Bugf#ck: The Worthless Wit and Wisdom of Harlan Ellison

by Harlan Ellison, Arnie Fenner (Editor)

Harlan Ellison® has a lot to say; as one of America's most honored entertainers, he has been writing fiction and commentary, and speaking on college campuses and television talk shows, and challenging his audiences to think outside the box for sixty years.
With 90 books bearing his by-line and thousands of stories and essays and anecdotes and speeches and interviews to his credit, Harlan Ellison® has written countless memorable lines in the course of his career.
BUGF#CK (a word that Ellison coined in the 1960s and a favorite of Stephen King's) wonderfully and unforgettably gathers some of Harlan's best bon mots.

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity."

"K is for "Kenghis Khan"; He was a very nice person. History has no record of him. There is a moral in that, somewhere."

"The problem with being a pain in the ass is that you never quite know who's trying to get you."

"Why do people keep insisting that I join the 21st Century? I *LIVE* in the 21st Century! I just don't want to be bothered by the shitheads on the internet!"

"I have no mouth. And I must scream."

"I think love and sex are separate and only vaguely similar."

128 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2011

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like having a conversation with this great writer - interesting read! Harlan Ellison (HE) really got me interested in science fiction. He seemed to be saying 'here is a sign - read it before you go any further down this road' in almost all of his stories. Whenever I go to my favorite used bookstore I always look to see if I can find anything by him.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice little collection of quotes from Harlan Ellison. There's not a whole lot to it, it's like a slim volume of poetry, but it's a cute volume with some nice thought-provoking ideas.

[George Sulea · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are vast books of philosophy, and there are profound books of philosophy...then there are books that just reach up and grab you by the balls and twist.

"Bugf#ck", The useless wit and wisdom of Harlan Ellison, is one such pair of pliers.

I've met this gentleman, heard him speak, and the acerbic, biting bits of nasty in this book are...great:)

I've always thought of myself as a nice guy, but Mr. Ellison, by his own definition, would not. Read this if you love his work, and if you need a kick in the bahoogies:)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda like one of those silly, tiny gift books they sell by the cash register, only with more cursing.

[Dormo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of Harlan Ellison's quotes. Some were taken from interviews, some from his stories, some from essays, and some from his documentary "Dreams with Sharp Teeth". I've heard most of these quotes, but it's nice to see them nicely encapsulated in a single book. The book is small, measuring in at about 6" x 4" or so. Most pages have fewer than ~15 words on them. I read it in about half an hour.

The introduction by the editor was nice, but wasn't any different than the forewords in his other books.

A nice purchase for any Ellison fan. It is far from an important addition to his bibliography, but it's good to know he's still getting published and being recognized.

A few typos (misspelling "Dostoevsky" on page 98), but nothing too bothersome.

[David Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This ranges from the pithy ("Human speech is not his natural tongue") to the overwrought ("They were worshipers at a black mass the city had demanded be staged, not once, but a thousand times a day in this insane asylum of steel and stone") and thereby bungles a nifty idea.

[Glen Quasny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A handy reference to inspiring quotes from a master.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every one a keeper.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison is one of the most quotable living authors that still walks this Earth today. He follows in the greatest of traditions - the writer who does not simply have something he writes, but the one that has something to honestly say. When I was a kid, I devoured books of quotes and still pick up a few to this day - you can see my few reviews I have done on Goodreads to see some examples...go ahead and check if you wish... I have time and they invented the back button on your browser for a reason...back? Okay...on with it - and I always lamented that there seemed to have been these icons who were infinitely quotable and seemingly commented on every thing and every response to those things. Twain regaled me, Wilde quipped very well, and there were so many others, but where was anyone still alive who quipped. Then, by sheer dumb luck, someone said, "You like science fiction?" When I applied in the affirmative, they pulled an old library copy of Approaching Oblivion and handed it to me with only one more piece of advice - "Read the introduction." I went off, wondering what tales of spaceships and blasters and the like I would read. I was 12 or 13 at the time. When I read the introduction, it changed my view of the genre of science fiction even at that age, because Harlan, I realized, was our age's angry Twain with the humorous notions that Wilde used.

So, when I found this book, I knew I would know many of the quotes. I was correct in that, yet I do not regret my purchase. Arnie Fenner as editor faced a daunting task in compiling a thin book of quotes from a prolific speaker and writer. Ellison's skill is much like Twain's - he has spoken at colleges, late night television shows, and the lot as well as having written several award winning works. So, as an Ellison reader, I knew Fenner was going to have to work hard to impress me. In the end, some quotes I loved were left out. There were a few I had not heard. All of them provoked a response, however, as Ellison, undoubtedly, would like them to do.

The other thing about this work that is nice is the listing of Ellison's works- novels, novellas, short story collections, collaborations, graphic novels, essays, screenplays, retrospectives, works he edited, and his audio collections are listed in the back in a section called the "Chronology of Books by Harlan Ellison" and while it is now outdated - Ellison keeps writing, a good thing for our species - it is a nice resource.

So, why 4 stars - because Fenner's task was impossible... There are quotes missing that feel needed if you know they exist. The trouble becomes, then, that the quip Fenner made about a sequel has not yet come to pass. Ellison is, to me, that person you meet that, whether you agree all the time or not, you always want to hear more from and about because you walk away knowing something more about not only that individual and the story they live, but also seemingly about yourself.

So, Mr. Fenner, should this review come before you for some odd reason, I give you the highest review I can because you did better than I thought possible, but for a book that advertised being only the "useless wit and wisdom" of Ellison, I thought there was a lot more quotes that I knew. That being said, you introduced me to a few I did not know. Also, in these days of Internet quote pages that have some of these quotes, you do something most of them do not - you cite them so the reader can go back and find the source material...and that is beyond vital in these days of unattributed and misquoted quotations pulled from online sources.

In short, if you like quotes, authors, or just clever phrases, you should stop reading my pedantic and banal review and pick this up - oh, and dig up a copy of Approaching Oblivion while you are at it...and read the introduction, okay?

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent selection of some of Mr. Ellison's most memorable quotes, observations, rejoinders to hecklers, and exerts from some of his many excellent works.

My favorite was there: "Everyone is not entitled to his own opinion. Everyone is entitled to his own informed opinion."

I really enjoyed this one.

[Philip Athans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison is the greatest writer of short fiction ever to have walked the Earth. He is an author to be admired, feared, studied, copied, defended, and, most of all, read.

[Jade Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, bittersweet and full of spitfire. It's basically Harlan in quotable form. I would recommend keeping this wee book by your desk and picking it up every so often (particularly when the world is going mad).

[s · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s not enough words to put to the eternal wit of Ellison; an absolutely delightful read that really shows the man behind the work.

[Daniel A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

bugf#ck: The Worthless Wit and Wisdom of Harlan Ellison is, as advertised, a gift-sized book of quotations and aphorisms from (again, as advertised) Harlan Ellison, whose way with words was arguably unmatched among his contemporaries in the New Wave of science fiction. Ellison has his partisans, with exactly zero in-between among friend and foe—folks generally either love Ellison wholeheartedly, for legitimate reasons, or hate him with a white-hot passion, for equally legitimate reasons—but for a fan of Ellison's writing and speeches and lectures, bugf#ck is both handy and indispensable as a quick reference for some of his best lines, particularly those that flew under the radar, also particularly as opposed to his more famous words, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream perhaps most saliently.

I never knew Ellison personally, unlike several people with whom I've been friends, myself, for years; some of Ellison's behavior, whether "merely" cantankerous (paging Gene Roddenberry and Christopher Priest, for two) or downright criminal and utterly indefensible [CONTENT WARNING](his assault on Connie Willis was, frankly, beneath contempt, and many, many people have understandably never forgiven him for it, even since his passing in 2018), made Ellison hard to appreciate for wide swaths of SF/F readership, but if a reader does appreciate Ellison (or, at the risk of assuming that what limited audience I have here will appreciate this statement, can at least somewhat overlook his failings), there's something downright poetic about several of Ellison's quotations in this book (even if editor Arnie Fenner's foreword is largely superfluous).

Certainly, if nothing else, bugf#ck has inspired me to seek out even more of Ellison's work than I was already interested in (which is honestly easier for my conscience now that he isn't actually alive anymore to benefit from that interest [or, really, to cause further harm than he already has]). Yes, bugf#ck is somewhat ephemeral in and of itself, but for me at least, it was a nice little book to put on my bookshelf, tucked away for ready reference.

[Mara]

An odd, random collection of quotes that could have been stronger (and the book itself longer). The best quotes were those he gave about writing:

"The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer." (p.27)

"Writers take tours in other people's lives." (p.89)

"Chaos is when a man walks ahead, but his soul lags behind." (p.107)

"And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment." (p.123)

Not sure how to rate it, so I'll leave that blank.

[Karl Geiger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing compilation of anecdotes and aphorisms from the world's angriest 81-year-old teenager, as compiled by his friend Arnie Fenner.

I bought this pocket volume because I had recently watched Ellison's epic rant "Pay the Writer", and excerpt from Ellison's biographical film "Dreams with Sharp Teeth".

[Matt Champagne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun bathroom read, but not all that witty. More angry.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you haven't read Harlan Ellison, you haven't read." ~ Richard Halasz