Subject: Review: "The Last Deadloss Visions" by Christopher Priest

From: [email-masked] (p-m agapow)
Date: 06 Aug 1997 20:29:41 GMT

"The Last Deadloss Visions" by Christopher Priest
		A Postview, copyright 1997 p-m agapow

An enquiry into, a history of and thoughts on the non-appearance of Harlan
Ellison's "The Last Dangerous Visions."

"Deadloss" is a peculiar work, but then "Last" is a peculiar affair, the
SF publishing world's Marie Celeste.  For those who came in late, a brief
sketch of the background: In 1967 Ellison, SF's oldest enfant terrible,
produced "Dangerous Visions," a collection of edgy provocative stories by
the hottest authors of the period.  A followup anthology "Again, Dangerous
Visions" appeared in 1972.  Both books achieved considerable commercial
and critical success, enjoying much publicity and high profiles.
Regrettably, both collections have aged poorly since.  A final volume,
"The Last Dangerous Visions," was promised by Ellison and stories
collected and paid for.  "Last" never appeared.

The non-appearance of a book is scarcely interesting or unique.  What
makes "Last" interesting is the way the project refused to die,
snowballing to grandiose proportions.  The book shifted publishers several
times, more stories were acquired, the size blew out absurdly (more than
twice the length of "War and Peace") Ellison made repeated and unambiguous
statements that book was finished and publication just around the corner.
"Last" never appeared.  The details are byzantine, colourful and, as
Priest notes, "a terrific story."  Just as "The Devil's Candy" charted the
disastrous filming of "Bonfire of the Vanities," so "Deadloss" observes
the course of "Last" with the sick fascination of a car accident. Horrible
as it is, you can't help but watch.

Apart from the entertainment value, is there worth to "Deadloss?"  Given
the cult of personality that surrounds Ellison, both for and against, such
a question is controversial.  Priest is cast as either a character
assassin or a brave hero.  My thoughts are unlikely to change the mind of
anyone who has already decided.  Nonetheless, Priest deserves credit for
the compilation of this history for the first time and his efforts to
inform and support the large number of authors involved.  Perhaps Priest's
motives are questionable.  He has been accused of wanting to embarrass
Ellison.  Maybe so, but Ellison has much to be embarrassed about.
Conversely, there are points at which the text is not entirely
dispassionate or convincing.  For example, Priest asserts that Ellison's
integrity was not an issue until he made it one.  "If he did not, no one
else would be bothered about it."  This seems dubious to me.  Apart from
these isolated points, the analysis is cold, perceptive (including a
plausible theory of how it all happened) and frequently amusing.

"Deadloss" was last updated in 1994, with the majority of its material
gathered in 1988.  As such it is slightly dated.  Also it will prove
interesting chiefly to those who have heard part of the story or have
followed the work of Ellison.  Thankfully it is available in published
form (as "The Book on the Edge of Forever") and widely on the web.
[***/interesting] and "Bad Movies We Love" on the Sid and Nancy scale.

%A Christopher Priest
%T The Last Deadloss Visions
%I http://sf.www.lysator.liu.se/sf_archive/sf-texts/Ansible/Last_Deadloss_Visions,Chris_Priest
%D 1994
%O Internet resource

paul-michael agapow ([email-masked]), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse
"There is no adventure, there is no romance, there is only trouble and desire."
[archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]