He reveals that he was paid $300 (yes he quotes this price) to speak at Space-Con IV at the LA Convention Center, where he encounters the first wave of Star Wars fanatics and the first time at a sci-fi-con he did not run into Trekkies. To be sure, he also calls it much worse, but Ellison doesn’t really resort to name-calling until he can point to specific flaws first.ġ. So what is the gist of this? Ellison, ever the insufferable enfant terrible, considered George Lucas’ major breakthrough to be space opera and not science fiction (the franchise literally bills itself as an epic space opera now). One of the highlights of said tome is his essay, the aforementioned “Luke Skywalker is a Nerd and Darth Vader Sucks Runny Eggs.” More specifically Harlan Ellison’s Watching, a compendium of his film essays and criticism from all of The Freep, Starlog, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It’s tough to find a copy of a 43-year-old rag on the Internet in any archive, but I have this magical old-fashioned device called a “book” at hand.

Gosh, what gave that away, except the way I yank my own entrails out to write with a primitive honesty that sprays you in the face with blood? Bottom line, Harlan’s article in The Freep was what kept me sane through the early dork years of Star Wars fandom.

The man: Golden Age SF author Harlan Ellison.Įven though I had to acknowledge that he was a grouchy old poop in the eulogy I wrote for him, Ellison was a strong influence on me in childhood. The place: The Los Angeles Free Press (AKA “The Freep”), which belonged to a family of local city tabloids found in every city these were the highest-quality of artisanal journalism you could find at the time. “Luke Skywalker is a Nerd and Darth Vader Sucks Runny Eggs”

Brain Movies by Harlan Ellison