Harlan Ellison at the Rock Hall
by Brian W. Fairbanks
Author Harlan Ellison is not a fan of rock and roll, even though one of
his earliest novels, Spider Kiss, about a doomed rocker named Stag Preston, is
on display in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. But Ellison's attitude,
his determination to shock his audience out of complacency and into action,
squarely places him in the same arena as rock and roll's best practitioners.
In a recent appearance at the rock hall in his native Cleveland, the legendary
fantasist, who bristles when called a "science fiction" writer, nonetheless
brought back memories of Kevin McCarthy in the climax of the 1956 science
fiction classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Just as McCarthy warned the
world that the human race was being overtaken by pods, Ellsion
continues to hold firm to the belief he shared in an interview with The Onion
several years ago: "The world
is turning into a cesspool of imbeciles."
Billed as "A Hellishly Annoying Evening With Harlan Ellison," the evening was
neither hellish nor annoying, though a handful of those present may have found
it one or the other. The author's liberal use of profanity unnerved a few
people, as did his refusal to pay heed to political correctness (at one point
referring to a woman with impaired vision as "blind" rather than the PC
sanctioned "sightless"). Then there was the man whose question was wrapped in
such pretentiously academic language that he sank with embarrassment into the
safety of his seat when Ellison admitted he didn't know what the hell he was
being asked. Otherwise, it was an entertaining two hours of razor sharp
observations from the man Cleveland author Les Roberts introduced as "arguably
America's greatest living writer."
With the war in Iraq winding down, the outspoken Ellison could have been excused
for ranting endlessly on the subject, but since he had "no opinion on the war,"
it didn't dominate the discussion. But he's no fan of George W., and jokingly
described a phone call he received asking him if he would vote for the Texan
"again."
"That presupposes I voted for him in the first place," Ellison said, adding he
would vote for Felix the Cat and Betty Boop before he would vote for a man who
can't pronounce "nuclear."
Ellison spoke only fleetingly of literature, choosing to focus on the madness of
daily living. All of us, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, or sexual
orientation, are now minorities losing ground to the new majority: "A--HOLES!"
They include the mean-spirited short order cook who refused to serve Ellison
breakfast after 10 a.m., even though he was the only customer in the
restaurant. Then there are the people who use public restrooms but with a
cavalier disregard for hygiene, such as the man Ellison followed out of an
airport men's room shouting "Don't let this man touch you! He touched himself
and didn't wash his hands!"
Of course, Hollywood, where Ellison long toiled as a writer in the movie and TV
industry, came in for its share of zingers. He maintains the people running the
show in L.A. are in the entertainment industry to "get laid." Illiterates
raised on TV, they think in terms of "concepts," one of which was proposed to
Ellison by Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of Armageddon and other movies lined
wall-to-wall with so many explosions, Ellison said they threaten to make the
audience deaf.
The concept: Kenny Rogers and Martians, a theme inspired by the country
singer's album, Planet Texas. Ellison declined an offer of $100,000 to turn that
idea into a screenplay, all the while remembering what his friend and fellow
writer, the late Charles Beumount, told him about the writer's life in the movie
capital: "It's like climbing a mountain of manure to reach one flower at the
peak, only to discover that you've lost your sense of smell when you've made it
to the top."
The winner of just about every award his profession can bestow, including a
record four Writer's Guild Awards for outstanding teleplay and a Silver P.E.N.
for his journalistic efforts in defense of the First Amendment, the 69 year old
author hasn't lost his sense of smell, especially his ability to detect BS. His
latest collection of short stories, Troublemakers, is available from ibooks.
Brian W. Fairbanks
Entertainment Editor
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