"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

The article's lead section may need to be rewritten. Please help improve the lead and read the lead layout guide. (October 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" is a dystopian science fiction short story by American writer Harlan Ellison that was published in 1965. It is nonlinear in that the narrative begins in the middle, then moves to the beginning, then the end, without the use of flashbacks. Stylistically, the story deliberately ignores many of the conventional "rules of good writing",^{[citation needed]} including a paragraph about jelly beans which is almost entirely one run-on sentence. First appearing in the science fiction magazine Galaxy in December 1965, it won the 1966 Hugo Award, the 1965 Nebula Award and the 2015 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.

"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" was written in 1965 in a single six-hour session as a submission to a Milford Writer's Workshop the following day.^[1] A version of the story, read by Ellison, was recorded and issued on vinyl, but has long been out of print. The audio recording has since been reissued with other stories, by Blackstone Audio, under the title "The Voice From the Edge, Vol. 1". It was first collected in Ellison's Paingod and Other Delusions and has also appeared in several retrospective volumes of Ellison's work, including Alone Against Tomorrow, The Fantasies of Harlan Ellison, The Essential Ellison, Troublemakers and The Top of the Volcano. The story has been translated into numerous foreign languages.