Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison

Glow Worm (1955)

Summary

Portrait of Harlan Ellison Harlan Ellison,  Glow Worm (1955)

“ The men who knew no other answer stayed and fought. They were the ones who fathered the Attilas, the Genghis Khans, the Hitlers. They were the ones who pushed the buttons and launched the missiles that chased each other across the skies, fell like downed birds, exploded, blasted, cratered, chewed-out and carved-out the face of the planet. They were also the little men who had failed to resist, even as they had failed to look up at the night sky.
They were the ones who had destroyed the Earth.
Now no one was left. No man. Just Seligman.
”
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of Harlan Ellison Harlan Ellison,  Glow Worm (1955)

“ He was a shining symbol of the end of all humanity on Earth, a symbol of the evil their kind had done. The men out there would never treasure him, welcome him, or build proud legends around him. But they could never deny him. He was a messenger from the grave.
They would see him in the airless cabin, even before he landed. They would never be able to live with him, but they would have to listen to him, and to believe.
Seligman sat in the crash-chair in the cabin that was dark except for the eerie glow that was part of him.
”
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of Harlan Ellison Harlan Ellison,  Glow Worm (1955)

“ Loneliness can be a powerful thing, more consuming than hatred, more demanding than mother love, more driving than ambition. It could, in fact, drive a man to the stars.
Perhaps it had been a communal yearning within his glowing breast; perhaps a sense of the dramatic or a last vestige of that unconscious debt all men owe to their kind; perhaps it was simply an urge to talk to someone. Seligman summed it up without soul-searching in the philosophy, "I can't be any worse off than I am now, so why not?"
”
Source: Gutenberg

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