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[[File:harlan-ellison-1_4540.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|
'''Harlan Ellison®''' (yes, he
▲{{quote| ''Hello. My name is Harlan Ellison and I am a writer."''}}
He suffered ''severe'' [[Internet Backdraft]] when he groped [[Connie Willis]] in public, which many fans consider his [[Moral Event Horizon]].<ref>Or, to [[Broken Base|many of his fans]], a ''serious'' [[What the Hell, Hero?]], considering his well-known [[Hypocritical Humor|loathing of sexists]]; Ellison himself
▲{{quote| --Introductory paragraphs of Ellison's first ''An Edge In My Voice'' column}}
He passed away on June 28, 2018, at age 84.
▲Harlan Ellison® (yes, he's [[Disney Owns This Trope|made his own name a registered trademark]]) is a famously grumpy [[Berserk Button|science fiction wri-]] erm, that is, [[Insistent Terminology|writer]]. His work has won eight and a half Hugo Awards, three Nebula Awards (plus a lifetime achievement award), five Bram Stoker Awards (including a lifetime achievement award), two Edgar Awards, and four Writers Guild of America Awards for Most Outstanding Teleplay -- more awards than almost any other living writer -- but it's his personality that everybody remembers about him. [[Jerkass|For some reason.]]
▲He suffered ''severe'' [[Internet Backdraft]] when he groped [[Connie Willis]] in public, which many fans consider his [[Moral Event Horizon]].<ref>Or, to [[Broken Base|many of his fans]], a ''serious'' [[What the Hell, Hero?]], considering his well-known [[Hypocritical Humor|loathing of sexists]]; Ellison himself has described it as [[Dude, Not Funny|a failed attempt]] to [[Crosses the Line Twice|cross the line twice]].</ref>
{{examples|Famous works include:}}
* "Demon with a Glass Hand" and "Soldier", episodes of ''[[
* "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman", Hugo- and Nebula-Award-winning 1965 short story. Which, he
* "[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]", Hugo-Award-winning 1967 short story and the 1995 computer game based on it, which he wrote and [[Large Ham|starred in]] as the voice of AM.
*
* "The City on the Edge of Forever", Hugo-Award-winning 1967 episode of ''[[Star Trek:
* "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World", Hugo-Award-winning 1968 short story
* "[[A Boy and His Dog]]", Nebula-Award-winning 1969 short story made into Hugo-Award-winning 1974 film
* Creator of the original concept for the 1973 TV series ''[[The Starlost]]'', which suffered so badly from [[Executive Meddling]] that he insisted on being credited only
* ''Harlan Ellison's Watching'', a movie review column for the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' and ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction''.
* ''The Glass Teat'' and ''The Other Glass Teat'', a two-book collection of television and social criticism.
* Was hired by [[Warner Brothers]] in the late 1970s to write a film adaptation of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''I, Robot''; the script (which is available in book format) is highly-regarded by those who have read it, but the project fell apart after Ellison accused a studio exec of having the intellectual capacity of an artichoke.
* Was also given a crack at the script for ''[[Star Trek: The
* "Jeffty is Five", a Hugo- and Nebula-Award-winning 1977 short story.
* Conceptual consultant on ''[[Babylon 5]]'' (and made a couple of guest appearances)
* "Funny Money", collected in ''[[Batman]]: Black And White'' Vol.2. Find it. ''Borrow'', '''steal''', '''''kill'''''. FIND IT.
{{quote|
* ''[[
* Two third
{{examples|Things he
* People who discount all science fiction as being no better than the worst of film and TV [[Sci Fi]] ("that hunchbacked, gimlet-eyed, slobbering village idiot of a bastardized genre").
** In fact, as of ''Dream Corridor'', he
*** And he really
* People who
** Which were lampshaded in the story itself.
* People who
* Similarities between his ''[[Outer Limits]]'' episodes and the film ''[[Terminator]]'', which led to a lawsuit and a credit for him in subsequent releases of the movie.
* The changes made to his script for "The City on the Edge of Forever" before it was filmed. It's worth remembering that his original version of the script won him one of his Writers Guild of America Awards
** [[William Shatner]] said he attempted to talk to Ellison during the ordeal to try and calm things down. According to Shatner, Ellison responded by yelling at him.
** Apparently Paramount has taken the tactic of declaring most, if not all, elements of the story off-limits for the [[Expanded Universe]] after Ellison sued them (and the Writers Guild of America) for 25% of the royalties for every time they were used from 1967-2009. Paramount settled out of court.
* ''[[The Starlost]]''.
* ''[http://www.penny-arcade.com/2005/9/26/ Penny Arcade]'', of all things.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'', because people consider it a [[Sturgeon's Law|good science fiction story]] but it doesn't really examine the effect of the setting on humanity as a whole.
** Which feeds back into [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDNrnpefGio the distinction between "science fiction" and "sci-fi"].
* [[The Napoleon|His height]].
* [
** Which was more than justified, considering that {{spoiler|what this Janna person did was, for all intents and purposes, [[Mind Rape]] one of his friends. [[Complete Monster|For nearly two years.]]}}
* Racism, as best illustrated in "From Alabamy, With Hate".
* [[wikipedia:
* The longtime blackballing of [[A. E. van Vogt]] for the SFWA Grand Master Award.
* [[Small Reference Pools|Cultural illiteracy.]]
* [[Snopes]].
* Mistreatment of writers by studios. Which is ironic, because he also
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE Attempts to persuade him that he should do something for free] that he
Harlan Ellison
He also provided the voice for an obnoxious [[Artificial Intelligence|A.I.]] in an episode of ''[[Babylon 5]]''.
For an in-depth look at the man's genius, madness, and general [[Jerkass|assholery]], check out the documentary on his life and career: ''[http://hotdocsaudience.bside.com/2008/films/dreamswithsharpteeth_hotdocs2008 Dreams with Sharp Teeth]''. The film features commentary by [[Robin Williams]], [[Neil Gaiman]], [[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Ronald D. Moore]] and others who have known, worked with, or have been influenced by Ellison and his writings.▼
▲For an in-depth look at the man's genius, madness, and general [[Jerkass|assholery]], check out the documentary on his life and career: ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20080921213628/http://hotdocsaudience.bside.com/2008/films/dreamswithsharpteeth_hotdocs2008 Dreams with Sharp Teeth]''. The film features commentary by [[Robin Williams]], [[Neil Gaiman]], [[Battlestar Galactica
----
{{tropenamer}}
* [[And I Must Scream]]
=== Works by [[Harlan Ellison]] with their own trope pages include: ===▼
* "[[A Boy and His Dog]]"
* ''[[Dangerous Visions]]'' and ''[[Again, Dangerous Visions]]''
** But not ''[[The Last Dangerous Visions]]''. Yet.
* "[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]"
* ''[[
=== Other works by [[Harlan Ellison]] provide examples of: ===▼
* [[Adam and Eve Plot]] (parodied)
* [[Alan Smithee]]: "Cordwainer Bird"<ref>[[Rhymes on a Dime|"By Cordwainer Bird" means you know it's a turd!]]</ref>, used for any work he disowned after [[Executive Meddling]] ruined it.
* [[The Atoner]]: "With Virgil Oddum At The East Pole"
* [[Blatant Lies]]
* [[Boldly Coming]]: "How's the Night Life on Cissalda?"
* [[Cursed
* [[Death
* [[Development Hell]]: ''[[The Last Dangerous Visions]]'' — originally announced to be published in 1973, [https://lamag.com/books/harlan-ellison-last-words-dangerous-visions-sci-fi-writer-posthumous-comeback planned to be published in 2024].
* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin"
* [[Earth-That-Was]]/[[Mercy Kill]]: "The Deathbird".
* [[Exactly What It Says
* [[The Gadfly]]: And proud!
* [[Gainax Ending]]: "How Interesting: A Tiny Man" was published with two possible endings. One is more straight and tragic, the other makes your head hurt as it can ''almost'' understand it.
* [[God Is Evil]]:
** Probably the best way to explain "The Region Between."
** He wrote a whole collection - ''Deathbird Stories''- around this trope.
* [[Grand Theft Me]]: "Mefisto In Onyx". ({{spoiler|But [[Good Is Not Nice|done by the protagonist]].}})
* [[Humans Are
* [[In Medias Res]]
* [[Ink Suit Actor]]: His role, mentioned above, as a grumpy caricature of himself in ''[[Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated]]''.
* [[Jewish Mother]]: Taken to a horrifying extreme in "Mom" - the titular mother comes back as a disembodied voice after she dies just so she can continue nagging her son.
* [[Large Ham]]:
** His voice acting in ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]].'' (TEEEEEEEEDDDD!)
** Also, debateably, his whole life. As [[Neil Gaiman]] said (In ''Dreams with Sharp Teeth'') "I think all of Harlan's work is actually a giant piece of performance art, called...Harlan Ellison."
* [[Laugh Track]]: In-story in "Laugh Track", of course. The ghosts of those whose laughter was recorded are now trapped in it, and one of them gets out and starts jeering at the awful comedies it's being used for. (An explicit comparison is made to the idea of a [[Spooky Photographs|soul-stealing camera]].)
* [[Magical Negro]]: Explicitly averted in "Paladin of the Lost Hour" and "Mefisto In Onyx".
* [[Mind Screw]]: His latest{{when}} short "How Interesting: A Tiny Man".
* [[Missing Episode]]: ''[[The Last Dangerous Visions]]''
* [[Shown Their Work]]: Ellison
** In "Grail", the demon [[Locked Door|Surgat]] is a minor demon who specializes in opening locks. [[wikipedia:Surgat|He has his own Wikipedia page.]]
* [[Space Jews]]: In "I'm Looking For Kadak".
* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: ''Many'' of his stories about his interactions with Hollywood/other writers have gotten called into question by the rest of the science fiction community. Ellison is one of those people who won't let the truth get in the way of a good story; take anything he
* [[What Could Have Been]]: His script for a film adaptation of ''[[I, Robot (
* [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made
** Many people attending science fiction conventions in the late 60s and early 70s remember Ellison as smelling so strongly of pot you could get high standing next to him. He has often railed against ''hard'' drugs, though.
* [[Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things]]: Wrote an essay on it (sci fi/fantasy literature, specifically), called "Xenogenesis", which included a number of examples of the awful things that have been done to him and other writers by fans.
{{reflist}}
{{Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Awards}}
[[Category:World Fantasy Award]]▼
{{World Fantasy Award Life Achievement}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Creator Index]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:
|