ask sam delany a question?

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?

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

What's this? Is it a new collection of critical works?

No, it's a new novel.

Are you shitting me there's a new actual Delaney novel OMG?!?!

Wow, didn't hear about this at all.

Is it another pr0n? (Not that I'm judging-- I liked Mad Man.)

Not porn. Not SF. Delany, not Delaney.

Oh hell, here.

I know I could easily have gone and found that myself, but thanks.

Looks great, actually. Might buy it tonight.

hurry up and finish the sequel to "stars in their pockets like grains of sand" you fat bastard

v4h1d hurry up and listen to the radio show me and mark s dedicated to him! it includes a reading of "aye and gomorrah".

link pls

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2008/09/a-bite-of-stars-a-slug-of-time-and-thou-episode-11/

hurry up and finish the sequel to "stars in their pockets like grains of sand" you fat bastard

would be amazed but thrilled if this ever happens. Will be somewhat surprised if he ever publishes another sf novel.

Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders coming sometime from Bamberger Books.

June 2009 interview: http://io9.com/5295779/samuel-delany-answers-your-science-fiction-questions

His 1971 film The Orchid has recently gone up on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub4lqJXApRE&feature=related

haha my first question on the revive was gonna be "where is 'through the valley of the nest of spiders' (you fat bastard)?"

LOL pwnage

...some of the most recent incarnations of the Cyberpunk stuff seem to me to be kind of dull. It seems to become a collection of endless mannerist fights, with everyone firing various and sundry power guns at each other from around corners, and I don't see what the point of it all is.

Bamberger went out of business, so he had to find a new publisher for Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. New publisher is Magnus Books, release date October 18 2011.

hmmmmm.

btw fellow nerds, interview in the current paris review. (one with wm. gibson too.) haven't read it yet but it's the first p.r. i've been interested in front-to-back in quite a while.

Nice. $30/4 issues for ipad, I might do that.

Also, since the last time I checked (3-4 months ago), finally there's some Delany available as e-books.

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

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

just checking in with your poop-eating friends.

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.

to be fair, i probably feel more excited at the idea of rereading dhalgren than i do getting through the second half of ...spiders.

good thread, someone said 15 years too late

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.

Didn't know about those reprints, thanks!

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.

Another good new interview, from The Nation - http://www.thenation.com/article/samuel-r-delany-speaks/

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

Still a hero, another new interview:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/samuel-r-delany-on-his-legacy-creativity-and-promisc-1833407173