ELLISON AND ON
Some books are more famous for not being published than if they had been. A case in point is a massive anthology of new wave science fiction edited by Harlan Ellison, Last Dangerous Visions. The volume was meant to be the final part of a trilogy begun with Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972), books which featured then cutting-edge science fiction by authors such as JG Ballard, Philip K Dick, Ursula K Le Guin and Kurt Vonnegut. But Last Dangerous Visions grew and grew until it was reported to be the size of five conventional anthologies, and for reasons which have never been satisfactorily explained, was never published.
British author Christopher Priest (The Prestige) became so exasperated with the whole business that he withdrew his story and eventually wrote a short Hugo Award-nominated book about the saga, The Book On The Edge Of Forever (which was published, in 1994).
Now J Michael Straczynski, best known as the creator and writer of the television science fiction series Babylon 5, has been appointed executor of the late Ellison’s estate and promises to finally bring Last Dangerous Visions into print. Michael has said that the published version will contain ‘many’ of the over 100 stories originally commissioned by Ellison.
There is, however, a twist. If Last Dangerous Visions has any value now it would seem mostly as a historical record, a snapshot of the genre at a particular time in its development. But Straczynski has said that he intends to complement the original stories from nearly fifty years ago with new work by ‘some of the most well-known and respected writers working today’, as well as stories by ‘a diverse range of young, new writers from around the world who are telling stories that look beyond today’s horizon to what’s on the other side’. Meanwhile, those stories which have not aged well, or been superseded by five decades of technological development, are among those dropped.
Most tantalising, however, is the inclusion of an Ellison story, not merely ‘one last, significant work by Harlan that has never been published, that has been seen by only a handful of people’, but one which ‘ties directly into the reason why The Last Dangerous Visions has taken so long to come to light’.
Did Ellison plan this? Is it all part of some elaborate ruse to make other participants part of some overarching magnum opus? From the famously twisting and confrontational author, very little would surprise.
But we’ll all have to wait a little longer to find out – Michael plans to start finding a publisher in March or April. Let’s hope he actually finishes it.
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