ABSTRACT
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Harlan Elison’s “Repent Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman (1974) depicts an utterly efficient world
being destroyed by people who are occasionally late, driven to the point of absurdity as represented in
theHarlequin. He has lost somanyminutes of his life that the Ticktockmanmust find him to revoke his
cardioplate.Rather than dangling in the realmof the implicit, Elison brings us head-onwith the ultimate
conundrum in society-should society serve the individual or should the individual serve society?
