The Dhalgren cover is great. I saw a cheap copy at Powell's and almost bought it to give away to someone, as I usually do when I see cheap copies of it, and then realized that I still had a copy or two that I hadn't given away yet. Well, it's not for everyone.
If I could give away copies of Times Square Red, Times Square Blue like that, though, I'd be very happy indeed!
― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 17:05 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 17:07 (twenty years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 17:07 (twenty years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 17:35 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.infinitematrix.net/art/fundraising/Nova22.jpg
― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 18:50 (twenty years ago) link
just been bookshopping and i didn't see any old editions of his books but hopefully this reish will mean some of these old ones turining up in 2nd hand bookshops.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 19:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 19:46 (twenty years ago) link
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 21:51 (twenty years ago) link
1) I was wondering about your stories often being cited - particularly Neveryon - as an inspiration for Xena: Warrior Princess. Are you aware of Xena and do you see it (and other Sword & Sorcery movements) as part of a general mainstreaming of fetishism?
2) Did you know Sun Ra credits William Dhalgren in Space is the Place? What do you think of Afrofuturism?
― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 04:11 (twenty years ago) link
Then, when I say Xena, I got this huge laugh from the 200 person crowd, who I think were laughing at me. And Delany goes "Oh, GOD".
And then - mark s you would have DIED - he goes:
"Sword and Sorcery, that's so vague, what does that mean? I don't think QUESTIONS OF INFLUENCE are very interesting - who influenced what or what's influenced by who - that doesn't get a lot of mileage out of me."
So, sensing end of question, I repeat myself - do you see it anyway as the mainstreaming of fetishism?
"Oh yeah, sure. Fetishes always enter the mainstream and we create new ones in their place." (duh).
Thank god I didn't ask about Sun Ra (later he sez: "literary fiction analyzes the subject and genres analyze the social object, but i don't think genre conventions grant any special privelege or power").
The message I got: fuck y'all if you weren't invited to the graduate luncheon. i'm here to promote the product. Which is fair, of course, I'm just not comfortable looking the fool.
― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 04:18 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 06:25 (twenty years ago) link
anyway thank you vahid, and v.sorry the spotlight felt maybe a bit hot and horrible up there for a moment - however at least you can be proud knowing you didn't ask creepy asslick questions so hurrah!!
― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 08:13 (twenty years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 26 May 2003 00:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 26 May 2003 01:00 (twenty years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Monday, 26 May 2003 01:19 (twenty years ago) link
― Ess Kay (esskay), Monday, 26 May 2003 04:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 26 May 2003 08:16 (twenty years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 26 May 2003 21:32 (twenty years ago) link
Are people with only one shoe a running theme in his books? I've only read Dhalgren and Nova and it shows up in both.
― David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Monday, 26 May 2003 22:14 (twenty years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 26 May 2003 22:16 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 26 May 2003 23:01 (twenty years ago) link
I bought this book used at Mary Jo's Book Exchange in Canby, Oregon, back when the population was about 3000 people. I took it home and started reading it and felt guilty, weird, scared: it was gay! and straight! and sexual! and cool! and difficult! I was probably in like 6th or 7th grade. Some education, no? Anyway, it freaked me out too much and I sold it back. Years later, in hschool, my issues sorted out, I read an article in The Portland International Review about how important, etc., it was. I bought it the next day at Powell's, with that same excellent cover, for like $2. I didn't know Delany was black OR gay OR anything.
And damn were The Einstein Intersection and Babel-17 mindfucks of the highest order.
― Neudonym, Tuesday, 8 July 2003 00:47 (twenty years ago) link
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 00:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 01:07 (twenty years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 01:08 (twenty years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 15:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 15:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 16:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 19:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 01:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 01:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 03:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 January 2005 18:35 (nineteen years ago) link
When I met him, I was very self-conscious about my nail-biting, although I realized that I was probably 20 years too young (and maybe 50lbs too thin) for his tastes. (Actually maybe I didn't know that latter part at that point; I met him before I had read much.)
Motion Of Light ends before he writes Dhalgren; I don't think he mentions it at all.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 10 January 2005 21:55 (nineteen years ago) link
Just finished Dark Reflections. The first two sections are really good, but the third one is weak, and almost makes me think less of the book as a whole. But going back and rereading bits of the first two sections is the antidote to that. Overall it's a good book, but not great.
― Rock Hardy, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 03:26 (sixteen years ago) link
What's this? Is it a new collection of critical works?
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link
No, it's a new novel.
― Rock Hardy, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Are you shitting me there's a new actual Delaney novel OMG?!?!
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, didn't hear about this at all.
― Jordan, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Is it another pr0n? (Not that I'm judging-- I liked Mad Man.)
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Not porn. Not SF. Delany, not Delaney.
Oh hell, here.
― Rock Hardy, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 18:29 (sixteen years ago) link
I know I could easily have gone and found that myself, but thanks.
Looks great, actually. Might buy it tonight.
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link
hurry up and finish the sequel to "stars in their pockets like grains of sand" you fat bastard
― moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 6 December 2008 21:02 (fifteen years ago) link
v4h1d hurry up and listen to the radio show me and mark s dedicated to him! it includes a reading of "aye and gomorrah".
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 6 December 2008 21:04 (fifteen years ago) link
link pls
― moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 6 December 2008 21:05 (fifteen years ago) link
nah it's a really good boring piss-drinking utopian porno though??
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Monday, 3 December 2012 00:46 (eleven years ago) link
like, repetition and tedium and minimal variation are aesthetic strategies i'm fond of, and to consciously get there through porn is a smart aesthetic choice -- and what he's getting at is dramatizing his very small utopia (one in which queer men of colour can drink all the piss they want with minimal harassment and a local government that's actively involved in halting the spread of sexually transmitted disease) in a way that makes it lived-in rather than didactic
i think the mad man might be the larger novel in a lot of ways (albeit not, er, physically) but spiders is at least an impressive demonstration of what a 'late style' might look like for him
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Monday, 3 December 2012 00:50 (eleven years ago) link
oh i'll definitely read it. (at some point this week i'll drag my fat ass to the library.) and it's not as if i am not already a sucker for sam delany novels with corprophagia. actually the review on the tor site linked to from that stars piece that v posted is probably the best i've read yet. (though i think she's a little too...prissy. even as she tries to say that she understands why the copious perversions have literary value.)
― strongo hulkington's ghost dad, Monday, 3 December 2012 01:48 (eleven years ago) link
sometimes i wonder if there really is anything i could read that would gross me out enough to stop reading.
― strongo hulkington's ghost dad, Monday, 3 December 2012 01:59 (eleven years ago) link
the last delany i read was dark reflections, which i remember being melancholy and pretty great.
― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Monday, 3 December 2012 02:03 (eleven years ago) link
I skimmed through most of Hogg in a bookstore and ultimately couldn't bring myself to buy it. My daughter was about 7 at the time and it squicked me out just a little too much.
― WilliamC, Monday, 3 December 2012 02:09 (eleven years ago) link
i read hogg when i was...25? i guess? maybe earlier. it didn't gross me out, per se, but it definitely became a slog. i don't know if i ever finished it.
― strongo hulkington's ghost dad, Monday, 3 December 2012 02:28 (eleven years ago) link
i mean i can understand why he felt he needed to write it, and as a busting-loose-of-all-societal-and-literary-constraints move it has historical value, but i think everything he was trying to do there he did better in later books (including, it sounds like, spiders), mostly because they have actual plots and characters you care about, rather than just a steady, numbing accumulation of taboo-busting grossnesses.
― strongo hulkington's ghost dad, Monday, 3 December 2012 02:30 (eleven years ago) link
actually i did finish it, because i remember the last page very vividly now, and it's a hell of a punchline if nothing else.
i picked up 'through the valley...' again this morning and it's interesting how easy it was to fall back into the rhythm of it, eric and shit and dynamite collecting trash and drinking each other's piss, and jay and mex piloting the ferry and eating shit out on the island, and so on and so forth
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Saturday, 2 February 2013 17:26 (eleven years ago) link
i mean, it's a rare novel you can pick up again at six month intervals and not feel like the effort's become completely pointless
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Saturday, 2 February 2013 17:28 (eleven years ago) link
just checking in with your poop-eating friends.
― a basset hound (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Saturday, 2 February 2013 17:49 (eleven years ago) link
i still need to read this.
For whatever reason I pulled a copy of Dhalgren off the shelf last night and reread the first 80 or so pages. The Kid's about to become a poet and get his ass kicked.
― Dr. Alfred P. Falfa (WilliamC), Saturday, 2 February 2013 17:56 (eleven years ago) link
to be fair, i probably feel more excited at the idea of rereading dhalgren than i do getting through the second half of ...spiders.
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Sunday, 3 February 2013 03:41 (eleven years ago) link
good thread, someone said 15 years too late
― zionsmommy (mattresslessness), Friday, 5 June 2015 05:25 (eight years ago) link
crossposting from the ILB thread.
Good (first half of an) interview: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/07/interview-samuel-r-delany-three-novels-launched-career-part-1/
He was also interviewed by Gary Wolfe for the Coode Street Podcast — http://jonathanstrahan.podbean.com/e/episode-241-samuel-r-delany/ — but it seemed a bit lightweight and inessential. Getting a bit of press/doing a bit of promotional work for the new Vintage edition of three early novels.
― dart scar rashes (WilliamC), Friday, 24 July 2015 15:50 (eight years ago) link
Didn't know about those reprints, thanks!
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 24 July 2015 15:54 (eight years ago) link
For all my Delany fandom, in the early 80s I breezed through his early work once, quickly and with poor attention to detail. Time to reread.
― dart scar rashes (WilliamC), Friday, 24 July 2015 16:00 (eight years ago) link
Another good new interview, from The Nation - http://www.thenation.com/article/samuel-r-delany-speaks/
― rack of lamb of god (WilliamC), Monday, 24 August 2015 21:52 (eight years ago) link
The Motion Of Light In Water is one of the best autobiographies/memoirs ever written (him being young & etc in NY 1957-1965) - pretty much the first thing I read of his, Tim, & I luvved luvved ELL YOU VEE luvved it to death.― Ess Kay (esskay), Sunday, May 25, 2003 11:56 PM (12 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
it's true
― slam dunk, Tuesday, 25 August 2015 01:12 (eight years ago) link
Still a hero, another new interview:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/samuel-r-delany-on-his-legacy-creativity-and-promisc-1833407173
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 1 May 2019 23:44 (five years ago) link