CNN Interviews with Harlan Ellison, Bruce Sterling 147
half_cocked_jack writes "Over at the CNN Podcast area they have a program titled 'Hollywood's SciFi Summer'. It sounded interesting, so I downloaded it. Much to my surprise, the host, Renay San Miguel, seems to really know SF, and he interviewed Harlan Ellison, Connie Willis, Bruce Sterling, and Len Wein on their views on how Hollywood handles SF. Great listening!"
Bruce Willis? (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone else think that this placing is unfortunate? I know that I misread it on first-pass.
Bruce Sterling? (Score:3, Funny)
Then I realized that Rod Serling was probably dead of lung cancer by now, and that I didn't know who Bruce Sterling was.
Re:Bruce Sterling? (Score:2)
Haven't seen/heard it yet... (Score:3, Funny)
Am I right? I mean, that's ALL this guy talks about.
Re:Haven't seen/heard it yet... (Score:2)
Why guess? You can listen for yourself, and spare the rest of us your ignorance.
Oh, and his first name is spelled "Harlan", BTW.
Re:Haven't seen/heard it yet... (Score:3, Funny)
I mean, this IS Slashdot. And you of course fulfilled the other Slashdot requirement of correcting someone's spelling when it doesn't matter at all.
Bravo! Good to see someone keeping the old traditions alive.
Re:Haven't seen/heard it yet... (Score:2)
Is that audio stream copyrighted? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Is that audio stream copyrighted? (Score:2)
The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:5, Informative)
Bruce has "paid it forward" by helping a number of new writers (myself included) with their careers by subjecting them to the bracing fire of a Sterling critique...
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:5, Interesting)
Harlan was a wicked, wicked young man. His readings at Worldcon in NYC in the late 60's and early 70's were the stuff of massive panel debates. AND, fawning admiration by most of the attendees.
I can remember one piece that Harlan read an overtly raw sex piece from the dais at the Commodore Hotel, around the time that he published "I see a man sitting in a chair and the chair is biting his leg" in a collaboration with Robert Sheckley. I recall that Sheckley, Gunn, and Silverberg were all onthe panel and a room full of college kids had their first exposure to erotic literature.
The man wrote, and read, brilliantly. Yes, he has short-man's syndrome, but in his defense, he has taste and style and a willingness to explore just about anything as a writer.
From his Dangerous Visions anthologies to his scripts for Demon with a Glass Hand and City on the Edge of Forever to The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat, Ellison has cranked out a lifetime's work nearly every year for the first 20 years of his professional life. Only Isaac Asimov was more prolific.
Ellison had a legitimate, hard fought, lawsuit for copyright violation. Companies were reprinting his work and selling it without paying any royalty and Ellison had every right to fight for his property rights.
See, http://harlanellison.com/home.htm/ [harlanellison.com] for Ellison's (way out of date) home page and,
See, http://www.authorslawyer.com/c-ellison.shtml/ [authorslawyer.com] for the copyright action.
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:5, Funny)
"Prickly" as in "Every single science fiction writer older than myself I know can tell you a story about how Harlan Ellison was a complete asshat to them at one time or another." Most also have a story about how Harlan went out of his way to do something nice for them as well.
There are legions of Harlan Ellison stories in science fiction. Like the time he flew across the country to punch out Charles Platt. (Like I said, he has great taste in enemies.) Or the job he did on Andy Porter (IIRC) in Short Form. Or check out Christopher Priest's the Last Deadloss Visions (AKA The Book on the Edge of Forever.)
Make no mistake about: At the top of his game, Ellison was probably the best short story writer in the field, and I fully expect "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" to be read 100 years from now. But in no way, shape or form is he a saint.
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:4, Interesting)
An under-medicated, short curmudgeon, with distinct bi-polar and antisocial traits who used his personality as a birth control device is a somewhat more accurate description of the Ellison I know.
Slashdot as therapy (Score:2)
I feel much better about myself now. Thank you.
Re:Slashdot as therapy (Score:2)
Punched me out
stolen my gal
hogged the dais
and, bragged about it.
You do nice graphics. I feel much better about you, too.
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2, Interesting)
Sorry, but any description of Harlan that leaves out the word "brilliant" is incomplete. I am yet another member of SFWA (just how many of us are on here?), and I first met the larger-than-life Harlan back in the Seventies. I know a ton of Harlan stories that range from his boyhood to the dead gopher to some pri
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
However I was responding to the inherent inadequacy of the term "prickly" as a descriptor of Ellison's demeanor...
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
Ever read Firefly by Piers Anthony? (Score:2)
That was a disturbing book as much for its fundamental premise as for its denoument as for its cast of characters. (A paedohile who is a victim of his young 'victim'.)
This was a great book which made me think.
Re:Ever read Firefly by Piers Anthony? (Score:1)
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
It does show that Ellison had range and guts.
I just don't remember if it was really all that good,.. How does he compare with Nin?
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
Everybody agrees that Harlan could be a real dick....
Perhaps the horizontal measure of the man exceeded the vertical?
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
That is about as much bad spin as you'd likely find in a SCO press release. Do you work for them, per chance, gvien that your nick seems to be a rip on "groklaw"?
Hell, even your links show you're wrong - basically, people on Usenet were pirating Mr. Ellison's work, and instead of going after them h
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
I've had this nick since 1987 when I started using it on The Well and BIX. That was the year I started law school.
As for the case: the law makes you take certain steps. In Chess you must open with a pawn or a knight. Period. Them's the rules..
For Ellison - who acted through his attorney - and it was the attorney came up
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
And this is why people hate lawyers. You completely ignore the fact that AOL was in
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
You SUPPORT AOL?
Change the hypo: It's Walmart selling illegal copies (e.g. copies of your book that you (and/or your publisher) didn't authorize and the sale is one from which you don't receive a royalty - but Walmart receives their cut from every book sold.
Now, do you want Walmart stopped from making a buck from you?
AOL was the largest single source of downloaders that could be identified. AOL made a buck from the thieves.
AOL had NO
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
Your reasoning will lead to the MPAA/RIAA getting my ISP(and yours) shut down because a bunch of asshats decide to pirate movies over it.
Your analogy is flawed, because Wal-mart directly controls and procures everything in their store
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
Walmart does not publish - it sells. The hypo remains valid. AOL's (then) vast userbase made them the right target. The tollway analogy fails because the bridge is a single route - all traffic uses the same route. Were Walmart is only one source (albeit a very big source) of the stolen property then it makes sense to shut down the retail outlet's ability to sell the stolen goods.
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
As for the strategy, USENET wasn't hurt by Ellison. Usenet, and the Internet have been hurt far more by the few hundred individuals who spam and crap all over everything.
Ellison was a leader in exploring individual legal rights over Internet matters. His argument advanced individual rights. Exactly what is the problem with that?
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
In 2000?! No way. At the time, the endless september [wikipedia.org] had already come and (never) gone. Think about it: that is how this suit got a footing: AOL turned on the idiot stream, Harlan noticed, Kersplat!
TO call USENET useful at this point, I suspect you've got the same definition as I do: Useful compared to it being gone, but a faint shadow of itself and only useful thanks to deja-news and massive killfiles.
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The Sterling-Ellison Connection (Score:2)
A new record for Slashdot? (Score:3, Funny)
LTFPC? (Score:1)
Re:A new record for Slashdot? (Score:1)
Really???
frist psot!!!!
w00t!!!
Re:A new record for Slashdot? (Score:1)
Re:A new record for Slashdot? (Score:1)
Re:A new record for Slashdot? (Score:1)
Holiday? Are you talking about July 4th? Do you think the entire world celebrates the anniversary of America gaining independence from England?
Who are they (Score:1)
Are these people worth reading about, other than the fact that they got slashdotted?
Re:Who are they (Score:1)
These are some of the bigger names in Science Fiction.
Never heard of "A boy and His Dog"?.
Re:Who are they (Score:1)
I remember that one!
I think we moved on to Hooked on Phonics after that ... or maybe it was the one where Spot gets a ball. A red ball. A big red ball.
Re:Who are they (Score:1)
See Jane.
See Jane run.
Run Jane, run.
Re:Who are they (Score:2)
Re:Who are they (Score:3, Funny)
Well, I said he was the least well-known of these four in SF circles. Guess I just proved that assertion with a data point.
Re:Who are they (Score:5, Informative)
Connie Willis wrote the Doomsday book, a story about a time traveler stuck in Europe during the plague. There was a very heavy historical emphasis, in practice it was a historical novel. She's written other timetravel stuff. Her books aren't so much fun as interesting.
Harlan Ellison's books are fun. He is a brillant writer who should not be let out in public(The man is very easily offended, and not afraid to attack with a chair or what not when he is offended. If he's not violent, he's shouting furiously, and it really doesn't take anything intentional to set him off). He wrote I have no mouth and I must scream and Repent Harliqin said the Tick Tock Man. Harlan's books, and Harlan have a extreme cynical viewpoint that's very entertaining. Harlan started out attending sci fi conventions, and has many big sci fi writer friends. I don't know that his writings really fall in a sci fi category (To be clear, Harlan's books pay no attention to science at all, it's more experimental modern writing), but they are good reads.
I've read a ton of Sci Fi, and I've never heard of Len Wein. A quick google says he's a comics guy invovled heavily with X-men, fantastic 4, hulk, and the watchmen series. Some one else will have to give a perspective here.
All three authors are big names in Sci Fi, although none of them give more then lip service to the sci part. I can barely think of who else might belong on this list over them. (Well...Philip K. Dick, Asimov, Heinlien, Bester, Clarke, Cambell(Editor, not an author) a couple other golden oldies. Of living people under 70, Bear, Guin, Stephenson, Kress, and Gibson...Still that's a wish list... )
Still, these are the names of real Science Fiction in the last 20 years (Star Trek and such belong in fantasy or action). I'm not trying to be elitist. These are big names... If you don't know these people, you don't know science fiction...
Sangloth
I'd appreciate any comment with a logical basis...it doesn't even have to agree with me.
Re:Who are they (Score:2)
If anyone has gotten the "alien invasion" right, it's Gerrold. Anyone who disputes this obviously has not seen Mother Nature in action (i.e., kudzu, himilayan blackberry, thistles, morning glory/bindweed, reed canary grass, et many al) when it comes to "alien" species slowly, then quickly, overwhelming an area in the span of about 1-3 years.
It starts out slow. there's a few here, a few there. We'll pull them ou
Re:Who are they (Score:2)
I keep intending to read some of the Chtorr(sp?) books, but keep putting it off. I want to be certain he'll finish the series first.
Re:Who are they (Score:2)
Connie Willis wrote the Doomsday book, a story about a time traveler stuck in Europe during the plague. [...] Her books aren't so much fun as interesting.
I never did manage to finish The Doomsday Book but I really enjoyed both To Say Nothing of the Dog and Bellwether and I would consider both of them to be great fun.
Willis tends to alternate between funny and dark. Doomsday was of the latter while the other two were more of the former. If you're curious, check them out or try one of her short-sto
Re:Who are they (Score:2)
In this Country, In this Era (Score:2, Insightful)
Can you really blame any graduate from th
Re:In this Country, In this Era (Score:3, Interesting)
Capitalism? Only on eBay, auctions and garage sales. Otherwise, might as well call it corporate socialism. Govment makes more and more policies that are solely for benefit (or punishment) of industries or enterprises. That people might be involved is paid at best lip service.
Re:In this Country, In this Era (Score:2)
That would be an argument for teaching more SF. SF has long been a force for social change, usually in a liberal, multi-ethnic, secular* direction. If the schools were the subversive influence that you claim, SF would be required reading.
* secular not necessarily meaning anti-religion, but the bronze-age religions (Zoroastrianism, Athenian mythology, Hinduism, Judaism and its
Bruce Sterling free books (Score:3, Interesting)
-Charles
An interesting listen-to (Score:1)
Ellison on Religion (Score:3, Interesting)
C'mon. You know you want to tell us.
Please?
He offered that insight on Hour 25. (Score:5, Interesting)
...back in the 80's. Hour 25 [hour25online.com] is now online-only, but it was a 2-hour Friday-night program on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles, hosted by Mike Hodel and Mel Gilden, at the time, and Harlan was a frequent guest. No doubt, Eric Foss has the entire broadcast archived on tape somewhere [hour25.us].
From what I recall, Ellison said something like, "I attended a party in New York, along with some other writers, including L. Ron Hubbard, and Hubbard was saying something about 'Y'know what I should do? Invent a new religion. That's where all the real money is.' And, next thing you know, he came out with his next book, 'Dianetics'."
Re:He offered that insight on Hour 25. (Score:2, Interesting)
Obligatory... (Score:1)
Ellison (Score:2)
My only other real knowledge of Ellison is a ST:TOS episode and his rants on the late CNet from sci-fi. And when it comes down to it rants are rants; much like assholes everyone has one and normally since most are based on opinion alone very few of them ever mean anything.
I know the man has an extensive work pool but I've never met anyone with a seriously high
Re:Ellison (Score:2)
Re:Ellison (Score:2)
Re:Ellison (Score:3, Informative)
Ellison ain't for casual reading, that's certain. Try some of his screenplays if you can't get into his stories: there are several episodes of the original Outer Limits series that he wrote; "Demon with a Glass Hand" is often considered the best, and is frequently cited as an important source of the inspiration for "The Terminator".
Also, some of his best wor
Re:Ellison (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Ellison (Score:4, Informative)
A few other very good Ellison stories include:
Mefisto in Onyx
Grail
Djinn, No Chaser
Pretty Maggie Moneyeys
Shattered Like a Glass Goblin
Paingod
The Deathbird
Anywhere but Here, With Anybody But You
Chatting With Anubis
Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral
Paladin of the Lost Hour
and many others I'm too lazy to type out.
The thing about Ellison's writing that grabs so many people is that he expertly blends fantastic settings and situations with real human drama. The events descibed might be bizarre or possibly futuristic (although Ellison's work usually has a timeless quality), but the emotions the characters are dealing with are very real and familiar.
Re:Ellison (Score:3, Insightful)
Since no one else has mentioned it yet, find a copy of "The Deathbird." If you can find the collection called Deathbird Stories, it has many of the other recommended works posted here. Also read "A Boy and his Dog," and then rent the movie (one of the only real SF movies ever made).
Now, why do I like his works? First of all, they're uncompromising--
Re:Ellison (Score:2, Insightful)
Having read some of his personal essays, as well as the standards such as, "I Have No Mouth, but I Must Scream", I would say the operative adjective isn't "prickly" but rather
Why it has to be protected (Score:3, Interesting)
Unless things have changed a great deal recently, at this time in legel history it's all but necessary for writers to keep their work off the net unless the publisher releases it for that.
Almost all writers' contracts require that they sign over e-rights to the publisher as part of their contract, whether or not the publisher intends to do anything with them. The writer signs away the e-rights, or doesn't sign the contract.
Note that e-rights are rights to publish, not ownership. The writer still owns them.
Along comes the work, posted online. The author has to make an effort to protect the work, because signing the e-rights gave the publisher the right to release it. If the writer doesn't, they are in violation of their contract and the whole thing can be cancelled.
A few writers like Harlan can afford to take on a case like this themselves, and can afford to refuse to have an e-rights clause in their contract. Most can't. If they want to get the contract, they sign the whole thing, and they're stuck having to do their own police work.
If a writer has signed a publishing contract for the work that includes an e-rights clause they can't publish it on line, and they have to try to prevent others from doing so.
At least that's the way it was explained to me by Charlie Petit, Harlan's lawyer during the lawsuit, while I was serving as material witness and slated as expert witness. Harlan was protecting his own work because he wanted to, not because he had to, because he didn;t have to contend with these silly e-rights issues in contracts. He also did so because newer authors didn't have the resources to be doing things like this all the time, and he wanted to see this made public so they wouldn't get screwed out of being able to be authors.
Re:Why it has to be protected (Score:2)
Rubbish. Why then do none of the other thousands of authors whose work you can find online do this? As long as the author himself has not put the work up, which would violate most publishing contracts which give the sole right to publish to the p
Re:Why it has to be protected (Score:2)
And refused (or rather, incompetently failed) to remove the material when requested to do so, thus losing their legal protection against such things. His stance on AOL was entirely fair, I believe.
Re:Why it has to be protected (Score:3, Informative)
Do you know anything about Usenet? It's practically impossible to comply and run a decent feed. Usenet is ephemeral anyway. Articles expire in days or weeks; and no single ISP could delete a post from every other server. And as I said, it did not originate with AOL, they have no authority to delete it from oth
Re:Why it has to be protected (Score:2)
Yes. I've been a user on and off since '94, and have wasted away a lot of time on various groups.
It's practically impossible to comply and run a decent feed. Usenet is ephemeral anyway. Articles expire in days or weeks; and no single ISP could delete a post from every other server. And as I said, it did not originate with AOL, they have no authority to delete it from other servers.
Yes, but they could have complied with Ellison's actual request, which was to remove it
Re:Why it has to be protected (Score:2)
I don't know if that's true -- "legally required" how? Doesn't really matter anyway, that was susbsidiary to my point, which I won't bore you by repeating. Also, after looking up the status of this case, Ellison has settled with AOL and they've kissed up now. I wonder how much he screwed them for.
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:1)
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:1)
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:2)
Harlan was right. End of story.
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:5, Insightful)
But it's against the law to copy stories without permission. Harlan is old school, and as obnoxious as all hell when he wants to be, and that's his right here. Sure, publishers need to change their business model, but they haven't just yet. Respect the artist. If you think he sucks so much, why do you want to read his work anyway?
I wanted to use a story by Geoffrey Landis in my astronomy class last semester. I emailed him up, asked him if I could make 120 copies for my students, and he said absolutely. Even asked if I wanted the story in electronic form. If he'd said no, I wouldn't have done it.
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:1)
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:2)
Thanks. I'm actually downloading it right now; it's good to be
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:2)
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:2)
It is possible to respect someone and his work without obliging his every wish about how it should be enjoyed and distributed. For example, Kafka wanted his writings to be destroyed upon his death... but we're all better off today because someone decided he was wrong.
Re:You are ranked 400,000 on Amazon (Score:2)
You do know that the percentage of SF books still in print after 2 years is rather low, don't you? Books tend to only sell many copies in the first 6 months to a year after their release. If you want to continue selling after that, you need to keep interest alive by having another novel published that's more successful...
Also, for this to
Re:You are ranked 400,000 on Amazon (Score:2)
And a new author who doesn't worry about publicity and advertising is hurting their own career. You'd like to think that a great book will sell on its own merits, but people have to know a book is great in the first place. Star Dragon got great reviews, and was a finalist for the John W.
Re:You are ranked 400,000 on Amazon (Score:2)
Did you read the article? The author gives numbers demonstrating that the sales of his books increased after being posted. Your question implies that Amazon stats are significant. However large it is, Amazon still is only one vendor. Could it be that most online sales go through the Bean site? I have no clue. Possible most sales go throug
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:2)
Ellison is the William Shatner of Written Scifi (Score:2)
Re:Ellison is the William Shatner of Written Scifi (Score:2)
Read, Dogfight on 101
Then compare Shatner with Ellison, if you can.
A simple, solid short story of a family man and his "souped-up" car. Ellison is a craftsman who mastered the short story - Shatner came late to the party and only because Roddenberry cast him in a SF role.
Ellison is a writer, first, last and always. His muse may wain, but the body of work is solid.
Finally, Ellison has done dramatic readings for years. It is another outlet for the artist and many of those are classics.
Se
Re:Ellison is the William Shatner of Written Scifi (Score:2)
And a lot of others have dug into that road-rage vein, there was even a card game by Steve Jackson Games called Car-Wars. And as I recall they mentioned a different story of the same vintage as inspiration.
Re:Ellison is the William Shatner of Written Scifi (Score:2)
Er, it's a board game, in the wargame/simulation vein. I still have my copy.
Chris Mattern
Re:Ellison is the William Shatner of Written Scifi (Score:2)
And what makes you think Shatner actually writes? His name on some books?
Re:Oh, PULEEEZE (Score:1)
Re:wish I had an ipod (Score:1)
Re:wish I had an ipod (Score:1)
Re:podcast?!?! WTF?!?! (Score:2)
Actually, it's a subscription-based syndicated audio article.
Re:podcast?!?! WTF?!?! (Score:2)
Not only that, its 41 MB. Thats right.
41 MB of SPOKEN WORD INTERVIEWS !!!
I've got perfectly listenable copies of the H2G2 radio series, and they run to aprox 11MB per 30 miute show, so this better be good...
Re:podcast?!?! WTF?!?! (Score:2)
for 36 minutes of spoken word.