From: sbrock@csn.org (Steve Brock)
Subject: "Harlan Ellison's Watching" by Harlan Ellison
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 19:32:53 GMT

%T HARLAN ELLISON'S WATCHING
%A Harlan Ellison
%I Underwood-Miller Publishing, 708 Westover Dr., Lancaster, PA  17601.
%I Index, two appendices.
%P 514 pp.
%O $17.95 paper.
%G 0-88733-147-5

                             REVIEW

     Fiona Webster has given a nice description of the cover of this book,
and Stewart Tame has correctly stated that this is a trade paperback edition
of the hardcover published in 1989.  With all the help, this review should
be a snap.  I have two questions, however, for Fiona:
     1.  What's with the arrow that goes under the title, points toward the
spine, with the one on the spine pointing toward the back cover?  Is it to
get the reader to turn the book over to see the abstract "chessboard on the
lake?"
     2.  And what is little Harlan doing on the cover?  He looks like his
head and arm are floating in the air.  What is the symbolism of this?  Does
"fingers down" signify a bad review a la Siskel and Ebert's "thumbs down?"
     Little Harlan has watched, as well as written for, many television
shows and movies, and this book attempts to put his reviews into some kind
of order with chapters grouped into "Installments."
     Beginning with a short essay on the influence of movies on his
childhood (and sneaking out of his grandmother's house at night to see "Mr.
Bug Goes To Town" on his birthday so he could get in free, and getting
caught - jerked out of his seat where he cringed, by a flashlight-wielding
usher), the responsibilities of being a critic (responsibilities? what
responsibilities), and his first reviews for "Cinema" magazine, he exhibits
other reviews written for the publication.
     Most memorable of his opinions in this section are in his reviews of
"Beau Geste" ("a microcephalically written screenplay of the sheerest
ineptitude"), Godard's "Le Carabiniers" ("I suggest those who find this
deprecating review of M. Godard's pud-pulling unacceptable, cross check with
less-Philistinic reviewers and then go or not go accordingly"), and "2001: A
Space Odyssey" (he calls it "Kubrick's Folly" and tells viewers to watch it
"stoned on acid").
     We then enter Ellison's "Screening Room" (four reviews of lesser movies
excerpted from "The Staff"), and then we get to the meat of the book:
"Harlan Ellison's Watching" First Series (1977-78) and Second Series
(1984-).  These reviews show Ellison reaching maturity, but never growing
up.  Most of these reviews ran in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science
Fiction."
     In Harlan's own words, he outlines his perspective on reviewing movies.
"I try to look not only at the primary entertainment, storytelling qualities
of films," he says, "but attempt to consider them as reflections of cultural
phenomena."
     This extends to occasionally equating them with bodily functions, such
as "Star Wars" (panning the movie makes him "run the risk of being
disemboweled by terminal acne cases"), "Cujo" ("a gawdawful lump of
indigestible grue"), or "Robocop" ("this is a template for everything rabid
and drooling in our culture").  Occasionally this opens him up to slander
suits, but I know of none that he has lost.  Few ushers, lately, have tried
to jerk him out of his seat.
     That (once) sweet little Ellison kid is one of the most caustically,
sincerely original voices we have today, whether it's a movie review, a
dangerous vision, or a pilot for a new television show.  This book of
reviews gets an unequivocal "fingers up."  And don't let Fiona get you
jealous that she has the hardback edition.

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