Today, we begin discussing the SF New Wave and Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman.” Before next week, write a summary of your notes from lecture and the reading, and post them into a comment to this blog post.
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Mike Paar
After Class Summery
4/4/16
“’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” written by Harlan Ellison, was probably the interesting, stylistically, story that we’ve read so far in the class. Though narratively it was fairly difficult to follow. It tells the story of a world ruled by a rigorous set schedule established by the government. Straying from your schedule by being late, even by minutes, could mean your death brought about by a figure known as the Ticktockman, a person with access to everyone’s schedules and the ability to stop anyone’s heart as he sees fit. Resistance to this system becomes evident when a figure known as the Harlequin disrupts peoples schedules by daily distractions, such as raining jelly beans down onto the streets. Despite the Ticktockman’s attempts at capturing the Harlequin, he successfully eluded capture, at times by even using the system to his advantage, such as announcing his appearance at a certain place at a specific time, only to arrive early and spring a trap on those who were looking to capture the Harlequin.
Eventually the Harlequin was captured by the Ticktockman, supposedly due to a woman the Harlequin had trusted. His reckless behavior of constantly being late frightened her enough to turn on him. Although Ticktockman initially threatened Harlequin with execution, he decided to instead keep him alive, brainwashing him in a manner similar to 1984. That way, the Harlequin could be paraded before people to show how insane he was to revolt against the system. The story ends with the Ticktockman dismissing information when told he he himself was minutes behind his own schedule.
Our discussion in class focused on the arrival of the New Wave science fiction, something that was initiated by Michael Moorecock in the UK in subsequently introduced into the US through independent publishing. New Wave was a reaction to the stagnation of the Golden Age science fiction and was used to comment on the social uprising seen at the time of the late 60’s. Moorecock saw New Wave as a means for society to take SF literature seriously and as a way to explore new ways of writing as an artform. On the scientific end, he also wanted to explore more with Innerspace of humanity and the world, such as psychology and philosophy, as opposed to the likes of biology and chemestry.
John Darius
4/5/16
ENG 2420
Chapter Summary: Repent, Harlequin! ” Said the Ticktockman
Repent, Harlequin! ” Said the Ticktockman is a short story written by Harlan Ellison. Repent, Harlequin! ” Said the Ticktockman is about a world where people and their lives are enslaved by time itself. People in this world all have a schedule they must maintain, and if they don’t the Ticktockman has the ability to decide whether someone lives a short life or dies. Later in the story a character known by the name Harlequin becomes rebellious to the Ticktockman. Harlequin tries to show people how to use the time they have left as a way to enjoy their lives, rather than just being enslaved by a corrupt government. The government and the Ticktockman looked at Harlequin as a threat, because he went against all the rules they had established for society . Harlequin was never on time, and he also began to have an affect on the people as well. Harlequin’s actions was threat to Ticktockman and the government because people would begin no longer live by the rules of the government but instead start to live the way they want to on their own time. Harlequin inspired people to live their own lifestyle, and he helped them break free from the control the government and the Ticktockman had on them. Harlequin also dumped jelly beans all over the city along with annoying some workers as well. Harlequn tried to bring chaos to the controlled society, so that people can try to live in freedom. Harlequin wanted people to enjoy life.
Angela Teeraj
April 8, 2016
“Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman
““Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman” is a short story written by Harlan Ellison. It first appeared in the science fiction magazine Galaxy, in December 1965. The story takes place in a dystopian future where people’s lives revolve around time. Life is regulated by a very strict and precise time schedule. Failure by any person to follow this time schedule or become tardy is considered a crime. The sentence for such a crime is time off of one’s life or possibly death. This is done by the Master Timekeeper or the “Ticktockman” as he’s better known. The Ticktockman is able to control the timespan of everyone’s life by a device called a “cardioplate”, in which he stops a person’s heart once his time has run out.
The focus of the story is on Everett C. Marm. Everett disguises himself as a Harlequin and rebels against the Ticktockman. He is enraged by the control the Ticktockman has taken over society. Everett takes rebellious action in belief that people have become slaves to time. One day Everett’s schemes throw the schedule off time by distracting factory workers with a massive jelly bean shower. The schedule falls track by seven minutes. This enrages the Ticktockman and he decides to send out people to hunt for the nameless Harlequin.
Eventually Everett is captured by the Ticktockman. He argues with him that society needs the order of time and Everett refuses to accept this. The Ticktockman grows furious and commands Harlequin to repent. Everett refuses. The Ticktockman decides he will not turn off Everett’s time, but send him to the Coventry. There he is brainwashed into following the orders of time the Ticktockman has implemented. Everett is sent back into society where he publicly announces he was wrong and it is always good to be on time.
For our class discussion we were introduced to New Wave science fiction that followed the Golden Age. New Wave science fiction began with Michael Moorecock and found its way to the U.S. New Wave science fiction gave the genre a new meaning by taking a focus on human emotion. It explored areas of psychology, philosophy, what it meant to be a human being, and how technology affected humans.
The short story, ““Repent, Harlequin” Said the Ticktockman” written by Harlan Ellison, is about a world where everything has to be done exactly as scheduled and if anyone disobeys, they get time deducted from how much longer they get to live. The Harlequin, Everett, wants to change that by trying to cause anything and everything to be out of schedule. Eventually he gets caught and he was brainwashed to submit to the world as how it is. When the Ticktockman was informed that he himself is not exactly on schedule, which seems to cause him to malfunction to some degree.
In class, we learned about the New Wave of SF. The origin of the term New Wave is from film criticism. New Wave has a double source of origin when the term came around the time punk music in the late 1970s. New World is the leading British magazine, like how Astounding is the leading magazine in US. Everything changed since the May – June 1964 issue, when Michael Moorcock took over as editor of New World magazine. Moorcock attempts to lose the current SF image because he saw SF a place of radical commentary. Moorcock also based much of his writing based on multiverse. Canadian editor Judith Merril brought New Wave to US. New Wave brought many ideas into SF that revitalized the genre. There are 5 characteristics of New Wave: 1. The belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature, 2. Writing experimentation and better writing in general, 3. New Wave SF is more about inner space, 4. New Wave SF shared qualities with late 1960s counter culture, 5. Has a pessimism about the future, especially the near future.
“‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” is a short story written by Harlan Ellison, it’s all about a future world, that’s being controlled by a strict scheduling of time and a robotic looking villain called the Ticktockman aka the Master of time , who has the power to cut or end anyone’s life as a price for being late in his world which is sort of harsh to me. In the beginning the story starts with a quote from Henry David Thoreau’s essay, Civil Disobedience that claims that all men “serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.” And Additional, a “very few” men serve the state with their consciences, a service that forces them into resistance of the state. It then moves on to somewhere in a distance future of one single man name the Harlequin who sort of like a trickster like jester guy who disagrees with the forced schedule in the world and upon the society he lives in. As he becomes a hero to society of the people he also becomes a danger to the Ticktockman order. The Harlequin disturbs the workers as they try to work and in the middle of changing work shifts, and in return it set off the master schedule in negative way with dropping about 150,000 dollars’ worth of jelly beans it delays the master schedule by seven minutes. The Harlequin is then ordered to meet the Ticktockman for what punishment will he get against defying Ticktockman rule. The society where a tick tock scheduled time is all that matters in the world the people become slaves to time and the master of time aka the Ticktockmaster; they all cardioplates that measure their punctuality, and allow the Ticktockman to turn them off should they run out of time. Harlequin it turns out is not at all special, he’s an ordinary guy named Everett C. Marm who had no awareness of time. As he stands in front of the Ticktockman is sent to Coventry for brainwashing because if he kills him he would be a symbol for hope and upcoming rebellion so the Ticktockman decides to do this; he doesn’t want all that trouble. The story seems to ends with the fall of Everett at first with no effort or good triumph for disturbing the flow of time but it turns out Ticktockman himself and his world is running late by three minutes due to Everett and it drives the Ticktockman crazy; Good does win after all. “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman compare to the class notes taken in class is part of the discussion of New Wave science fiction that later on goes to the Golden Age. New Wave science fiction started with Michael Moorecock and traveled to the U.S. The Wave gave science fiction genre a new sense; a way of thinking outside the box or imagination, by including a main focus on human emotion. It took parts of psychology and philosophy; along with what it means to be a human, a person of flesh and bones and then with that same idea also how technology affected us as humans.
“Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison basically the story is set in a future where society is ruled by a strict set of laws regarding time and efficiency. Everyone has device installed in their body that lets the government track them and if they are ever late for work or cause lateness that amount of time is deducted from their overall lifespan. If you commit a crime and they want to kill you outright the government can access your device and stop your heart instantly. The leader of this society is referred to as the Ticktockman and he is obsessed with his ability to keep everything running perfectly on time. The Harlequin is basically a terrorist in this world who flies around on a sort of flying skateboard dressed like a clown and drops jelly beans on moving walkways and other pranks that throw the schedule off and make everyone late. He infuriates the Ticktockman but his clown costume makes him hard to identify. The Ticktockman becomes obsessed with catching the Harlequin and spends all his efforts on this until finally the Harlequin’s girlfriend rats him out and the Ticktockman stops the Harlequin’s heart. The Ticktockman then realizes that his focus on catching the Harlequin has caused him to fall off schedule and he is a few minutes behind and it’s ironic since being on time was always the most important thing to him and his desire to kill the Ticktockman screwed him up.
Today we mostly talked about New wave Science Fiction. There are 5 characteristics of New Wave Science Fiction are: 1. belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature, 2. Writing experimentation and better writing in general, 3. New Wave SF is more about inner space, psychology, sociology etc 4. New Wave SF shared qualities with late 1960s counter culture, 5. Has a pessimism about the future, especially the near future.
Soshana
This story is about a world where you have amazingly restricted free will based on time. There is a Master of time who judges your efficiency by way of a moniter installed in your body which takes time away from your lifespan if you’re late to anything. The Master of Time can deem you inefficient and end your life based on whatever that device tells him.
They introduce the Harlequin who dislikes all this time schedule, man is machine nonsense. So he disturbs a bunch of people’s work day, disrupting the schedule dressed as a clown to mess up this Timebro. Timebro gets pissed and demands they meet man to man and the Harlequin is some average Joe named Everett. Timebro tells him I could kill you but imma just ruin your brain instead. He knows that if he just kills the Harlequin people will revolt. So he gets sent for reconditioning and is made to tell the people he’s sorry and he was wrong and to listen to Timebro forever because he is the only way to do things right. I’m embellishing but basically. Anyway Timebro is already off by three minutes trying to deal with this fool and honestly I think he made good time. Dealing with this in three minutes is amazing if it happened here its be like a 20 minute chase alone then you gotta bring him back and talk to him and sentence him. Like that’s a 4 day excursion in the real world. So his assistant runs up and is like Mister Timebro man sir, you’re off schedule by three minutes man. And Timebro loses it. Just WHAAAAT you a liar man Meeeemurrrrrr meemurrr. So he seemed to have malfunctioned because of being late.
Let me know if I should just summarize the story rather than writing it like I’d tell it but I feel like you’d get bored reading the same summary from all of us so I just switch it up a little
In class we talked about New Wave SF started in Britain by Michael Moorecock. It was in reaction to the golden age and the stories commonly touched on the social uprising. New wave was also used in film and in music. Moorecock wrote a lot about multiverse and used this genre as a platform to make SF a serious genre.
Harlan Ellison’s, “Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman”, starts off with a quote from Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience.” In this quote, Thoreau asserts that most men “serve the state and not as men, but as machines, with their bodies.” Also, that very few men serve the state with their consciences, a service that forces them into resistance of the state.
The story takes place in a future dystopia, where everyone must abide by a tight schedule, and failure to keep up with this schedule is considered a crime, a crime punishable by time taken off of their lives or worse, death. The Master Timekeeper or Ticktockman holds the task of regulating and making sure everyone keeps on schedule.
Ellison shifts the story to a man named Everett C Marm, a man disguised as a Harlequin, who is tired of living in this society with time stricken rules. He begins to rebel by not keeping on his time schedule and by disrupting others time schedule in society. In one instance he disrupts the carefully kept schedule of society with methods such as distracting factory workers from their tasks by showering them with thousands of multicolored jelly beans simply using a bullhorn to publicly encourage people to ignore their schedules, these act forces the Ticktockman to pull people off their normal jobs to hunt for him.
Everett meets a girl by the name of Alice, who he becomes really found of and creates a relationship with. Alice, who doesn’t agree with his motives on breaking the time schedule, she betrays him and reveals his identity of being the so called Harlequin to the Time Keeper, who have been looking for him.
Eventually Everett is captured, The Ticktockman decides not to stop the Harlequin’s heart, and instead sends him to a place called Coventry, where he is brainwashed. The brainwashed Harlequin reappears in public and announces that he was wrong before, and that it is always good to be on time.
In class we talked about new wave Science Fiction, which was heavily influenced by Michael Moorecock in the UK. If originated 1960s and 1970s and is characterized by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, a “literary” or artistic sensibility, and a focus on “soft” as opposed to hard science.
In class, we talked about New Wave SF. We spoke about Godard and Truffaut (who were French). We spoke about who used New Wave SF first (Christopher Priest), who called it Prestige. New Worlds Magazine was the leading BRITISH SF magazine in 1964, and they published Hard SF. Michael Moorcock in May/June 1964 issue took over the magazine. He added concrete poetry, New Space Age literature, the multiverse, an anti-hero and eternal champion. We also spoke about the 5 characteristics of New Wave SF:
1.Belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as a literature
2.writing , experimentation, and better writing in general
3.New wave SF→ interspace (soft sciences)
4.New wave SF share quality with 1960 counter-cultures
5.Has a pessimism about the future.
“Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman” is a story where people and the world is run by time. Everything is run by time and a schedule, and the people must follow this schedule or the ticktockman will use time to punish them. Harlequin, not the DC character, is a rebel and tries to show the people that they can do so much more with the time they have then follow the government’s rules for the rest of their lives. As Harlequin began to rebel, many people followed in his footsteps, and the ticktockman and the government noticed this. Harlequin began to show people how time could be used in positive ways instead of being enslaved, and at the end of the story, because the schedule is broken, the ticktockman goes out of whack.
Darius Freeman
ENG2420
Professor Ellis
After Class Summary “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman”
“Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman” takes place in a society where time and efficiency are essential to their way of time. Being on time is so important in fact, that there are consequences for lateness such a having to wait a whole year to reapply to college because of being late the first time. These rules are in place because if one minute is wasted, it throws of multiple sections of society as they are more or less connected and also the citizens are also on a strict schedule. We see this disruption when thousands of jelly beans rain from the sky and throws everyone off schedule by 7 minutes. Eventually he is caught and taken to Coventry where he is brainwashed to testify how much he like society’s rules. In the ordeal, the Ticktockman/master time keeper is informed that he himself is off schedule by 3 minutes and as a result develops a nervous tick. The Harlequin wanted to sow everyone that they can take their time and enjoy life on their terms and in doing so maybe cause a few problems for the Ticktockman. The Harlequin accomplished what he set out to do, disrupt time.
In class we discussed New Age Science Fiction and its origin ties to punk. New Age writers of SF believed that SF should include more social sciences and involve humanity more. They wanted the stories to have science as well as a human component to them, not just having the science at the forefront.
For today’s class we read a short story name “Repent, Harlequin, said the ticktockman” written by Harlan Ellison, this story is about a place in where everything is manage by time, which means that all has to be done at the exact time it’s been program, if for any reason it’s not done at the specific time that has being manage for it the time of this person will be cut or reduced to the specific time they have left. Harlequin was tired of this time schedule, so he decide to try to break this system and put everything out of schedule as usual, but in the process of his plan he was caught, and as usual in this society he was sent to a brianwashed which works and force him to said that all that he had done it was wrong and by mistake. But something unusual happen the ticktockman was out of schedule for 3 sec which doesn’t allow him for any longer to work in the perfection.
During the lecture we start talking about a new wrap of science fiction called “new wave of SF, this word came front a French word newrelle vague. In this era there were 5 main characteristics in order to subside 1. Believe SF could and should be taken serous as literature. 2.write experimenting and better writing in secret. 3. New wave is more about new space psychology, sociology etc. 4. SF share cualities with late 1960 counter culture. we also discuss little bit about Harlan Allison who was born in 1834 and still alive today, his work was based on ethics, humans courage and how does the city become and important settings for stories.
“’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” by Harlan Ellison was a story with interesting film adaptations in contemporary times. Ellison starts the story with a civil disobedience passage setting the tone for the story. Ellison had created a society in which people must be punctual otherwise they would be penalized by the Master Timekeeper or the Ticktockman. The Ticktockman has the legal authority to use a device called a “cardioplate”. This cardioplate allows the Ticktockman to stop people’s hearts when it runs out of time units. People who are tardily would have time removed, or worst all remaining time removed from their cardioplate. The story focuses on a man named Evertt Marm. Evertt is a rebel in this society, spending large amounts of money and time to cause as many delays as he can. As a result his relationship with his girlfriend Alice is damaged due to his tardiness. The Ticktockman is also on the hunt for this rebel and wishes to make an example of him to the general public. However his hunt for Evertt is slowed by the fact that Evertt disguises himself as “Harlequin”. Alice fueled by her distress at Evertt’s rebellion, reveals his identity to the Ticktockman leading to his capture. The Ticktockman threatens Evertt with death if he does not renounce his ideals, however Evertt refuses. The Ticktockman then brainwashes Evertt into renouncing his ideals publicly to show the general population the futility of rebellion. At the end of the story it is revealed that due to Evertt’s rebellion, the Ticktockman is tardily by three minutes. This causes the Ticktockman to say “mrmee, mrmee, mrmee, mrmee”, signs that the system is damaged.
The class discussion of New Wave SF was revealed to have British roots. It was started by Michael Moorecock in Britain and eventually found its way to the United States through Canada. The New Wave focuses on soft sciences such as psychology. It has 5 characteristics of New Wave: 1. The belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature, 2. Writing experimentation and better writing in general, 3. New Wave SF is more about inner space, 4. New Wave SF shared qualities with late 1960s counter culture, 5. Has a pessimism about the future, especially the near future.
“Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman, published in 1965, started off with an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience. Then goes into a world of strict time management laws. The Master Timekeeper enforces that all individuals must follow their schedules. If an individual were late to an appointment then the amount of time the individual was late would be deducted from his/her life. Harlequin was a rebellion fighting this “dictatorship”. He hired a plane to go over an army base and spread millions of jellybeans. This disrupted the marching of the soldiers. Most importantly the “Schedule” was thrown off because the soldier picked up the jellybeans. The Master Timekeeper/ Ticktockman was surprised that that this could happen. The Ticktockman wanted him caught and punished. Harlequin purposely arrived to appointments late. Finally, he was caught by the Ticktockman and was sent to a detention facility. There he had a change of mind and came out of the facility complacent with the rules. The Ticktockman was happy that Harlequin was able to come around. The Ticktockman finished with Harlequin but was late to his next appointment.
The next period we are discussing is the New Wave Era. 5 characteristics of new wave are the belief that science fiction could and should be taken serious as literature, writing experimentation and better writing in general, Inner Space- tends to focus on the soft sciences, shared qualities with late 1960s counter culture-hippies, protests,… Social rights, and pessimism about the future.
“ “Repent Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman”, by Harlen Ellison is a short story about a society ruled by timed schedules. Everything is on a schedule and all must obey and follow the schedule on time if not they pay for it with the time left in their lives. Failing to do things on time is considered a crime and a person can end up dead by not following this societies strict laws. The Ticktockman is essentially the judge jury and executioner where he keeps the law in check by making sure everyone is doing things on time. The Harlequin, Everett Marm, takes it upon himself to distract others in society so they can ignore their schedules. In turn the Ticktockman is forced to break people away from their schedules to capture Marm. Eventually he is captured because he was betrayed by his girlfriend, Pretty Alice. Rather than executing him however the ticktockman brainwashes him to go around and say what he did was wrong and everyone should continue to follow the law. However he succeeded in what seemed to be his ultimate objective to throw the Ticktockman out of schedule. The story ends with the ticktockman having some kind of tick murmuring “mrmee”. In class we discussed New Wave SF and how it started in the U.K. SF literature became more “human” in the process where as before it focused more on the science and technology. Essentially SF took on the form of a hippie where it became somewhat of an anti government medium where the future was pessimistically looked at.
Mathew Tackett
5/24/16
For class today we read a story called “’Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison, published in 1965. The story illustrates a society ruled by time schedules. Much like ‘In Time’, the story revolves around a single man, Everett Marm, who in this story becomes an arch-nemesis to the Ticktockman; a man devoted to keeping everything on time no matter the cost. Everett decides that society is broken with the current way it obeys time and takes it upon himself to distract others so that the time schedules are destroyed. In order to catch Harlequin, the Ticktockman must break people’s schedules. The harlequin is only captured after his girlfriend, Pretty Alice betrays him. The Ticktockman then brainwashes Harlequin to be his servant and repent for his crimes by publicly apologizing and propagandizing the way of the scheduled world. But in the end Harlequin wins because the Ticktockman is thrown off his exact schedule causing him to develop a psychotic break. In class we discussed the new wave era of science fiction and its characteristics. The belief that science fiction should be taken seriously as literature, writing experimentation and better writing over time, social rights and pessimism about the future.
For class we discussed new wave science fiction, its qualities and what made it different.
Belief that science fiction could and should be taken seriously as literature
Writing experimentation and better writing in general
New wave SF is more about inner space. It tends to focus on the soft science – things about human beings such as sociology, psychology, anthropology etc.
New wave SF shares qualities with the late 1960’s counter culture – antiestablishment, protesting the government, SF as a commentary of the world,social change and equal rights under law. Also provide commentary on the here-and-now.
Pessimism about the future, often involving disaster, overpopulation, cynicism about major political power.
“’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” written by Harlan Ellison (1934 – ). Harlan Ellison’s writing focused on ethics, human courage and often the city plays a key component of the setting. He specialized in short stories and screenplays. He has been characterized as insecure, extraordinarily ambitious and energetic. He has won 8 Hugo awards and 3 Nebula awards. He sued James Cameron for Terminator.
For class we read “’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,”. The story revolves around a society in which it is heavily govern by time. Everyone has a specific schedule that they must follow and diverging from it is a crime and the person in charge is the Ticktockman. The main character is Everett, named the Harlequin, due to being dressed up in medieval jester garb, that rebels by disrupting people’s schedule. Eventually he is captured and brainwashed into a “normal” member of society. In the end the Ticktockman is told that the master schedule is 3 mins late and he is bewildered.
Repernt, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison the story is about people being in slave by time at the command of the ticktockman who determine who shall live and who shall die when people do not complete their work. In the story the main character Herlequin who become rebellious and refuse to follow the rules creating panic amongs the government and the ticktockman. Herlequin behavior threatens the ticktockman who feel that Herlequin shall die for his rebellious behavior. Threaten that’s others would follow him the tticktockman find that’s Herlequin should be punished for going against the rules. Herlequin begin to tell people that’s there was another way and people began to question their existence. Herlequin convince people that’s they should free themselves form this ticktockman and his rules which people began to do and the ticktockman began to lose control and was destroy.
During class with discuss the new way of SF and the 5 characteristic.