Harlan Ellison's Endlessly Watching

by Harlan Ellison, Overton Loyd (Illustrations), Jason Davis (Editor)

This follow-up to Ellison's 1989 Stoker Award-winning book of film (and by extension, cultural) criticism picks up precisely where its predecessor left off: with the 35th installment-dated July 1989-of his column in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, and continues through his 50th entry, written for this volume in September 2014. But wait, there's more: buy now, and at no extra cost, you'll get three pieces of twenty-first century film criticism bringing the collection bang -up-to-date, as well as a long-lost assessment of PSYCHO that predates even the 1965 entries in HARLAN ELLISON'S WATCHING; if that's not value for money, we don't know what is. Did I mention the stunning Overton Loyd cover? The Harlan Ellison's Watching columns included are: From 1989: Installment 35: In Which the Phantasmagorical Pales Before the Joys of the Mimetic Installment 36: In Which, Darkly and Deliciously, We Travel From Metropolis to Metropolis, Two Different Cities, Both Ominous Installment 37: In Which Not Only is No Answer Given, But No One Seems to Know the Question to Ask Installment 38: In Which, Though Manipulated, We Acknowledge That Which All Men Seek From 1990: Installment 39: In Which We Hum a Merry Tune While Waiting for New Horrors, New Horrors Installment 40: In Which We Scrutinize the Sedulousness to Their Hippocratic Oath of Troglodytic, Blue, Alien Proctologists Installment 41: In Which an Extremely Nervous Fool with His Credentials Taped to His Forehead Tacks Trepidatiously Between Scylla and Charybdis Knowing that Angels and Wise Men Would Fear Even to Dog-Paddle This Route Installment 42: In Which It Waddles Like a Duck, Sheds Water Like a Duck, and Goes Steady With Ducks, But Turns Out to be a Tortoise Installment 43: In Which We Lament, "There Goes the Neighborhood!" Installment 44: In Which the Good Ship Coat-Tail-Ride Sinks, Abandoning Hundreds in Treacherous Waters From 1991: Installment 45: In Which Tempus Fidgets, Fugits, and Inevitably Omnia Revelats Installment 46: In Which We Bend So Far Over Backwards To Be Unbiased That You Can See The Nose Hairs Quiver With Righteousness Installment 47: In Which Artful Vamping Saves the Publisher $94.98 From 1994: Installment 48: In Which the Wee Child's Icons are Demeaned From 1995: Installment 49: In Which the Old Man of the Sea Bites the Head off Yet Another Chicken From 2014: Installment 50: In Which the Playroom of the Prodigal Gives One Last Gasp Pre-dating Ellison's column in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, ENDLESSLY WATCHING collects a review of PSYCHO from a 1960 fanzine, 1974's "Total Impact: THE TERMINAL MAN," and Ellison's 1966 treatise on terror: "3 Faces of Fear," making its debut in a non-fiction Ellison collection. Bridging the nearly two decades between Watching columns are: 2007's "I Saw GHOST RIDER Today at the Galleria," and 2013's review of 12 YEARS A SLAVE and "Death to All Hollywood Award Shows!" As an added bonus, we've exhumed two unpublished reviews...or, rather, one unpublished review of BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA and an unpublished refusal to review HONEY, I BLEW UP THE BABY.

Genres: Nonfiction

191 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2014

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

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison wrote a (semi-)monthly of film criticism for several years, the first thirty-some of which were collected in an award-winning volume titled Harlan Ellison's Watching. This volume collects the last fifteen columns that Ellison wrote for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1989-1994 along with several other essays and reviews from other sources that range from 1960 (Psycho) to 2014 (Punisher, Dracula, etc.) While the films are now all old and many almost forgotten, the real draw is Ellison's writing. Sometimes his prose sings and soars, sometimes it chases itself in circles until you lose the thread and suspect that HE did, too, and occasionally it jumps off the page and beats you over the head. The man surely could write, and agree with him or like him or not, the reading is never boring. I agreed with him on most of the films; we both liked the Keaton Batman and Field of Dreams and we both disliked Communion and Howard the Duck. I was surprised that he recommended the Back to the Future trilogy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I liked Explorers and Guardians of the Galaxy whereas he did not, and he liked The Terminal Man and The Rocketeer unlike me. I quite liked his essay on Val Lewton's films, many of which are favorites of mine. Ellison's commentary roamed far afield from only movies, and there's as much social commentary in the book as anything else. He endorsed many other artistic achievements such as the writings of Tim Powers and Allen Steele, as well as various musical recordings and artworks. One thing that particularly caught my eye was a throw-away line from a 1989 essay in which he's recounting a story from one of his lecture appearances. One of the audience members complains that he points out too many problems without offering solutions, and his response is that he sees the problems and doesn't the answers, and that if they wanted a know-it-all instead of a know-some-of-it they should have booked Donald Trump. More than thirty years ahead of his time there! Many of the subjects are no longer relevant, but the book is still quite entertaining.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would read (and enjoy) Harlan Ellison's grocery list.

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. Seems like Harlan may have been bored or rushed with a few of these. Probably more of the latter....

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice pieces in here, but really it's just a too-short addendum to the magnificent Harlan Ellison's Watching.