 Many then saw the story of Genovese's murder as emblematic of the callousness or apathy of life in big cities, and New York in particular.Science-fiction author and cultural "provocateur" Harlan Ellison, stated that "thirty-eight people watched" Genovese "get knifed to death in a New York street".His June 1988 article in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" (later reprinted in his book "Harlan Ellison's Watching") referred to the murder as "witnessed by thirty-eight neighbors, not one of whom made the slightest effort to save her, to scream at the killer, or even to call the police".