October 26, 2024 • 9 mins
ICYMI: ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – Mark Rahner’s review of celebrated writer Harlan Ellison’s posthumous book “The Last Dangerous Visions” in ‘The Rahner Report’ - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
k f I, a M six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Marks pontificates about pop culture, ron and Report with Mark Ronner.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
K if I. It's Later with mo Kelly.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Now let's turn it over to Mark Ronner with the
super Secret Runner Report.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
It's not that secret. Venom threes news new in theaters,
and I'm going to tell you something you've never heard of.
Critics say there's no real reason to review it. Loops.
I had a sound effect there and it didn't work.
Oh ride radio, Well take that, Siskel and Ebert. Uh,
the first Venom was terrible. I skipped the second one
(00:57):
because the first one was terrible. There's some talking about
but the third one it might be a little bit better.
But that's kind of like saying a toilet might just
be really full but not quite overflowing. It's fun on
load on bad movies, sure, but dragging my ass to
a theater to see a bunch of green screen CGI
product about the annex of a symbiote that looks like
(01:18):
someone sneezed black licris into a handkerchief. Nope, nope, nope,
nope nope. Venom three is also projected to hoover up
sixty five million bucks. It's opening weekend from people who
don't care how lousy it might be or what any
critic says in related news. Nothing matters. Instead, I want
to tell you about a book now before you change
the channel. Don't change the channel. I know a book
(01:38):
reading is hard, but it's a special book that took
fifty years to get into the world, and this release
is a real event. It is called The Last Dangerous Visions.
If you're a scy fine herd, this will ring a bell.
If not, I'll explain. And it's a little personal I've
mentioned before. The writer Harlan Ellison was a friend of mine.
He died in twenty eighteen, and I'm pretty sure that
through newspapers, radio and podcast I interviewed him more than
(02:01):
anyone else. The first book of his I read as
a teenager was like getting a bolt shot into my
brain from one of those cattle guns. Ferociously intelligent guy, compassionate,
really raw, and not just unafraid of bullies, but compelled
to fight him no matter who they were. There was
no one else like Carlan Ellison. He'd also written some
of the most famous episodes of The Outer Limits and
(02:21):
Star Trek and an iteration of the Twilight Zone in
the eighties. I think so. Cub reporter Mark at Little
Gannett newspaper in Indiana gets Ellison on the phone in
the mid nineties and says, you made me want to
be a writer. And he says right away, well, see
if that's a good or a bad thing. Jesus. When
I finished the article that i'd called him for, I
sent him two copies of it for his records in
(02:43):
C two as he specified, the full section not clipped,
and I included some of my newspaper collins. I was
nervous the next time we talked, but he said, you
got Moxie kid, and we became friends until he died.
There was nothing I wouldn't have done for the guy.
I never knew my father, and it doesn't really take
a bunch of brain power to do the math on
that one. Among our adventures. I ran interference for him
(03:04):
when the Science Fiction Hall of Fame people were trying
to induct him in Seattle. He hated being ghettoized as
justice science fiction writer, and he walked out of interviews
with people who called him one. He especially hated the
term sci fi. Can't tell you what he said it
sounded like, but it was something dirty. But he was
pleased to be recognized as one of the all time
giants of it. Anyway. The one thing I never asked
(03:24):
Harlan Ellison about was Dangerous Visions. It was a science
fiction anthology that he edited, and he wrote introductions for
it that blew your hair back as much as the
stories themselves. The first volume had an absolutely seismic effect
on the science fiction world. It was a landmark. It
started a new wave, and the second volume just as good.
But the third one he never finished it. People bugged
(03:45):
him about it constantly for decades. Authors who contributed to
it died they never saw their stories published, and I
never brought it up. Didn't want to set him off.
We had plans go hang out at pinks, have hot dogs.
He was going to show me his house in Sherman Oaks.
He called Ellison Wonderland, lots of stuff. But he died
just before I moved here to la I hoped to
be some help to his widow, Susan, but she died
(04:07):
right after I moved here, abruptly, really young and literally
as I was composing a letter to her. Life has
plenty of loose ends, and you just got to live
with him. But then I find out the third Dangerous
Visions book is coming out posthumously WT actual f J
Michael Struzinski, the Babylon five creator, got it done. I'm
(04:27):
just going to call him JMS. He was a friend
of Harlan's and for much longer than me, Harlan made
him as executor. JMS wrote a long, novellasized introduction to
the Last Dangerous Visions about what happened with this book
that took fifty years to publish, and what happened to Harlan.
JMS did the same as me. He sought out Harlan
as a young writer, let Harland know what his work
meant to him, and there was nothing he wouldn't have
(04:48):
done for Harlan, and he did. I'm reading this book
and I'm getting flashbacks to driving Harlan and Susan around
and my old Mustang, finding places for us to eat,
answering the phone when I'm depressed to hear Harlan in
this exaggerated Jewish mom voicing, oh you never call you
never right Well. JMS had a psych education and he
figured Harlan had bipolar disorder, which led to severe clinical
(05:12):
depression and also a death fixation from seeing his dad
die young and living past that age himself. So in
this introduction, JMS lists Harlan's by polar system symptoms rather
and they include racing thoughts, bouts of chronic fatigue, a
laundry list of stuff. I'm way too familiar with myself,
and this year I'm as old as my mom was
(05:34):
when she died very young. Oh crap. So let's just
say jms's introduction to The Last Dangerous Visions shook me.
It's tremendously moving. It made me cry. It's a major
achievement to get this book out into the world. It's
on Amazon. Of course, I got it from the library
on my iPod the instant I found out about it.
(05:55):
JMS was such a good friend to Harlan that he
got him to go to therapy. Finally, I ain't doing
and that the couple times I put my toe in
the water. My biggest breakthrough was that I hate talking
about my feelings. But reading helps. Reading helps check out
the Last Dangerous Visions and read some Harlan Ellison. Reading
is hard and We'll get back to movies and stuff
next week. But this is good and it's really special.
(06:17):
There's your run and report. Mo that was great, Mark,
that was great. The stories contained great. Thank you. I'm
sure you've met some of your heroes and have stories
of your own. I do.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
And sometimes they've disappointed me, and other times they've not
disappointed me. But I enjoyed how the story began decades
ago and in decades down the road, and you got
to see it come to fruition.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
It was such a piece of unfinished business and my
mouth was hanging open a lot of the time I
read this stuff. I knew Harlan for what twenty five
years maybe something like that. I didn't know this stuff
and some of this stuff. And by the way, I
didn't at all ruin the book for anybody by what
I revealed. There's so much going on. And he was
such an interesting guy, and there's a lot of him
(07:08):
on YouTube if you're not familiar with him. He was
an extraordinarily entertaining, smart, just whip smart, articulate guy. So
he used to be a favorite of Tom Snyder. He
was on The Tomorrow Show way back in the day.
He was one of these writers, especially science fiction writers.
He was a handsome guy. He was good on TV,
(07:28):
very clever, very funny. He was charming. Everybody wanted to
have him as a guest, even MERV Griffin, for God's sakes,
although once they got him on the show, they never
knew what he was gonna say. He was a real
live wire. There's lots of him to discover. He also
did a show on the old sci Fi Channel, even though,
like I said, he hated the term sci fi, hated it.
(07:51):
He did a show call called I think it's called
Harlan Ellison's Watching on the sci Fi Channel. They're just
brilliant little short pieces of his commentary on sci fi,
pop culture, comic books, you name it. And I got
to tell you this. You made me remember something back
when Isaac Asimov died. Remember Isaac Asimov absolutely also one
(08:14):
of the great suits in the science fiction Hall of Fame.
I was away at college and I didn't have TV
or cable or anything like that. Harlan did a very
emotional eulogy for Isaac Asimov on his show. I had
my mom long distance on the phone, hold the phone
up to the TV so I could hear this thing.
And it brought me to tears way back then too.
(08:36):
If you don't know this author, Harlan Ellison, you're really
in for a treat. Well.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I need to go back and listen to this again,
because I think that was one of your best run
of reports ever, because it was personal, if you had
personal anecdotes.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
He meant a lot to me, and I think he
meant a lot to a lot of people, and I
think this book is going to be really special to
a lot of people as well.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI a M six forty
You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
k f I, a M six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Marks pontificates about pop culture, ron and Report with Mark Ronner.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
K if I. It's Later with mo Kelly.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Now let's turn it over to Mark Ronner with the
super Secret Runner Report.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
It's not that secret. Venom threes news new in theaters,
and I'm going to tell you something you've never heard of.
Critics say there's no real reason to review it. Loops.
I had a sound effect there and it didn't work.
Oh ride radio, Well take that, Siskel and Ebert. Uh,
the first Venom was terrible. I skipped the second one
(00:57):
because the first one was terrible. There's some talking about
but the third one it might be a little bit better.
But that's kind of like saying a toilet might just
be really full but not quite overflowing. It's fun on
load on bad movies, sure, but dragging my ass to
a theater to see a bunch of green screen CGI
product about the annex of a symbiote that looks like
(01:18):
someone sneezed black licris into a handkerchief. Nope, nope, nope,
nope nope. Venom three is also projected to hoover up
sixty five million bucks. It's opening weekend from people who
don't care how lousy it might be or what any
critic says in related news. Nothing matters. Instead, I want
to tell you about a book now before you change
the channel. Don't change the channel. I know a book
(01:38):
reading is hard, but it's a special book that took
fifty years to get into the world, and this release
is a real event. It is called The Last Dangerous Visions.
If you're a scy fine herd, this will ring a bell.
If not, I'll explain. And it's a little personal I've
mentioned before. The writer Harlan Ellison was a friend of mine.
He died in twenty eighteen, and I'm pretty sure that
through newspapers, radio and podcast I interviewed him more than
(02:01):
anyone else. The first book of his I read as
a teenager was like getting a bolt shot into my
brain from one of those cattle guns. Ferociously intelligent guy, compassionate,
really raw, and not just unafraid of bullies, but compelled
to fight him no matter who they were. There was
no one else like Carlan Ellison. He'd also written some
of the most famous episodes of The Outer Limits and
(02:21):
Star Trek and an iteration of the Twilight Zone in
the eighties. I think so. Cub reporter Mark at Little
Gannett newspaper in Indiana gets Ellison on the phone in
the mid nineties and says, you made me want to
be a writer. And he says right away, well, see
if that's a good or a bad thing. Jesus. When
I finished the article that i'd called him for, I
sent him two copies of it for his records in
(02:43):
C two as he specified, the full section not clipped,
and I included some of my newspaper collins. I was
nervous the next time we talked, but he said, you
got Moxie kid, and we became friends until he died.
There was nothing I wouldn't have done for the guy.
I never knew my father, and it doesn't really take
a bunch of brain power to do the math on
that one. Among our adventures. I ran interference for him
(03:04):
when the Science Fiction Hall of Fame people were trying
to induct him in Seattle. He hated being ghettoized as
justice science fiction writer, and he walked out of interviews
with people who called him one. He especially hated the
term sci fi. Can't tell you what he said it
sounded like, but it was something dirty. But he was
pleased to be recognized as one of the all time
giants of it. Anyway. The one thing I never asked
(03:24):
Harlan Ellison about was Dangerous Visions. It was a science
fiction anthology that he edited, and he wrote introductions for
it that blew your hair back as much as the
stories themselves. The first volume had an absolutely seismic effect
on the science fiction world. It was a landmark. It
started a new wave, and the second volume just as good.
But the third one he never finished it. People bugged
(03:45):
him about it constantly for decades. Authors who contributed to
it died they never saw their stories published, and I
never brought it up. Didn't want to set him off.
We had plans go hang out at pinks, have hot dogs.
He was going to show me his house in Sherman Oaks.
He called Ellison Wonderland, lots of stuff. But he died
just before I moved here to la I hoped to
be some help to his widow, Susan, but she died
(04:07):
right after I moved here, abruptly, really young and literally
as I was composing a letter to her. Life has
plenty of loose ends, and you just got to live
with him. But then I find out the third Dangerous
Visions book is coming out posthumously WT actual f J
Michael Struzinski, the Babylon five creator, got it done. I'm
(04:27):
just going to call him JMS. He was a friend
of Harlan's and for much longer than me, Harlan made
him as executor. JMS wrote a long, novellasized introduction to
the Last Dangerous Visions about what happened with this book
that took fifty years to publish, and what happened to Harlan.
JMS did the same as me. He sought out Harlan
as a young writer, let Harland know what his work
meant to him, and there was nothing he wouldn't have
(04:48):
done for Harlan, and he did. I'm reading this book
and I'm getting flashbacks to driving Harlan and Susan around
and my old Mustang, finding places for us to eat,
answering the phone when I'm depressed to hear Harlan in
this exaggerated Jewish mom voicing, oh you never call you
never right Well. JMS had a psych education and he
figured Harlan had bipolar disorder, which led to severe clinical
(05:12):
depression and also a death fixation from seeing his dad
die young and living past that age himself. So in
this introduction, JMS lists Harlan's by polar system symptoms rather
and they include racing thoughts, bouts of chronic fatigue, a
laundry list of stuff. I'm way too familiar with myself,
and this year I'm as old as my mom was
(05:34):
when she died very young. Oh crap. So let's just
say jms's introduction to The Last Dangerous Visions shook me.
It's tremendously moving. It made me cry. It's a major
achievement to get this book out into the world. It's
on Amazon. Of course, I got it from the library
on my iPod the instant I found out about it.
(05:55):
JMS was such a good friend to Harlan that he
got him to go to therapy. Finally, I ain't doing
and that the couple times I put my toe in
the water. My biggest breakthrough was that I hate talking
about my feelings. But reading helps. Reading helps check out
the Last Dangerous Visions and read some Harlan Ellison. Reading
is hard and We'll get back to movies and stuff
next week. But this is good and it's really special.
(06:17):
There's your run and report. Mo that was great, Mark,
that was great. The stories contained great. Thank you. I'm
sure you've met some of your heroes and have stories
of your own. I do.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
And sometimes they've disappointed me, and other times they've not
disappointed me. But I enjoyed how the story began decades
ago and in decades down the road, and you got
to see it come to fruition.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
It was such a piece of unfinished business and my
mouth was hanging open a lot of the time I
read this stuff. I knew Harlan for what twenty five
years maybe something like that. I didn't know this stuff
and some of this stuff. And by the way, I
didn't at all ruin the book for anybody by what
I revealed. There's so much going on. And he was
such an interesting guy, and there's a lot of him
(07:08):
on YouTube if you're not familiar with him. He was
an extraordinarily entertaining, smart, just whip smart, articulate guy. So
he used to be a favorite of Tom Snyder. He
was on The Tomorrow Show way back in the day.
He was one of these writers, especially science fiction writers.
He was a handsome guy. He was good on TV,
(07:28):
very clever, very funny. He was charming. Everybody wanted to
have him as a guest, even MERV Griffin, for God's sakes,
although once they got him on the show, they never
knew what he was gonna say. He was a real
live wire. There's lots of him to discover. He also
did a show on the old sci Fi Channel, even though,
like I said, he hated the term sci fi, hated it.
(07:51):
He did a show call called I think it's called
Harlan Ellison's Watching on the sci Fi Channel. They're just
brilliant little short pieces of his commentary on sci fi,
pop culture, comic books, you name it. And I got
to tell you this. You made me remember something back
when Isaac Asimov died. Remember Isaac Asimov absolutely also one
(08:14):
of the great suits in the science fiction Hall of Fame.
I was away at college and I didn't have TV
or cable or anything like that. Harlan did a very
emotional eulogy for Isaac Asimov on his show. I had
my mom long distance on the phone, hold the phone
up to the TV so I could hear this thing.
And it brought me to tears way back then too.
(08:36):
If you don't know this author, Harlan Ellison, you're really
in for a treat. Well.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I need to go back and listen to this again,
because I think that was one of your best run
of reports ever, because it was personal, if you had
personal anecdotes.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
He meant a lot to me, and I think he
meant a lot to a lot of people, and I
think this book is going to be really special to
a lot of people as well.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI a M six forty
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