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Содержание
Введение
Сборник рассказов Харлана Эллисона "От А до Я, в шоколадном алфавите" – это сборник американского писателя Харлана Эллисона, включающий 26 (по одному на каждую букву алфавита) крайне коротких рассказов на абстрактные и в основном не связанные между собой темы, демонстрирующих различные грани интересов Эллисона в области морали, мифологии, малозначительных исторических фактов и юмора. Он написал сборник за три дня, находясь в витрине книжного магазина. "От А до Я, в шоколадном алфавите" впервые был опубликован в октябрьском выпуске журнала The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, где в послесловии подробно рассказывается об истории его создания. Позже сборник был переиздан в составе коллекции Эллисона "Strange Wine", а затем адаптирован в формат комикса Ларри Тоддом и издан Last Gasp.
Short story collection by Harlan Ellison
"From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet" is a collection by American writer Harlan Ellison, including 26 (one for each letter of the alphabet) extremely short stories on abstract and basically unrelated topics, displaying various aspects of Ellison's preoccupations with morality, mythology, the trivia of history, and humor. He wrote the collection in three days in the window of a bookstore. "From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet" appeared in the October 1976 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, where its genesis is explained in some detail in the afterword. It was reprinted as part of the Ellison collection Strange Wine and then adapted into comic book form by Larry Todd and published by Last Gasp.
Предыстория
Последнее из десяти названий рассказов, которые Эллисон хранил на своем столе в течение многих лет, – "Шоколадный алфавит" – было использовано (и доработано до нынешнего названия), когда Эллисон писал рассказ в витрине книжного магазина научной фантастики в Лос-Анджелесе, "A Change of Hobbit". Толчком к написанию послужила картина андерграундного карикатуриста Ларри Тодда под названием "2 Немотропина", которую Эллисон увидел в 1974 году. Он пообещал написать восьмистраничный комикс по мотивам этой картины, с иллюстрациями Тодда, который должен был быть опубликован "магнатом сан-францисского андеграундного комикса Роном Тернером" и его компанией Last Gasp Eco Funnies.
The last of ten story titles Ellison had kept on his desk for years, "The Chocolate Alphabet" was used (and expanded to its present title) when Ellison wrote the story in the window of a Los Angeles science fiction bookshop, A Change of Hobbit. The story was sparked by a painting by underground cartoonist Larry Todd entitled 2 Nemotropin, which Ellison saw in 1974, and around which he promised to write an eight page comic story illustrated by Todd, and published by "San Francisco underground comix magnate Ron Turner" and his company Last Gasp Eco Funnies. Flash forward to February 1976. Ellison began a week long stint literally in the front window of A Change of Hobbit, writing a complete story each day for six days as a fund raiser. (This was the first in a long series of such stunts for other bookstores and in other locations, although Ellison had written short stories to order earlier, notably "O Ye of Little Faith" at the 1965 Westercon in Long Beach, California, to three words — "serape", "polyp", and "minotaur" — provided at an auction by the winning bidder, Larry Niven, whose last name is that of the story's protagonist.) On Monday, February 23, 1976, Ellison wrote the 3000 word story, "Strange Wine," subsequently reprinted (along with other stories written the same week) in his 1978 collection of the same name. On Tuesday, realizing that he could not write an eight page story for the comic based on Todd's painting, he resolved to write 26 short short stories, some as brief as one sentence, as a pastiche of Fredric Brown, the master of such brief stories. "From A to Z, in The Chocolate Alphabet" was begun that day and, after writing into the wee hours, was finished on Wednesday, February 25, 1976, at around 1:30 p. m.
The comic book version, Harlan Ellison's Chocolate Alphabet, with cover and art by Larry Todd, appeared in 1978, published by Last Gasp.
Перенесемся в февраль 1976 года. Эллисон начал недельный марафон, буквально работая в витрине "A Change of Hobbit", ежедневно создавая полноценный рассказ в течение шести дней в качестве благотворительного мероприятия. (Это был первый из долгой серии подобных акций для других книжных магазинов и в разных местах, хотя Эллисон и раньше писал короткие рассказы на заказ, в частности, "О, маловерные" на Westercon 1965 года в Лонг-Бич, Калифорния, используя три слова – "серапе", "полип" и "минотавр", предложенные победителем аукциона Ларри Нивеном, чья фамилия стала именем главного героя рассказа). В понедельник, 23 февраля 1976 года, Эллисон написал рассказ объемом 3000 слов – "Странное вино", который впоследствии был переиздан (вместе с другими рассказами, написанными на той неделе) в его сборнике 1978 года с тем же названием. Во вторник, осознав, что он не сможет написать восьмистраничный комикс на основе картины Тодда, он решил создать 26 очень коротких рассказов, некоторые из которых состояли всего из одного предложения, в стиле пастиша Фредерика Брауна, мастера лаконичных историй. Работа над "От А до Я, в Шоколадном алфавите" началась в тот день и, после работы до поздней ночи, была завершена в среду, 25 февраля 1976 года, около 13:30.
The last of ten story titles Ellison had kept on his desk for years, "The Chocolate Alphabet" was used (and expanded to its present title) when Ellison wrote the story in the window of a Los Angeles science fiction bookshop, A Change of Hobbit. The story was sparked by a painting by underground cartoonist Larry Todd entitled 2 Nemotropin, which Ellison saw in 1974, and around which he promised to write an eight page comic story illustrated by Todd, and published by "San Francisco underground comix magnate Ron Turner" and his company Last Gasp Eco Funnies. Flash forward to February 1976. Ellison began a week long stint literally in the front window of A Change of Hobbit, writing a complete story each day for six days as a fund raiser. (This was the first in a long series of such stunts for other bookstores and in other locations, although Ellison had written short stories to order earlier, notably "O Ye of Little Faith" at the 1965 Westercon in Long Beach, California, to three words — "serape", "polyp", and "minotaur" — provided at an auction by the winning bidder, Larry Niven, whose last name is that of the story's protagonist.) On Monday, February 23, 1976, Ellison wrote the 3000 word story, "Strange Wine," subsequently reprinted (along with other stories written the same week) in his 1978 collection of the same name. On Tuesday, realizing that he could not write an eight page story for the comic based on Todd's painting, he resolved to write 26 short short stories, some as brief as one sentence, as a pastiche of Fredric Brown, the master of such brief stories. "From A to Z, in The Chocolate Alphabet" was begun that day and, after writing into the wee hours, was finished on Wednesday, February 25, 1976, at around 1:30 p. m.
The comic book version, Harlan Ellison's Chocolate Alphabet, with cover and art by Larry Todd, appeared in 1978, published by Last Gasp.
Комикс "Шоколадный алфавит" Харлана Эллисона с обложкой и рисунками Ларри Тодда вышел в 1978 году, изданный Last Gasp.
The last of ten story titles Ellison had kept on his desk for years, "The Chocolate Alphabet" was used (and expanded to its present title) when Ellison wrote the story in the window of a Los Angeles science fiction bookshop, A Change of Hobbit. The story was sparked by a painting by underground cartoonist Larry Todd entitled 2 Nemotropin, which Ellison saw in 1974, and around which he promised to write an eight page comic story illustrated by Todd, and published by "San Francisco underground comix magnate Ron Turner" and his company Last Gasp Eco Funnies. Flash forward to February 1976. Ellison began a week long stint literally in the front window of A Change of Hobbit, writing a complete story each day for six days as a fund raiser. (This was the first in a long series of such stunts for other bookstores and in other locations, although Ellison had written short stories to order earlier, notably "O Ye of Little Faith" at the 1965 Westercon in Long Beach, California, to three words — "serape", "polyp", and "minotaur" — provided at an auction by the winning bidder, Larry Niven, whose last name is that of the story's protagonist.) On Monday, February 23, 1976, Ellison wrote the 3000 word story, "Strange Wine," subsequently reprinted (along with other stories written the same week) in his 1978 collection of the same name. On Tuesday, realizing that he could not write an eight page story for the comic based on Todd's painting, he resolved to write 26 short short stories, some as brief as one sentence, as a pastiche of Fredric Brown, the master of such brief stories. "From A to Z, in The Chocolate Alphabet" was begun that day and, after writing into the wee hours, was finished on Wednesday, February 25, 1976, at around 1:30 p. m.
The comic book version, Harlan Ellison's Chocolate Alphabet, with cover and art by Larry Todd, appeared in 1978, published by Last Gasp.
Продолжение
Эллисон написал своего рода продолжение этого произведения под названием «От А до Я, в алфавите сарсапариллы» 10 ноября 1990 года в книжном магазине Dangerous Visions в Шерман-Окс, Калифорния. Он начал работу над ним в витрине, а затем продолжил внутри магазина, используя свою ручную пишущую машинку, и завершил после решения проблем со здоровьем, которые прервали процесс написания. Хотя несколько человек видели эту историю – фотокопии раздавались покупателям, приобретшим книги на сумму свыше 50 долларов во время её написания – она оставалась неопубликованной почти десять лет, поскольку Эллисон, будучи в то время весьма плодовитым автором, забыл о необходимости её продвижения (и даже не включил в свой последний сборник «Slippage»). После публикации «От А до Я, в алфавите сарсапариллы» в журнале The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction в 2001 году, она была номинирована на премию Брэма Стокера. А поскольку 26 миниатюрных рассказов в этой новелле посвящены богам и демонам, они впоследствии вошли в расширенное издание сборника «Сказки о птице смерти», опубликованного в 2011 году издательством Subterranean Press.
Ellison wrote a sort of sequel to this entitled, "From A to Z, in the Sarsaparilla Alphabet," on November 10, 1990, at the bookstore Dangerous Visions in Sherman Oaks, California, beginning it in the window and then inside the store with his manual typewriter and completing it after health issues, which interrupted the writing, were addressed. Although a few people had seen it—photocopies were given to those who purchased over $50 worth of books while the story was being written—the story sat unpublished for nearly ten years, because Ellison, highly prolific at the time, had forgotten about marketing it (and even forgot to include it in his latest collection, Slippage). After "From A to Z, in the Sarsaparilla Alphabet" was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2001, it was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. And because the 26 short short stories in this novelette deal with gods and demons, it was subsequently collected in the expanded version of Deathbird Stories, published in 2011 by Subterranean Press.