Contents
About This Volume, Joseph Francavilla vii
Career, Life, and Influence
On Harlan Ellison, Joseph Francavilla 3 Biography of Harlan Ellison, Larisa Mikhaylova 23 The Paris Review Perspective, Sam Costello for The Paris Review 30
Critical Contexts
Harlan Ellison: Deathbird Stories, George Edgar Slusser 37 Allegories of Injustice: Social Engagement in Harlan Ellison’s Short Fiction of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Rob Latham 60 All Roads Lead to Hell: Harlan Ellison, Cormac McCarthy, and the Bitter End of the American Dream, Andrew J. Wilson 75 Harlan Ellison’s Critical Reception, Darren Harris-Fain 90
Critical Readings
The Annihilation of Time: Science Fiction, Ellen Weil and Gary K. Wolfe 107 Consumed by Shadows: Ellison and Hollywood, Ellen Weil and Gary K. Wolfe 141 The Computer as a Symbol of God: Ellison’s Macabre Exodus, Charles J. Brady 171 Myth, George Edgar Slusser 181 The Concept of the Divided Self in Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” and “Shatterday,” Joseph Francavilla 194 Created in the Image of God: The Narrator and the Computer in Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” Darren Harris-Fain 214 Mythic Patterns in Ellison’s A Boy and His Dog, John Crow and Richard Erlich 230 The Ellison Personae: Author, Storyteller, Narrator, Ellen R. Weil 237
Contents v Descents into Private Hells: Harlan Ellison’s “Psy-Fi,” Philip M. Rubens 248 Stripped Down Naked: The Short Stories of Harlan Ellison, Paul Di Filippo 258 The Fractured Whole: The Fictional World of Harlan Ellison, Peter Malekin 286 Afterword to The Fantasies of Harlan Ellison, Robert Thurston 293 Clogging Up the (In)Human Works: Harlan Ellison’s Apocalyptic Postmodern Visions, Oscar De Los Santos 310 The Self on Trial: Fragmentation and Magic Realism, Ellen Weil and Gary K. Wolfe 333
Resources
Chronology of Harlan Ellison’s Life 365 Works by Harlan Ellison 369 Bibliography 371
About the Editor 377 About The Paris Review 377 Contributors 379 Acknowledgments 382 Index 384
vi Critical Insights