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"Hydrogen and Idiocy" is the first anthology of the caustic Ellison published in Italy. A unique opportunity to read his unpredictable and eclectic stories. The writing style is unusual and brilliant, as evident from the aggressive introduction of "Mortal Terrors", where he reveals his intentions to the readers: to terrify, provoke, move, enrage, laugh, love, hate. The respective presentations of the sixteen stories are nothing short of memorable, loaded with ideas, thoughts, and even conflicting feelings.
A character with a rebellious, individualistic spirit, who refuses to conform, possesses a personal, mischievous, and restless scheme to creatively convert the obsession of writing into Art. Yet he himself confesses that he does so because he knows nothing else, or perhaps because he is in constant search of inner freedom. Ellison attacks illogical beliefs that lead towards Scientology, drugs, astrology, the hatred of elites and intellectual commitment, false religions, and deceitful prophets. The refined writing rich in advertising and television references is no accident but a true attack on the exacerbated capitalist consumerism that every day nullifies or tries to annihilate and massify the individuality of people. Our world is also an indifferent universe, where we move insignificantly like irrelevant and frightened creatures. However, at the same time, he attempts to affectionately convey that we are not alone, and through wisdom and courage, we can distinguish ourselves from the masses. To him, the most precious treasures are insight and friendship. The latter often appears in his writings, even if transfigured or cleverly disguised. He claims to travel through the lives of others, thereby transmitting the inner sensations of the protagonists' psyches. One will thus be transported into the life of a former studio musician who repairs violins, in the temporal flows of wasted lives, in a wonder shop, up to the Death of the Universe, when the passage of time comes to an end, and the end of space is imminent, where the last throes of life and intelligence are found.
Ellison’s main prerogative is to make introductions appear as stories, and stories as expansions or upheavals of the same. As in the apocalyptic "Flop Sweat", where talk show host Theresa Ketchum discovers at her own expense what it means to become an obscure priestess. With this system, Ellison encodes the intricate biographical experiences of his life, sublimating them with fantasy and assimilating them into his own flow. The loss of a beloved dog, euthanized in a gas chamber by a neighbor’s decision, the betrayal of a friend, an arrest, and many other events will motivate his stories. Like magic, the stories create themselves, extracted from the writer's mind through the typewriter. Perhaps only by exorcising a painful past trapped within us can we maintain a stable fate. Not as it happens "In the Fourth Year of the War", since Evil enters the split mind of an individual, taking possession of it. Equally disturbing is the nightmare experienced by Michael Kirxby in "All the Birds Come Home to Roost" who, after having relations with many women, is forced to meet them all in reverse over time, down to his first wife, in an asylum for years. Meanwhile, the protagonist of the surreal "Saturday's Child", Peter Novins, calls home and hears his own voice answering! Unbelievable but true, in his house, there is himself, while he is at the High Tide restaurant. Only in the end will the truth and the reason for this crazy episode be revealed. He will even mention figures of the likes of Borges, Shatner, Castro, Dali, Polanski, Dalai Lama, in the erotic-pornographic "How's Life on Sissalda by Night?". He will also dedicate a story to the memory of Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
It is challenging to classify the stories into a precise genre, and even more so to define the essence of the narrator, always clever in escaping expected definitions. He is capable of deftly navigating through a considerable multitude of literary genres. Every story will always hold a surprise and a profound message to communicate. Last but not least, the volume is accompanied by a lucid and impeccable afterword by Evangelisti: "Harlan Ellison, or Seeing Dangerously".
Ah, I almost forgot! For Harlan, hydrogen and idiocy are the most common elements in the Universe. Polyhedric regards ©
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