
Harlan Ellison will say goodbye this weekend: he's dying - MaysonL
http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=30610
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danielford
Given the source, I'm inclined to agree that this is probably his third-to-
last convention, rather than the last. That said, it is Harlan Ellison; I
don't think he would be making these claims if things weren't winding down,
and I'll be sad to see him gone.

He's kind of like that asshole friend you acknowledge is an asshole while
still enjoying his company. Yeah, he's a raging narcissist who pulled a gun on
someone to get out of a bet, and he grabbed another author's mammary gland at
a convention, but I don't know, it's Harlan. I mean, he wrote, "Repent,
Harlequin, said the Ticktockman". It takes a lot of dickery to eclipse all the
great things he's done, and he's hopefully not going to manage that in the
time he has left.

------
JoeAltmaier
Wha? He Says he'd dying, and nobody questions it? Is he some kind of doctor,
diagnosing himself...I don't get it.

This guys is so full of opinions, but that doesn't mean he's right all the
time.

~~~
flatline
He does make that point in the article: "An old dog senses when it's his time
-- dogs have that capacity; nobody doubts that. Nobody. But everybody doubts
when you say, 'I'm dying.' They think you're being a Victorian actress. They
think you're doing Bernhardt."

Not exactly unheard of, maybe you feel like your battery is just running out.
Reminds me of a footnote from "Three Pillars of Zen", p31:

"Yasutani-roshi died in his temple in Kyoto on March 28, 1973, at the age of
eighty-eight. He was about to take his breakfast when he toppled over and,
without pain, passed away. A week earlier his strength had begun to fail and
he took more rest from his heavy teaching schedule. Three days before he drew
his last breath he administered the precepts to twelve persons in a forty-
five-minute ceremony called jukai. Afterward he confided to a close disciple,
'That is my last jukai. I went through it on sheer willpower.'"

~~~
philwelch
You know how occasionally some old guy will retire and then die within weeks
or months of his retirement? Strom Thurmond, for one, did this. Sometimes
people assume that without the job to keep them busy some people just lose the
will to live, but maybe they're sensing they don't have long to go and
retiring in advance so they don't inconvenience anyone.

~~~
ax0n
December 31, 1996. My grandfather, who repaired hospital blood lab equipment
such as centrifuges and microscopes told his customers he was shutting down.

January 17, 1997. My grandfather was tying twine around a box holding a
microscope for Kansas University Medical Center. It was the final item on his
backlog from 1996. His heart stopped, and he fell over dead onto his shop
floor, doing what he loved doing most.

RIP, Grandpa. I still miss you, and I'm forever thankful that you passed to me
your insatiable curiosity, knack for mechanical synergy and desire for
unfaltering ethics.

------
wnoise
So, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Dangerous_Visions> will never be
released?

------
crystalis
If you'd like to read an excellent Harlan Ellison story, I would suggest
<http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ1003-OCT_SINATRA_rev_>

------
ax0n
Positively amazing! And I'm not even a fiction reader.

------
ghjklkjh
Embarrassingly I thought he had already died - like Bill Hicks it didn't seem
that the world could contain anyone this interesting anymore.

------
acabal
An amazing writer passing on his own terms... he'll be missed, even if it's
not as bad as he thinks it is.

~~~
salemh
An excellent documentary on Harlan Ellison - Dreams with Sharp Teeth.

Streaming on Netflix.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1018887/>

