Tag Archives: Harlan Ellison

Seeing Things in 2020 Vision

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2020 Vision
Jerry Pournelle, ed.

This anthology was first published in 1974. That’s the original cover over there on the right. I found a copy of the 1980 edition (the cover isn’t nearly as good) at the Friends of the Library sale last month and thought it would be fun to see what science fiction writers in the 1970s thought this next year would be like.  In some ways, they missed the boat by a mile. In others, they almost nailed it.

The 1980 edition has a few additional editorial comments by Pournelle, but otherwise the two different editions are the same. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Harlan Ellison

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Image result for harlan ellisonHarlan Ellison was born today in Cleveland, Ohio on this day in 1934.  I’d like to wish him a Happy Birthday.

Ellison is a writer’s writer.  He’s best known as a science fiction writer (although fantasist is a better term), but  he’s written in multiple genres.  His works include mystery, mainstream, screenplays, teleplays, and essays.  It’s hard to point to something representative of his work because is oeuvre is so varied.  There are the classic stories such as “The Deathbird”, “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”, “Jeffty is Five”, and so many more.  There are the essays in The Glass Teat, The Other Glass Teat, and Harlan Ellison’s Watching.

If you’ve not read him, give him a try.  Then give him another try, because chances are good that the second thing you read by him won’t be anything like the first.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Harlan!