WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.960 Welcome to this custom tailored deep dive. We're 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:05.459 really thrilled to have you joining us today, 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:09.060 especially because we have a genuinely fascinating 00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:11.160 mission ahead of us. We definitely do. Yeah, 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:13.580 we're taking a single, incredibly rich source. 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:16.059 It's a comprehensive Wikipedia article, and we're 00:00:16.059 --> 00:00:18.059 going to pull apart the mechanics of a truly 00:00:18.059 --> 00:00:20.660 legendary piece of science fiction. A masterpiece, 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.820 really? Right. We are looking at Harlan Ellison's 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:27.739 1965 short story, Repent, Harlequin, said the 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:31.500 TikTok man. And to grab your attention right 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:33.299 out of the gate, I want you to imagine a world 00:00:33.299 --> 00:00:35.700 where being late isn't just a minor fur paw. 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:37.899 Right. It's not just an awkward apology. Exactly. 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:39.859 You don't just slide into a morning meeting and 00:00:39.859 --> 00:00:43.399 say, In this world, being late is a literal crime. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:45.780 You don't get a fine, and you don't go to jail. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:48.460 Instead, the exact amount of time you wasted 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:51.340 is deducted directly from your biological lifespan. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:54.600 It's a concept that immediately gets under your 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:56.539 skin. And I think it's important to establish 00:00:56.539 --> 00:00:58.700 the scope of what we're dealing with today. This 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:01.840 is not just some quirky, obscure piece of mid 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.519 -century pulp fiction. Definitely not. This is 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:07.890 a multi -award -winning work of literature. It 00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:10.209 takes a hard look at our societal obsession with 00:01:10.209 --> 00:01:13.469 extreme punctuality. It forces us to examine 00:01:13.469 --> 00:01:17.209 schedule regimentation and the hyper -optimized 00:01:17.209 --> 00:01:19.629 lives we are constantly pressured to maintain. 00:01:19.769 --> 00:01:22.250 Which is so relevant right now. Absolutely. If 00:01:22.250 --> 00:01:24.890 you or someone who ever feels a spike of anxiety 00:01:24.890 --> 00:01:27.069 from the endless notifications on your digital 00:01:27.069 --> 00:01:30.049 calendar, the themes we're about to explore are 00:01:30.049 --> 00:01:32.329 going to resonate on a deeply uncomfortable level. 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:34.939 Okay, let's unpack this because before we even 00:01:34.939 --> 00:01:37.560 step into the dystopian landscape Ellison built, 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:40.260 we really have to look at the creation myth of 00:01:40.260 --> 00:01:42.939 the story itself. The real world origin is almost 00:01:42.939 --> 00:01:45.859 as wild as the fiction. It is. According to our 00:01:45.859 --> 00:01:48.480 notes, Harlan Ellison wrote this entire 11 -page 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:51.870 narrative in a single six -hour session. I mean, 00:01:52.150 --> 00:01:54.049 is it even possible to write something with that 00:01:54.049 --> 00:01:56.849 kind of thematic density in six hours, or are 00:01:56.849 --> 00:01:58.950 we looking at an idea that had been brewing for 00:01:58.950 --> 00:02:01.030 years? Well, knowing the environment he was operating 00:02:01.030 --> 00:02:03.510 in, it was likely a massive pressure cooker of 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:06.450 creativity. He wrote it specifically as a submission 00:02:06.450 --> 00:02:09.110 for a Milford Writers Workshop taking place the 00:02:09.110 --> 00:02:11.990 very next day. The next day? That's insane. Yeah. 00:02:12.139 --> 00:02:15.000 Those workshops were legendary gatherings of 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.879 science fiction titans. So the pressure to deliver 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:21.280 something impactful was just immense. The irony, 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.180 of course, is completely inescapable here right 00:02:24.180 --> 00:02:27.620 because of the time crunch exactly a story fundamentally 00:02:27.620 --> 00:02:30.159 about the crushing tyranny of the ticking clock 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.259 was produced under the intense unforgiving pressure 00:02:33.259 --> 00:02:36.960 of a looming deadline a six -hour sprint to create 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.939 a foundational text and looking at the trophy 00:02:39.939 --> 00:02:42.780 cabinet the story built that sprint paid off 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:45.819 in a way few writers ever experienced unquestionably 00:02:45.819 --> 00:02:49.340 it won the 1965 nebula award for best short story 00:02:49.340 --> 00:02:52.979 wow and the very next year It took home the 1966 00:02:52.979 --> 00:02:55.659 Hugo Award for best short fiction. Just sweep 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:57.180 in the board. Sweep in the board completely. 00:02:57.759 --> 00:02:59.479 For context, in the science fiction community, 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:01.860 the Hugo and Nebula Awards are the absolute pinnacle 00:03:01.860 --> 00:03:04.639 of achievement. Winning both is the genre's equivalent 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:06.900 of sweeping the Oscars. And it has lasting power, 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:10.520 too. Oh, its legacy didn't fade with the 60s. 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:13.639 Fast forward to 2015, and it was honored with 00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:17.120 the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. It even ranked 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:20.080 third, third overall in the Locus Online Best 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:22.599 20th Century Short Story List. That raises a 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:24.319 question about its cultural footprint though. 00:03:24.379 --> 00:03:26.159 If it was written that quickly for a workshop, 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:28.520 how did it actually find its way to the broader 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:31.400 public? It originally hit the public in the December 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:35.139 1965 issue of Galaxy Magazine. From there, it 00:03:35.139 --> 00:03:37.659 became an absolute cornerstone of Ellison's body 00:03:37.659 --> 00:03:39.979 of work. It was first collected in his book, 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:42.879 Pain God and Other Delusions. OK. But because 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:45.580 it was so definitive of his voice, it kept reappearing 00:03:45.580 --> 00:03:48.460 in retrospective volumes. You will find it anchoring 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:51.060 collections like Alone Against Tomorrow, The 00:03:51.060 --> 00:03:53.479 Fantasies of Harlan Ellison, The Essential Ellison. 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:56.080 Those are a few more, right? Yeah, Troublemakers, 00:03:56.759 --> 00:03:59.550 and The Top of the Volcano. There's also a fascinating 00:03:59.550 --> 00:04:02.110 note in the source about an audio version. Ellison 00:04:02.110 --> 00:04:04.389 actually recorded a spoken word version of the 00:04:04.389 --> 00:04:07.449 story on vinyl. He did. The original vinyl is 00:04:07.449 --> 00:04:10.169 out of print now, but it was reissued by Blackstone 00:04:10.169 --> 00:04:12.729 Audio as part of The Voice from the Edge Volume 00:04:12.729 --> 00:04:15.900 1. Hearing the author himself, someone known 00:04:15.900 --> 00:04:18.660 for his intense, combative personality narrating 00:04:18.660 --> 00:04:21.920 this frantic, rebellious tale, just adds such 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:24.839 a visceral layer to the text. It really transforms 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:28.439 it from words on a page into an urgent, almost 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:31.220 theatrical performance. And you need that urgency 00:04:31.220 --> 00:04:34.019 to truly understand the antagonist of this world. 00:04:34.220 --> 00:04:36.970 So let's step into that world. The society is 00:04:36.970 --> 00:04:39.689 overseen by a figure known as the Master Timekeeper, 00:04:39.889 --> 00:04:42.810 though he is menacingly nicknamed the TikTok 00:04:42.810 --> 00:04:45.829 Man. How exactly does someone enforce punctuality 00:04:45.829 --> 00:04:48.050 on a global scale? What's fascinating here is 00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:51.050 how Ellison literalizes the everyday concept 00:04:51.050 --> 00:04:53.170 of wasting time. We throw that phrase around 00:04:53.170 --> 00:04:55.129 casually all the time. Right, like, oh, I wasted 00:04:55.129 --> 00:04:58.209 an hour watching TV. Exactly. But in this dystopian 00:04:58.209 --> 00:05:00.769 future, time is strictly regulated to an extreme 00:05:00.769 --> 00:05:03.709 degree. The TikTok Man oversees a brutal system 00:05:03.709 --> 00:05:05.899 where if you cause a delay, you're life is shortened 00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:08.379 by that exact amount of time. And the enforcement 00:05:08.379 --> 00:05:11.000 mechanism is a piece of technology called a cardio 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:14.160 plate. A cardio plate. The name alone sounds 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:17.079 clinical and terrifying. How does it function? 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:19.579 It is essentially a remote control for the human 00:05:19.579 --> 00:05:23.259 heart. If a citizen loses all of their remaining 00:05:23.259 --> 00:05:26.259 time through repeated schedule violations, meaning 00:05:26.259 --> 00:05:28.199 they drain their account of allowable delays 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:31.939 to zero, the TikTok man simply activates the 00:05:31.939 --> 00:05:34.139 cardio plate to stop their heart. Just like that. 00:05:34.259 --> 00:05:37.089 Just like that. There is no trial. There is no 00:05:37.089 --> 00:05:39.769 appeal process. Your time is up. So your biology 00:05:39.769 --> 00:05:41.810 is terminated. I want to pause and map that onto 00:05:41.810 --> 00:05:44.610 the listener's daily reality. Think about the 00:05:44.610 --> 00:05:47.180 average Tuesday. Imagine if your morning commute 00:05:47.180 --> 00:05:49.360 was delayed by 15 minutes because of a stalled 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:52.420 train, or a mandatory work meeting ran 30 minutes 00:05:52.420 --> 00:05:54.519 over its scheduled window. It happens all the 00:05:54.519 --> 00:05:57.060 time. It does. But under the TikTok man's rule, 00:05:57.220 --> 00:06:00.160 those literal 45 minutes are seamlessly deducted 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:03.139 from your lifespan. Your heart simply stops beating 00:06:03.139 --> 00:06:05.800 45 minutes earlier than it naturally would have. 00:06:06.339 --> 00:06:08.600 The psychological horror of navigating a world 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:10.839 where every red light is a partial death sentence 00:06:10.839 --> 00:06:13.639 is overwhelming. It elevates punctuality from 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:16.750 a polite social expectation to a matter of acute 00:06:16.750 --> 00:06:19.949 biological survival. It creates a populace that 00:06:19.949 --> 00:06:22.550 is permanently terrified, permanently rushing, 00:06:23.029 --> 00:06:25.509 and entirely subservient to the schedule. So 00:06:25.509 --> 00:06:28.829 if the system is that flawlessly lethal and the 00:06:28.829 --> 00:06:31.589 surveillance is that absolute, how does anyone 00:06:31.589 --> 00:06:34.790 even begin to push back? Enter Everett C. Marm. 00:06:35.310 --> 00:06:37.970 Everett C. Marm is the protagonist, though he 00:06:37.970 --> 00:06:40.550 rarely operates under that name. He adopts the 00:06:40.550 --> 00:06:42.600 persona of the Harlequin. Which is a classic 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:45.019 symbol. Yes, a classic symbol of the trickster, 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:47.899 the jester, the chaotic figure who exists entirely 00:06:47.899 --> 00:06:50.500 outside the rigid rules of conventional society. 00:06:50.740 --> 00:06:52.779 The methods of his rebellion are what make this 00:06:52.779 --> 00:06:55.639 story so unique. He doesn't lead a violent bloody 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.079 uprising. He doesn't bomb the timekeepers headquarters. 00:06:58.519 --> 00:07:01.180 The source describes his actions as a whimsical 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:03.360 rebellion. Whimsical is the perfect word for 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:05.959 it. He relies on daddiest absurdity to break 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:08.639 the bureaucratic machine. For instance, he disrupts 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:10.620 a carefully synchronized factory schedule by 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:12.800 raining thousands of multicolored jelly beans 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:15.639 down on the workers. It is a brilliant juxtaposition. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:18.779 You have this grim totalitarian nightmare of 00:07:18.779 --> 00:07:21.319 a society. And the greatest threat to its existence 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:24.180 is a man throwing candy. Picture the logistical 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:27.120 nightmare of that in a highly regulated dystopia. 00:07:27.180 --> 00:07:30.160 How do you even procure thousands of jelly beans 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:32.720 in a world where every transaction and movement 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:35.980 is monitored? He also uses a bullhorn to deliver 00:07:35.980 --> 00:07:39.160 public speeches, loudly urging citizens to simply 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:41.720 ignore their strict schedules. It sounds like 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:44.620 a series of childish pranks. They do sound like 00:07:44.620 --> 00:07:47.279 pranks, but the strategic impact is profound. 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:50.579 By executing these absurd stunts, the harlequin 00:07:50.579 --> 00:07:53.370 forces the TikTok man to respond. To hunt down 00:07:53.370 --> 00:07:55.509 the harlequin, the authorities have to pull workers 00:07:55.509 --> 00:07:58.029 and enforcers off their normal, hyper -scheduled 00:07:58.029 --> 00:08:01.170 jobs. Which causes delays. Exactly. And by doing 00:08:01.170 --> 00:08:03.889 that, the TikTok man himself creates the very 00:08:03.889 --> 00:08:06.189 delays and disruptions the society is built to 00:08:06.189 --> 00:08:09.269 prevent. The system is so brittle, so rigidly 00:08:09.269 --> 00:08:11.389 optimized, that the mere act of trying to fix 00:08:11.389 --> 00:08:14.250 a disruption causes an exponentially larger disruption. 00:08:14.470 --> 00:08:17.310 The bureaucracy weaponizes itself against itself. 00:08:17.750 --> 00:08:20.339 Precisely. And Ellison makes sure to ground this 00:08:20.339 --> 00:08:23.399 colorful, whimsical rebellion in a serious philosophical 00:08:23.399 --> 00:08:26.899 tradition. The story opens with an epigraph from 00:08:26.899 --> 00:08:30.120 Henry David Thoreau's classic essay, Civil Disobedience. 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:33.559 By doing this on page one, Ellison frames the 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:35.899 Harlequins' jelly beans and bull horns not as 00:08:35.899 --> 00:08:38.600 mere comedy, but as a profound moral stance. 00:08:39.639 --> 00:08:41.620 Thoreau's central argument was that individuals 00:08:41.620 --> 00:08:44.419 have a moral obligation to refuse cooperation 00:08:44.419 --> 00:08:48.000 with an inherently unjust system. Ellison is 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:50.080 arguing that in a world stripped of its humanity 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:53.000 by regimentation, the most moral, rebellious 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.200 act possible is to be gleefully, inefficiently 00:08:56.200 --> 00:08:58.419 human. That philosophical high ground makes the 00:08:58.419 --> 00:09:01.159 next turn in the plot deeply tragic. We are introduced 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:03.259 to Everett's girlfriend, Pretty Alice. What role 00:09:03.259 --> 00:09:05.740 does she play in a narrative so focused on rebellion 00:09:05.740 --> 00:09:08.440 versus authority? Pretty Alice represents the 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:11.000 painful reality of living alongside a revolutionary. 00:09:11.379 --> 00:09:13.580 She is the everyman figure here. She is dating 00:09:13.580 --> 00:09:15.559 the harlequin, this towering symbol of freedom, 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:18.860 but on a day -to -day basis she is utterly exasperated 00:09:18.860 --> 00:09:21.519 by the fact that he is constantly late. She is 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:24.899 the anchor to the mundane reality of their world. 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:26.779 She doesn't want to live off the grid or fight 00:09:26.779 --> 00:09:29.820 the system. She just wants the safety and predictability 00:09:29.820 --> 00:09:32.360 of a normal life. Which is very relatable. It 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:35.539 is. That desire for comfort drives her to betray 00:09:35.539 --> 00:09:38.220 him to the authorities. She sells out the great 00:09:38.220 --> 00:09:41.059 rebel simply because she wants to return to the 00:09:41.059 --> 00:09:44.039 punctual, unbothered society everyone else lives 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:46.820 in. It highlights how deeply ingrained societal 00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:49.539 conditioning can be. The psychological safety 00:09:49.539 --> 00:09:52.700 of the schedule even a lethal one, is more comforting 00:09:52.700 --> 00:09:55.559 to Alice than the chaotic, unpredictable freedom 00:09:55.559 --> 00:09:58.460 Everett offers. So what does this all mean? We 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:01.179 reach the climax of the story. The betrayal happens 00:10:01.179 --> 00:10:03.659 and the harlequin is finally captured. He is 00:10:03.659 --> 00:10:05.600 brought directly before the master timekeeper. 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:08.220 The TikTok man looks at the great rubble and 00:10:08.220 --> 00:10:11.059 commands him to repent, to apologize, conform, 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:13.120 and acknowledge the supremacy of the schedule. 00:10:13.379 --> 00:10:15.639 And what does he do? The harlequin simply sneers 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:17.519 at him. Based on the rules of this universe, 00:10:17.899 --> 00:10:20.299 you expect the TikTok man to activate the cardio 00:10:20.299 --> 00:10:22.779 plate immediately. You expect the harlequin's 00:10:22.779 --> 00:10:25.539 heart to start on the spot. But Ellison delivers 00:10:25.539 --> 00:10:28.639 a devastating twist. The TikTok man decides against 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:31.480 martyrdom. Instead, he sends the harlequin to 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:33.960 Coventry to be brainwashed. The source specifically 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:36.620 uses the term Coventry. What exactly does that 00:10:36.620 --> 00:10:39.919 entail in a literary context? Being sent to Coventry 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:43.610 is a classic British idiom. It means to deliberately 00:10:43.610 --> 00:10:45.950 ostracize someone, to completely freeze them 00:10:45.950 --> 00:10:48.789 out of society until they break. In the context 00:10:48.789 --> 00:10:51.870 of Ellison's story, it is a facility for total 00:10:51.870 --> 00:10:54.509 psychological reconditioning. Terrifying. And 00:10:54.509 --> 00:10:56.429 the tragic result of this reconditioning is that 00:10:56.429 --> 00:10:59.070 later, a broken, empty version of the Harlequin 00:10:59.070 --> 00:11:02.009 reappears in public. He announces to the world 00:11:02.009 --> 00:11:04.570 on national communications that he was wrong 00:11:04.570 --> 00:11:07.200 all along. He tells the citizens that it is, 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:09.919 in fact, always good to be on time. It strips 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:12.279 away his identity entirely. The trickster becomes 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:15.340 a puppet for the bureaucracy. But Ellison doesn't 00:11:15.340 --> 00:11:18.299 let the totalitarian system win completely. There 00:11:18.299 --> 00:11:21.460 is a final gleeful punchline built into the closing 00:11:21.460 --> 00:11:23.840 moments. I love this part. Shortly after the 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:25.980 Harlequin has been paraded out as a brainwashed 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:28.899 conformist, the TikTok man is going about his 00:11:28.899 --> 00:11:31.360 business when a subordinate nervously approaches 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:34.419 him. The subordinate informs the master timekeeper 00:11:34.419 --> 00:11:37.600 that he, the TikTok man himself, has somehow 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.139 fallen three minutes behind schedule. The reaction 00:11:40.139 --> 00:11:43.899 is perfect. The TikTok man scoffs in total disbelief. 00:11:44.259 --> 00:11:47.519 He flatly refuses to accept it. The chief enforcer 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:50.200 of the rigid structure realizes that the structure 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.779 is impossible for anyone to maintain perfectly. 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:55.340 The master of time is late. It is a brilliant, 00:11:55.539 --> 00:11:58.179 neat conclusion. But looking at the source, I 00:11:58.179 --> 00:12:00.500 see that the critical reception wasn't entirely 00:12:00.500 --> 00:12:03.759 a chorus of praise. Art is subjective, and even 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:06.059 multiple award winners draw scrutiny. That's 00:12:06.059 --> 00:12:08.340 true of any classic. The article notes that Donald 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:10.620 A. Wohlheim and Terry Carr selected the story 00:12:10.620 --> 00:12:12.899 for their anthology, World's Best Science Fiction, 00:12:13.100 --> 00:12:17.100 1966. But reviewing that very collection, a critic 00:12:17.100 --> 00:12:20.440 named Algis Budrys took issue with Ellison's 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:23.190 piece. What was the core of his critique? Algis 00:12:23.190 --> 00:12:26.289 Budrys faulted the story as a, and this is a 00:12:26.289 --> 00:12:27.929 direct quote from the source primitive statement, 00:12:28.350 --> 00:12:31.129 about the solidly acceptable idea that regimentation 00:12:31.129 --> 00:12:33.690 is bad. He essentially argued that the theme 00:12:33.690 --> 00:12:36.870 was too obvious. Too simplistic. Right. His point 00:12:36.870 --> 00:12:39.750 was that declaring regimentation is bad isn't 00:12:39.750 --> 00:12:42.250 exactly a groundbreaking philosophical revelation 00:12:42.250 --> 00:12:44.870 and therefore the story lacked intellectual depth. 00:12:45.309 --> 00:12:47.649 Let's debate that for a moment. Is it a primitive 00:12:47.649 --> 00:12:50.419 statement? Or is Budgery's missing the point 00:12:50.419 --> 00:12:53.559 of how the theme is executed? Because while regimentation 00:12:53.559 --> 00:12:56.340 is bad might be a simple concept, framing it 00:12:56.340 --> 00:12:58.259 through the lens of a cardio plate and jelly 00:12:58.259 --> 00:13:01.419 bean bombardments feels incredibly inventive. 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:04.600 That is the crucial counter argument. The genius 00:13:04.600 --> 00:13:07.100 of the story isn't the discovery that totalitarianism 00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:10.279 is unpleasant. The genius is the daddiest execution. 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:13.440 Ellison uses absurdity to highlight the banality 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:16.269 of evil. By making the rebellion whimsical, he 00:13:16.269 --> 00:13:18.730 exposes how ridiculous the hyper -optimized society 00:13:18.730 --> 00:13:20.929 actually is. It's the contrast that makes it 00:13:20.929 --> 00:13:24.090 work. Exactly. Buddies may have felt the moral 00:13:24.090 --> 00:13:27.289 was loud. But for the millions of readers who 00:13:27.289 --> 00:13:30.190 elevated this to a 20th century classic, the 00:13:30.190 --> 00:13:32.549 volume of that moral was exactly what made it 00:13:32.549 --> 00:13:35.149 powerful. A story with that much philosophical 00:13:35.149 --> 00:13:37.730 weight and visual flair doesn't just stay confined 00:13:37.730 --> 00:13:41.370 to the 1960s. The concepts here are so universally 00:13:41.370 --> 00:13:43.649 compelling that they eventually caught the eye 00:13:43.649 --> 00:13:46.269 of Hollywood decades later. They absolutely did. 00:13:46.429 --> 00:13:48.789 Here's where it gets really interesting. In September 00:13:48.789 --> 00:13:52.309 2011, Harlan Ellison filed a federal lawsuit 00:13:52.309 --> 00:13:55.309 in California. I saw the note about this legal 00:13:55.309 --> 00:13:58.029 battle against New Regency and director Andrew 00:13:58.029 --> 00:14:02.230 Nickel. But how did an 11 page story from 1965 00:14:02.230 --> 00:14:04.990 trigger a major federal case in the 21st century? 00:14:05.389 --> 00:14:07.789 It centers around the 2011 science fiction film 00:14:07.789 --> 00:14:10.269 In Time, starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda 00:14:10.269 --> 00:14:12.730 Seyfried. Ellison claimed that the core plot 00:14:12.730 --> 00:14:15.490 of the movie was heavily derived from Repent 00:14:15.490 --> 00:14:18.019 Harlequin. said the TikTok man. Okay, I can see 00:14:18.019 --> 00:14:20.159 where this is going. When you look at the basic 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:22.840 narrative architecture of both works, you can 00:14:22.840 --> 00:14:26.159 see why he felt compelled to file suit. Both 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:28.960 the completed film and Ellison's short story 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:32.100 concern a dystopian future where people have 00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:35.559 a set amount of time to live. Crucially, in both 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:38.539 works, the time can be revoked based on specific 00:14:38.539 --> 00:14:42.059 circumstances by a recognized authoritarian figure 00:14:42.059 --> 00:14:45.039 who is specifically titled a timekeeper. The 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:48.039 thematic parallels are undeniable. You have biological 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:50.519 clocks, lethal enforcement of time, and a central 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:53.860 timekeeper figure. How aggressively did Ellison 00:14:53.860 --> 00:14:57.059 pursue this? He came out swinging. The initial 00:14:57.059 --> 00:14:59.299 lawsuit demanded a full injunction to stop the 00:14:59.299 --> 00:15:01.740 film's theatrical release altogether. He wanted 00:15:01.740 --> 00:15:03.799 to shut down a major Hollywood production before 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:05.720 it even hit screens. That is aggressive. But 00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:07.720 what follows is a fascinating de -escalation 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:10.320 of a legal battle. After demanding the injunction, 00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:12.879 he altered the suit to ask only for screen credit. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:15.399 He downgraded his demand from stopping the movie 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:17.279 to simply wanting his name acknowledged. And 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:19.100 how did the studio respond to that? Did they 00:15:19.100 --> 00:15:22.440 settle? The final resolution is incredibly anticlimactic, 00:15:22.820 --> 00:15:26.159 especially by Hollywood standards. Ellison dropped 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:29.370 the lawsuit entirely. Both sides released a joint 00:15:29.370 --> 00:15:31.950 statement revealing that Harlan Ellison had actually 00:15:31.950 --> 00:15:34.389 sat down and watched a screening of In Time. 00:15:34.509 --> 00:15:37.250 He finally watched it. Yes. After viewing the 00:15:37.250 --> 00:15:39.710 film in its entirety, he decided to voluntarily 00:15:39.710 --> 00:15:42.990 dismiss the action. The joint statement explicitly 00:15:42.990 --> 00:15:45.490 clarified that no payment or screen credit was 00:15:45.490 --> 00:15:47.570 promised or given to Ellison. They just walked 00:15:47.570 --> 00:15:50.070 away from each other. They did. The statement 00:15:50.070 --> 00:15:52.090 simply said the parties wish each other well 00:15:52.090 --> 00:15:54.490 and have no further comment on the matter. To 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:56.889 go from demanding a release stopping federal 00:15:56.889 --> 00:15:59.529 injunction to a polite we wish each other well 00:15:59.529 --> 00:16:02.570 with zero money changing hands is a remarkably 00:16:02.570 --> 00:16:05.370 peaceful ending to a Hollywood copyright dispute. 00:16:05.690 --> 00:16:07.649 It really is. Well, if we look back at everything 00:16:07.649 --> 00:16:09.429 we've covered today. If we connect this to the 00:16:09.429 --> 00:16:11.789 bigger picture, what we have explored today is 00:16:11.789 --> 00:16:15.429 a master class in concise storytelling. In just 00:16:15.429 --> 00:16:18.370 11 pages written in six hours, Harlan Ellison 00:16:18.370 --> 00:16:21.070 managed to encapsulate the eternal grinding tension 00:16:21.070 --> 00:16:23.789 between societal order and individual freedom. 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:27.019 He embodied the unyielding mechanical nature 00:16:27.019 --> 00:16:29.620 of bureaucracy in the TikTok man. Right. And 00:16:29.620 --> 00:16:32.559 the chaotic, colorful, utterly necessary nature 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:35.600 of human freedom in the Harlequin. And he wrapped 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:39.179 it all up in a darkly comedic, fast -paced science 00:16:39.179 --> 00:16:42.179 fiction package that feels just as urgent and 00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:44.940 relevant today as it did when the ink was drying 00:16:44.940 --> 00:16:48.659 in 1965. It truly does. We want to thank you 00:16:48.659 --> 00:16:50.600 so much for joining us on this deep dive into 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:52.899 the world of the Harlequin and the Cardio Plate. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:56.639 Reading about this dystopian mechanism and the 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:59.440 literal biological cost of wasting time might 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:01.460 just make you look at your own rigidly scheduled 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:03.659 calendar app a little differently today. It certainly 00:17:03.659 --> 00:17:06.640 prompts a reevaluation of why we rush and what 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:09.039 we are rushing toward. Before we go, we want 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:10.900 to leave you with a final thought to mull over 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:13.420 on your own as you step back into your day. Think 00:17:13.420 --> 00:17:16.259 about the central terror of this story, the cardio 00:17:16.259 --> 00:17:19.039 plate, seamlessly deducting life for being late. 00:17:19.299 --> 00:17:23.099 A haunting concept. No, in our reality, The government 00:17:23.099 --> 00:17:25.440 doesn't formally deduct time from your lifespan 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:28.839 for a schedule violation. But consider this. 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:32.240 What if the sheer compounding stress, the chronic 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:35.299 anxiety, the elevated blood pressure of trying 00:17:35.299 --> 00:17:38.000 to adhere to a perfectly punctual, endlessly 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:40.900 optimized modern life is secretly doing the exact 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:43.440 same thing to your heart over time? That is a 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:45.599 very real possibility. If our modern schedules 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:47.759 are slowly shortening our biological clocks, 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:50.359 who is the real TikTok man in your life today? 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:52.579 A question worth taking the time to answer. Keep 00:17:52.579 --> 00:17:53.259 diving deep.