The Motion of Light in Water
Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village
by
Samuel R. Delany
If, then, the following narrative does not appear sufficiently interesting to engage general attention, let my motive be some excuse for its publication. I am not so foolishly vain as to expect from it either immortality or literary reputation. If it affords any satisfaction to my numerous friends, at whose request it has been written, or in the smallest degree promotes the interests of humanity, the ends for which it was undertaken will be fully attained, and every wish of my heart gratified. Let it therefore be remembered that, in wishing to avoid censure, I do not aspire to praise.
Praise for the Writing of Samuel R. Delany
“I consider Delany not only one of the most important SF writers of the present generation, but a fascinating writer in general who has invented a new style.”
“Samuel R. Delany is the most interesting author of science fiction writing in English today.”
“Dhalgren’s the secret masterpiece, the city-book-labyrinth that has swallowed astonished readers alive for almost thirty years. Its beauty and force still seem to be growing.”
“A brilliant tour de force.”
“A Joyceian tour de force of a novel, Dhalgren … stake[s] a better claim than anything else published in this country in the last quarter-century (excepting only Gass’s Omensetter’s Luck and Nabokov’s Pale Fire) to a permanent place as one of the enduring monuments of our national literature.”
“Cultural criticism at its most imaginative and entertaining best.”
“The tales of Nevèrÿon are postmodern sword-and-sorcery … Delany subverts the formulaic elements of sword-and-sorcery and around their empty husks constructs self-conscious metafictions about social and sexual behavior, the play of language and power, and — above all — the possibilities and limitations of narrative. Immensely sophisticated as literature … eminently readable and gorgeously entertaining.”
“This is fantasy that challenges the intellect … semiotic sword and sorcery, a very high level of literary gamesmanship. It’s as if Umberto Eco had written about Conan the Barbarian.”
“The Nevèrÿon series is a major and unclassifiable achievement in contemporary American literature.”
“Instead of dishing out the usual, tired mix of improbable magic and bloody mayhem, Delany weaves an intricate meditation on the nature of freedom and slavery, on the beguiling differences between love and lust … the prose has been so polished by wit and intellect that it fairly gleams.”
“One of the most sustained meditations we have on the complex intersections of sexuality, race, and subjectivity in contemporary cultures.”
“Delany’s first true masterpiece.”
“What makes Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand especially challenging — and satisfying — is that the complex society in which the characters move is one … which contains more than 6,000 inhabited worlds and a marvelously rich blend of cultures. The inhabitants of these worlds — both human and alien — relate to one another in ways that, however bizarre they may seem at first, are eventually seen to turn on such recognizable emotional fulcrums as love, loss and longing.”
“Delany’s forte has always been the creation of complex, bizarre, yet highly believable future societies; this book may top anything he’s done in that line.”
“As of this book, [Samuel R. Delany] is the best science-fiction writer in the world.”
“A fast-action far-flung interstellar adventure; [an] archetypal mystical/mythical allegory … [a] modern myth told in the SF idiom … and lots more.”
“[Nova] reads like Moby-Dick at a strobe-light show!”
“A very moving, intensely fascinating literary biography from an extraordinary writer. Thoroughly admirable candor and luminous stylistic precision; the artist as a young man and a memorable picture of an age.”
“Absolutely central to any consideration of black manhood … Delany’s vision of the necessity for total social and political transformation is revolutionary.”
“The prose of The Motion of Light in Water often has the shimmering beauty of the title itself … This book is invaluable gay history.”
Sentences: An Introduction
MY FATHER HAD BEEN sick almost a year. Already he’d had one lung removed. But after a time home — which he spent mostly in bed, listening to programs of eclectic classical music (Penderecki, Kodaly’s Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello) on WBAI-FM, all of which were new to him and pleased him greatly, or sitting up in his robe and pajamas working on a few ordered and geometric paintings of cityscapes in which there were no people (he’d always wanted to paint) — he began to grow weaker. Soon he was in pain. Toward the end of September an ambulance was sent for to take him to the hospital. But the attendants who arrived to strap him into their stretcher, there in the apartment hall in his dark robe and pale pajamas, were too rough, yanking down the straps and buckles over his thin legs that, by now, could not fully straighten. After asking them twice to loosen them, he began to shout: “Stop it! You’re hurting me! Stop —!” Lips tight, my mother stood, flustered, embarrassed, and worried at once, perfectly still.