Originally Posted by First Amongst Daves
Well, there you go. I don't agree that seeing a psych three times a week has the same imputation as being described as "deranged", but I didn't know that Fleischer's work wasn't affected.

If Ellison wasn't stoned or drunk, then he was stupid and arrogant to say such things about fellow creators.

I agree wih you, that seeing a psychiarist didn't make the guy crazy. But it did show he was troubled, and it was Fleisher himself who raised it as evidence in his lawsuit. To me, someone who is seeking help, isn't crazy. It manifests they are self-conscious they have a problem, and are seeking help before they get there.

As for Harlan Ellison, I think he was a brilliant and obviously very intelligent guy, but he often would say or do things without much forethought, that manifest he did so without much planning or impulse control. There's a thin line between being a genius and being an idiot !

Here's a letter a reader wrote in reaction to Harlan Ellison, in AMAZING HEROES 100, in 1986:

Quote
[b]Regarding Harlan Ellison's quoted comment about [Howard Chaykin's 1986] THE SHADOW limited series:

1) I liked it (the book I mean).
2) I think it was faithful to the original character concept. It was a logical extension of what had come before.
3) Would that the Shadow were real, and Ellison would piss him off.

Okay, so the guy can write... He's still a jerk, just like always.
I'm not a "joiner", but I wish it known that I'm proud to be one of the millions who regard Ellison as an idiot.
Thank you and good night.

--M.A.D.
Trunity, TX[/b[]

I think Ellison elicited that reaction in many people, usually deliberately.

Read the introduction to Ellison's 1974 short story collection APPROACHING OBLIVION for a particularly funny account, of author Michael Crichton's own discovery of this trail of angry people Ellison leaves behind. And his own crossing swords with Ellison before even meeting him, and then becoming friends with him.

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