Again, Dangerous Visions

Sometime between the first Dangerous Visions anthology and the second, Harlan Ellison jumped the shark. Perhaps in those four years, he started to believe his own hype. It is true that the first anthology did seem to set a fire under a number of writers, both old and new, to experiment and try new things, and it happened because Ellison championed it. But in the preparation of the second volume, Ellison took on much more than a simple championing role—he became a dangerous vision of himself.

But before I get to the real criticism of this volume, let me note that it still contains a couple of the greatest short fiction stories ever published: Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Word for World is Forest,” a piece that merges environmentalism show more and racism in such a talented way that it’s as hard to read it as, Le Guin says in her afterword, it was easy for her to write it; and Joanna Russ’s “When It Changed,” one of the best feminist science fiction stories, posting a world where the men died off and the women did what they had to do to continue, then the ramifications of being “rediscovered” by the rest of humanity. Both of these stories are as powerful today as they were forty years ago, because the problems remain. To be entirely frank, I’ve never been a fan of either writer, some of whose other stories set my teach on edge. But there’s no disputing that these stories are worthy of being read by every reader, especially any reader who wants to understand the power of science fiction when it’s done well and done correctly.

There are some other good stories in this 46 story anthology as well. “Ching Witch” by Ross Rocklynne is one of the funniest stories that incorporates a cat. H. H. Hollis’ “Stoned Counsel” is an interesting idea of how legal work could be transformed in the future through hallucinogens. The two stories by Bernard Wolfe, “The Bisquit Position” and “The Girl With Rapid Eye Movements,” are unusual and strange in their mixture of 70s cultural themes (Vietnam war, sleep research) with 50s era style (world-weary protagonists caught up in weirdness). Gregory Benford’s “And the Sea Like Mirrors” predates Stephen King by a decade, containing much of what has become King’s stock-in-trade: a horrific world in which an “everyman” tries to survive.

But the majority of these stories are simply “meh,” and in some instances, downright awful. One story, Richard Lupoff’s “With the Bentfin Boomer Boys on Little Old Alabama,” was so annoying (i.e., made-up language similar to Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker), I skimmed it after the first section. And it’s not hard to discover why this may be, because the very process of putting this anthology together can be pieced together from the introductions and afterwords. The culprit: Ellison’s increasing need to grandstand, to puff up the book and himself. One of the earliest things you learn is that this huge volume comprises only half of what Ellison had accepted and bought, and that it became so large, he and the publisher agreed to release this volume and then one called The Last Dangerous Visions later—so much later that it never appeared.

Grandstanding? The best example of which can be read in the introduction and afterword to “Bed Sheets are White“ by Evelyn Lief, which is more of a story than the story itself. Basically, Ellison shows up at Clarion determined to be a holy terror to the students by tearing apart their stories on the first day of his week. In the afterword, Lief reports that Ellison said this about her story that first morning, "This story is trite and schoolgirlish. It's the perfect example of every single thing that can be done wrong, all in one piece of writing." She goes back to her room and writes “DAMN YOU, HARLAN ELLISON” on a sign and hangs it above her typewriter and then proceeds to write something that he will like. He likes it and immediately buys it for Again, Dangerous Visions.

And that would be a beautiful story if “Bed Sheets are White” was any good, but it’s not. It’s short enough that you can forgive it for being mediocre, but Ellison lauds it as on par with Le Guin or Russ or Benford? Sorry, not even close. What the foreword by Ellison and afterword by Lief depict is Ellison’s increasing role in the creation of not only the book, but the stories themselves, as he started to see himself as the great savior of literature, challenging both established authors and beginning students, and becoming their benefactor, muse, and daemon. It becomes all about him, both from his standpoint and the author’s. And thus, when it fails to be about the story, things fall apart.

Unlike others before me who’ve laid criticism at Ellison’s feet, his recent departure from this world means I have no fear of a late night phone call or sharply worded threat made in a public place. The thing is, I’ve always liked Ellison’s writing—his short story and essay collections were meat and potatoes to me in my formative years, and I loved his zeal and passion to champion perceived and real injustices in the world. In particular, his essays in The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat were early influences on how I viewed popular entertainment and the role of the critic. The Dangerous Visions anthologies were a great idea, and the two that were published had an impact that could be felt beyond the SFF world. Yet the warning signs for the project going off the rails could clearly be seen in A,DV even if Locus picked it as the best original anthology published in 1972.

It’s probably for the best that The Last Dangerous Visions never appeared, because it simply could not have lived up to its hype. What’s sad is that the stories got bumped into that stillborn volume never had the opportunity to feed their author’s careers aside from cover letters where they might have been listed as a sale. The other sad part of the whole debacle is how it continually cast a cloud over Ellison’s career, even until the very end. show less

As with the first volume, there are some very good stories, some average ones, and a whole lot that made me wonder what Ellison had in his pipe when he was assembling this anthology.

I'll just talk about some of the ones I liked.

A pair of stories by Bernard Wolfe, under the collective title "Monitored Dreams and Strategic Cremations." The first of these, "The Bisquit Position," is probably the most dangerous story in the volume, even today. Just try criticizing the military and see what happens. This story should disabuse the reader of any lingering notion that it has anything to do with honor.

"With a Finger in My I" by David Gerrold: An unsettling, surreal and funny story that takes place in a world where ideas can literally change the show more world. I've read this story several times and never get tired of it's wordplay and weirdness.

"█" by cartoonist Gahan Wilson: Another funny and slightly creepy story that plays with the prose format by introducing a graphical element (the title actually resembles an ink blot; the above is as close as I could come in text format.)

"The Word for World is Forest" by Ursula K. Le Guin: A story of planetary rape that I'm pretty sure James Cameron swiped for Avatar.

"The 10:00 Report is Brought to You by..." by Edward Bryant: A satire of news media as entertainment. Not far off these days, sadly.

"In the Barn" by Piers Anthony: An inter-dimensional traveler arrives on an alternate Earth where humans are bred as farm animals. Would have been better had it not been in Anthony's typical, leering tone. (Is it me or does he always sound like he's typing with one hand down his pants?)

"In Re Glover" by Leonard Tushnet: A humorous story examining the legalities of cryogenics.

Well, those are the ones I remember best.

Looking back over these, it seems like the better stories are mostly in the first half, but it might be that I had gotten so weary of the avant garde nature of many of the entries that my patience was wearing thinner the further I got. Still, it undoubtedly would have been a much stronger collection at half its length. show less

By far the best of the three short story collections in the Dangerous Visions series. Many of these strange, often disturbing tales seem timeless - still as fresh today as when they were published in the early '70s. These aren't your grandma's SF, for sure, unless she had a Hard Rock-type rebellious nature and a very thick skin.

I won't lie, I only read several of the short stories in this collection. When I heard that it contained Bradbury and Vonnegut, I knew I had to pick up this bad boy! If I had time I would have read many more of the awesome stories in here, but since I had to get this inter-library loaned I can't renew it (sad panda). I really enjoy that the editor, Harlan Ellison, wrote a nice little introduction about each author and story, it was a nice little touch. The cover art is also trippy and totally cool. This is a volume that I will most definitely have to buy. Ray Bradbury's contribution is a poem entitled, "Christ, Old Student in a New School." It wasn't my favorite of his, but maybe that's because of the format. I'm not a huge poetry buff. show more Kurt Vonnegut's contribution though, blew my friggin socks off! "The Big Space Fuck" is amazing, it's classic Vonnegut, with dark humor, bad language, satire, and ridiculousness. I loved every second of it! Big fans of his will also get a kick out of some of the characters he uses (Wanda June and John L. Newcomb). Here's just a little taste of the ridiculousness in store for you if you pick it up: "Everything had turned to shit and beer cans and old automobiles and Clorox bottles." Reading this made my night. A must read for Vonnegut and Bradbury fans!! show less

The original Dangerous Visions anthology contained quite a few very strong stories, but is probably best known more as a sort of manifesto for speculative fiction that would push its readers and ignore boundaries than for its specific contents.

This follow-up anthology is a long, long book featuring stories from an entirely different set of authors. There are a few good stories, but the general level is not up to that of the first book, and there are a few stories the inclusion of which left me completely baffled. Ellison's preface and introductions, which I had enjoyed in the original anthology, grew increasingly irritating here, and I gave up on reading them about halfway through.

My favorite stories were all by women authors: Joanna show more Russ' superb "When It Changed" is perhaps the most effective feminist scifi I have ever read; the entries from Kate Wilhelm, James Tiptree, Jr, and Ursula Le Guin were also very strong. I can admire the ambition behind entries from Piers Anthony and Richard Lupoff, even if neither was completely successful. show less

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This is the famous follow-up volume to the even more famous Dangerous Visions; an anthology of 41 stories, mainly by the leading lights of sf as it was in 1972, with vast amounts of prefatory material by editor Harlan Ellison and an afterword from each author, and nice art from Ed Emshwiller introducing each story.

But what is striking is how unmemorable and self-indulgent most of the stories are (also true of Ellison's long-winded prefaces). The three best are definitely Ursula Le Guin's "The Word for World is Forest", Joanna Russ's "When it Changed", and James Tiptree Jr's "The Milk of Paradise"; interestingly all three have the same basic plot, of an unspoilt planet being wrecked by us humans. show more Many of the others are just silly, Kurt Vonnegut being particularly proud of Using Rude Words To Be Grown-Up. In fact, the only other one I enjoyed was James Blish's erotic pastiche "Getting Along", which parodies numerous High Gothic writers - I particularly liked his riff on The Moon Pool.

But four memorable stories out of 41 is a very poor strike rate. I couldn't in all conscience recommend anyone to spend money on this collection, and I am wondering, heretically, if it is really such a shame that the third volume of the series never appeared. show less

A mammoth achievement of speculative fiction. ADV is even better than its predecessor and makes it all the worse that The Last Dangerous Visions has not been published (over 40 years after it was promised). Overall, my tastes matched up with Ellison's and I really enjoyed his introductions. I was surprised to find several authors here I already read in ADV.