Edgeworks 3

1997

Includes The Harlan Ellison Hornbook and, for the first time in a mass-market edition, Harlan Ellison's Movie.

Among the early-'70s essays included in Hornbook are some of Ellison's most notable, including the brilliant media-age critique "Revealed at Last! What Killed the Dinosaurs! And You Don't Look So Terrific Yourself"; the touching eulogy for his dog, "Ahbhu"; and "No Offense Intended, But Fuck Xmas!" which may have done more to cement Ellison's reputation as a literary anarchist than anything else he has ever written. Sadly, the "Interim Memos," intended to update some essays, have not themselves been updated since Hornbook was first published in 1990.

Harlan Ellison's Movie, (which prior to this had appeared only in a limited edition of the Hornbook from Mirage Press) is an even greater disappointment. Written in 1970 and never produced, it is, more than most of Ellison's work, a creature very much of the crazed and tragic era in which it was born. Part fantasy, part allegory and part countercultural soap opera, it's basically a variation on the old "what if a hippie ran the country" scenario. Much of the dialogue is downright painful to read. You hip, baby?

Contents

• Introduction: " ... And Now, Batting in the DBS Slot ..."
• The Harlan Ellison Hornbook
  • Author's Note
  • Foreword: The Cricket Beneath the Hammer (by Robert Crais)
  • Introduction: The Lost Secrets of East Atlantis
  • 46 columns, dated 26 October 1972 to June-July 1977
    • 1: Everything I Know About My Father
    • 2: Valerie, Part One
    • 3: Valerie, Part Two
    • 4: Valerie, Part Three
    • 5: Getting Stiffed
    • 6: The Tyranny of the Weak, and Some Foreshadowing
    • 7: With Bloch and Bormann in Brazil
    • 8: The First of Three Culinary Comments
    • 9: No Offense Intended, but Fuck Xmas!
    • 10: The Day I Died
    • 11 though 20: Harlan Ellison's Movie, a Complete Screenplay (included in second half of this volume)
    • 21: Fair Weather Friends, Summer Soldiers, and Sunshine Patriots
    • 22: Troubling Thoughts About Godhood, Part One
    • 23: Bless That Pesky Wabbit
    • 24: Troubling Thoughts About Godhood, Part Two
    • 25: Where Shadow Collides with Reality: A Preamble
    • 26: When I Was a Hired Gun, Part One
    • 27: When I Was a Hired Gun, Part Two
    • 28: A Rare, Kindly Tought
    • 29: 3 Small Pleasures for a More Endurable Existence
    • 30: Varieties of Venue
    • 31: Why I Fantasize About Using an AK-47 on Teenagers
    • 32: In Which the Imp of Delight Tries to Make the World Smile
    • 33: I Go to Bed Angry Every Night, and Wake Up Angrier the Next Morning
    • 34: Ahbhu
    • 35: Death Row, San Quentin, Part One
    • 36: Death Row, San Quentin, Part Two
    • 37: College Days, Part One
    • 38: The Death-Wish of a Golden Idea
    • 39: College Days, Part Two
    • 40: College Days, Part Three
    • 41: The Last of Three Culinary Comments, Gonzo-Style
    • 42: Out of the Mail Bag
    • 43: Oh, Dear, He's Not Going to Do Xmas Again, Is He?
    • 44: The Death of My Mother, Serita R. Ellison
    • 45: Enormous Dumb
    • 46: Revealed at Last! What Killed the Dinosaurs! And You Don't Look So Terrific Yourself
  • Appendix A: Comic of the Absurd
  • Appendix B: Dogging It in the Great American Heartland
  • Appendix C: Darkness Falls in the City of the Angels
  • Appendix D: Lenny Bruce is Dead
  • Appendix E: Did Your Mother Throw Yours Out?
  • Appendix F: The Song the Sixties Sang
  • Appendix G: The Dingbat Appendix
  • Index (by Gil Lamont)
• Harlan Ellison's Movie