirror image of their worst fears.
Sleepless Nights, however, goes a long way towards showing Harlan as
Harlan. As strong and powerful as his fiction writing is, he seems most at
home with the non-fiction, and seeing it in general print allows us to
remove a lot of the bias that has been leveled at him. The ego is still
there, the stubborn and the opinion-- these are all here, but in
perspective. Harlan takes his stand, but he takes his falls as well, he
stands up on his soapbox, and he sticks his tongue firmly in his cheek.
Unlike many, he isn't afraid to take a stand, but he takes stands because
he believes in them, not because they generate publicity.
If there is one thing this book does, it brings forward the realization
that Harlan is human. It is one thing for the weak to hack *Egotist*
*Harlan* *Ellison* to their own level, it is quite another to see him as
Harlan Ellison, who cries when his mother dies, who laughs, who hurts, who
grieves, and realize that all of the righteous umbrage tossed at him are
tossed at a straw man, a non-existant shadow of ourselves.
As you might have guessed, I'm a long-time fan of Harlan. I've read his
worked, heard his talk, studied, guessed, fantasized, and analyzied him
through the works of him and many others. He has entertained, disturbed,
frightened, hurt, cajoled, and ripped me open to my naked soul. I've loved
him and hated him, usually simultaneously. There are parts of his work that
will follow me to my grave, enlivening my dreams and haunting my
nightmares. I've read as much of his work as I could, cursing him to his
grave, praying for his soul. I haven't always liked what I read, but I read
it anyway.
After all of that, reading Sleepless Nights finally allows me a perspective
on him, instead of a perspective of the shadow of him flitting through his
works. I realize now that when I throw a stone berating him for some raw
nerve he hit, the recipient isn't him.
For Harlan readers, this book is a must. It tells you more about Harlan
than anything I've read, not because it is about him, but because the
writing is him-- the poses of his fiction are gone, the outrage is tempered
by wit and wisdom, the writing much less manic. It teaches you as much
about Harlan the man as it does the subjects on which he talks, and for
that it is an important work. For Harlan haters, I suggest you read it,
too. You just might find that you've been throwing sticks at a straw man.
It might give you an angle with which to better reach for and understand
his other works. It might do nothing, but you'll be no worse off.
Harlan is, simply, one of the most important writers of the century. Long
after most of the 'names' are gone and buried in the remainder rack, his
work will stand out and be read and remembered. Anything that helps us and
those beyond us to understand this man better helps make his work more
accessible, and this book does that. Find it. Buy it (borrow it, steal it,
I don't care). Read it. Love it, hate it, but try it.
--
:From the closet of anxieties of: Chuq Von Rospach, National Semiconductor
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Become a druid- light a fire with someone you love...