"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" is a short story by science fiction writer Harlan Ellison. It is nonlinear in that the narrative begins in the middle, then moves to the beginning, then the end, without the use of flashbacks. First appearing in the science fiction magazine Galaxy in December 1965, it won the 1966 Hugo Award for best short story, and the 1965 Nebula Award. The story is one of the most reprinted short stories in the English language and has been translated into numerous foreign languages. "Repent" was written in 1965 in a single six-hour session as a submission to a... Milford Writer's Workshop the following day. A version of the story, read by Harlan Ellison, was recorded and issued on vinyl, but has long been out of print. Stylistically, the story is remarkable for purposely ignoring many "rules of good writing", including a paragraph about jelly beans which is almost entirely one run-on sentence. The story opens with a passage from Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. The story is a satirical look at a dystopian future in which time is strictly regulated and everyone must do everything according to an extremely precise time schedule.
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