Author and Screenwriter Harlan Ellison Rants about Youth and Publishing

[justgivemethetruth]

I'm amazed at Ellison's ego whenever I see him. He's a smart and talented guy, but it's not like he's Mark Twain or Fyodor Dostoyevsky or something. I agree with him, all this neverending and expanding "content" just gets bigger and bigger, and no one has condensed it down, and at some point no one can know everything there is to know about literature, and imagine how many other great stories have been lost … so, that's life.

[lekocafe]

I remember seeing a dumbed down picture book of "Old Yeller" that completely dropped the ending of the boy having to shoot his beloved dog! What was the point of that?

[escarlit]

after viewing several open casket vids (dont judge me), i think this is may be an emerging trend to immortalize loved ones. is it sick, or is it where we're at in 2012?

[escarlit]

@escarlit crud. delete this pls :(

[NeverNetherland]

Why dosen't Harlan's Videos have more views?

oh...

[CalebTheTimeTraveler]

This is the thing that haunts me when I try to sleep at night.

[MrArmageddon666]

Keep ranting and you'll make it, dude. That's what youtube is for.

[Terry5135]

Is that your idea of a rant? Which future are you from? Brave New World? Logan's Run? Are you an Eloi?

[MultiSmartass1]

I think people are missing the point.

The point is not simply that the young are ignorant-which they are-but that of the erosion of literature and with it literate culture.

The young will always be stupid and ignorant but when writers are forgotten that's not the work of the young but a culture that values nothing but porn and cheeseburgers.

[Terry5135]

@MultiSmartass1 yeah, and never mind Mark Twain and Lassie come home. I meet a girl who's never heard of James Stewart. James Stewart, that's yesterday, fercrissakes! So I'm in a movie rental store - I mean, where else can you be sure of finding appreciation for the story right? So I tell one of the guys on staff about this girl. He says, "Who's James Stewart?" Mark Twain, Chaucer, Phillip Marlowe, Pirandello? Forget it!

[MultiSmartass1]

@Terry5135 Hahaha! You may have a point and I agree in general.

However, I think its healthier for people to know who Chaucer and Pirandello were.

And i guess Phillip Marlowe as well although I think you meant to include Raymond Chandler, the writer who created Marlowe, in there as well.

If they dont know who Jimmy Stewart was, its sad but not a tragedy.

[mwells219]

@MultiSmartass1 I think it would be a good thing. The more people studied Chaucer in school, the less audiences would be satisfied with stupid tripe like American Idol.

[MultiSmartass1]

@mwells219 I had to read Chaucer in school and I confess I didnt like it.

Now, Iam glad I read The Canterbury tales even if I didnt like it.

[Terry5135]

@MultiSmartass1 I don't know why you said 'however', since I agree wholeheartedly with you. At least to recognize their names.

I made a major mistake - I meant to say Christopher Marlowe, not Phillip. LOL. I remember mentally squinting at it after I wrote it, but I missed it. I meant the guy who wrote Tamburlaine the Great (Parts I and II, haha); the one some class conscious scholars think wrote Shakespeare, and the guy Colin Firth thought WAS Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love - remember?

[MultiSmartass1]

@Terry5135 Dont worry. I wasnt disagreeing with you overall just noting that knowing who Chaucer is is more worthwhile than knowing who Jimmy Stewart.

As for the Marlowe faux pas, at least its fairly literate. Better to say Phillip Marlowe than some character from TWILIGHT or something.LOL.

[crazyrabbits]

Society works in cycles - the same stories and works are just adapted for a new generation, at the highest prices (to quote one of Ellison's phrases). It's not that man's fault that he didn't know what Lost Horizon was - I'm in my 20's, pride myself on being a film buff, and I didn't know what it was.

[EverettDudgeon138]

@crazyrabbits Speilberg said it best. "Younger people come up to me and call themselves film buffs yet their interests seem to never go back further than Jaws or Star Wars. It's quite sad."

Not saying that's the case with you but it's a fairly accurate statement.

[MultiSmartass1]

@EverettDudgeon138 If someone like Spielberg-not the greatest of filmmakers but clearly one who has an apreciation of knowledge of film history-can say that, this generation is clearly fucked.

[kikomiko1]

That's just the way it is. You can't blame kids for their ignorance of the past. What kid would rather play with an old toy than a new toy? It's just basic human nature; out with the old, in with the new. 

[Ryantron9000]

No one markets this stuff to kids. Publishers don't want to sell parents a $2 paperback that can be had at a used book store for 50 cents. They want to sell them new books the can charge $50 for that aren't available used. They want them to buy books with a lot of color so they can charge more. They want to sell books with original characters they can market and franchise and put in movies.

[polkmine23]

Just added Lost Horizon on Netflix.

[EltonvonCthulhu]

The way Ellison was speaking at the end of the video, I half-expected a voice to say "you can help this man by donating so-and-so amount of money to him".

(Not that I disagree with what he's saying, mind you.)

[jimwalsh2001]

One thumb WAY up...

[JCLeSinge]

Somehow, Ellison's whole style puts me in mind of a literary Christopher Walken...

[Nagneto]

Under twenty maybe. But they will eventually grow older. That small ostracized group that seeks out and finds the good stuff, the real stuff in literature, they are what makes it all worthwhile.

[lekocafe]

Goddam, I feel the same way . It is impossible to talk to any young person about anything that happened before they were born. They seem to think that nothing before their time is worth knowing. I work in an independent bookstore and it astonishes me how little the younger folks have read, how little they know about beyond what their favorite video game is.

[THENEWJMONEY507]

That is why we need to support our libraries, stock our libraries with these books, and teach our chilren to go to the libraries and read these books--let the works of the great writers love on.

[posthumanhero]

he made money anyway.....lots.......there is no future or past when your dead.

[MultiSmartass1]

I got really sad when I saw this.

I have been a writer for over 16 years and I have realized over the past few years how true this statement really is.

With the continued dimensia and cultural amnesia of the current and incoming generations, writers-even freelancers like me-will cease to have any cultural currency.

No one will remember me-that I can live with odd as that sounds but not remembering Harlan Ellison?

That's just heartbreaking.

[AdminGwruff]

Will they remember Kadak, Ellison? Ellison, will they remember Kadak? If they don't remember Ellison's stories in 2084, they'll remember his big glasses and warm heart.