[ARCHIVES] HARLAN ELLISON, J. MICHAEL STRACZYNKSKI INTERVIEW

along with herb solow, and yvonne solow... on sci-fi vortex 1997

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• harlan
• ellison
• j.
• michael
• straczynkski
• yvonne
• solow
• herb

[Elric33239]

Or he was arguing that jazz isn't worthy of critical analysis like CLASSICAL MUSIC which is pure BS IMHO! Between the high-brow snobbery and low-brow anti-intellectualism in the US of A is it any wonder that we as a society are over 50% illiterate and bookstore chains are driving out the more respectable independent stores?!?

[Elric33239]

Either he had and dismissed them as "noisemakers" and "musical hacks" or he had deeper prejudices that prevented him from enjoying what these geniuses had produced. While I too enjoyed Trek since I was 6, I could understand how literary legends like Ellison could attribute media SF fan-based hooliganism, that he has been a victim of since he first addressed the "scifi vs SF" problem at conventions in Media SF publications, to SFX worship replacing solid speculative storytelling.

[MultiSmartass1]

Science Fiction as practiced in most movies and tv shows is little science and mostly broad fiction mixed with laser rifle weapons, spaceships, armies and wars. STAR TREK is actually Space Drama-not pure Science Fiction. STAR WARS is Space Opera. Science Fiction as such exists in novels and short stories. What you get on movie and tv screens is an amalgamation of senationalist elements that have nothing to with science fiction as it really is.

[ArtAgent13]

Harlan does have a legitimate gripe. I too feel that the waters of science fiction have been muddied by people who have no idea what real science fiction is. To me a good science fiction story should be based on a scientific principle and the characters in the tale should be intertwined in unusual ways with that principle. The tale should make the reader sit back and think about that principle. Let real science fiction open your mind.

[Psydecar]

@Psydecar I like my entertainment like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica (though I don't think I'd ever read the tie-in books), and I'll even take it over the dryer hard science fiction out there, but with the attention the stuff gets, the public perception of SF is that of pure entertainment with no serious literary merit which tends to annoy a lot of writers in the field.

[Psydecar]

@Nothingisasitseems Not really. Ellison wasn't a "hard sf" writer himself. It's more about writing science fiction with respectable literary merit that should hold true to works of any genre. Much of the more literary science fiction isn't "hard" (and in fact a lot of hard science fiction suffers from good ideas, but poor writing and weak characters. Though their defenders will tell you that the science is the only thing that should matter, which I disagree with).

[hanshotfirst1138]

I find Ellison intriguing. I strongly admire his passion and intellectualism, but I must admit I disagree with him on a LOT of things and find his abrasiveness difficult. But he's obviously never, ever caved on what he believed or compromised who he is, and I do admire that.

[AKImeru]

Can't we just get along?

I feel both types of books are read by different people - Some even by the same people. They are different. Sometimes, I want to read about the human condition. Other times, Dinocroc in Mars will do for the evening.

[meandmyvw]

From Science fiction, to Sci-Fi, to SyFy you can watch the decline and departure. Human stories, or stories about the human condition have been replaced with dinocrocs and super gators.

[neonknights]

Yvonne looks so much younger than Herb. Is she his first wife? I know Herb has three daughters, who were already alive when the original Star Trek was made.

[stilanas]

This guy sounds like a dick.

[jhohcable]

Holy god, I actually remember seeing this on TV. Just out of nowhere I saw this.