Dangerous Visions 3 Edited by Harlan Ellison

Dangerous Visions 3
Edited by Harlan Ellison
Copyright 1969

New Introduction by Harlan Ellison
Ellison engages in a bit of self-congratulation in describing the success of the “vivisected” Dangerous Visions, of which this is the third volume. He says that he’s been working on a new volume to be titled Again, Dangerous Visions. He lists the new writers with breathless excitement.

If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister? by Theodore Sturgeon
An explorer is determined to find a secret planet that is shunned by the rest of the universe. When he gets there, he falls in love with one of the natives, but learns the hard way why this planet is shunned by the rest of the universe.

I thought Sturgeon had a perfectly good short story going here until he brought it to an abrupt halt with an argument as to why incest should not be socially taboo. Then it got really boring and not a little repulsive.

What Happened to Auguste Clarot by Larry Eisenberg
A dogged reporter investigates the disappearance of a world renowned French chemist. When he eventually locates the chemist, he learns that he has used his knowledge and expertise to develop an entirely new means of supporting himself.

Some of the stories in this book I have not enjoyed for one reason or another. None of them left me thinking, so what? Until now.

Ersatz by Henry Slesar
A man in a post-apocalyptic war searches for an aid station where he might get some food and sleep. He finally finds one, attended by a man and young woman. He seeks comfort from the woman and gets more than he bargained for.

An absolutely pointless story which had the science fiction angle as something completely gratuitous. The twist is almost as old as sex itself which made for a thoroughly boring read.

Go, Go, Go, said the Bird by Sonya Dorman
In a dystopian society, a woman flees from pursuers who would eat her to stave off famine. As she runs, she reminisces about being a powerful leader in her tribe.

This one had a pretty good twist. And, who can’t help but like a story set in a cannibalistic dystopia?

The Happy Breed by John T. Sladek
In the late 1980s, the world and its population are controlled by a supercomputer that has removed all danger, all risk, and all excitement from life. Slowly, with the help of the computer, the world’s inhabitants regress to a near infantile intelligence and existence.

This is a powerful story that is as pertinent and relevant today as it was nearly 50 years ago. As our government and society strive to reduce dangerous behavior, control our diet, and remove danger and risk from our lives, they reduce our humanity.

Encounter with a Hick by Jonathan Brand
Is God the moral standard of the universe just because he created it? A space hippy encounters and unsophisticated traveler who claims to be all powerful.

The dialogue in this story hurt the eyes to read and the author tried too hard to be controversial and not hard enough to construct a meaningful plot. Dangerous? No. Annoying? Yes.

From the Government Printing Office by Kris Neville
A three year old feels mistreated by his parents who are raising him based on an instruction manual from the government that explains how to raise a future scientist.

This story started out very weak with no seeming rhyme or reason. When it becomes apparent that the storyteller is narrating the scattered thoughts of a three year old, it works.

Land of the Great Horses by R.A. Lafferty
Whatever happened to the homeland of the Romany? It is revealed when that small sliver of earth is returned by the aliens who took it for examination. They claim a new piece of land to study and create a new type of Gypsy.

This one started out very difficult to follow and seemingly without purpose or reason. But, as it gathered steam and the direction the author was headed became clear, it was quite interesting and quite clever.

The Recognition by J.G. Ballard
A strange circus comes to town and sets up in a remote, desolate part of town. It is operated by a dwarf and an ageless woman. A young man slips in to see the exhibits and finds the cages empty except for a familiar odor. Later, when a few obnoxious sailors stop by, they learn the true nature of the circus and its exhibits.

This story was wonderfully atmospheric, but a little short on plot. Darker than that most famous of haunted circus stories, Something Wicked This Way Comes, it lacks the compelling narrative.

Judas by John Brunner
A man enters a church and asks to speak to God himself. He is recognized as a former priest of this temple. A priest tries to restrain him and he kills him. He then goes to meet God – the God he created and the God he intends to destroy.

I initially thought this was a negative riff on Christianity and the story of Christ’s crucifixion and rebirth. But it seems to be a commentary on man’s reliance upon machinery to carry out daily tasks and man’s increasing dependence upon it.

Test to Destruction by Keith Laumer
A man undergoing interrogation is unknowingly tested by aliens who want to assess mankind’s mental stability. However, he turns the table on them and becomes the ultimate power in the universe.

What intelligent, insightful, and brilliantly written science fiction this story was! Laumer shows that you can

Carcinoma Angels by Norman Spinrad
A self-made billionaire who has never met a challenge he could not conquer learns that he has cancer. The cancer is deemed terminal. He will not accept that answer and sets out to cure or remove his own disease.

This story was written in a different time when most forms of cancer were death sentences. To get a cancer diagnosis instilled terror in the heart. However, Spinrad approaches the subject as a dark comedy and delivers a mildly funny, but exceptionally well-paced story that was a pleasure to read.

Auto-Da-Fe by Roger Zelazny
In the future, matadors will be replaced by mechanadors who do battle not with bulls, but with cars. The best mechanador of them all takes on a host of Buicks, Fords, and Pontiacs.

A surprisingly old sci-fi trope of taking something old and replacing it with something new or fictional works well in Zelazy’s tale.

Aye, and of Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany
This is a story about Spacers who are eunuchs who work in space to repair satellites and equipment. Felks are the sexually deviant earth inhabitants that lust for Spacers. A spacer encounters a Felk in Instanbul who cannot pay him for his services. But it is not money that he wants.

I thought this was a rather vanilla tale with which to wrap up this anthology. I read with some anticipation to find out what a Spacer and a Felk were. Once I found out about halfway through the story, I lost interest.

Dangerous Visions 2 Edited by Harlan Ellison

Dangerous Visions 2
Edited by Harlan Ellison
Copyright 1969

New Introduction
After the successful publication of the Dangerous Visions anthology in hardback in 1967, the anthology was broken up into three paperback volumes. In volume 2 of this cycle, Ellison writes a new introduction to describe the impact the anthology has had on the publishing industry and the effect it has had on writing science fiction. He also takes a moment to excerpt a couple letters written to him and to discuss the censorship efforts directed at the anthology.

The Man who Went to the Moon – Twice by Howard Rodman
A little boy caught in a hot air balloon returns to terra firma claiming he has traveled to the moon. He is an instant celebrity and visited by many dignitaries. Decades later, as an old man, he repeats the accomplishment. This time, he is dismissed as an old quack and people care very little for his accomplishment.

Rodman would have us reflect on technological marvels and accomplishments and how they cease to be marvels and become parts of ordinary life with the passage of time. Rodman’s writing has a Twain tone to it in the beginning, then takes on a much more morose tone of perhaps Bierce at the end. A worthwhile entry in Ellison’s groundbreaking anthology.

Faith of Our Fathers by Philip K. Dick
Many years after the Vietnam war, the communists have won and taken over the United States and other parts of the world. A low level party official is provided an opportunity for advancement within the party. But one evening, he takes some snuff provided by a street vendor and has his eyes opened to the nature of his government and its leader.

Philip K. Dick was well known for his use of psychedelics. Here, he explores the oft-reported religious experience many LSD users experience and how it might be useful in discerning the nature of God, the government, and religion. The end of this story left a little to be desired. But, like many Dick stories, leaves you pondering its meaning while providing a worthwhile narrative.

The Jigsaw Man by Larry Niven
A condemned prisoner escapes death row in a society that harvests organs from those executed. He strikes back at society by destroying an organ donation center. When he is captured and tried, the prosecution doesn’t even bother introducing those charges. They have other charges that are easier to convict him on.

Maybe it rang ominous in 1966. Today it’s just shrill and alarmist. One of the few tales in this anthology completely destroyed by the passage of time.

Gonna Roll the Bones by Fritz Leiber
A man enters a casino in Hades to gamble with a demon. They dice for the man’s soul.

I so wanted to like this story because Leiber is a legend and I’ve not read him before. But this story, which Leiber admitted was an oft-told tale, was overwritten with long, run-on sentences and needless alliteration. It would appear many disagree with me since this story won both the Hugo and Nebula Award for best novella.

Lord Randy, My Son by Joe L. Hensley
A middle-aged lawyer deals with day to day life with his mentally challenged (autistic?) son. His son, Randy has the ability to mete out justice to the wicked and conjure kindness from the misunderstood. But all his father can see is the disability.

Autism is not quite the mystery today it was in the 1960s. It may have been quite revolutionary (dangerous) to assign special powers or savant skills to the mentally challenged. Today, it’s an old trope. Nonetheless, Hensley writes an effectively moody story that hits all the right emotional chords to achieve his goal.

Eutopia by Poul Anderson
In an alternative world, a cultural researcher flees a land after seducing the child of its ruler. He is pursued into a neighboring land and the leader of that land agrees to give him refuge and transport him home. When he arrives in his homeland of Eutopia, he complains to his boss of the crude and barbaric behavior of other lands. But it is revealed that our hero has engaged in some of the most verboten behavior himself.

I didn’t see the twist coming and I didn’t see that Anderson provided many clues. His lyrical prose made this story sometimes difficult to read, but he paced it well and with the last sentence demonstrated why this story was indeed a dangerous vision.

Incident in Moderan by David R. Bunch
A war is fought for the sake of war. A cease fire is declared to allow an enemy to repair his weaponry and defenses so that hate of the enemy can continue to feed the war. But the enemy mistakes it as an earnest cease fire to allow them to honor their dead.

The subtext of the futility of war and the need for a propaganda machine to feed hatred of the enemy is not subtle. The story is well paced and just the right length to make it enjoyable without repeatedly ramming the subtext home.

The Escaping by David R. Bunch
A being performs a daily stunt for those who watch him perform. One day, while folding air, he thumbs his nose at his audience and escapes in his space egg.

I just hate when sci-fi becomes literary garbage. That is what this is. David Bunch got two stories in this most famous anthology and the second one a stream of words marching across the page in search of an idea or a plot.

The Doll-House by James Cross
A man and his family are living well beyond their means and robbing Peter to pay Paul, waiting for the inevitable crash. The man appeals to his wife’s uncle who he believes is wealthy. Instead of giving him money, the uncle provides a doll house inhabited by a tiny prognosticator. He uses it to build wealth until it once again comes crashing down around him.

This is a retelling of that timeless classic about the goose who laid the golden eggs. Cross gives the tale just enough twists to make it worth reading. One of the best in the book so far.

Sex and/or Mr. Morrison by Carol Ermshwiller
A petite creature secludes herself in the boarding house room of her obese neighbor and watches him undress, fascinated by human nakedness.

Not as lurid as it sounds, nor as interesting – and not because it is not lurid.

Shall the Dust Praise Thee by Damon Knight
The Christian God comes to Earth to judge mankind and finds that they have annihilated themselves in war. Man’s final plea is etched upon a stone in Britain: “Where were you?”

Difficult prose sometimes concealed what was an interesting story about God written by an atheist.

Dangerous Visions 1 Edited by Harlan Ellison

Dangerous Visions 1
Edited by Harlan Ellison
Copyright 1967

Foreword 1: The Second Revolution by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov, one of the masters of sci-fi, describes the evolution of the genre. Before the 1940s, sci-fi was mostly westerns disguised with ships instead of horses and blasters instead of pistols. This changed, according to Asimov, under the leadership of John W. Campbell who edited Astounding Science Fiction Magazine. Campbell demanded that science and plot be ingredients of the story.

A second revolution came about in the 1960s after Sputnik was launched in 1958. This was led by author and editor Frederick Pohl who edited Galaxy Science Fiction. Under Pohl’s dominance of the genre, science fiction became edgier and more willing to engage in controversy, politics, and sex. It is from this new, edgier material that Harlan Ellison has drawn to create this volume while including some of the old masters like Fritz Leiber.

Foreword 2: Harlan and I by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov relates how he met Harlan Ellison at a WorldCon in 1959 when Asimov was already a legend within the genre and Ellison was an up and comer and how Ellison put Asimov in his place. Once Asimov got full revenge, the two became good friends.

Introduction: Thirty-Two Soothsayers by Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison introduces his book by stating that these stories are all new and most are authored by new and up and coming writers such as Samuel R. Delany. What each story has in common is it is edgy. It is dangerous. Many contain sex which was a taboo in the sci-fi literature of the day.

Ellison takes time to rage at both those who insist that science fiction isn’t really literature and those who point to bad science fiction (he cites Planet of the Apes) as an example of how science fiction can be literature. According to Ellison, sometimes a story can just be a story without a message or socially relevant subtext.

Evensong by Lester del Rey
A being flees from an interplanetary group called the Usurpers. They have detection traps laid on every planet. When the being arrives on the Usurpers’ home planet that they have abandoned, he thinks he may have escaped them. He is wrong.

Deep questions about man’s place in the universe and the cosmos explored in blissfully short, but meaningful style in what del Ray says is pure allegory. Short on plot, but thick with meaning. Great story.

Flies by Robert Silverberg
Aliens take the remnants of a man from a spaceship explosion and rebuild him. They give him the ability to feel the emotions of others and transmit them back to the aliens so they can study humanity. But they accidentLly remove from the man HIS humanity.

I’ve not read a great deal of Silverberg, so I don’t have a standard of comparison to his other work. I suspect many stories in this book are going to be dark and Silverberg’s story is dark and cold and the main character devoid of humanity.

The Day After the Day the Martians Came by Frederick Pohl
Reporters gather in a cheap hotel in Florida to cover the return of a Mars probe that is bringing back some Martians. The hotel manager is forced to listen as the reporters trade stupid jokes about the Martians.

Thin on plot, this story is a commentary on racial jokes and how any race or nationality can be inserted into the punchline to made fun of. Not so thinly veiled, the metaphor was painfully obvious and bludgeoned home with the subtlety of a ball peen hammer to the forehead.

Riders of the Purple Wage by Philip Jose Farmer
In a future where everybody is guaranteed a wage and the state manages the daily lives of the people, artists are kings and critics their agents. Chib is an artist who desperately needs to win an art show to receive a grant. If he does not receive the grant, he will be forced by the government to relocate. His great great grandfather, who is hiding in his apartment as a fugitive from justice, offers advice.

In the postscript, Farmer says this is an appeal for liberalism in politics and society. I saw it more as a pitch for conservatism. I wanted so much to like this story. But the stream of consciousness writing style was frustrating. I hate reading James Joyce and I hated reading this.

The Malley System by Miriam Allen deFord
In the future, the most horrific criminals must relive their crimes over and over again on a daily basis as a means of therapy. The therapy is found to be effective with most criminals, but its founder meets an unfortunate end.

This story is brutal by sci-fi standards. Brilliantly written by an author who spent many years crossing over between sci-fi and crime, it works on a few different levels.

A Toy for Juliette by Robert Bloch
In a future world, A teenage girl is delivered toys in the form of people. She seduces them and then sadistically murders them. Grandfather is getting ready to deliver her latest toy and she waits with anticipation.

I’ve not read enough Robert Bloch for my taste because I really enjoy everything I read by him. This story reflects a beautiful mastery of a man who knows his craft. A little bit of sex, a little bit of violence, and a whole lot of anticipation make this story a joy to read.

The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World by Harlan Ellison
Jack the Ripper, torn from his environment of London’s East End circa 1888, now exists in the world as it is in 3077. Having killed Juliette from the Bloch story, Jack becomes a surrogate for emotions for Juliette’s grandfather. He finds there is greater evil in the world than his own.

Bloch and Ellison together is hard to top. Bloch providing the inspiration and Ellison providing the prose that changes styles from Bloch to Robert Louis Stevenson to Lord Dunsany all in the same story. Splatterpunk before there was splatterpunk.

The Night that All Time Broke Out by Brian W. Aldiss
A couple living in the country has just had Time Gas lines installed in their house. This gas allows them to adjust their place in time to assure they are always in a happy time. However, there is a major leak somewhere which interrupts the flow. They investigate the source with tragic consequences.

Clever bit of writing on Aldiss’ part and a thoroughly enjoyable story. There is no particular dangerous vision here. Perhaps I’m just too far removed from the date of publication to ascertain what made this story cutting edge.

Catastrophes Isaac Asimov, Editor

Catastrophes
Isaac Asimov, Editor
Copyright 1980

The Last Trump by Isaac Asimov
The day of judgment and the resurrection has come for the inhabitants of Earth. Gabriel sounds his horn (the last trump) and the dead rise. They walk the streets naked. R.E. Mann also walks the streets and observes the arguments and discussions going on between different generations of people. He meets a history professor and together, they watch all that was created by man slowly crumble and disintegrate. The history professor surmises that man was judged and sent not to Heaven, but to Hell, left with the torture of having no stimulation other than his own thoughts. Meanwhile a junior Seraph named Etheriel, who is charged with care and responsibility of the people of Earth, pleads the case of mankind before the supreme being, raising a technicality in the edict that doomed man.

There is a lot of spirituality going on in this story. I liked the observation that Hell might be the total lack of mental stimulation. But the theology seemed a bit childish.

No Other God by Edward Wellen
A computer aboard a spaceship near a black hole destroys the universe so that it might become a god. It has grand designs for a new universe of beings made in its own image. A pair of scientists – a married couple – are the last two beings in the universe and the computer promises them that they can relive their happiest and finest moments over and over again. The couple at first argues about what those moments were, then decide their finest moment is yet to come.

This was a really short and really clever story. The reader can sort of predict where it is headed, but the ambiguity of the end is most satisfying.

The Wine Has Been Left Open Too Long and the Memory Has Gone Flat by Harlan Ellison
A pervasive ennui hangs over the universe. To try to bring back joy, a creature organizes a “concert” of sorts on an uninhabited planet with a canyon with perfect acoustics. One of the attendees is an ancient creature who longs to die. She lives in a glass jar and was once a grand scientist. Now, her useful years behind her, she just wants it all to end. She takes in the various sounds, from sex between crystals to suns exploding and stars being born. It all serves to depress her more.

Stars Won’t You Hide Me? by Ben Bova
The last man in the universe is aboard a ship traveling aimlessly. The universe and mankind was wiped out by a race called The Others. Our lone astronaut decides to head for Earth to see what, if anything remains. He gets there to find it burned to a cinder. With The Others pursuing, the astronaut makes for the edge of the universe, hoping to discover a new universe. He defiantly tells his pursuers that mankind and all of his works survive because they survive in his memory.

I’m not real familiar with Bova or his works, but this one was a great story. Bova captured the last man’s mood swings accurately. First comes despair, then despondency, and finally defiance as he outruns his captors. Great sci-fi!

The Custodian by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
The Custodian is one of the last men on Earth, with the rest of the human race having fled the planet in the face of the sun going supernova. He was a rare man who appreciates history and antiquity in a society that valued only contemporary culture. Now, he’s left behind to tend to man’s past works. He gathers artifacts to prepare for a departure whilst dodging patrol ships looking for stragglers. One day, he comes across a dying mother and a baby secreted away in a cave. He takes the infant and cares for it, preparing it for the journey with the relics.

This story would have been much more interesting had there been more focus on the baby and the difficulties the custodian would have had in raising a newborn infant. Instead, much of the story reads like a laundry list of great art.

Phoenix by Clark Ashton Smith
The sun has burned out and man has moved underground, using the earth’s core as a source of heat and energy. But he is stagnating and the race is slowly dying out. A mission is planned to take a rocket to the sun and restart it. One man promises to return to his girlfriend and he does, in a way.

Not a lot of plot here, but plenty of imagery and emotion.

Run from the Fire by Harry Harrison
A lawyer from our time is recruited by a group of men trying to save alternative times and worlds. He is assigned to help a group of American Indians who rule what we think of as the United States to leave their time which has rendered the continent an inhospitable desert to a new, lush world. The only problem is, they must defeat a group of South Africans who have launched an invasion of that world.

Harry Harrison writes action and there is plenty of action in this story. It’s a little light on character development, but the plot moves quickly and it is a fun read.

At the Core by Larry Niven
A manufacturer of spaceship hulls builds the ultimate craft in terms of speed. However, it is entirely impractical. While it is hundreds of times faster than the fastest ship, it is a mammoth and only has enough space for one person. The company decides to hire a pilot to take it to the core of the galaxy as a publicity stunt. When the pilot gets there, he learns what will be the ultimate fate of the galaxy and the ship manufacturer is not happy about the news.

This story was a yawner. It had poorly developed characters, a thin plot that did not inspire this reader, and dull action. While not too badly written, it just was not a good science fiction story. It was a little heavy on the science and a little light on the fiction.

A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber
A young boy leaves his family’s home to go out into the frozen world that was once Earth to get a pail of frozen oxygen. He recounts how the Earth was ripped from the orbit of the sun by a passing “dark star” and how the world became a frozen wasteland where nobody survived but them. But when he sees a light winking in the building across the street, he thinks maybe he and his small family are not alone.

I read this story as a kid and loved it. I’d forgotten about it over the years and reading it again was like finding an old toy you loved as a child, but had misplaced years ago. It’s horribly old fashioned writing and ancient science, but still great fun.

King of the Hill by Chad Oliver
In an overpopulated world where wildlife has been squeezed out, an eccentric billionaire maintains a private wildlife preserve which is the only place he can find peace. He decides to put his billions to work to preserve what is left of earth’s creatures – but in a bizarre way. His experiment succeeds, but not as he’d planned.

This was a well crafted story with an informal narrative that reminds one of Stephen King. However, it has that pitiful, “ain’t we humans just the worst things ever?” tone to it that I just loathe. It makes me want to tell the writer to join another species if he doesn’t like the one he’s part of.

The New Atlantis by Ursula K. LeGuin
In a dystopian world ruled by oppressive government bureaucracies, a professional musician lives with her physicist husband. On a bus trip, a man tells her of two new continents rising – one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific – as North America slowly sinks. The woman has visions of these old/new continents.

The story is pretty thin and LeGuin only feints at a plot. The real substance of the story is in the woman’s visualizations of the new continents. It reminds one of H.P. Lovecraft describing his distorted worlds inhabited by the Old Ones. This story was elegantly and beautifully written.

Seeds of the Dusk by Raymond Z. Gallun
A plant spore from another planet lands on post apocalyptic Earth where most of mankind now resides underground. It takes root and forms a symbiotic relationship with a semi-intelligent crow. When a human attacks the crow who tries to warn him that the plants will take over, the man badly wounds the crow. He then decides to throw his lot in with the plants.

This story was mildly entertaining with perhaps a subtext of the dangers of introducing non-indigenous species to a new habitat. The plants could have been more menacing.

Dark Benediction by Walter Miller, Jr.
A plague from outer space has come to earth, locked inside little meteors. The disease causes the skin to turn gray and its victims to hallucinate and long to touch other people, infecting them. Those not infected flee into the country and the cities become lawless. Through this post apocalypse, a man making his way through Houston rescues a girl from would be rapists who turns out to be a plague victim. He normally would have fled from her or killed her, but he finds himself drawn to her. She has suffered a bullet wound to the leg, so he drives her to Galveston where he has heard there are doctors working on a cure. When he arrives in Galveston, he finds an entire community of Catholic “dermies” who explain the true nature of the “ailment” to him.

This was one of the finest stories I’ve ever read inside or outside the genre. The story is well paced. The characters are well developed. There’s no leaps in logic and, like his most famous story, A Canticle for Leibowitz, the story contains strong spiritual overtones.

The Store of the Worlds by Robert Sheckley
A man walks into a store, carrying all his worldly goods. He has heard that here, at the Store of the Worlds, if you turn over all your worldly possessions, you can walk out and live for just a while any life you want to live. After arriving and discussing it with the proprietor, the man decides to return home and think it over while tending to his job and family.

Much more interesting than it sounds. I didn’t see the twist coming at first, but it became apparent what was going to happen. Nonetheless, it was a entertaining and engaging short story.

How It Was When the Past Went Away by Robert Silverberg
A drug is introduced into the San Francisco public water system that wipes out large chunks of memory of the city’s citizens who drink it. Relationships are fundamentally altered. Marriages and divorces forgotten. Tragedies and triumphs are forgotten. The story follows the lives of seven people who deal with the crisis in their own way. Some benefit and some lose.

This story was way outside the norms of science fiction and more closely resembled something Michael Crichton or a Hollywood hack would crank out for a movie. But Silverberg makes it work by keeping his plot from wandering and developing his characters wonderfully.

Shark Ship by C.M. Kornbluth
In the future, a large part of humanity will abandon that land masses on ships and live their entire lives at sea. When one ship hits a storm and loses the nets it needs to maintain the survival of the thousands aboard, the captain opts to return to land for the first time in six generations. There, they find remnants of a culture that was so obsessed with suppressing public sexual expression that it turned to violence as the cornerstone of its culture.

Kornbluth takes way too much time in over explaining his thinly veiled subtext. The action is almost nil and it feels like the author is lecturing rather than trying to entertain.

This book was a well edited mix of hard, speculative, and post apocalyptic science fiction. It also had a nice mix of Golden Age pulp writers and modern writers of science fiction.

Book to Movie: The Discarded (2007)

Book to Movie: The Discarded (2007)
Teleplay by Harlan Ellison
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Based on the short story, The Discarded by Harlan Ellison

In 2007, Harlan Ellison, already an old hand at writing teleplays, adapted his short story, The Discarded, from Paingod and Other Delusions for the ABC TV miniseries, Masters of Science Fiction. Ellison stayed true to his own story and the result was perhaps the best of that show’s limited run.

The teleplay very closely mirrors the short story. We get much more dialogue between de facto captain, Bedzyk and his sidekick Samswope who is always accompanied by his second head. This is to develop the characters where the short story used a narrative voice.

Bedzyk (played by Brian Dennehy) has a malformed arm. As mentioned, Samswope has a second, smaller head which opens its mouth every now and then to claim to be the real Samswope. Samswope and Bedzyk have a closer relationship in the teleplay than they do the short story.

The television episode opens just as in the short story with the woman killing herself by repeatedly ramming her head into the space station’s window. Bedzyk orders a cleanup and the body is unceremoniously jettisoned out a portal. Such is life and death aboard this ship filled with the mutants of earth, exiled for their grotesque mutations.

Bedzyk learns from one of the station’s occupants that a ship bound from earth is en route to the station. The ship arrives and Ambassador Barney Curnan from Earth Central arrives, dressed resplendently in his sharp, white uniform. He tells Bedzyk he has a proposal for him.

Bedzyk, Samswope, the station’s de facto navigator, Frenchy, and Curnan retire to the atrium to discuss what Curnan has to say. Bedzyk makes it clear from the beginning he’s not really interested in anything anybody from earth has to say.

Curnan says that the mutations did not stop with the exile of the mutants nearly a generation before. They stopped for awhile, but have commenced again. This time, the disease, known as VIGUM is spreading faster. They have a cure, but to produce mass quantities, they need the blood of first generation infected. In exchange, the Discards can return to earth. Curnan says the inhabitants of earth regret having exiled their fellow man and will welcome them back.

A mutant is standing nearby. When he hears Bedzyk reject Curnan’s proposal out of hand, he moves in to attack. He accidentally kills the station’s navigator. The commotion brings the rest of the station’s inhabitants. Samswope argues with Bedzyk and soon all of the ships residents are arguing with Bedzyk to give them the chance to go home. Bedzyk reminds them that they have always relied on him for his leadership and they ought to stick with him now and not believe the honeyed words from the man from earth.

Samswope has heard enough. He grabs a metal pole and hits Bedzyk over the head. The blow kills Bedzyk. Samswope is momentarily stricken with grief for having killed his friend, but quickly remembers that he has the opportunity to return to earth. Curnan’s proposal is agreed to by acclamation.

Medical technicians are brought to the ship and the process of drawing a blood supply commences. The Discarded develop friendships with the technicians and look forward to reuniting on earth. The technicians leave with the promise to send a ship to retrieve the discarded.

Word comes to Samswope that a ship is again en route from earth. As the ship nears, Samswope weds two women and one man. The mood aboard the ship is jolly and excited. The ship docks and the Discarded prepare to leave for home. When the door opens, instead of a crew to help them aboard, they are greeted by dozens of new mutants who are joining the population of exiles. Among them is Ambassador Curnan.

Samswope goes to the atrium and commits suicide by repeatedly bashing his main head against the window, just as the woman did at the beginning of the show. His body is unceremoniously dumped into space.

Each episode of the Masters of Science Fiction is a morality tale drawn from the works of great writers in the field. In this case, the moral was, even when man realizes he’s committed a horrible injustice, he’s bound to repeat it.

What immediately came to my mind after seeing Ellison’s story on television was the case of the Japanese Americans interred during World War II. It was supported at the time because of paranoia of an enemy agent lurking among the Japanese population. It was a source of embarrassment for the American government for many years. President Reagan issued a formal apology for the action in 1986, acknowledging it as a grave injustice. But then came 9/11. We have not gone so far as to inter Muslims, but they are subject to more restrictions and bigotry than other Americans. Our sins against our fellow Americans are not as egregious as they were to the Japanese of the 1940s, but it is still a sin and it is the same sin.

Ellison wrote this story in 1957, long before 9/11. Not only is he a brilliant writer, but, unfortunately, a prescient one.

Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison

Paingod and Other Delusions
By Harlan Ellison
Copyright 1965

Introduction (1965): Spero Meliora: From the Vicinity of Alienation

Harlan Ellison introduces his book by saying he’s not going to write an introduction. He claims he has been panned in the past for writing overly long, self-indulgent introductions.

New Introduction (1975 and later editions): Your Basic Crown of Thorns

This longer and updated introduction talks about the nature of pain. He recalls having a dream where he awoke with the thought, “Do you know how much pain there is in the world?” The thought stuck with him.

What follows is an essay on the nature of pain. He talks about how the death of a beloved pet causes a person more pain than the death of thousands in a natural or man made tragedy and includes a long narrative about a letter from a nurse who talked about working with the mentally ill and reading Ellison’s collection of short stories to a mentally ill person.

Paingod
The god in charge of delivering pain to every being in the cosmos never questions why he’s required to do what he does. He just delivers pain to the countless minions of the universe. One day, in a moment of despair, he decides to find out what it’s all about. He visits earth and talks with a failed sculpture who has no accomplishments and lots of pain. He delivers some pleasure to the man and learns why pain is necessary.

I can see from the opening story and the one that follows that this book is going to be very metaphysical. Lots of morality here, but the story is thin. I like stories, not morality or exploration of the human condition.

“Repent, Harlequin!” said the Ticktock Man
In a future where one is penalized minutes off his life span for being minutes late to any appointment, one anonymous man dares defy the time requirements. He also pulls pranks to make the multitudes late. The supreme being in charge of making sure that people arrive on time and are penalized when they don’t, dispatches his minions to track down this civil disobedient.

Mr. Ellison confesses to being a chronically late person. This is his tongue and cheek jibe at himself and all others who hold up the world with their self-indulgence.

The Crackpots
The Kyben rule the universe from their home planet, but they have an embarrassing secret. A large part of their population are lunatics who do the craziest things. They have designated a large force of men dedicated to watching, observing, and recording this behavior. One day, one of these watchers is approached by a nubile “crackpot” and she takes him to their subterranean lair and introduces him to the true order of nature on Kyben.

This was an absolutely brilliant story! Ellison’s comment on conformity and the life of automatans vs. non conformity and the creative class. It’s also pretty good science fiction writing, all metaphors aside.


Sleeping Dogs
A war between the Kyben Universe and Earth has been raging for forty years. Lynn Ferarro has been stationed aboard a Kyber ship as an observer from earth with hopes of being part of a peace effort. Instead, she is forced to watch as a Kyben commander senselessly slaughter the population of a planet to harvest its natural resources. But the Kyben commander’s decisions has serious repercussions for the war.

I’ve not read more of Ellison’s stories about this ongoing war, so it was hard for me to put it into context. It is sound and solid hard science fiction. The character, Lynn Ferarro is well developed and the narrative well paced.

Bright Eyes
A creature – the last of his race who existed before the dawn of time – finds that it is time for him to venture forth into the world and share the secret of his race with the creatures that have inherited it. An oracle of his ancestors tells him to go to the nearest city of the new race and share his gift – a bag of skulls of his ancestors – with the creatures there. Bright Eyes and his rat-steed go to the town to find they are too late. The inheritors of the earth – man – have annihilated themselves.

What a fantastic piece of post apocalyptic piece of science fiction! Bright Eyes is more atmospheric than plot, but there’s enough plot to keep the reader engaged. The world envisioned by Ellison in this story – with streams clogged by human remains and an ochre sky where stars do not seem to belong – is dreary and dreadful.

The Discarded
After a war floods the earth with radiation, mutations begin to emerge in humans – hideous mutations that no one wants to look at. They are placed aboard a shift that sales endlessly through the solar system, developing its own society and hierarchy. One day, an earth emissary visits the ship and pleas for help. New mutations are emerging on otherwise beautiful people. The people on earth are convinced that mutant blood injected into a healthy person will prevent the new mutations. He offers the Discarded a deal. They give their blood, and they will be allowed to return to the earth. The de facto commander of the Discarded rejects the deal, not trusting earth people. But he is quickly overthrown and the deal is struck. The blood is taken. A few weeks later, a new ship arrives. The mutants hope that it is the ship that will take them back to earth. It is not. It is the latest shipment of mutants to be confined aboard the ship. Among them is the emissary that struck the false promise.

Absolutely one of Ellison’s finest tales! Great science fiction with the subtext of the importance of physical appearance and beauty not thinly veiled. Ellison is creative in describing the various mutants, and derives genuine sympathy for them in the reader who also wants to believe the deal with earth is on the level

This episode was adapted for ABC's Masters of Science Fiction series.

Wanted in Surgery
In the late 21st century, surgeons and physicians are replaced with robots who can perform operations and medical procedures with much more efficiency. Doctors are relegated to mere spectators. When one doctor observes a machine operate on a man who is not given proper anesthesia and dies, he decides to fight back at great risk to his personal and professional reputation.

The fight against obsolescence is a recurring theme in science fiction as technological advancements steadily have machines replace functions once carried out by people. Ellison’s take on human obsolescence is driven by a deep, well developed character and hardcore emotion.

Deeper Than Darkness
A man known as a “paranormal” is found in a local jail by the military and drafted into an interstellar war. He is ordered to use his profound ability to start fires to make the enemy’s sun go supernova. First, he wonders if he can do it and his ego tugs at him. Then, his anger starts to get to him and he considers instead turning his power on the men who plucked him from his menial, but happy existence. Finally, he opts to use his power to escape. He lives out his life a lonely minstrel on a remote planet.

Ellison wraps up his collection of short stories with a real winner! The hero, Alf Gunderson, is well developed as a man of modest means and intelligence placed into extraordinary circumstances by an ability he regards as a nuisance. The military’s intervention in his life makes that mere nuisance a curse. Well told story with a well developed character!