Harlan Ellison Interview

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Panzerkraken

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So I've been on a Harlan Ellison kick lately, but outside his stories, looking at some of his interviews over the years and seeing how his opinions and mine agree or differ. Broadly speaking, he's never been one of my favorite authors, but has certainly been tangential to them, and is one of the most opinionated people I've ever had the pleasure to research. In the course of it, I found this repost of a repost of a 1979 interview between him and Gary Groth. It's a fun read, IMO, so I thought I'd share over here.

THE HARLAN ELLISON INTERVIEW

 
I got to witness a woman I worked with at a game store in the mid-90s passionately arguing about science-fiction with Ellison at con. That was delightful. As she put it afterwards. "What's the point of meeting Harlan Ellison if you aren't going to have a good argument?"
 
Ellison was a rather undiscplined writer but at his best that intensity achieved some remarkable stories (my favourites being 'At the Mouse Circus' and A Boy and his Dog).

I don't agree with him (or anyone) a 100 percent but I appreciate how bluntly he ripped into sacred cows.

And I largely agree with him about most of the comic writing in this period, to me it is often great artwork held down by mediocre writing.

I just don't think the production pace and strictures of superhero comics lends itself to sustained, quality work at the writing level. After the last flowering of the psychedelic comics of the late 70s/80s most of the best work tended to be in creator controlled and/or non-superhero comics.
 
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