I, Robot: Ellison, Asimov, and some foreshadowing

Haskell's Digs

"There in the midst of the Amazon Jungle, Simon Haskell has cobbled up for himself a replica of an Art Deco salon." - Harlan Ellison

I did this piece in the aftermath of my first visit to Ellison Wonderland; I aimed to express a sliver of the wisdom, good cheer, demanding wit and uncompromising singularity of Ellison's personal atmosphere.

Butterfly Bot

"The robot monarch butterfly drops down and hovers above Susan Calvin. She stands in a long corridor of silvery metal. We cannot see the end of the tunnel. The robot butterfly hovers and she looks up at it." - Harlan Ellison

Calvin and Herbie

"The CAMERA PICKS UP HERBIE and then the two of them are in the maelstrom, their voices colliding. She shoves against him, but he doesn't budge." - Harlan Ellison

Calvin's Pyramid

"INTERIOR PYRAMID -- FULL SHOT from Bratenahl and Bernice in foreground showing the interior of the Calvin residence. High, enormously complex, and robots everywhere which, while not in profusion, obviously run this living situation." - Harlan Ellison

The Cryonic Crypts

"Enormous caverns of shimmering plastic and steel. They stretch up into the distance. We see two figures walking down the two-lane-highway-wide corridor." - Harlan Ellison

I am proud to say, this painting now hangs in Ellison Wonderland. Harlan tells me that he even moved a Picasso to accommodate it. Did I mention that Harlan is a master fantasist?

Frinkel

"Time was ... before the booths ... you'd see a place like this deep with ships ... the big ships ... close together, hundreds of 'em like a stand of spears. Time was." - Harlan Ellison

Graveside

"LONG SHOT -- past Bratenahl as Susan and her two guards reach a low pyramidal structure sitting alone on the empty plain, nothing near it." - Harlan Ellison

Lava Fantasy

"The fissures open down and down and down like the sides of the Grand Canyon, and as the lava wave surges past him, Byerley is standing on a spit of land with two enormous gorges, one on either side." - Harlan Ellison

Lenny

"CAMERA BACK to show Lenny, six feet tall, six-fingered, seated on the floor with legs straight out like a baby, entranced by his toy." - Harlan Ellison

Novo Brasilia

"Novo Brasilia, in all its splendor. Spread out, with the jungle in the near distance. The Xingu River, mightier than the Hudson and twice as long, snakes among the impenetrable stands of virgin timber." - Harlan Ellison

The Philadelphia

"Camera DOWN AND IN on a teleport booth pyramid. We also see, not too far distant from the booth, a battered spaceship." - Harlan Ellison

Harlan and I locked horns over this spacecraft design. He called my starship a "bishop's miter" and I called his idea a V-2. Thus, a compromise: A space-going C5-A with dim echoes of bishop's miter. Harlan said he laughed his ass off when he saw it.

Robbie

"The robot swings her to his shoulders and, holding her very securely, begins loping up the slope toward the Calvin home as the CAMERA GOES WITH." - Harlan Ellison

The Vase

"She drops the vase. Bratenahl's eyes follow it down ... it lies there between them, almost symbolically. He looks up and there is fear in her eyes." - Harlan Ellison

Xingu Xavante

"BEGIN ZOOM OUT... back and back and back to show the lost city of Xingu Xavante. And the city almost lost in the midst of the overflowing jungle." - Harlan Ellison