Antarctica, Winter 1982 ([info]ivorjawa) wrote,
@ 2008-09-25 09:52:00
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Wankery
So I'm scanning through the table of contents of an anthology of short fiction that I'm currently reading when I see, about 2/3 down the page:

"... by Harlan Ellison ®"

The man has made his own name into a registered trademark, and insists it be listed that way.
What a douche.

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[info]argentla
2008-09-25 05:08 pm UTC (link)
Perhaps the only thing he shares in common with Billy Joel.

I actually kind of understand his motivation, to a point. He's written a lot of short stories and essays for various publications, having once been a struggling young author. Since he became famous, there becomes a temptation for publishers and the successors of publishers to add some old Harlan Ellison piece to an anthology of schlock and use his name as a way to promote it. (The same reason publishers will pay somebody like Neil Gaiman to write an introduction to someone else's book).

Now, if the publisher has the rights to print the story, they can get away with that, and, depending on the terms of the original contract, may or may not have to pay him royalties. They also don't usually need his approval. So, if you're Harlan Ellison, you say, "All right, pigfuckers, I'll trademark my name, and I'll sue you if you don't get my permission to use it."

(The estates of authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs have done similar things, although usually with the characters, rather than the author himself.)

But Harlan Ellison is indeed one of the world's greatest assholes, something that even he is quick to admit. It's kind of fun to hear him rant, as long as you don't get caught in the blast radius. I've never thought he was a particularly interesting writer; like a fair number of New Wave s-f writers (and Warren Ellis, for that matter), bombast tends to substitute for everything else.

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[info]stopword
2008-09-25 05:52 pm UTC (link)
He's an asshole, but he's also a broke-ass asshole who writes beautifully. I saw him speak at the Booksmith several years ago, and he mentioned that his health condition has drained all the savings he ever had. No insurance for writers. It's sort of sad. I don't begrudge him whatever money he can eke out of wherever.

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[info]derspatchel
2008-09-25 06:23 pm UTC (link)
I'm sorry, but "douche" has already been trademarked by Orson Scott Card.

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douchery
[info]spristy
2008-09-25 07:37 pm UTC (link)
There is a long list of reasons why Ellison is a total wanker, like the inability to handle something as mundane as a book signing with civility.

I cite the first couple paragraphs of :
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2008/03/13/ellison/

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