ddern@BBN-UNIX@sri-unix.UUCP (09/30/83)
From: Daniel Dern <ddern@BBN-UNIX> Let me be one of the first (but I'm sure not the last) to shed a little light on A BOY AND HIS DOG. Please be advised that I'm working from memory here; people with more accurate information at hand are welcome to correct me... The movie was based on a novella written by Harlan Ellison. It's in one or more of his collections. Harlan has used this story as an example in some of his essays on writing. (Again, specific references fail me.) The movie was made 'based on' the story. I know I saw it by 1976. Please do not, repeat not, assail the author of the 'source' written work for anything you find in the movie adaptation -- certainly not before reading the actual story! The inappropriateness of this presumption leaves me flameless. Examples fail me at the moment...but you should have enough sense of story vs. movie (or tv) to know the fallacy involved. [Dig up Harlan's opinions and tales of the movie and tv industry and his hate/hate relationship for more insight...and also Ben Bova's THE STARCROSSED, a fictionalized treatment of Bova/Ellison's passing fling with a tv series. (Try to find Harlan's commentaries, also. References, somebody?)] Harlan has written at least one more story with the same characters, entitled BLOOD'S A ROVER. I think they may all get glued into a novel eventually. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ More contributions to the juvenalia: The Dr. Doolittle series, by Hugh Lofting Dr. John Doolittle learns to talk with the animal kingdom and has very amusing, odd adventures. Wonderful books, all. Tom Swift I know these have been mentioned. But are you aware there is a TS 3 series...which is significantly better written than the previous two series, full of quantum space drives, robots, lasers, and very versimilitudinous settings. Still targeted at a young-teen reader in a clear way (characters may be contemporary, but still easy-identification, no-growth cut-outs). I plan to read them, anyway. OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, C.S.Lewis The first of a trilogy, although the other two (PERELANDA and THE HIDEOUS STRENGTH) are a bit much for the younger reader. ALICE IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, Lewis Carroll Naturally -- but I'd hate to have these forgotten. There are people who have never read this, believe it or not. Daniel Dern