Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed

by Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison—master essayist, gadfly, literary myth figure, and viewer of dark portent—has been, for the greater part of his life, a burr under the saddle of complacency. In this collection, his former assistant and confidante, Marty Clark, has culled from hundreds of rare and un‑reprinted works to select twenty wide‑ranging essays—nonfiction writings ranging from travelogue to media criticism, literary exploration to personal musing—that demonstrate why the monstre sacre of imaginative literature won the prestigious Silver Pen award from PEN International for his journalistic forays.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Criticism, Speculative Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of Harlan Ellison essays takes an eternity to read.

It's not that they're exceptionally dense, nor boring or difficult. Rather it's that they're fucking fantastic, every last one, regardless of subject or content, because they are infused with Harlan's inimitable, impeccable vitriol. Reading Harlan Ellison is reading passion incarnate. As he knows, not everyone can handle that shit.

But if you can: get yourself a book of Harlan Ellison essays. Let yourself get fired up by his anger, overwhelmed by his intensity. Beg yourself to read more slowly so the experience lasts longer, even as you're frantically rushing to get to the next fantastic paragraph. And yes, be impressed by his insights -- almost none of which are dated, despite being written decades ago. Harlan's got his entire fucking fist on the pulse of reality, and you can too.

There is no author who makes me feel as real as Harlan Ellison does -- but he hits best when you're at an emotional and passionate high.

He expects and deserves nothing less.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

a solid collection. the two essays on his disillusionment with tv are masterful, his longer essays here on SF are nice historical pieces, his rant about the SFWA not being prepared for Hollywood's depredations is prophetic (it culminated in the pre-AI MCUslop of the past 20 years), his magazine profile of Steve McQueen and story about his late-70s speed dating experience (esp. the stuff about how the dream of the American is to be seen on a screen, how this could make him docile is good), but the shorter stuff is filler and the Birmingham article is standard old-lefty stuff. He's got a bravura tryhard writing style that suits a man of his diminutive stature, and while I wouldn't rank HE's fiction or his nonfiction in the absolute top tier, he's an excellent professional writer with a genuine personality who could do a little bit of everything. Recommended; it's a breezy read, great for the toilet.

[Jon Malone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical Ellison essays. Provocative, opinionated, the guy doesn't suffer fools, and knows how to put his views across in a relentlessly entertaining way. The highlight is the civil rights essay, with Ellison on the road in the 1960s with student activists in redneck southern states. This must be one of the best accounts of these times that I have ever read. Next best was the essay about Steve McQueen, another hero of mine. Good to know that the two of them met.

[Florence Salmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

REAGAN, YOU CREPUSCULAR OLD FART! LENNON IS DEAD, YOU PUDDINGBRAIN.

[Juraj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essays from the most grumpy and witty sci-fi writer (please excuse the moniker) of all time. The fun is guaranteed. Especially in the first essays and the last ones. It also depends how well you know people like Bob Silverberg or Steve McQueen and if you're as starstruck by them as Harlan is.

I might write a whole essay about this book of essays because there's so much content in it and it all deserves to be thoroughly reviewed but, alas, I don't have time nor will. They touch everything from racial tensions through how dumb movie studios are to video dating service.

Harlan says that his essay (eulogy) about his mother would make us weep but it's not so. What made me tear up, through laughing out loud, was the sweetest "love" letter to a friend I've ever read titled "Voe doe dee oh doe". Harlan can, through all his bitterness and grumpiness, be just as big flatterer. His ex-wives would know... When I remember the part where Robert threw the first draft of Deathbird into the pool because it was "crap" I laugh even now. This essay along with the last one are my favorites from this collection.

True Love: Groping for the Holy Grail is essay about video dating service and Harlan's experience with it. I think it's the longest essay in the book and also the last. But, dammit, it's so well written! There's some sort of joke, wordplay, witty or sarcastic reference literally on every page and I snickered at almost every one of them while reading it on a bus. If you're familiar with his type of writing you understand what I mean. If you're not, well, you better start reading. I was also surprised by Harlan's positive attitude for such thing (even though it took some time for people to push him to try it and write this essay for L.A. Times).

I also want to mention one important thing. A sad one, really. Nothing has changed. The world has moved on but Hollywood stayed the same. One third of these essays is in one way or another connected to movie and television industry and it is obvious that the same type of dumb incompetent suits make decisions nowadays as did in the 70's and 80's. Nothing's changed, and maybe even got worse since we're now getting a flood of shitty remakes made only for brainless masses to consume. I have to applaud Harlan for having such patience with these guys (I mean it half sarcastically, half literally).

Definitely recommended read for fans of his work but also for people who want to see what the life was like 30-40 years ago in L.A.

[Andreas Risager · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Ellisons eclectic essays, with a very wide range of subjects. They are, however, entertaining from a historical perspective, and if you wish to form an understanding of the man behind "I Have No Mouth".

Some of the essays reads like the rambling of a person trying to recreate a story, but it falls flat in the end. I guess you had to be there. However, in my opinion, Harlan have a very earnest writting style, if not a bit arrogant. I found it very likeable, and found all of the essays authenic and very 'real'.

I personally found 3 essays the best: His takes on television, his eulogy to his mother and the last essay, where he tries VHS dating. These essays where touching, thoughtprovoking and a great timecapsule of a more analouge time - I think you can properply guess which one is which.

This collection does also have a great deal of insigt into the life of authers, especially science fiction, in the 1950-80, and would be an amazing source for studying the genre in that time in USA. This subject, and multiple others, did not catch my intrest, but the few essays that did, I'll remeber for a long time.

If you like Ellison, it's hard to go wrong here.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not by any means the best of Harlan Ellison's nonfiction. Sometimes, he had a tendency to rant, especially on the subject of science fiction fans and organizations. Still, Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed has some good essays, mostly on the subject of writers he likes, such as Robert Silverberg and Fritz Leiber. And there is a surprisingly good piece on the Great Expectations dating service, which Ellison used.

[Pearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

On starting this book, I was dubious. I felt like I had outgrown Ellison, especially given some of the more contentious opinions in the first part of the book. So I put it down for a while.

Then, he died.

I picked it up again. Maybe my feelings changed knowing he is gone, but the rest of the book seemed charged, humane and powerful. At his best, Harlan wrote like nobody else. His writing could be incandescent enough to blind and burn you. The piece on marching in Mississippi is like that. The final piece, on video dating of all things, exposes his soft underbelly.

I'll miss having him in the world.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a youngster of about 16 when I read my first Harlan Ellison story. It was, of course, I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream, downloaded as a PDF onto the family computer. It blew my socks off, setting a pit of dread into the bottom of my gut. I quickly felt that Ellison was a man I wanted to know, so I ordered Paingod and Other Delusions online, likely seduced by the so-cool-it's-wacky title. I was thrilled by all of it. The sci-fi stories like "The Crackpots" and "The Discarded" moved like cinema in my mind, and are deeply humanist, deeply empathetic, weeping outwardly for the cause of the neglected and the misunderstood. Paingod also has all those weird, genreless poetic experiments like "Repent, Harlequin!" and "Bright Eyes." Even at the time I knew that Philip K. Dick, Michael Moorcock, and J.G. Ballard were more intellectually challenging authors as far as 60s sci-fi goes, but there was something ineffable about Ellison. He was open (perhaps like a wound), humane (perhaps like an executioner on their day off), and seemed to speak directly to me.

It was in his introductions that I felt most directly spoken to, because, well, I was being directly spoken to! Those Ellison collections are incredible. Imagine: every single story is prefaced by a chatty, 2 or 3 page introduction by the author himself in which he explains how he got the idea, how he thinks the story came out, what the initial audience reaction was, etc. What a coup! What a way to learn about craft, about business, and what a way for the author to seed deep, genuine feelings of allegiance into his readers. Had I known at 16 that Ellison put out a book of essays in his trademark, informal style, I would've plotzed.

Sleepless Nights is not going on the shelf next to The White Album. Its contents are mismatched, and generally have a feeling of incompleteness; they refer to stories which are not included, or were written in response to events and controversies now long-forgotten. But, taken altogether, one receives an intensely clear impression of Ellison's buzzy, bustling locomotion through the 1970s. We join him as he suffers through sci-fi conventions exactly as tedious, repetitive, and embarrassing as the sitcoms would have you believe. We tag long as he accepts a job from the Los Angeles Times to write about videodating agency Great Expectations, professing his journalistic detachment at every juncture only to eventually, surprise surprise, go on a bunch of dates with women he saw in the videos. Hilariously, we even get his review the Empire Strikes Back game for the Atari, and if there's a more disinterested and contemptuous video game review, I haven't read it. Some of the best material in the book is his effusive, anecdote-laden praise for his friends and mentors in the sci-fi field, like Robert Silverberg and Fritz Leiber.

I am an only child. I've had plenty of moments in my life when I wanted to hear a human voice, and when the only options I had were prerecorded, reproductions, echoes. I loved the radio a kid, and then I loved DVD director commentaries for a time, and then I loved internet message boards, and I loved then and still love now the work of Harlan Ellison. Not all of it is good, but all of it resounds, powerfully, with his inimitable voice, a voice which excels in convincing me that I am not alone.

[Dick Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, Ellison is one of my favorite authors. This is a collection of essays on a wide variety of subjects, from pieces that praise his favorite authors, his personal experience using a video dating service, a day with Steve McQueen, and many others. It would be difficult to find a writer who is more direct about his views and I find this to be irresistible. Two thumbs way up.

[HighFidelity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed most of this. I find that I like more of his non fiction than fiction,but that might be due to narrator.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of Ellison's non-fiction, including sections on the topics of science fiction, television, and with particularly strong entries observing the current human condition. Ellison is incapable of writing poorly; he's always passionate, opinionated, and his words are always a joy.

[David Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

While less convinced of Ellison's status as one of history's great essayists than the editor, I'm an admirer. This is kind of a grab-bag, with the best pieces being the most surprising: a magazine profile of Steve McQueen, a first-person account of the March on Montgomery and an enthusiastic endorsement of a video dating service. Obscure, but indispensable for his fans.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Civil rights essay and his eulogy for his mother really stood out for me. The essays on the television industry still hold true today.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could write, this is what I'd want to.