Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions may finally be published...

[ZodWallop]

J Michael Straczynski is bound and determined to get The Last Dangerous Visions published, finally.

From The Guardian:

It is the great white whale of science fiction: an anthology of stories by some of the genre’s greatest names, collected in the early 1970s by Harlan Ellison yet mysteriously never published. But almost 50 years after it was first announced, The Last Dangerous Visions is finally set to see the light of day.

But:

Straczynski is planning to include dozens of the stories originally commissioned by Ellison, as well as work by “some of the most well-known and respected writers working today”, who are yet to be revealed. It will also feature “one last, significant work by Harlan that has never been published, that has been seen by only a handful of people”, and will reveal why the book was delayed for so long, “a story known only to a very few people”.

That's cool. But at that point is it really The Last Dangerous Visions? Or a new book that reuses the unused title?

Either way, good luck to him.

[fjtorres]

The stories might be good, but what made the Visions "Dangerous" was that they broke the rules of the establishment...
...circa 1960...
Going where no publisher of the time would let them go.

If it were just the old stories it just might have some historical value for showing what was considered dangerous then.

By now there's a whole new establishment in control and a big chunk of the field is out of the control of any establishment. Breaking rules, old or new, is hardly daring or dangerous or notable.

[binaryhermit]

I'd be interested in it if the price is right.
But given the mentions of major presses being interested, I doubt that'll be the case...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The stories might be good, but what made the Visions "Dangerous" was that they broke the rules of the establishment...
...circa 1960...
Going where no publisher of the time would let them go.

By now there's a whole new establishment in control and a big chunk of the field is out of the control of any establishment. Breaking rules, old or new, is hardly daring or dangerous or notable.

I do agree. Though ironically, nowadays publishing stories meant to push buttons in the seventies may wind up pushing a whole different set of buttons today.

I appreciate that he is crowd-funding the book first* Hopefully that will protect the book from sensitivity readers and so forth, which could stop the book (or portions of it) from seeing the light of day. It is still possible for there to be Dangerous Visions.

*I don't understand why he's using Patreon though. Kickstarter or Go Fund Me seem like they would make more sense.

If it were just the old stories it just might have some historical value for showing what was considered dangerous then.

I do think sticking to the originally planned stories would be the best way to go. But then:

1. Not all of the stories are still available
2. I don't think there ever really was a final planned table of contents
3. I'm guessing new stories from big shots may make the book more attractive to the major publishers

[BenG]

Many of the stories have been published elsewhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_La...shed_elsewhere

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by BenG

Many of the stories have been published elsewhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_La...shed_elsewhere

Yeah, I do wonder how Straczynski decides in the end what to put in and what to leave out?

It wouldn't bother me if all of those stories still appeared in TLDV. They were published here and there, scattered all over, so putting them all in a book wouldn't be the same as say, another sci-fi anthology with Asimov's Nightfall.