http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany hourly 1 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://gmane.org/img/gmane-25t.png http://gmane.org http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2770 <pre>http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=1050 </pre> vpoleganov 2012-05-26T09:16:58 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2762 <pre>If you have had difficulty with TVNS, you may not be reading it right. Full disclosure: I have spent the last several years proofreading and partially editing the book. I have a very intimate relationship with it. Yet even with that connection, I doubt I could have even come close to writing the incredibly insightful review that just came out in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders has been grokked: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&amp;id=652&amp;fulltext=1&amp;media= </pre> nivekgnir 2012-05-22T17:06:46 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2749 <pre>A short while ago I finished _Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders_. I have to say, it's not up there among my favorites of his (those would be _Stars_, _Dhalgren_, _Triton_, and the autobiographical works). The feeling I get is that the block of marble needed some more chiseling to more clearly reveal the statue within. I find myself agreeing with a few of the specific points made in this review (but I would stop short at saying it was "bad"): http://jwcampb.blogspot.com/2012/05/review-of-through-valley-of-nest-of.html I'm sure Delany could explain exactly why every one of the many sex scenes was kept in at the length and level of detail it was, but I did start to mentally say "oh, not another one" as things went on. The relationship of Eric and Shit did remind me of that between Marq and Rat in _Stars_, only here, the question asked is "so you meet your perfect erotic match... and then get to live with them for 70 years in a milieu where sex is the primary way you spend your free time, at least for the first few decades. What happens?" In _Stars_ I felt like I got to get up and walk around Velm or Rhyonon a little, and when I did, what I saw made my brain light up like a Christmas tree. There was the potential for that here, but it largely didn't happen. The scene in the "Gay Friendly" men's room is the funniest scene I can remember in all of Delany's fiction. I found the depiction of Eric and Shit as old men touching without being mawkish. I read _The Mad Man_ once, when the first edition was published (although I own the latest, as I have heard it is vastly improved there, but I haven't been motivated enough to read it), and also _Phallos_, and the statue depicted on the covers of those gets quite a few pages devoted to it in _Spiders_. I don't remember what the significance of it in the other works was, though. If any of you would care to summarize for me, I'd be grateful. Who else here has finished it? </pre> Erich Schneider 2012-05-16T03:51:58 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2744 <pre>First, anybody have a contact with Delany, his agent or his publicist? I was asked by Rick Kleffel, of The Agony Column Podcast, if I knew of such a contact--Rick would like to interview Delany about Spiders and his writing. If need be, e-mail me at Recursive _ Loop &lt; at &gt; yahoo . com . Second, this site came up in Google, but when I look at it (Firefox and IE), all I see is a blank screen: www.samuelrdelany.com Placeholder for an eventual actual author site? Thanks much! Fred Kiesche </pre> Planet_Stories 2012-05-13T12:45:24 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2740 <pre>Greetings: Anybody have this? Is it worth buying? http://www.amazon.com/splendor-misery-cities-fiction-excerpt/dp/B00096NF3O $5.95. About 80% down with "1984". Read "Bread and Wine" last week and Mr. Postman brought me a bunch of odds and ends including "Heavenly Breakfast" and an Ace Triple of Delany - Vance - Simak. FPK3 </pre> Planet_Stories 2012-05-12T02:47:48 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2739 <pre>Long review of 'In the Valley...' by Paul di Filippo on the Locus website http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2012/04/paul-di-filippo-reviews-samuel-r-delany/ Keith [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] </pre> Keith Knight 2012-04-22T19:32:42 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2736 <pre> Idle musings follow: Chip was writing novels (not short stories yet, in 1966 -- Babel-17 and Empire Star) and selling them to Ace. It was interesting to think of the young Chip as I watched the episode just 'offstage' as it were in the Mad Men world. Down in the bohemian part of town. I was wondering how realistic it was to have Cosgrove actually take a meeting with an editor from Farrar, Strauss, &amp; Giroux. In spite of him having published a literary short or two previously, he was publishing genre (in Galaxy, no less). The state of the science fiction was heavily ghettoized in that era, with the exception of name writers like Heinlein and Bradbury. It would have been more usual to have him talking with an editor from Ace (or some other pb publisher) about a collection of shorts (i.e., Heinlein's _The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein_ came out from Ace in 1966). Ballantine in 1966: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?19+1966 Ace in 1966 http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?37+1966 Mind you, Farrar, Strauss and Young had published Sturgeon's More Than Human a decade earlier but it feels like a strange exception: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?1667 In 1966, FSG published a handful of genre titles: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?125+1966 And only two adult sf: Ballard and Shirley Jackson. Prestige. Oh well, no harm in Cosgrove aiming high. :) --Z On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 12:40 PM, Wade T Smith &lt;skepticus&lt; at &gt;earthlink.net&gt;wrote: [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] </pre> Zvi Gilbert 2012-04-19T17:03:59 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2734 <pre>Ever since I started watching _Mad Men_, it's tickled me to think that the time and place the show is set in (New York City, 1960 to 1966 so far) is the same as that of the bulk of _The Motion of Light in Water_. So when characters drop by the East Village, I think "hey, that's Chip's neighborhood!" There's also the contrast between Delany's depiction of his life vs. that of the closeted gay character on the show. And then, in a recent episode, we learn that a character has been writing SF stories in his spare time and getting them published in the SF magazines of the day... </pre> Erich Schneider 2012-04-18T16:07:22 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2725 <pre>free download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?jyx93p7bz9091d0 xo, s. </pre> Simon Dickel 2012-04-12T16:02:17 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2721 <pre>Locus's latest "New Books" column includes Delany's new novel: http://www.locusmag.com/Monitor/2012/04/new-books-10-april/ --Ron Henry </pre> Ron Henry 2012-04-11T19:41:07 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2716 <pre>Greetings: A couple of people on Twitter have been asking which are the biographical works (real or fictional) by SRD. I've got listed: Motion of Light Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (essays) Dark Reflections (fictional) Bread &amp; Wine (graphic novel) And I haven't read, so I'm not sure about: Tides of Lust???? Did I miss any? Also, would any of the essay collections (e.g., Silent Interviews and the others) contain any biographical essays? I guess I could point to the fictional works (SF) that were spun out of his experiences (e.g., working on a shrimp boat), but that might be stretching it too far. Thanks! Fred Kiesche </pre> Planet_Stories 2012-04-11T15:05:39 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2712 <pre>You can get 'Nest of Spiders' from Barnes and Noble as a $9.99 Nook (epub) format ebook right now from: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/through-the-valley-of-the-nest-of-spiders-samuel-r-delany/1101063307 All true, I just downloaded it. You don't need Nook reader hardware, any hardware ereader or software app that supports epub will work. Yum! </pre> bronh51 2012-04-04T21:00:28 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2704 <pre>Just to let everyone know, there's already an errata page for Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders up on my site. It includes an entire chapter that was inadvertently left out of the novel. http://www.oneringcircus.com/spiders_errata.html </pre> nivekgnir 2012-04-03T17:26:11 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2698 <pre>See above. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] </pre> rdumain< at >autodidactproject.org 2012-04-01T16:20:01 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2697 <pre>Just spotted this... http://workresumedonthetower.blogspot.com/2012/02/interlude-5-conversations-involving.html Main site: http://workresumedonthetower.blogspot.com/ We made some mention of "Spiders" in the most recent episode of the SF Signal Podcast I participated in: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/02/the-sf-signal-podcast-episode-105-what-books-or-stories-are-you-looking-forward-to-in-2012/ FPK3 </pre> Planet_Stories 2012-02-10T16:17:50 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2693 <pre>According to an email I just got from Chip, the publication date for THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE NEST OF SPIDERS is April 10. A nice birthday present for Chip, to be sure! </pre> nivekgnir 2012-02-02T19:50:19 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2686 <pre>I just wrote a blog post about The Mad Man that people here might (or might not!) find interesting: http://malvasiabianca.org/archives/2011/12/the-mad-man/ </pre> David Carlton 2011-12-31T18:25:14 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2683 <pre>You are reprehensible. </pre> Jim 2011-12-31T04:12:11 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2682 <pre> You can read the whole "women's lib issue" here, written by Delany: &lt;http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2010/11/grooves-faves-grandee-caper-by-delaney.html&gt; I've always wanted to see/read this. Thanks, internet! There has been some controversy over the panel where Delany has Wonder Woman say, "In most cases, I don't even LIKE women...?" It's here: &lt;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qZK742rc1hc/TPLMpWC3WpI/AAAAAAAAcsU/EygR3JyDK1c/s1600/wonder%2Bwoman%2B203%2Bp14.jpg&gt; An example of the flak this has drawn: &lt;http://www.carolastrickland.com/comics/wwcentral/misc_indexes/bestworst/bestworst2.html&gt; But I think this critique is too simple. In my opinion, it's clear from context that the reader is expected to disapprove of Wonder Woman's comment, and that Wonder Woman comes to regret it. Note that she's immediately reprimanded for her remark, and another character (both of them "good guys") seconds the reprimand. And in context, on the same page, Wonder Woman also naively defends Grandee, who later proves to be a villain. Wonder Woman was fooled by him, and later in the story she uncovers and learns from that mistake. That's the story arc -- she's still learning about feminism. A more sophisticated critique is at the bottom of: &lt;http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=1391&gt; The author arrives at the right interpretation of Delany's intention, but argues that the line is out of character given Wonder Woman's past. I actually agree that Delany made a mistake with this panel. But the mistake was writing something that is too subtle and easy to misread, and arguably out of character. But it isn't politically incorrect. </pre> Seth Tisue 2011-12-29T02:59:27 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2673 <pre>In the recent interview with SRD in the Paris Review, he says, referring to flunking out of college: ------------------------------------------------------------------- It took me a while to realize that if a teacher had taken me aside and said, “Come on, Chip, sit down, let’s talk, this is how you have to do this,” probably I would have learned how to negotiate it. But nobody did. INTERVIEWER What would they have said? DELANY Well, when I started as a comparative-literature professor at the University of Massachusetts, I wrote an essay explaining how you do it—“How to Do Well in This Class”—and I still give it out to students who are having problems of that sort. Basically it’s about what’s gained by living your life in end-stopped time units, both for work and for play. Some of the students I’ve given it to have found it helpful. I wish I’d had it when I entered college. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I would absolutely love to read this essay -- I think it could help me quite a bit too. Anybody know where to find a copy? Thanks, d </pre> david moses fruchter 2011-11-22T03:09:30 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.culture.sf.delany/2671 <pre>Wesleayan Press will publish SW next year (in July) with an introduciton by Matthew Cheney http://www.upne.com/TOC/TOC_0819568847.html </pre> vpoleganov 2011-11-15T07:43:58 Search the mailing list at Gmane query http://search.gmane.org/?group=$group=gmane.culture.sf.delany