Yet again Heidi McDonald’s inimitable The Beat has another post about the Ellison -vs- Fantagraphics lawsuit & fued. As my few readers no doubt recall, between homoerotic paeans to the Egg King, Arafat Kazi, and being quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, one of this blog’s highlights has been my inadvertent provocation of Harlan Ellison’s mighty wrauth. My comments had the big dog protesting, really protesting! that he was satisfied with the outcome of the mutually agreed upon settlement. And also not giving a fuck about me and my opinion. (And proving this by posting in multiple public forums to give the world a head’s up that AYO, homeboy’s sick of using TECHNOLOGY and he don’t give a fuck!)

Both of my posts on the topic were centered on the strangest aspect of the settlement– Ellison agreeing to host, for 30 days, a 500 word rebuttal by Gary Groth on Ellison’s webpage. Unlike much of the rest of the settlement, which was nebulous in terms of victors, this struck me as an actual loss. If the purpose of the lawsuit was to stop Fantagraphics from its potentially libelous speech on the subject of Harlan Ellison, in what way is this accomplished by letting Fantagraphics’ co-owner & figurehead put up a rebuttal on the very topic & hosted entirely on the website of, uh, Harlan Ellison?

I recommend that everyone go through the back links and look at the terms of the settlement– it’s clear that the rebuttal must, on one level, deal with the accusation that Groth molests kids, but otherwise the wording was remarkably open ended. From my Uninformed Opinionated Blogger reading of it, I think Groth had free reign to say whatever the hell he wanted, and that Ellison had agreed not only to publish it, but also not sue over its contents. This felt incredibly strange: because in the world of the internet, 500 words for 30 days means 500 words forever. Like I said. A loss.

Well, jeez, never in my wildest dreams did I think Harlan Ellison would not give a fuck enough about my opinion to take it to heart & not comply with the settlement. Which, according to the above post on the The Beat, is exactly what’s happened: while Ellison was battling the dread Blogosphere and its Uninformed Opinions & other Terrible Crimes, Groth sent in his rebuttal. Ellison has since refused to post it on his website. As this blog kept getting hits from people looking for the settlement, I’ve known something was up but I hadn’t been paying that much attention– some weeks you have better things to do. (Only some!)

It goes without saying that Ellison’s decision is a terrible one. All along I’ve found this spectacle entirely regrettable. Whatever one thinks of Ellison as a man, it’s indisputable that he’s written some truly wonderful work. I’ve enjoyed much of it– as it happens, I’m typing this in a room with many of my own personal copies of his books. In my ideal world where everyone acts their age & knows when they’ve won at life, this is the time when Ellison would be enjoying the fruits of his many labors. The man is a Grand Master! Instead, his time seems increasingly wasted on fighting Wikipedia and suing Fantagraphics over vanity publishing.

Outside of the tiny cadre of Peter David and other die hard fans, Ellison has only enhanced Fantagraphics’ reputation while tarring himself as an opponent of Free Speech and the 1st Amendment right to sass your betters. Since filing suit, Ellison’s actions have only reinforced this perception, right or wrong. Yelling every chance he gets before the settlement, picking fights with nothing bloggers (yours truly included!) after the settlement, and then not abiding by the terms of the settlement: these are not the actions of a man looking to maintain his reputation and standing.

I have no god damned clue what they are. But I know what they ain’t.