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    "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
    Unavailable
    "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
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    "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
    Ebook38 pages26 minutes

    "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

    By Harlan Ellison

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards: A science fiction classic about an antiestablishment rebel set on overthrowing the totalitarian society of the future.
     
    One of science fiction’s most antiestablishment authors rails against the accepted order while questioning blind obedience to the state in this unique pairing of short story and essay.
     
    “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” is set in a dystopian future society in which time is regulated by a heavy bureaucratic hand known as the Ticktockman. The rebellious Everett C. Marm flouts convention, masquerading as the anarchic Harlequin, disrupting the precise schedule with bullhorns and jellybeans in a world where being late is nothing short of a crime. But when his love, Pretty Alice, betrays Everett out of a desire to return to the punctuality to which she is programmed, he is forced to face the Ticktockman and his gauntlet of consequences.
     
    The bonus essay included in this volume, “Stealing Tomorrow,” is a hard-to-find Harlan Ellison masterwork, an exploration of the rebellious nature of the writer’s soul. Waxing poetic on humankind’s intellectual capabilities versus its emotional shortcomings, the author depicts an inner self that guides his words against the established bureaucracies, assuring us that the intent of his soul is to “come lumbering into town on a pink-and-yellow elephant, fast as Pegasus, and throw down on the established order.”
     
    Winner of the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” has become one of the most reprinted short stories in the English language. Fans of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World will delight in this antiestablishment vision of a Big Brother society and the rebel determined to take it down. The perfect complement, “Stealing Tomorrow” is a hidden gem that reinforces Ellison’s belief in humankind’s inner nobility and the necessity to buck totalitarian forces that hamper our steady evolution.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJul 12, 2016
    ISBN9781504038249
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

    4.5/5

    8 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      In a future where humanity has become obsessed with timekeeping and punctuality, a single mysterious figure tries to make a change, by wasting everybody's time.

      Try reading that in a deep movie trailer voice.

      “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman is a whimsical and satirical dystopian short story that won both the Hugo Award for Best Short Story and the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1965. In this future we have become so obsessed with punctuality that tardiness has become a crime and the duration of your tardiness will be deducted from your lifespan. This law is implemented by installing a device in everyone, this device is controlled by a “cardioplate” which can turn off a person’s heart if his allotted lifetime runs out. The people’s lifetimes are governed by “The Master Timekeeper”, also called “The Ticktockman”, but never to his face. The Harlequin is a superhero of sorts whose only powers are his imagination and defiance. His acts of rebellion are silly public stunts that throw people off their work schedule and cause the unthinkable: delays.

      “The System had been seven minutes worth of disrupted. It was a tiny matter, one hardly worthy of note, but in a society where the single driving force was order and unity and promptness and clocklike precision and attention to the clock, reverence of the gods of the passage of time, it was a disaster of major importance.”

      The theme of the story is not exactly subtle as Ellison clearly indicates it in the text:

      “We no longer let time serve us, we serve time and we are slaves of the schedule, worshippers of the sun's passing, bound into a life predicated on restrictions because the system will not function if we don't keep the schedule tight.”

      This is a terrific little story, the prose is wonderfully stylized, surreal and whimsical. I don’t know how relevant the theme is today, certainly I am late for work every day and I tend to get away with it!

      _______________________
      Note: You can read this story for free online, just Google* the title. I don't want to post a download link when I am not sure of the story's copyright status.

      * I am not sure what would happen if you were to Bing it!
    • 5/5
      This edition of Harlan Ellison's 1964 short story, "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman, features illustrations by Rick Berry (famous for the cover of William Gibson's Neuromancer) and design layout by Arnie Fenner. The story follows the Harlequin, a figure who challenges the highly regimented world of the future in which those who waste time have it docked from their lives by the Ticktockman. Berry's illustrations are lush and evocative and perfectly fit the slightly nonsensical style that Ellison adopts for his story. Fans of Ellison's work or dystopian sci-fi will find this a welcome addition to their bookcases.
    • 5/5
      This is a specially illustrated edition of what is a classic Harlan Ellison short story written originally in 1965. The story is told in non-linear time, beginning in the middle. The protagonist of the title is rebelling against his society's draconian strictures on time (being late to work is a crime). Harlequin uses practical jokes to battle the Master Timekeeper (ticktockman). Ellison's prose is light and almost poetic (he isn't always so but he is here) and (dare I say) "Bradbury-an?" I read this as a transparent parable about the stresses of modern western life. Rick Berry's artwork is dark, velvety, and surreal and creates a dimension to the story that hasn't previously existed.