Dangerous Visions

I stayed up until 4 on Sunday morning watching the three episode series, 'The Martians and Us', a documentary on the history of British sci-fi, on BBC 3. Not bad, though I dozed a little in the second episode (the first on Wells, Stapledon and the gang was best, and I had seen that one before). Strange to finally see Christopher Priest, author of 'The Prestige', 'The Space Machine' and 'A Dream of Wessex', being interviewed. Not what I was expecting. He seemed very self-effacing, kind of shy and dismissive of any intellectualism. Yet he is somewhat infamous for a (justified?) attack on Harlan Ellison for failing to deliver 'Dangerous Visions 3', and well, as far as intellectualism goes, his books (including the one profiled in the series, 'Fugue for a Darkening Island') speak for themselves. Only in his reaction to the critics change of heart on 'Darkening Island' did a deeper passion show itself ("I was pretty upset about it, actually").
Oh, and Mr Ellison, get the finger out!