Given the source, I'm inclined to agree that this is probably his third-to-last convention, rather than the last. That said, it is Harlan Ellison; I don't think he would be making these claims if things weren't winding down, and I'll be sad to see him gone.
He's kind of like that asshole friend you acknowledge is an asshole while still enjoying his company. Yeah, he's a raging narcissist who pulled a gun on someone to get out of a bet, and he grabbed another author's mammary gland at a convention, but I don't know, it's Harlan. I mean, he wrote, "Repent, Harlequin, said the Ticktockman". It takes a lot of dickery to eclipse all the great things he's done, and he's hopefully not going to manage that in the time he has left.
He does make that point in the article: "An old dog senses when it's his time -- dogs have that capacity; nobody doubts that. Nobody. But everybody doubts when you say, 'I'm dying.' They think you're being a Victorian actress. They think you're doing Bernhardt."
Not exactly unheard of, maybe you feel like your battery is just running out. Reminds me of a footnote from "Three Pillars of Zen", p31:
"Yasutani-roshi died in his temple in Kyoto on March 28, 1973, at the age of eighty-eight. He was about to take his breakfast when he toppled over and, without pain, passed away. A week earlier his strength had begun to fail and he took more rest from his heavy teaching schedule. Three days before he drew his last breath he administered the precepts to twelve persons in a forty-five-minute ceremony called jukai. Afterward he confided to a close disciple, 'That is my last jukai. I went through it on sheer willpower.'"
But everybody doubts when you say, 'I'm dying.' They think you're being a Victorian actress. They think you're doing Bernhardt."
People suspect Ellison is making over-the-top public statements in order to draw attention to himself? Where would they ever get such a ludicrous idea?!
You know how occasionally some old guy will retire and then die within weeks or months of his retirement? Strom Thurmond, for one, did this. Sometimes people assume that without the job to keep them busy some people just lose the will to live, but maybe they're sensing they don't have long to go and retiring in advance so they don't inconvenience anyone.
December 31, 1996. My grandfather, who repaired hospital blood lab equipment such as centrifuges and microscopes told his customers he was shutting down.
January 17, 1997. My grandfather was tying twine around a box holding a microscope for Kansas University Medical Center. It was the final item on his backlog from 1996. His heart stopped, and he fell over dead onto his shop floor, doing what he loved doing most.
RIP, Grandpa. I still miss you, and I'm forever thankful that you passed to me your insatiable curiosity, knack for mechanical synergy and desire for unfaltering ethics.
Not sure Strom's a good example. He was over 100 years old when he died. I saw him in person a couple of times from the Senate gallery and I don't think he was actually there for his last term or so.
He's kind of like that asshole friend you acknowledge is an asshole while still enjoying his company. Yeah, he's a raging narcissist who pulled a gun on someone to get out of a bet, and he grabbed another author's mammary gland at a convention, but I don't know, it's Harlan. I mean, he wrote, "Repent, Harlequin, said the Ticktockman". It takes a lot of dickery to eclipse all the great things he's done, and he's hopefully not going to manage that in the time he has left.