Gurglings of a Putrid Stream

Over on WordPress, someone commented on a post I put up for a Harlan Ellison story.  He said Ellison himself had once commented on a review he had posted for one of the author's collections, and he provided the link.  I found Ellison's words on author/reader/reviewer relationship very interesting in light of what's been happening more recently.  Here's the relevant quotation:

Responding to reviews and/or criticism is actually a no-win proposition. If a creator chooses simply to ignore it all, just to motor on doing the job, then s/he is “reclusive,” “standoffish,” “elitist,” and ultimately, to the perception of the love/hate relationship critic, an “asshole” considered dismissive of the readership–some members of which never “get it” that all a reader is TRULY entitled to only this: THE BOOK SHE OR HE BOUGHT. not a smile from the Author, nor elaborately-demanded signatures and dedications on a horde of old Book Club, nor even a courteous hello. A book, that’s it. The word, that’s all. So if a creator chooses to honor his/her readership and their attentions, good or bad, and elects to reply (as I do here, with a smile), the risk is run of having the anonymous, distanced, love/hate communicant take umbrage and flame the more.

And here's the link to his full comment (a very gracious one) to Joachim Boaz:

https://sciencefictionruminations.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/book-review-approaching-oblivion-harlan-ellison-1974/