A BOY AND HIS DOG
Title by Harlan Ellison
Story by Peter Vuono
In the 70's and 80's my favorite books were by Ray Bradbury. He was such an incredible story teller that after each story, I'd have to put the book down and just ponder the impact that he had such a knack at conveying .There was another favorite of mine, however who made the reader really work to find out what he was trying to say. This was Harlan Ellison who successfully sued James Cameron for borrowing the premise of Ellison's story "Soldier" for the Terminator.
I read Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog" in 69. It's a very harsh read with a great deal of sex, violence and social decadence but every time I think about it I realize that Ellison had a message which is even more relevant now then in 69.
It's a post apocalyptic tale of a teenage boy- Vic and his beloved dog "Blood". They spend their days only trying to eat and survive. They violently encounter a female protagonist- Quilla- who in time has feelings for Vic. Quilla, however was part of a ruse, to lure Vic underground to help populate a dying race of men who could not produce children.
Vic knew, that Blood would not survive without him and he, Vic, would not survive without Blood. He makes the only
altruistic decision he's ever made and leaves with Blood. Quilla screams at him,"Don't you know what love is?". Vic answers, "Sure I know. A boy loves his dog".
This graphic and hard to read tale has immense irony attached to it. The dog has been domesticated for 35,000 years going all the way back to the Pleistocene period under the Cro-Magnon Man! However, after all this time and an apocalypse, it is the dog, not the humans, that maintains the noble quality of loyalty and love. Here, in this one instance, Vic does what the dog would have always done. He would become as loyal as "Blood" was.
Our age, here in the 21st century, is without an apocalypse but is rife with the horribleness of Ellison's story with a society rampant with violence, immorality, profanity, war and selfishness and yet, it is the dog, an alleged lower functioning animal, that maintains purity.
Ellison's tale was a warning that is just as relevant now as it was in 69. I'm not a super idealist. I know that we can't all at once turn back many pages. However, didn't Confucius say that a thousand mile journey starts with one step?
There as so many things we can do to insure that the savage society that Harlan Ellison predicted doesn't happen.
Instead of Tik-toc- read a book,
Encourage rather than discourage,
Praise rather than vilify,
Never pass up an opportunity to be kind,
Give the homeless guy a dollar,
Rather than sleeping in on Sunday, go to a house of worship,
Open the store door for a stranger,
Occasionally pay for the guy behind you at the doughnut shop,
Help the poor when you're able,
and vote for candidates that will protect mother earth.
Harlan Ellison was a self proclaimed atheist. It is ironic that the work and thoughts of an atheist are, at times, just as important and meaningful a message as that of some religious scholars.
If we heed his warning and try to slowly turn back the pages one at a time, the apocalypse he foretold will remain a parable and we will truly be on a path to redemption and salvation.