TOW #7 - 3 Most Important Things in Life - Harlan Ellison (Written)

Harlan Ellison was, at the time of the anecdote he references in this essay, a "Nice quiet Jewish kid from Ohio... a published author... well into terminal destitution. Poverty would have been, for me, a sharp jump into a higher-income bracket." He introduces himself as such to give the impression that he's been in many walks of life, and that he's experienced many things. This is a good way of establishing ethos bit by bit throughout the entirety of the essay. Most of the essay, however, is focused around getting to readers' emotions through the use of humor and vivid descriptions of the environment, both physically and emotionally. This focus on pathos seems appropriate for the topic of the essay, being the importance of Sex in one's life, with sex being a thing of emotion, not logic. The essay was originally published in a porn magazine, which matches the lack of true philosophical depth in the essay - though the title claims to speak on the subject of the importance of sex in one's life, the true purpose is to simply tell a story. Ellison does so with stark clarity, using descriptive but simple diction to get the events that he's relating across with style and grace. He also makes great use of humor throughout the essay in order to keep his readers interested. He uses surprising events and descriptions to evoke humor, such as the end of the essay, whereupon tying his date to the ground, naked, in the kinkiest of positions, instead of furthering his conquest, he leaves. Another funny bit of surprise is when his date suddenly asks him to hit her. These humorous moments, coupled with vivid descriptions that truly put you in Ellsion's shoes, come together to help Ellison achieve his true goal of narrating an entertaining anecdote quite well.