Again, Dangerous Visions

by edited by Harlan Ellison

  But Timor did not understand. A thing was clysming from him, a thing of most careful construction which had almost killed him, dissolving out.

  "It is absolutely necessary that this child be totally reconditioned," he said in a stranger's voice. "He is Scout Timor's son." But his words meant nothing to him, for he had heard his name in the music. His true name, name of his babyhood under the soft gray hands and bodies of his first world. The bodies that had taught him love, all in the mud, in the cool mud.

  The thing beside him was making hurtful sounds.

  "You wanted the beauty!" Timor screamed his last Human words.

  And then they were down, tearing and rolling in the sweet mud, gray bodies with him. Until he found that it was no longer fighting but love—love as it always had been, his true flowing, while the voices rose around him and the muddied thing under him that was dead or dying slipped away in the gray welter, in the music of many, flowing together in Paradise in the dim ruby light.

  Afterword

  Reading an afterword is like watching a stoned friend sail onto an interstate expressway. One can't help looking and one is seldom made happy. Exceptions, sure. Our long-established favorites may safely peer around the edges of their monuments, even wave and wink. And we have also the walkie-talkie writers, the Pan troglodytes who verbalize every twitching moment and who are named Mailer and Wolfe when they're good. To them are permitted forewords, afterwords, asides, superscripts, anything—because their separate stories are in fact only nodes, local swirls in a life-flow of words.

  But the rest of us, poor carnivores whose inwards meagerly condense into speech. Only at intervals when the moon, perhaps, opens our throats do we clamber up the rocks and emit our peculiar streams of sound to the sky. Good, bad, we do not know. When it is over we are finished. Our glands have changed. Push microphones at us and you get only grumbles about the prevalence of fleas or the scarcity of rabbits. And this is what makes most afterwords such nervous reading, gives rise to the suspicion that the baying itself was a cryptic complaint about rabbits.

  We think not, of course. We think it was somewhat deeper in the blood. But we're in no condition to argue. Push me at noon on the streets and I can only tell you—those damned rabbits are dying out and the fleas have us.

  Peace?

  About this story. A thermal vortex by the arbitrary name of Harlan Ellison has been bashing out a bit of free space where writers who need some elbow-room can try. Count me among those currently running and flapping, dragging homemade fly-buggies up on cliffs and taking off with hope. The resultant is not of course a neat scene, nor necessarily art. Moreover, Ellison is instantly recognizable as that type of absolutely top guy whose friends all go around with tubes in their stomachs. But after all the Maalox has been gulped and the old ladies picked up and apologized to, I think a ragged cheer is in order. For the guy without whom everybody would have slept better and dreamed less.

  THE END

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  Again, Dangerous Visions

  Table of Contents

  INTRODUCTION

  An Assault of New Dreamers

  Introduction to

  THE COUNTERPOINT OF VIEW

  KEYNOTE ENTRY

  THE COUNTERPOINT OF VIEW

  John Heidenry

  Introduction to

  CHING WITCH!

  CHING WITCH!

  Ross Rocklynne

  Introduction to

  THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST

  THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Introduction to

  FOR VALUE RECEIVED

  FOR VALUE RECEIVED

  andrew j. offutt

  Introduction to

  MATHOMS FROM THE TIME CLOSET

  MATHOMS FROM THE TIME CLOSET

  Gene Wolfe

  Introduction to

  TIME TRAVEL FOR PEDESTRIANS

  TIME TRAVEL FOR PEDESTRIANS

  Ray Nelson

  Introduction to

  CHRIST, OLD STUDENT IN A NEW SCHOOL

  CHRIST, OLD STUDENT IN A NEW SCHOOL

  Ray Bradbury

  Introduction to

  KING OF THE HILL

  KING OF THE HILL

  Chad Oliver

  Introduction to

  THE 10:00 REPORT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY . . .

  THE 10:00 REPORT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY . . .

  Edward Bryant

  Introduction to

  THE FUNERAL

  THE FUNERAL

  Kate Wilhelm

  Introduction to

  HARRY THE HARE

  HARRY THE HARE

  James B. Hemesath

  Introduction to

  WHEN IT CHANGED

  WHEN IT CHANGED

  Joanna Russ

  Introduction to

  THE BIG SPACE FUCK

  THE BIG SPACE FUCK

  Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

  Introduction to

  BOUNTY

  BOUNTY

  T. L. Sherred

  Introduction to

  STILL-LIFE

  STILL-LIFE

  K. M. O'Donnell

  Introduction to

  STONED COUNSEL

  STONED COUNSEL

  H. H. Hollis

  Introduction to

  MONITORED DREAMS AND STRATEGIC CREMATIONS

  MONITORED DREAMS AND STRATEGIC CREMATIONS

  Bernard Wolfe

  Introduction to

  WITH A FINGER IN MY I

  WITH A FINGER IN MY I

  David Gerrold

  Introduction to

  IN THE BARN

  IN THE BARN

  Piers Anthony

  Introduction to

  SOUNDLESS EVENING

  SOUNDLESS EVENING

  Lee Hoffman

  Introduction to

  Gahan Wilson

  Introduction to

  THE TEST-TUBE CREATURE, AFTERWARD

  THE TEST-TUBE CREATURE, AFTERWARD

  Joan Bernott

  Introduction to

  AND THE SEA LIKE MIRRORS

  AND THE SEA LIKE MIRRORS

  Gregory Benford

  Introduction to

  BED SHEETS ARE WHITE

  BED SHEETS ARE WHITE

  Evelyn Lief

  Introduction to

  TISSUE

  TISSUE

  James Sallis

  Introduction to

  ELOUISE AND THE DOCTORS OF THE PLANET PERGAMON

  ELOUISE AND THE DOCTORS OF THE PLANET PERGAMON

  Josephine Saxton

  Introduction to

  CHUCK BERRY, WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME

  CHUCK BERRY, WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME

  Ken McCullough

  Introduction to

  EPIPHANY FOR ALIENS

  EPIPHANY FOR ALIENS

  David Kerr

  Introduction to

  EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

  EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

  Burt K. Filer

  Introduction to

  MOTH RACE

  MOTH RACE

  Richard Hill

  Introduction to

  IN RE GLOVER

  IN RE GLOVER

  Leonard Tushnet

  Introduction to

  ZERO GEE

  ZERO GEE

  Ben Bova

  Introduction to

  A MOUSE IN THE WALLS OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

  A MOUSE IN THE WALLS OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

  Dean R. Koontz

  Introduction to

  GETTING ALONG

  GETTING ALONG

  James Blish (with Judith Ann Lawrence)

  Introduction to

  TOTENBÜCH

  TOTENBÜCH

  A. Parra (y Figueredo)

  Introduction to

  THINGS LOST

  THINGS LOST

  Thomas M. Disch

  Introduction to

  WITH THE BENTF
IN BOOMER BOYS ON LITTLE OLD NEW ALABAMA

  WITH THE BENTFIN BOOMER BOYS ON LITTLE OLD NEW ALABAMA

  Richard A. Lupoff

  Introduction to

  LAMIA MUTABLE

  LAMIA MUTABLE

  M. John Harrison

  Introduction to

  LAST TRAIN TO KANKAKEE

  LAST TRAIN TO KANKAKEE

  Robin Scott

  Introduction to

  EMPIRE OF THE SUN

  EMPIRE OF THE SUN

  Andrew Weiner

  Introduction to

  OZYMANDIAS

  OZYMANDIAS

  Terry Carr

  Introduction to

  THE MILK OF PARADISE

  THE MILK OF PARADISE

  James Tiptree, Jr.