Fiction's Present: Brief Notes Delany, Samuel R.
Symploke (Bloomington, Ind.),
12/2004, Letnik:
12, Številka:
1/2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The ironic point is not whether any such conspiratorial conversation ever actually took place at such a financial pinnacle, but rather the scene's revelation of a social truth -a moment in what ...Jameson might call the "political unconscious" - that explains why, indeed, in an art field supported by those with more money rather than those with less, natural selection is finally going to favor the abstract. ...what would prevent a new, hypertextualized novel, say, from embracing both approaches? ...the novel (with the short story leading the way) becomes a kind of extended "haiku" run to seed, where from time to time the artist asserts, yes, there is an explanation somewhere behind it all, but its much too complex and, finally, boring to go into at any length while presenting the glimmer and flicker of the here and now, the shadows of memory and association in the forever lost. Over eighty-two years, Ulysses's shift from eccentric experiment to the central text of the contemporary novelistic tradition indexes the rise of the novel as extended haiku, or in the case of Ulysses itself, eighteen extended haiku, each presented with some interesting technical filigree to keep one interested in an implied but never stated exploration-behind the fabulous verbal surface -of what Gertrude Stein several times called "the daily island life."
Collected interviews featuring the Nebula Award–winning author and his thoughts on topics like literary criticism, comic books, race, and sexuality. For nearly three decades, Samuel R. Delany's ...science fiction has transported millions of readers to the fringes of time, technology, and outer space. Now Delany surveys the realms of his own experience as a writer, critic, theorist, and gay Black man in this collection of written interviews, a type of guided essay. Because the written interview avoids the "mutual presence positioned at the semantic core" of traditional interview, Delany explains, "a kind of cut remains between the participants—a fissure in which the truths there may be more malleable, less rigid." Within that fissure Delany pursues the breadth and depth of his ideas on language and theory, the politics of literary composition, the experience of marginality, and the philosophical, commercial, and personal contexts of writing today. Gathered from sources as diverse as Diacritics and The Comics Journal, these interviews reveal the broad range of Delany's thought and interests. "Delany has a unique place in late twentieth century letters. A lifelong inhabitant of the margins, both social and literary, he has used his marginalized status as a lens to focus his astute observations of American literature and society. From these interviews his voice emerges, provocative, precise, and engaging." —Kathleen Spencer, University of Nebraska "Samuel R. Delany never shies away from contestable positions or provocative opinions. In his fiction, Delany can write like quicksilver, and in lectures or panel discussions, he is easily SF's most articulate spokesperson in academia... There is much here that is not covered in Delany's critical or autobiographical writings, and much that anyone seriously interested in SF—or many of Delany's other favorite topics—ought to consider." — Locus "Delany is fascinating whether discussing SF, comics, or his experiences as a Black American, and this collection... is as entertaining as it is informative." — Science Fiction Chronicle "Yevgeny Zamyatin? Stanislaw Lem? Forget it! Delany is both, with a lot of Borges and Bruno Schultz thrown in." — Village Voice
Afterword Delany, Samuel R
African American review,
10/2015, Letnik:
48, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
There is much intelligence here and a great deal of work, as there is in their own organizing and realization of such a labor-intensive enterprise as a special issue of African American Review, with ...all the hindrances and hurdles that had to be overcome.
From the four-time Nebula Award–winning novelist and literary critic, essential reading for the creative writer. Award-winning novelist Samuel R. Delany has written a book for creative writers to ...place alongside E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Lajos Egri's Art of Dramatic Writing. Taking up specifics (When do flashbacks work, and when should you avoid them? How do you make characters both vivid and sympathetic?) and generalities (How are novels structured? How do writers establish serious literary reputations today?), Delany also examines the condition of the contemporary creative writer and how it differs from that of the writer in the years of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and the high Modernists. Like a private writing tutorial, About Writing treats each topic with clarity and insight. Here is an indispensable companion for serious writers everywhere. "Delany has certainly spent more time thinking about the process of generating narratives—and subsequently getting the fruits of his lucubrations down on paper?than any other writer in the genre... Delany's latest volume in this vein ( About Writing ) might be his best yet... Truly, as the jacket copy boasts, this book is the next best thing to taking one of Delany's courses... Readers will find many answers here to the mysteries of getting words down on a page." —Paul DiFilippo, Asimov's Science Fiction "Useful and thoughtful advice for aspiring (and practicing apprentice) authors. About Writing is autobiography, criticism, and a guidebook to good writing all in one." —Robert Elliot Fox, Professor of English, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale "Should go on the short list of required reading for every would-be writer." — New York Times Book Review ( on Of Doubts and Dreams in About Writing)
