345 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
345 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
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'##::::'##:::'#####:::'########: VIVA LA REVOLUCION! CERDO DEL CAPITALISTA!!
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##:::: ##::'##.. ##:: ##.....:: THE HELOTS OF ECSTASY PRESS RELEASE #303 !!
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##:::: ##:'##:::: ##: ##::::::: ===========================================
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#########: ##:::: ##: ######::: "Harlan Ellison Responds in an Out of !!
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##.... ##: ##:::: ##: ##...:::: Context and Pointless Manner to an !!
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##:::: ##:. ##:: ##:: ##::::::: Equally Out of Context and Pointless !!
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##:::: ##::. #####::: ########: Usenet Capture" !!
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..:::::..::::.....::::........:: by -> Squinky 12/3/98 !!
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!!========================================================================!!
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THE HARLAN ELLISON "SLIPPAGE/SUSAN" CONTROVERSY:
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THE FOLLOWING FEW MESSAGES WERE COLLECTED BY RICK WYATT
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FROM USENET ARCHIVES. I'VE INCLUDED THREE MESSAGES FROM MAY
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1998 CONSTITUTING AN ATTACK ON THE DELAYED PUBLISHING OF
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_SLIPPAGE_ AND INDICATING THAT SUSAN, HARLAN'S WIFE, HAS
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MADE HIM "LOSE HIS TOUCH"....FOLLOWED BY RESPONSES FROM
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DAVID GERROLD AND HARLAN HIMSELF.
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I'M NOT GOING TO INCLUDE THE REST OF THE CRAP THAT WAS POSTED
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OR THE OTHER RESPONSES ASIDE FROM MR. GERROLD'S. SORRY.
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!!========================================================================!!
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Subject: Re: Edgeworks (Future Volumes)
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From: jwk208@is8.nyu.edu (Jarett Kobek)
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Date: 1998/05/06
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Message-ID: <6iqdmi$v27$1@news.nyu.edu>
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Newsgroups: alt.fan.harlan-ellison
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[More Headers]
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[Subscribe to alt.fan.harlan-ellison]
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Paul T. Riddell (priddell@usa.net) wrote:
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> early grave as s/he spends weeks sorting it all. I've come to learn
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> that waiting for a new Ellison collection is half of the fun: my wife
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> ordered a copy of the Ziesing print of _Slippage_ for Christmas 1996
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> that I didn't get until April, but it was worth every last second.
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Yeah, hah, hah, real "fun".
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I waited for _SLIPPAGE_ to be released since like 1934, (well, 1994).
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Real "fun", wading through an author's lies about release dates and his
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idiotic justifications being remouthed through fans.
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Hah hah ah!
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It's so fun!
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-Jarett
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!!========================================================================!!
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Subject: Has Ellison lost his touch?
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From: inpoverty@aol.com (InPoverty)
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Date: 1998/05/02
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Message-ID: <1998050223342300.TAA17371@ladder01.news.aol.com>
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Newsgroups: alt.fan.harlan-ellison
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[More Headers]
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[Subscribe to alt.fan.harlan-ellison]
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Ever since his marriage to Susan, his output has dropped quite a bit...
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Now that he is finally happy, he seems to have lost inspiration for new
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material...
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Most of his stories were semi-autobiographical where he'd disguse
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himself as a lonely, bitter man afraid of getting lost in the shuffle...
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Who knows how long his legacy will live on....
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Other than the "Glass Teat" there really isn't much of his work to
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discuss... Everytime a story of his is brought up, it's followed by "I
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loved that story" or "Great story" and that would be the end of it...
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To say you hate a story, brings about the "Then why are you reading this
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newsgroup?" messages....
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BTW, what do you people read when you're not reading Ellison? I took an
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Ellison break the last few months where I tried to catch up on the works
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of Thomas Ligotti, Paul Auster, and James P. Blaylock...
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!!========================================================================!!
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Subject: Re: Has Ellison lost his touch?
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From: jwk208@is8.nyu.edu (Jarett Kobek)
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Date: 1998/05/04
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Message-ID: <6ijf0b$9ad$1@news.nyu.edu>
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Newsgroups: alt.fan.harlan-ellison
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[More Headers]
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[Subscribe to alt.fan.harlan-ellison]
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BOBMORALES (bobmorales@aol.com) wrote:
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> Harlan's imput slowed because of various maladies, not because he got
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> happily married, for Christ's sake. Anyone who know them will tell
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> you--as will Harlan--she's been chiefly responsible for keeping him
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> together the last decade or so. So give her her due.
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Ah, whatever.
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Honestly, Susan *is* responsible for Ellison's decline as a writer. She's
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also responsible for him keeping it together as a human being. As,
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however, none of us are honestly concerned with Ellison the HUMAN BEING
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(with several notable exceptions, Lawrence Watt-Evans, perhaps? certainyl
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not D.J.L.), it's a valid point to be made she has done more harm than
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good.
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What young master Ellison has fallen into is the trap that all
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relationships serve up: complacency. People in relationships get
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complacent and lazy and don't do anything to rock the boat, for fear it
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will disrupt their current status of actual (perceived) happiness.
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> As for how original Harlan's work has been, you might liken him to jazz
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> musician working out new riffs: Slippage contains two trial runs for
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> The Man Who Rowed Christopher Colombus Ashore;
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"Christopher Colombo", "Scarlatis", and "Anywhere but here" are the only
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things in _Slippage_ which are up against Ellison's best work. The rest
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is absolutely terrible or just rehashes of stories we've already seen a
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thousand times, said in much firmer voices. "Jane Doe #1354125" is a
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good example.
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_Mefisto In Onyx_ is a depressing piece of work because it *should* be
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so good, but just comes off as a horrible rendering of where Ellison's
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mind really is: trapped in the seventies. Who the fuck thinks about race
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relations like that anymore?
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---
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And to satisfy the circle-jerk: C.G. Jung, Robert E. Howard and related
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fandom, Thomas Ligotti, Antonin Artaud, J.K. Huysmans, Edgar Poe,
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Falkner, Algernon Blackwood, etc. etc.
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Stuff no one cares about.
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!!========================================================================!!
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Subject: Harlan and Susan
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From: davgerrold@aol.com (DavGerrold)
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Date: 1998/05/08
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Message-ID: <1998050807022900.DAA09395@ladder03.news.aol.com>
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Newsgroups: alt.fan.harlan-ellison
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[More Headers]
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[Subscribe to alt.fan.harlan-ellison]
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Jarett Kobek wrote:
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>>Honestly, Susan *is* responsible for Ellison's decline as a writer.
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She's also responsible for him keeping it together as a human being. As,
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however, none of us are honestly concerned with Ellison the HUMAN BEING
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(with several notable exceptions, Lawrence Watt-Evans, perhaps? certainyl
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not D.J.L.), it's a valid point to be made she has done more harm than
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good. <<
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Bullshit.
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And you're lucky you're not in the same room with me or you'd be picking
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up your teeth off the floor and carrying them home in your pocket.
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I've known Harlan for 30 years, and I knew Susan two years before she met
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Harlan. I love them both dearly. Susan is a talented and intelligent
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woman, and she has given Harlan what he most needs in this world. She
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has also made it possible for Harlan to continue growing and exploring
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his own humanity.
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The record of Harlan's work is a self-documented journey of personal
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growth and commitment that is humbling. The only other man I ever knew
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so committed to continuing his own education was Robert A. Heinlein.
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That anyone judges either Harlan or Susan simply by the output of
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Harlan's typewriter is such a narrow-minded vision that it's
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mind-boggling.
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The job of the writer is to report back. But first he has to go to the
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other side of the hill and take a good look around so he has something
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to report back. Harlan is being true to the one person he most needs to
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be true to -- himself.
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David Gerrold
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!!========================================================================!!
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Subject: MESSAGE FROM HARLAN!
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From: davgerrold@aol.com (DavGerrold)
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Date: 1998/05/10
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Message-ID: <1998051000150600.UAA17142@ladder03.news.aol.com>
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Newsgroups: alt.fan.harlan-ellison
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[More Headers]
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[Subscribe to alt.fan.harlan-ellison]
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From: Harlan Ellison
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Via: David Gerrold
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To: Those who have posted at this site for the past several days.
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My good friend David Gerrold has responded to my request for a download
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of what you-all have been saying these last few moons, by kindly sending
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along everything since Mr, Kobek's comments on the 7th of this month. I
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should hasten to note that even though I choose not to own or use
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equipment that would provide unending access to your venue every once in
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a while some "concerned" observer will disturb my decades-long slumber
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(if Mr, Robert Whelan's estimation of my career is to be taken as
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accurate) and launch a gardyloo that ticks my curiosity, so that I break
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my own rule about staying out of earshot of internet opinions.
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Oddly, I'm a lot less than bothered by the less-than-flattering entries,
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I have a belief that that is exactly why the web exists, to provide a
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place for those who cannot create art to piss and moan about those of us
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who break our asses in a lifelong attempt to do the job properly. Even
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Mr. Kobek, who doesn't think I'm worth very much on the market these
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days, who thinks--like most children his age-that only They have the
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Wisdom that has fled the rest of us, even he seems to read my work. Don't
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know why, but I'm am always grateful for such crumbs of attention from
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The FX Generation.
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As always, I get to evaluate my own worth as an artist and as a human
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being, by those who are prepared to call themselves my friends. Lawrence
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Watt-Evans, Bob Morales, David, these are exemplary fellows...and
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Mr. Kobek, though graciousness in clearly not a tongue you speak, you
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really ought to refrain from calling those who know me better, and
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who--unlike you--know what they're talking about, my "tools." Anyone who
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knows these three guys or knows me even casually, knows that I despise
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sycophancy, have friends who'll tell me what a loud, obnoxious, imbecile
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adolescent I an (without bidding, and on a moment's notice),) and knows
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that they are very much Their Own Men. They don't toady for me, they
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just share my annoyance at banjo players who had a big breakfast. Oh, I
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forgot, you're only eleven years old, and won't catch that allusion. It
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means: a know-nothing who likes to shoot his yap off. (See, you were
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wrongs Susan hasn't mellowed me all that much.)
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But let's got to some conversation of substance, shall we?
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Mr. Kobek and Mr. Farber and Mr. Davies seem utterly bout out of shape
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because SLIPPAGE came out in March of 1997, instead of 1991 when it was
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first idly mentioned as forthcoming. Apart from the ludicrousness of
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their paranoid reasoning as to why it wasn't right there when the stamped
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their widdle foots for a fix, let me illuminate the ignorance and
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naivete of their insulting assumptions. The truth will be vastly less
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filled with areas for them to bitch about, but it will reveal to all the
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rest of you the perils pursuant to mistaking the cawing of carrion birds
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for the sweet song of the nightingale.
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In 1991 I signed a contract with a small press publisher to do a limited
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edition of my next collection, SLIPPAGE. The trade edition was under
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contract to Houghton Mifflin--the last of a 3-book deal--it was
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untitled by HM, but SLIPPAGE would have been that book. The book was
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intended for, probably, 1992 release. But a number of things
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sidetracked no. MIND FIELDS, which required my attention; a rather
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unpleasant earthquake that cost me about a year of digging out from
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under; a number of shattering deaths of my friends, including Bob Bloch
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and Isaac Asimov and Roger Zelazny and...well, lots more; spinal surgery
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an Susan; the depredations of a quartet of scumbags and their running
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dogs that required endless hours of wasted effort in attempts to prevent
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them from driving me either out of the game entirely, or out of my mind,
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which depredations merely resulted in my having (What do they call it?)
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a "coronary episode" and a quadruple heart bypass, procedure. All this
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and much more, rather, uh, slowed me down. Sorry if that inconvenienced
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you, fellahs, but if you were ts upset at my tardiness, all you had to do
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was ask for your money back...if in fact, you'd laid out any in advance,
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or were you just grousing without having anything at stake?
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The book wouldn't have come out in 1992, anyhow. (Sorry that the one
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lone mention of it in a "forthcoming" column made you so deranged.
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Clearly, the printed word Is not salutary to your health. I urge you to
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stay here, on this electronic playground.) The stories I wanted to go
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into the book were simply taking me more time to write than I'd
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ancipated. The entries at this site that pointed out I'm always
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struggling to innovate, they had it right. I work hard at what I do and
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sometimes art, even Art, refuses to obey arbitrary deadlines. But by
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1994, the small-press publisher was in financial troubles and he couldn't
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do the book, so I returned his money, and took my time finishing
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SLIPPAGE. At my own pace. Not Mr. Kobek's. Not Mr. Whelan's.
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But, even so--and here's where your lack of Information makes you look
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a trifle foolish for your blustery accusations that I'm a big fat
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liar--in the 24 July 1995 issue of Publishers Weekly, the bible of the
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publishing world, on page 68 there was printed, all the world--and even
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you--to see, the following notice:
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ATTENTION BOOKSELLERS: Harlan Ellison's new
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collections, Slippage, originally scheduled
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for publication in August 1995, has been
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temporarily postponed to accomodate the
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addition of newly written, previously
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uncollected stories. The expanded table
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of contents will bring the new collection
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to more than 100,000 words. Look for announcement
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of the new publication date in Upcoming Houghton
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Mifflin catalogues.
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Then I finished the book. And by that time the limited edition had been
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resigned this time with Ziesing. By contract, I guaranteed Mark Ziesing
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six months clear time to sell his limited, boxed and signed edition
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before publication of a trade or book club edition that might interfere
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with his exclusivity.
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The book was scheduled to Ship in November of 1996, in time for
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Christmas. It came out in March, after Christmas.
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Now, let's take the gloves off, guys. I'm fed to the eyeballs with the
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horse faces you clowns cointinue to drop, all of which redound to my
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sloth, ineptitude, inconstancy, laggardliness, and just all-around
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inconvenience to your Noble Selves. As if I really give a shit that you
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had to wait three months for a book as good, and as well-made as
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SLIPPAGE. But, in truth, the short and simple of it was this: Mark
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Ziesing tried a new typesetter on the books and she was an amateur and
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she screwed it up royally, and I wouldn't let it pass, and we started
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back at square one with the eminent John Snowden of Victoria Magnetics
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in Atlanta. Square one, you pinhead Whelan. We (meaning the designers,
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Arnie Fenner, and my assistant, and my wife) had to reproof over 100,000
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words of copy in three weeks. Just so insulting pukes like you wouldn't
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be able to piss and moan about "typos." We all worked our butts off, and
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the book came out three months late. Not eight years late, from that
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idle mention in 1991, but three months.
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That's it. Three lousy months. Still feel as though you're been
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hideously Imposed upon?
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Let me be absolutely candid. I write for me. I write at my pace and I
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do the best I can every time out. But I owe people like you, Mr. Davies,
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and Mr. Whelan, and Mr, Farber, absolutely nothing but my best work. And
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if that isn't good enough for you, I urge you to stop reading my work
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just so you can beat your meat about how old and weary and complacent and
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out of date and empty I am. Go read someone better. There are lots of
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them, and I'm sure they'd love to hear your excruciatingly insightful
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analyses of their uselessness.
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To Warchild and Paul Riddell and Michael Benedetti and Karen Williams and
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Mark E. Smith and the several other of you whose sane responses put you
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in line to be called "tool" by such bad-mannered adolescents, my thanks.
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My thanks not for necessarily thinking I beat Shakespeare, or even Donald
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Westlake, at the craft, but thank you for your reasoned and sane replies.
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If you get real addresses to David Gerrold I'll send you each a signed
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copy of my next-finished story. Not much of a gift, but something real,
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nonetheless.
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Harlan Ellison
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!!========================================================================!!
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Any typos in the above are my fault, not Harlan's. (Or blame the
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scanner.) Folks who want to send Harlan their real world addresses via
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me should send them to 70307.544@compuserve.com. (Do not use the AOL
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address because e-mail to that account gets buried with all the junk
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e-mail from porn-purveyors, so I just delete it all without reading any
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of it.)
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David Gerrold
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!!========================================================================!!
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!! (c) !LA HOE REVOLUCION PRESS! #302 -- WRITTEN BY: SQUINKY -- 12/3/98 !!
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