Re: Harlan Ellison on $cientology

Michelle Malkin (malkinb7@ix.netcom.com) wrote: : I, Charles Platt, said: : >As for whether Ellison was really at the meeting or not, it makes very : >little difference, because I believe his recollection would be equally : >unreliable in either case.

: Harlan Ellison DOES NOT have a reputation for lying, and anyone who says : that he does had damn well better come up : with some proof pretty fast.

Calm down, Michelle, and read my statement carefully. I said that his recollections might be unreliable. He is known (to me and to other people I know) to have a poor memory for certain types of facts. He is also known to have a talent for creative exaggeration. The Great Man might even admit this himself, if the right person asked him. You, perhaps.

Having clarified my original statement, however, I will now add that in one specific area (different from the area we were talking about above) Mr. Ellison certainly does have a reputation for lying; and this is the matter of delivery dates, and reasons why work has not been delivered. Let us leave aside the embarrassing cases (chronicled in Christopher Priest's monograph) where Mr. Ellison claimed in front of many witnesses that "Last Dangerous Visions" had ACTUALLY BEEN DELIVERED to its publisher. My favorite case was when he swore that he had finished a story and sent it by Federal Express to an editor in New York; and when the editor didn't receive it, Mr. Ellison then said that he had learned (through unexplained means) an ARDENT FAN of his worked at FedEx and had actually intercepted the manuscript and STOLEN it for his own use. Many writers have come up with creative reasons, over the years, for nondelivery of promised work, but this, I think, is truly the most delightful, um, lie that I have ever heard on the topic.

The anecdote was told to me personally by the editor involved.

If this isn't enough for you, I could go into the time when Mr. Ellison asked me to call all the editors to whom he owed work, and tell them that I was his doctor, and say that he had had a nervous breakdown, and should not be disturbed. The poor man was under severe stress at the time as a result of publishers demanding the repayment of large royalty advances, so he wasn't quite rational. But still, that's what he wanted me to do. -- ############################################################ Charles Platt cp@panix.com