My Brutally Honest "In Memory of Harlan Ellison"

Harlan Ellison was a big believer in candor, and always hated the idea of sacrificing even the most brutal honesties in favor of social niceties. So I'll honor his memory by doing the same. Mom always told me "if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all," but here that wouldn't be appropriate, as Ellison himself didn't believe in that rule at all.

Harlan Jay Ellison, who died just a couple of days ago, was the author of some truly great science fiction, and some truly mediocre science fiction, and a lot of over-zealous critics and fans have mistaken much of the latter for the former. "Incognita, Inc." is pure genius. But there's a reason why much of work for various pulp magazines has never been reprinted. His quality levels were all over the place.

Ellison was widely known for being an antagonistic jackass. Sorry, fans, but it's true, and Ellison himself would both proudly agree with my assessment, and also take extreme umbrage at it. Yes, he would do both. His Wikipedia page devotes more space to "controversies" sections than to his actual work, and for a valid reason. He was known for feuds, fights, and lawsuits. It seems that at one point or another, he got into major disagreements with almost everyone he's ever worked with at one time or another, and Ellison was never afraid to speak his mind (yay!), play dirty (hmm), or even get physically violent (yikes!) if he felt it suited his needs or helped him make a point or right what he perceived as a wrong. He groped women, he punched men, he hired hitmen and lawyers with equal abandon, he threw bricks, both figurative, and literal. Oh, he was a bastard. He had his integrity, many would say. But he was a world class jerk, many others would observe. A danger to society, and not just in the "I'm a rebel who encourages independent thinking!" kind of way that he prided himself on.

His most enduring and infamous feud was with Gene Roddenberry over the authorship of what is widely considered the best Star Trek episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever." Accounts of exactly who changed Ellison's original script -- D.C. Fontana? Gene L. Coon? Roddenberry himself? -- have changed multiple times, depending both on who is asked and how much time has gone by, but in any case, it was on Roddenberry's watch, and as far as Ellison is concerned, the changes were acts of literary butchery. Yet despite Ellison's very adamant, very vocal insistence that his work was mangled, Ellison has paradoxically always  vehemently fought for sole credit for the episode.

You may notice that, much like the aforementioned Wikipedia page, this memorium has spent more time on Ellisons' controversies than on his work. That's appropriate. That's Harlan Ellison.