odditycollector | Some days the world deserves to be kicked where it hurts.

I'm not in the right frame of mind to finish up the five things meme right now. I am much too angry, and I have to wait until tomorrow to deal with the root cause.

So I went on the internet in an attempt to distract myself, where I learned that Harlan Ellison groped Connie Willis onstage at the Hugo Awards, (and also assaulted another author whose book I do not know, but seems to be rated quite high on amazon.com).

And. I could not properly parse this new happening. I had to break it down into concepts small enough for my brain to digest.

Harlan Ellison.

Sexually assaulted.

Connie fucking *Willis*.

Onstage.

That is, in front of an audience.

At the Fucking Hugo Awards.

(And he was entirely inappropriate off-stage, in case that makes it okay.)

WHAT THE FUCK, WORLD, WHAT THE FUCK.

I scanned over Google News to see what sort reaction the press had to this and. Nothing. Not one article that I saw felt it worth mentioning.

I'm wondering, is it just because these are the *Hugo Awards*, and this kind of shit should be tolerated at the highest recognition ceremony the speculative fiction genre has? Would "Emmy Winner Groped Onstage By Fellow Nominee" have been considered news? Or only if the Fellow Nominee didn't think it was funny.

More people should be ANGRY. And

pnh explained why much better than I could.

Just as with George W. Bush's now-famous uninvited shoulder-rub of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the basic message of Ellison's tit-grab is this: "Remember, you may think you have standing, status, and normal, everyday adult dignity, but we can take it back at any time. If you are female, you'll never be safe. You can be the political leader of the most powerful country in Europe. You can be the most honored female writer in modern science fiction. We can still demean you, if we feel like it, and at random intervals, just to keep you in line, we will."

And also I'm thinking this:

Neil Gaiman refused his nomination for this year's Hugo awards. I bet it wasn't because he was afraid someone would grab his ass.

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Would "Emmy Winner Groped Onstage By Fellow Nominee" have been considered news? Or only if the Fellow Nominee didn't think it was funny.

The latter, I expect. Based on the Adrian Brody Oscar kissing incident.

It makes me furious, and sad, and also just plain tired.

It makes me furious, and sad, and also just plain tired.

I know what you mean. Luckily I have EXTRA RAGE today, so I can handle it.

Based on the Adrian Brody Oscar kissing incident.
I... actually had not known about that, until just now. WTF?

Adrian Brody: He totally made out with Halle Berry on stage when he went up to accept his award.

Plus there was the incident in January when Isaac Mizrahi groped Scarlett Johansson (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16596478&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=tv-grope-made-scarlett-go-scarlett-name_page.html) and leered at Teri Hatcher's cleavage. But that's apparently okay because he's gay.

Yeah, I read that. And… It's not like Harlan Ellison's one of my heroes, in fact, I think he's a proffesional asshole, but I know he's a hero to my people, and Connie Willis is definitely one of my heroes. I'm glad PNH is brassed off, as he's at least high enough up the totem pole he can disturb shit.

*checks what you say of PNH* Huh. Much to be said for knowing who the famous people are after all, I suppose.

I personally have Willis' name on my bookshelf and not Ellison's... but even if it was the other way around, this is seriously Not Cool.

This all makes me very glad that when I was very young, I read one of Ellison's screeds about separating the person from the work - he was saying something like, "Don't say you like me just because you like my stories, you don't know me, blah blah blah enfant terrible-cakes."

So now I can happily keep The Essential Ellison on my bookshelf, along with all his other stuff, while being mad that he decided this was okay just because he's an old codger who's famous in the sf/f world. Yes, Harlan, you're right: I love your work, but you're a refrozen shitsicle.

This is totally at odds with Harlen's stance on women's rights. There was a time when he refused speaking engagements in any state that hadn't ratified the ERA.

His behavior wasn't acceptable, but I don't think he's going to change his ways now. His behavior has always been based on nonconformist ideas. ie: Being an ass.

Surprisingly, you can have a good conversation with him. One of my friends ended up having an interesting conversation with him about mental health and children many years ago at an SF convention.

It still doesn't excuse his present behavior.

I think Randy Milholland (creator of Something Positive) summed it up best:

"Asshole is not an alternative lifestyle."

(And, yes; I had to go look Harlan up on wikipedia because this seemed out-of-line with what I thought I remembered of his politics.)

Sigh. I wish I could summon more righteous indignation over this, but it just makes me tired.

And I think it demonstrates the problematic aspects of elevating "iconoclastic" behavior, at praising people for refusing to bow to social convention or sugarcoat the truth. Because the flipside of that is that this behavior often involves being an asshole.

We elevate people like Bill Maher for being "politically incorrect," laugh when he's rude to fat women in the guise of telling it like it is, and then are shocked, shocked I tell you when he tips over one too many sacred cows. We've cheered Ellison's anti-social behavior for years, because hey, that's funny! Well, this is part of that personality, too.

Because the flipside of that is that this behavior often involves being an asshole.
Like House fandom, when they found reports of a real live doctor under review for telling patients things like You're too fat to date a white man. And applauded.

I freely admit to not following Ellison's career. Or Willis' either, for that matter (dispite having a couple of her books). But I really don't care - replace his name with anyone's, even persons I personally like and respect, and it'd piss me off. There's no excuse. And *especially* not that people have come to expect it from him.

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I. What. Christ on a kayak, Karen. Where does the line begin to kick Harlan Ellison's ass? Because I want cuts to the front of the line.

So, has Ellison written anything in the last twenty years? Or is he too busy suing everybody in sight claiming that he invented time travel stories?

Some days the world deserves to be kicked where it hurts.

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Harlan Ellison