Approaching Oblivion

I discovered Harlan Ellison in junior high or high school. And I remember reading Approaching Oblivion way back then, sometime in the early to mid 1980s. And I also remember going nuts for this book, indeed for all of Ellison's writing. Today, however, 30 to 35 years later, I can see the worms in the polished apple of my nostalgia. Reading this book now, the only story I even vaguely remember from my way-back-then reading is "I'm Looking for Kadak." I didn't remember any of the other stories, not even a little bit. I'm sure that as a teenager I was titillated by the graphic sex and the strong language. And now as an adult, while I acknowledge that Ellison is a very gifted writer, these particular stories, this particular collection, really didn't work all that well for me. There were many passages of brilliant writing, but the stories themselves were for the most part heavy-handed social commentary with a thin veneer of sci-fi, pardon me 'speculative fiction', glued on. In some of the tales, Ellison is trying far too hard to be clever, and it shines through. I suppose that these stories didn't work as well for me as they once did because as I read them I was very aware of the writer and was unable to become fully immersed in the tale. I think the strongest story among the 11 presented here is "Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman," which has a very nice Rod Serling/Twilight Zone feel to it. The one I liked the least is probably "Catman," which is somewhat muddled. So, overall, a middling collection, but worth a read for Ellison completists.