Harlan Ellison's Watching 59

[@NDHFilms]

This is a truly awe-inspiring non-answer.

[@stevensenski2134]

Harlan, I love you like family I've never met, but the fact that TLDV has never seen the light of day causes me actual physical pain - especially considering that many of these authors - not to mention fans - have gone on to their eternal reward without ever seeing their work published. Bester, Butler, Simak, van Vogt, Sheckley, etc - the multi-volume collection was to have included over 100 stories and was slated for publishing in the late 70s..

[@colt5189]

Did you ever get the book since it's been released?

[@FelixKrankenkilledmykids1974]

Get the book now! It’s like 20 bucks but it’s better having the book than having no book

[@nunyabizness6595]

Last i heard J Michael Stazinski may be taking a crack at publishing Last Dangerous Visions with HE's intros of course. Here's hopeing.

[@richards.5964]

At this point I'm pretty skeptical. Stanzinki stated that goal originally in 2020, and at this point the publication status of many of the works are more complicated, given how much time has passed. Add on how much more ambitious TLDV is by comparison to the other anthologies, and you're met with a massively scattered project that he's forced to make sense of. This is of course assuming that the project was in some sort of semi-organized state to begin with, before Harlan passed. Part of me debates that, if it continues to see trouble, it might be better to just let it end and to consider it an unfinished, failed project; let the stories disperse how the creators/inheritors want them to, and let the whole legend of it end. It would absolutely be cool to see happen, of course. But I'm personally not hoping that much, and leaving it as something that, if it even gets close to releasing, I can just be surprised by.

[@plaidchuck]

@@richards.5964 Strazynski said 2023, here’s hoping.

[@joncarroll2040]

Given who we're talking about here, I don't think Ellison would have wanted it to come out if it was not in a state that was at least close to fit for release and I don't think JMS would be releasing it against Harlan's wishes. The bigger issues are rights to the stories themselves (some of which are pretty tangled at this point) and also finding a modern publisher who would be willing to give him the kind of deal Harlan is talking about here, which may have been a stipulation in his will

[@plaidchuck]

@@joncarroll2040well revisiting this it is coming out this fall, with a mix of mostly new writers and ones where they still had the publishing rights or the permission to put it in the book.

[@jordanowen42]

Proud to say it’s out!

[@666malu]

Oh

[@tuxguys]

(I'm gratified to see that Ellison took his responsibilities to other writers as seriously as he took his responsibility to his own work.) DANGEROUS VISIONS and AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS were not only examples of the state-of-the-art in the field (at that time), but Ellison's intros to each story, even without the stories themselves, would have been worth the cover price. It's the loss of those intros that make me most sad that we will never see THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS. "SMILE" "TARZAN ON MARS" "THE THREE STOOGES MEET THE MARX BROS." "THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS" ...that's the kind of never-was that we will never see.

[@anoyint]

Great news! Its coming out in October!

[@tuxguys]

@@anoyint FOR REAL?

[@anoyint]

@@tuxguys Yes!!! you can preorder it now!!

[@AngryGerman57]

Completely AGREE!

[@JimAllder11]

So sad that Last Dangerous Visions never made it to print.

[@sentinel1814]

guess what buddy

[@anton1990]

It was finally released yesterday.

[@psf334]

you have a better chance of meeting bigfoot and going out for some beer and brats than you have of ever seeing TLDV. I also remember harlan bragging in his epic TCJ #53 interview about how he was going to have a bestselling novel coming out in the very near future (now the ancient past,) which also never happened. anyway, i read that famous pamphlet or whatever about TLDV and at least that guy made his argument with facts and stuff, as opposed to HE's lame "it'll be done when it's done" and insistence that it will come out. does he still say that? i'm honestly asking. because that would be ultra-lame at this late date.

[@greatestscott6599]

*Sat cito si... merda; nunc numquam est.* *"Soon enough if... crap; now it's never."* --Saint Jamoke

[@zarkoff45]

But of course writers don't know. They accept the way they are treated once they are offered any money at all. Any money at all is a step in the right direction. And the guys who have the money get to make the rules. Unless there is some sort of writer's union or you feel like enough of an exception to start making your own rules -- money makes the rules.

[@sauldinglesteinlll9543]

which is all the more reason to not be stupid and take care of business. Someone treats you poorly, withdraw the story. If someone's grabbing the first publishing opportunity they get despite it being a crappy deal then the work is probably of poor quality anyway. If your work's worth the paper it's printed on then you have all the power you need to get something going for yourself as long as you don't slack off once the story's done.

[@playerhater9000]

Harlan Ellison's Madea goes to jail

[@SJ23982398]

This guy is like a Jewish Joe Pesci

[@geinikan1kan]

Hmm. Whose idea was it to put this one up? I've heard the whole thing about the fabled last "Dangerous Visions." I don't know. I have my own stuff to worry about. If it never came out it never came out. Shit happens. One Ellison interview I remember he made a point of picking his nose whenever starry eyed fans came up and made a fuss. I've let down people in my life. I hope I don't do it too often. But it happens. But to hold onto to some gripe because something "should have" happened. I hate that "should have" stuff. Life is too short. I have my own work to worry about the sins of authors or something like that. It's a non-event. Mildly disppointing, a big hit at the daddy complex in the hero industry.

[@TheStockwell]

The gist of reactions I'm seeing come down to pointing out how Mr. Ellison is talking the talk . . . but not walking the walk. This sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Question: has anyone ever - EVER! - seen a comment indicating that anyone responsible for Ellison's KZbin channel has anything to do with it once an upload is made? I'm not expecting Ellison to do it himself, but absentee landlords are despicable, both in real life and on this nutty, crazy, koo-koo internet thing.

[@newlistenerguy]

Sad to see you deleted my comment. Whatever.

[@Baconmaninspace]

Jeez, this segment aged poorly

[@newlistenerguy]

Harlan, seriously, how are you protecting the writers when most of the submitters to your DV3 have died with their stories still in DV3 limbo? We appreciate and recognize your contributions to literature. But, seriously, either shit or get off the pot. This is 2014. This spot was shot eons ago. Finish the intros and send it off.

[@ViscountAlexOfTheHorsePeople]

10 years later and Harlan himself had joined that list. This is actually worse than all those people dying without grandmaster awards, dying without their final efforts being heard.

[@jonnyduffy101]

You've said when you die, Silverberg will fly down and literally burn all of your files so none of your unfinished projects see the light of day. You detest dead writers' Work appearing after their death.. As far as THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS, some writers of the stories who trusted you for publication have died and none expressed a wish for their Work to be destroyed. A few others managed to get their stories published elsewhere. Most writers' stories remain unpublished in a kind of private magazine that's a cardboard box full of their manuscripts in your house. None deserve that darkness. Would you have, with something you wrote in the early productive "Angry" period, have tolerated this kind of treatment from any editor no matter how high and mighty? I suspect some of the stories that you've held back are dated. But the sequel to Thom's WILD IN THE STREETS, which I've seen, is actually topical again and can do some good. Other Works can be read and appreciated as period pieces if nothing else. It's not to late to fall in love with Sharon Tate. Be half the editor you were at Rouge and give the writers what you've owed them for decades before you are too old. None of them needs a new intro, updates, etc That's just vanity, Harlan. Let the writers' stories stand as is without new intros from you--if that still remains as one of your hangups. Publish The Last Dangerous Visions as a period piece, Harlan. Publish not perish these bright vintage stars. Please.

[@sauldinglesteinlll9543]

Now that he's dead I'm sure someone'll make a buck by digging up the stories and publishing. Hopefully it'll be his wife and not an opportunistic agent or something.

[@TmRnBn]

I'm hoping it'll be Bob Silverberg that takes it up and publishes it in several volumes. He's a fine anthologist, fully capable of the daunting task.

[@MisterG2323]

If it ever does happen, now that Harlan's kaput, I hope it's re-titled "The Lost Dangerous Visions."

[@stevend.bennett427]

Was not impressed by the first two. A couple good entries.