Harlan Ellison may have been ill and he may have decided that his appearance at MadCon this past weekend was to be his last but I think the whole "Harlan Ellison is dying" meme out there is a bit presumptuous. He may have some terminal disease I don't know about but I can tell you that neither he nor any of his friends with whom I spoke at the con gave any indication that Harlan has anything but a case of old age.
His writing hand shook at times, which made autographing impossible but the guy talked for 6+ hours over the course of the weekend. He's 76. He's old and it showed. While Ellison wasn't in peak physical condition, it's not like he was brought into the room in a wheelchair. Similarly his memory may not have been perfect, he was still very sharp.
Holding court on Friday, he talked about having attacked a guy at a signing at Frugal Muse earlier in the afternoon and having made a kid cry at Old Country Buffet that evening. The exact nature of these events was not revealed on Friday. I caught only about half of his talk on Saturday and left it still not knowing of Ellison's exploits here in Madison. Finally on Sunday he explained the Old Country Buffet incident. OCB came in for quite a drubbing with their prime rib and clam chowder having been singled out for being especially horrid.
Firstly I was taken aback by the fact that Ellison was taken to OCB as I was told by one of the con's co-chairs that Harlan had specifically asked to go to Quivey's Grove after the signing at Frugal Muse. Things just didn't work out and they were short on time, apparently. And so some little girl ended up being terrified by Ellison. The reason is thus: Harlan did not get along with his sister very well (he may have said he hated her) beginning at a young age. She teased him mercilessly. And so when he saw a girl harassing her younger brother at the OCB, Harlan stepped in and told her that, if she didn't stop, something would come and eat her brains out of her head.
I never did find out what happened at Frugal Muse.
But there were plenty of other good stories to be had. For instance, I learned about him dissing a former high-ranking KGB official in Sweden as well as his adventures with the guy he claimed was the model for The Godfather's Luca Brasi. This same guy also, shall we say, lobbied on behalf of Ellison in his quest to regain the rights to some of his material. The accountant at a publishing company was quite surprised to have a guy built like a brick shithouse approach him and give him notice that he knew where his daughters went to school.
So, whether Harlan is about to croak or whether he's just old and creaky is beyond my purview. However I will say that his performance at MadCon sure made it seem like the latter. Methinks this Harlan-Ellison-is-dying thing is just another of his cons.
2 comments:
Taking a guest of honor to OCB... just... Third time I've heard it (your recounts were 1 & 3, Himself told me the 2nd time) and I still don't know what to say. In public anyway.
I was told that they were exceptionally short on time. Now, whether this is an excuse for going to OCB is another matter.
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