Dangerous Visions
by Harlan Ellison · first published 1967
9mentions
3recommended by
8HN commenters
2012–2026first – last mentioned
38% recommend63% neutral
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Go back and read "Repent, Harlequin" or The Forever War or or Make room! Make room! or "Solution Unsatisfactory" tell me that all sci-fi from that age is all up and up. Go read the Dangerous Visions anthologies compiled by Ellison. I think you'd be a bit surprised by how "optimistic" a time that was--for all the rocketships, there was also a large state security apparatus, huge civil unrest, and…
on “Dystopian sci-fi is making us fear all new technology” ↗…novel Rōnin (1983–1984) Gary Panter - comic Jimbo (serialized 1977–present) Gary Panter - comic strip Dal Tokyo (1983–2007) Gene Wolfe - The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972) Harlan Ellison’s (ed.) Dangerous Visions (1967) Jack Kirby - Fourth World comics (1971–1974). Jack Kirby - pre-Fourth World sci-fi comics (1964–1970) James Tiptree Jr. - Up the Walls of the World (1978) Jane Gaskell - A Sweet, Sweet…
on “New Wave Sci-Fi: 75 Best Novels of 1964–1983” ↗…Future--especially when it's presented as Everything's Possible With Science! (Speculative fiction has done a decent job of picking apart some of threads of these sorts of futures...I'd suggest reading some of the Dangerous Visions anthology or more recently Paolo Bacigalupi if you'd like a properly melancholy commentary on the future with Science! There's this annoying problem of the many billions in poverty that somehow always…
on “Space colony art from the 1970s” ↗I've mostly been reading short SF stories recently, most of them from Dangerous Visions. Here's a few of the ones I've read and enjoyed: “The Jigsaw Man” by Larry Niven “The Night That All Time Broke Out” by Brian W. Aldiss “A Toy for Juliette” by Robert Bloch (although I was surprisingly…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…didn't find anything. Not that I think he's lying, just curious. I was told about Ellison back in college, maybe 2001/2002, by a woman who worked the desk in the office I worked in. I think she lent me Dangerous Visions and then I slowly picked up most of his books. As of late I was disappointed that he didn't do much in the way of new stuff, instead releasing compilations of his older works.
on “Harlan Ellison has died” ↗Happens occasionally, I imagine the writer is not too pleased with not finishing the job either. In SF earlier we had Harlan Ellison's postponed-to-irrelevancy third volume of Dangerous Visions anthologies, and David Gerrold's meandered-into-a-corner War Against the Chtorr.
on “Entitlement issues (2009)” ↗Dangerous Visions, the anthology edited by Harlan Ellison, contains something similar, if a bit more graphic.
on “Disqualified (1954)” ↗…same reckless spending and crippled decision-making when the financial dust cleared. “He can’t control himself”, Susan said. “I’ve had to hide the credit cards.”" See JMS's "Ellison Exegesis" in _Last Dangerous Visions_ last year (which points out that 1997 would see the last original volume from Ellison ever, so 1998 is at the top of the slippery slope where his life really began falling apart from bipolar).
on “No! Repent! From! Harlan! (1998)” ↗…fit firmly within that world view. Regardless of whether they lean left or right they're positivist, technocratic, Enlightenment-focused, often leaning towards scientism, etc. That's why something like "Dangerous Visions" was such a provocative title - the idea that the future would be maybe not great and advanced technology probably wouldn't help was a "dangerous" idea for the sf culture at the time.