https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV4d_m8N5I0
Link is to first completed scene. I'm doing all the work in my apartment and blogging my creative process.
Does anyone know how I could contact Samuel R. Delany? I have been a huge fan of his work for years, and would love to send him a letter or an email. I know that he has published at least one book of letters, so he does read and respond to fan mail. However, the only contact details on his website are those of his publicist, no personal ones. It's a shame that he is retired from his teaching jobs, so I can't contact him at a university address
Does anyone have any idea where I might find an email or mail address for him?
I've been a big Samuel R. Delany fan for many years. I read Dhalgren about the same time as I was reading David Foster Wallace and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I loved the evocative prose and the postmodern structure of that book. I went on to read Neveryon, Atlantis, his critical work (Longer Views, Shorter Views), Times Square Red, and much more. He's been one of my favorite writers for years because of his deep and broad intelligence, and his sophisticated understanding of history, economics, gender politics, etc.
I always avoided his early SF novels because I figured they were too normie for my tastes. But I kept hearing about Nova, here and elsewhere, as maybe his best work. So I used this quarantine to finally get around to reading it. Boy, I was not a fan.
Delany has this weird sentence structure that's hard to describe. They're poetic and technically correct, but he'll use weird verbs and otherwise choose words that are obscure or not usually employed in the way he does. I'm not doing a great job of describing it, but I think people who've read him know what I mean. That's usually part of why I like him.
But in Nova, he has to use his unusual prose to describe a world over a thousand years in the future, where technology and culture is very different. It can make for some confusing and unpleasant reading. Like I struggled to understand the way he described their futuristic architecture, and worlds riven by fissures in the planets' crust.
The melodrama also didn't work for me. The plot is about these two titans of industry and scions of important families squaring off to control important resources, and all the fights are done in-person, mano a mano. It's like if Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg settled any disputes with a fistfight. It's kind of a high-seas story set in space, and stories about pirates are never going to hold much interest for me.
I did like some aspects of it. The fates of the protagonist and antagonist were compelling in a pulpy kind of way. I also liked some of the elements of the world-building, like an instrument that allows its player to create sensory impressions like a kind of jazz musician, and how that instrument plays into the plot. Some of the camaraderie between the shipmates was interesting, and it was kind of nice to read a Delany novel without all the weird obsessive sex stuff that makes it into a lot of his work. Or at least it was more subdued here.
Anyway, that was my take. I would love
... keep reading on reddit β‘I finally finished Dhalgren over the weekend. I started it last March. Overall I give the book 3/5 stars. There was a lot I liked about the book but there was also a lot I didn't like.
First a couple of things I didn't like or that quickly stood out to me. I felt the book could have been significantly shorter, about 400-600 pages instead of 800. Nothing substantial happens in the book. It was a slog to get through, which is clear since it took me nearly a year to read and I went and read several other books along the way. While this is considered a work of sci-fi I believe it is mainly a back drop and not the focal point of the story or plot. If someone were to read this looking for a great sci-fi story they would be disappointed.
There were a few writing quarks that popped up continually. "Sucked his/her teeth" was written very frequently and such an odd character behavior. I really couldn't grasp exactly what the author was trying to convey.
The author is a mixed race man who also happened to be gay. The theme of race and sexual identity were very prevalent throughout the book, which, for the most part, I enjoyed. I'm not that interested in sexual identity or reading about it but I think the author did a good job of exploring uninhibited freedom and the fluidity of race and sex.
What did I like about the book? I really enjoyed the unreliable narrator aspect. The main protagonist does not know his own name and time seems to flow differently for him than others. The book does a great job of exploring identity and explores how we define ourselves in the context of ourselves and our surroundings.
There are a lot of themes to digest in the book and a lot of layers of meaning. If anyone has read the book I'd like to learn your takeaways. I'm really interested in the relationship between George and June. Their relationship, a large black man and a small, young, blonde, white woman, seems to be the catalyst that launches Bellona into a wasteland where the insane, criminal, or uninhibited people are drawn to. Was the relationship consensual? What was the significance of the second moon and it being named after George? I found the Richards to be a fascinating cast of characters.
One thing that I took away that I thought the author was trying to convey was that regardless of the environment people always try to cling to some sort of structure and need others to frame themselves around.
Any other Chip Delany fans in this subreddit? The Neveryon Series is by far my favorite set of novels in the Sword and Sorcery genre, and I'd love to have some discussion buddies!
https://preview.redd.it/nat675uhpg741.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=763455d4d851910c1a86cf2a3980388b6c0a7f9d
This review and others can be found on my book review blog, Black Forest Basilisks. The original post's content has been reformatted here for reddit in full.
/r/Fantasy Bingo Squares:Β Slice of Life (Hard Mode), Cyberpunk (Hard Mode), Afrofuturism, Retelling (Hard Mode)
Execution: ββββπ«
Enjoyment: βββπ«
>***β***The door opened; she slipped out; the door clicked to behind.
She wore white gloves.
She wore white boots.
Her long skirt and high-necked bodice were white. Full white sleeves draped her wrists. She reached up and pulled the white cloak around her shoulders. Its paler than ivory folds swept around.
Over her head was a full-head mask: white veils hung below the eyes; the icy globe was a-glitter with white sequins. White plumes rose above it, as from some albino peacock.
βNowββ The veil fluttered with her breathββwe can roam the labyrinths of honesty and deceit, searching out the illusive centers of our being by a detailed examination of the shift and glitter of our own, protean surfacesββ
She turned back to the door and called:
βDonβt worry, Iβll be back in time for the performance.β
Triton, also published under Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia, by Samuel R. Delany is one hell of a trip and surprisingly relevant to modern day discourse on gender and sex. Originally written as a response to Le Guinβs The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, Delany explores what it might be like to experience a progressive, open society as a very traditional, masculine male with conservative ideas about the roles and capabilities of men and women. Where Le Guin explored life as someone who is LGBT+ in a predominantly straight βutopia,β Delany explores the inverse.
Written in Delanyβs always stellar prose, Triton takes on uncomfortable perspectives designed to discomfit readers. The narrator, Bron, has much in common with the incels of today. He believes that heβs a good guy who deserves a chanceβ¦ and becomes quite angry when he is denied it. He is the epitome of white male entitlement. Although he lives in a world that is founded on everyoneβs basic needs being met, including those of sexual nature, he finds that the women who he wants to love him ar
... keep reading on reddit β‘
Im trying to read at least one book by each Damon Knight SF Grandmaster and it's Delany's turn. I've been wanting to read a book by him for sometime now but I can't decide where to begin. I keep reading about Dhalgren but I've also heard it's an absolute waste of paper. I hear it's too convoluted, pornographic and pointless. Is there anything that you would recommend? Or is Dhalgren really all that it's cracked up to be?
I was skimming the older Hugo winners and nominees for some bargains this morning when I came across this book. It's on a lot of lists so I am eager to take a peek at this one.
Worlds Without End classifies it as Space Opera, Soft SF, and Military.
Looks like there is a omnibus Kindle edition of Babel-17 and Empire Star available for $1.99. The dead tree version is $14 on Amazon.
EDIT: The Kindle version is just Babel-17.
Just curious if anyone has read anything by Delany. In terms of narrative style, his use of language and words, and the complexity of his stories, he is more similar than any other author I have come across to Wolfe.
If you haven't read the entire book I would avoid this thread.
Some questions to start, SPOILERS AHEAD:
*What's up with the tree lady?
*Significance of the prisms, mirrors, lenses? Why do some characters wear them and not others?
*What does the Kid's light-shield look like?
*What is the Kid's name? William Dhalgren? Or is that the critic's name?
*Did June really intend to kill her brother?
*Did Kid write everything in the notebook? Some of it seems like Newboy's style.
*Are the names of the Scorpions constantly in flux? I really couldn't keep track of all the aliases.
*What's up with Calkins and the Father? Why didn't Calkins attend the party?
*What's up with George Harrison, the moon, and the posters of him all around Bellona?
*Is Kid the escaped mental patient Madame Brown mentions?
*What's up with the scratches on various women's legs?
*Thoughts on the looping structure? Moebius strip? Necker cube?
EDIT: formatting
Dhalgren https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HE2JK7G/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_8CkeDbAWP0MD9
