Sunday, February 6, 2011

Paperback 386: Again, Dangerous Visions Vol. 1 / ed. Harlan Ellison (Signet E7580)

Paperback 386: Signet E7580 (5th ptg, 1972)

Title: Again, Dangerous Visions, Vol. 1
Editor: Harlan Ellison
Cover artist: Ed Emshwiller (illustrations throughout)

Yours for: $8

SIgE7580.AgainDang

Best things about this cover:
  • Honestly, the cover does nothing for me, but this is a really important collection of so-called "speculative fiction," and Ellison's introduction alone is worth the price of admission. He writes with an elegance, ease, humor, and speed that I covet something awful.
  • OK I kind of like the dude with legs of very different lengths. Psychedelia was clearly still the dominant visual style of the day. I just wish the art were more central (throughout), less decorative.

SigE7580bc.AgainDang

Best things about this back cover:
  • I think this book was designed by and/or for someone on mind-altering substances. The promise of an expanded consciousness is a nice touch. Consciousness-raising = political. Consciousness-expanding = acid.

Page 123~

from "The Word for World is Forest" by Ursula K. Le Guin

But when the great ship returned, and he went to Eshsen, Lyubov met him there. He was silent and tenuous, very sad, so that the old carking grief awoke in Selver.

I don't understand any of that, but I want to incorporate "carking" into my vocabulary right away. Is it a real word? Ha, it is—CARK, tr. and intr. v., "To burden or be burdened with trouble; worry."

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

6 comments:

Will Errickson said...

I love Ellison and have had this collection for *years* but don't think I've ever actually read it.

D_Blackwell said...

A bit of the back-of-the-hand to be featured as one of the 'and others'. It might just be better to leave unsaid that some are featured and some ain't.

Anonymous said...

The "Again" and the "VOL 1" don't quite go together.

JRSM said...

It's current slang in Australia, too, where we say "he carked it" to mean "he died".

capewood said...

I'm pretty sure I own this and read it many years ago.

Pax said...

I own the hard cover and not only read it many years ago two of the stories have haunted me for decades, she says, having left her pride at the door.