9
votes
1982 video interview with Asimov, Wolfe, and Ellison
Link information
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- Title
- 1982 - Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, Gene Wolfe on science fiction
- Authors
- SufferingFoolsMusic
- Duration
- 24:52
- Published
- Apr 29 2013
That was super interesting, but yeesh, Harlan Ellison can be pretty insufferable at times. He was not wrong in most cases, but he just goes about discussing things in such an obnoxious way. Though despite that, I did really like his point about Nuclear weapons and why the fact nobody has chosen to use them (against others) in "over 30 years" (74 years now), despite them being in the hands of some "genuine screwballs", gives him hope for humanity. I don't quite follow why he is against Nuclear energy because of that though.
Thanks for sharing this, @asteroid.
p.s. @Algernon_Asimov, since I imagine you might get a kick out of this discussions too (if you haven't seen it already).
I wanted to like this. I should have liked it.
I found it underwhelming.
Ellison was annoying, Wolfe was random, and Asimov said a lot of things I already know (because I've read so much of his writings). It was nice to see Asimov and Ellison in action, but the format left me a bit cold.
Fair enough. And yeah, Asimov and Ellison (as annoying as he was) were definite the most interesting of the bunch. I actually liked the format though, but just wish it had been quite a bit longer. 20min is not really enough time to allow for much depth in a discussion, especially with so many people involved in it.
Asimov was interesting but seemed content to just sit back and let others take the lead - which left Ellison in control (Wolfe barely spoke unless he was prodded). I had the definite sense in the first section that Ellison got to set the agenda while everyone else just shut up and let him rant. By the time the host/mediator brought the others in, the damage was done, and everything else was said in the context of being a response to Ellison rather than being fresh conversation.
And, like I said, whenever Asimov did speak, the points he made were points I'd already seen him make in his various writings. So, while it was interesting to hear him speak, I didn't actually learn anything about him that I didn't already know (which was a tad disappointing).
It also felt like the host/mediator would cut the speakers off mid-sentence so he could jump to another topic and keep things on track as per his pre-defined subjects. It might have been nice to just let the conversation roam freely. And then we had the fade-out at the end, where the conversation kept going but we were kicked out like children being sent to bed while the adults keep talking.
Harlan Ellison is a total fucking Dickwad but holy hell this was fun to watch. Thanks for sharing!