Harlan Ellison on the Writers Guild Strike Settlement
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is taken from Harlan Ellison’s online community, reproduced in its unedited entirety. If there’s one person whose words you don’t change without checking with him, it’s Harlan. — GH]
HARLAN ELLISON ON THE WRITERS STRIKE SETTLEMENT
YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO RE-POST THIS ANYWHERE:
Creds: got here in 1962, written for just about everybody, won the Writers Guild Award four times for solo work, sat on the WGAw Board twice, worked on negotiating committees, and was out on the picket lines with my NICK COUNTER SLEEPS WITH THE FISHE$$$ sign. You may have heard my name. I am a Union guy, I am a Guild guy, I am loyal. I fuckin’ LOVE the Guild.
And I voted NO on accepting this deal.
My reasons are good, and they are plentiful; Patric Verrone will be saddened by what I am about to say; long-time friends will shake their heads; but this I say without equivocation…
THEY BEAT US LIKE A YELLOW DOG. IT IS A SHIT DEAL. We finally got a timorous generation that has never had to strike, to get their asses out there, and we had to put up with the usual cowardly spineless babbling horse’s asses who kept mumbling “lessgo bac’ta work” over and over, as if it would make them one iota a better writer. But after months on the line, and them finally bouncing that pus-sucking dipthong Nick Counter, we rushed headlong into a shabby, scabrous, underfed shovelfulla shit clutched to the affections of toss-in-the-towel summer soldiers trembling before the Awe of the Alliance.
My Guild did what it did in 1988. It trembled and sold us out. It gave away the EXACT co-terminus expiration date with SAG for some bullshit short-line substitute; it got us no more control of our words; it sneak-abandoned the animator and reality beanfield hands before anyone even forced it on them; it made nice so no one would think we were meanies; it let the Alliance play us like the village idiot. The WGAw folded like a Texaco Road Map from back in the day.
And I am ashamed of this Guild, as I was when Shavelson was the prexy, and we wasted our efforts and lost out on technology that we had to strike for THIS time. 17 days of streaming tv!!!????? Geezus, you bleating wimps, why not just turn over your old granny for gang-rape?
You deserve all the opprobrium you get. While this nutty festschrift of demented pleasure at being allowed to go back to work in the rice paddy is filling your cowardly hearts with joy and relief that the grips and the staff at the Ivy and street sweepers won’t be saying nasty shit behind your back, remember this:
You are their bitches. They outslugged you, outthought you, outmaneuvered you; and in the end you ripped off your pants, painted yer asses blue, and said yes sir, may I have another.
Please excuse my temerity. I’m just a sad old man who has fallen among Quislings, Turncoats, Hacks and Cowards.
I must go now to whoops. My gorge has become buoyant.
Respectfully, Yr. Pal, Harlan Ellison
I always enjoy reading Harlan's comments, but the problem is, I'm never quite sure where he stands.
Yeah. He and Rush Limbaugh seem to share an inability to really open uip and tell us what they think.
Hey, you could use a more accurate picture!http://dd-b.net/cgi-bin/picpage.pl/dd-b/SnapshotA…
If I remember what I heard correctly, that was taken when Harlan was decidedly under the weather, and swollen something fierce.A better–and I believe more recent–pic can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/2qpm3dIf you contact the photographer, Steve Barber (barbergallery@verizon.net), and tell him I sent ya, he'll probably be happy to let you use the picture.
I saw Harlan several times a day at that con, and he definitely didn't seem sick. He groped the usual number of young women.
Well, I can't speak to his comportment, but I DO remember a posting on his message board a couple years back in which he said he had had some kind of illness or reaction to something which caused his face to swell badly, and that picture would seem to confirm it.It was temporary, though; the man simply doesn't look like that.
I like the picture I chose for this article, to be honest. If we were providing a news report about an actual event Ellison attended or such, I would certainly want a more current photo (preferably of him at the event), but since the image is simply providing a reference point for the letter, this photo is one of the more widely recognized of Ellison and, by my judgment, provides greater potential for readers to connect the man to his words.I hope this explains why that image was chosen.
I think this is an interesting picture; Harlan sort of looks like Zorak from Space Ghost Coast-To-Coast.
Mike, is everybody having to sign in once a day or is it just me? This started a few days ago, at roughly the same point that I got a new update of Firefox. My cookies look fine.
First I've heard of it. I haven't used Firefox since the last Safari update, but — as Brian keeps telling me — every browser update carries with it its own unique problems. Check us out with another browser, just for giggles. Then email your problem, your browser and version number, and your operating system and version number to us via the "Contact Us" button at the bottom of the page.Two Post Toasties box-tops would help.
I'll try it tomorrow. I've been able to post as much as I want once I'm signed in until the next day. Not the next opening of Firefox, I just tried that between my post and this one.
First time I noticed the Sign Out link. Observant cuss, ain't I?I'm using the old Firefox; haven't updated to the latest because this old computer (Windows 98se) is on its last legs anyway, so why bother. Not every day, but frequently, the site doesn't recognize me, and I have to click on 'Existing Member' if I decide to post.
Hmmm, I didn't have this happen until just a few days ago. But it sounds like it's not the new Firefox. I'll wake up IE tomorrow and try it then.
As much as I admire Mr. Ellison — and I do — there's damn little reason in this rant. He says it's a suck deal without really giving his reasons. I've read other explanations in other places — Mark Evanier as an example — and generally I see some explanation as to why this or that person thinks the deal is okay or not. Mr. Ellison does very entertaining rants but it doesn't convince me the deal is actually bad.
I think Harlan explained quite well what he didn't like:* 17 day window's too long (which I agree with, I know what traffic numbers look like after that long).* No concurrent expiration date with SAG.* No addition control of their writing, possessory credits, etc.* Neglecting the animation and reality writers.The interesting question is whether this changes the final equation.
Don't the animation (and maybe the reality) writers negotiate their own deals?
Good points. Re-read it. I was wrong. I got distracted by the rant ) which is always part of the fun.
The point that most underwhelms me in the contract is the 17 days before the money starts going to the writers. Seems to me that most downloads will be in the first week or so, so the potential for writer payments will be mostly gone by then.
Pretty funny coming from the guy who fucked about 150 writers out of potential royalties that they could have made off of Dangerous Visions 3.