Shatterday by Harlan Ellison
"Shatterday" is a collection of stories by Harlan Ellison, showcasing some of his most notable works from the late 1970s. Though often associated with science fiction, many of these stories delve into the realm of Magical Realism, exploring themes of identity, morality, and human experience through fantastical elements. The collection features a diverse array of narratives, including "Jeffty Is Five," which tells of a boy who remains eternally five years old, and "Flop Sweat," which intertwines horror and fantasy through a radio host's dark connections. The titular story, "Shatterday," acts as a doppelgänger tale that reflects on personal identity. Each story captures characters who are often too caught up in their lives to fully grasp the marvelous events unfolding around them. Ellison's introspective introductions enhance the reader's understanding of the collection's context. Overall, "Shatterday" stands as a significant representation of Ellison's literary prowess, blending profound themes with imaginative storytelling.
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Subject Terms
Shatterday
First published: 1980
Type of work: Stories
Type of plot: Fantasy—Magical Realism
Time of work: Primarily the present
Locale: Various locations in the United States and Europe
The Plot
All but one of the stories in Shatterday first appeared in a variety of magazines, from science-fiction periodicals to Playboy, or as radio or television broadcasts in the late 1970’s. Arguably the best published selection among Harlan Ellison’s hundreds of stories, it is most representative of the mature author at the height of his powers. It also demonstrates the reason behind Ellison’s discomfort at being labeled a science-fiction writer: Most of the stories here could be defined as Magical Realism; only a few include science-fiction elements; and “Would You Do It for a Penny?,” a comic seduction story written with Haskell Barkin, and the semiautobiographical novella “All the Lies That Are My Life” are neither science fiction nor fantasy. The book also includes Ellison’s introductions, both for the collection as a whole and for individual stories.
The most striking works in the collection depict a real world in which marvelous events naturally happen; the characters are too awestruck or wrapped up in their own lives to reject them. “Jeffty Is Five,” for example, is narrated by the friend of a five-year-old boy named Jeffty who remains five years old while everyone around him ages, including the narrator. “Flop Sweat” at first appears to be a contemporary horror story about a serial killer but evolves into a fantasy about a radio talk-show host’s connection to the powers of darkness. In “The Man Who Was Heavily into Revenge,” a cheated man’s anger turns the universe against the man who cheated him; the cheated man in turn angers someone and will become the universe’s next victim. For having wasted his life, the protagonist of “Count the Clock That Tells the Time” vanishes into a timeless limbo. “All the Birds Come Home to Roost” is a chilling fantasy about a man who is visited by all the women in his past in reverse order, and the equally chilling “Shatterday” is a Doppelgänger story focusing on the nature of personal identity and morality.
Other stories in the book, though less effective, are no less imaginative. “How’s the Night Life on Cissalda?” is a humorous science-fiction story about a “temponaut” who returns to his own time and space with a telepathic creature that offers the ultimate sexual experience, which brings a horde of Cissaldans seeking new encounters with a willing human race. A more somber science-fiction story, “Alive and Well on a Friendless Voyage,” has suffering and loneliness as its theme. A related story is “The Other Eye of Polyphemus,” a contemporary fantasy about a man who helps others but neglects his own needs. “Shoppe Keeper” begins as a fantasy about a magic shop and ends as a science-fiction story about highly evolved humans in the far future who manipulate history to buy time for themselves. “Django” is an impressionistic wartime fantasy about French jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, and “Opium” deals with the world reshaping itself fantastically in response to one woman’s boredom and despair.