Day: January 8, 2006

One of the better kept secrets of my recent output has been my involvement in a short story collection entitled, “Meeting Across the River: Stories Inspired by the Haunting Bruce Springsteen Song.” It is just what it says it is: A series of short stories inspired by that one song.

Well, there’s now an audio version out, and it was the subject of a starred review in the January 2, 2006 Publishers Weekly (starred means that special notice should be taken). And amongst the various generally positive assessments, the reviewer says:

“Harlan Ellison supplies a rich, no-holds-barred reading of Peter David’s inspired fantasy, “Killing Time by the River Styx.”

Basically, the folks who were doing the adaptation approached Harlan as to whether he’d like to do the reading (since, in case you don’t know, Harlan has done many readings of material that wasn’t his own.) Harlan in turn wouldn’t have taken the gig if it wasn’t cool with me. And part of me would have liked to do the reading myself, but then I thought, “Y’know…it’ll probably sound better if Harlan does it, so what the hëll.”

Obviously PW agreed. So try and turn up a copy of either the original book in order to read the story (anthology edited by Jessica Kaye and Richard Brewer) or the audio version on Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 0-7867-7632-6). And, hey, if you’re voting for the Hugos for short stories of 2005, remember, PW says it’s an “inspired fantasy.”

PAD

I mean, you’d think that trolls were limited to internet schmucks who go around and say deliberately provocative things for the sole purpose of getting noticed and stirring up trouble. One generally assumes them to be adolescents at best, living in their parents’ basements.

And then we get Pat Robertson. Pat Robertson, Trolling for God. God’s troll. No tragedy too great, no suffering too unspeakable, to prevent Robertson from trolling for God. You’ve heard of Holy Rollers? Meet the Holy Troller. You know it must be working, because really, how many times do you see what this jáçkášš has to say and–no matter what your faith–you find yourself saying, “Jesus!”

Ariel Sharon, according to Pat Robertson, had a massive stroke courtesy of God because of the way he was trying to make peace in the Middle East. As Jon Stewart pointed out, certainly the fact that he was in his seventies, overweight, and overstressed might have had SOMETHING to do with it. If Ariel Sharon had suddenly spontaneously combusted, okay, maybe the hand of God is in there somewhere. Short of that, I have to think that it’s just nature catching up with him. But it is nothing short of repulsive that Robertson views everything in terms of God’s approval or disapproval, and that when tragedy befalls someone–no matter what it may be–the Holy Troller claims that it’s God’s wrath that the hapless individual brought down upon himself. Eternal punishment. You know what eternal punishment is? Five minutes of being exposed to Pat Robertson. Yes, it’s only five minutes, but it FEELS like an eternity.

Personally, I’m dubious about the whole life after death thing. But boy, it sure would be nice if such a thing existed, just so one could imagine Pat Robertson coming face to face with the Being whose words he’s claimed to represent all these years, just so that Being could say, “I swear to me, you’re SUCH an áššhølë.”

PAD