Samuel Delaney
Jun. 19th, 2011 11:59 pmStars in My Pockets Like Grains of Sand: I'm about 100 pages in and I take back everything bad I ever said about Delany! This book is GREAT.
Context: I had a warped view of Delany after reading The Fall of the Towers, a novel he apparently completed when he was 17 or 18. Here is the livejournal post where I complain about how bad it was. The thing is that you can still see some of the same elements at play in this novel - the obsession with complexity and systems that don't function properly, the ambition, and the poor physical description - but they are so much more interesting and better thought out in this novel that it's like reading a totally different author.
For instance, take the (poor) physical description. There's a device in this book puts information directly into your brain, like being permanently connected to the Hitchhiker's Guide, only you never have to interact with a physical device because it responds to mental requests for into, and you actually know everything you ask the device after you've asked it, without having to look up the words you've never heard of, because everything is cross-referenced and, again, linked directly with your brain.
When other storytellers put a "direct transfer of knowledge into the brain" device in their stories, they'll show that it is "direct" by making the transfer wordless: images, sounds, sensations and did I mention images? are what the brain receives. BUT NOT DELANY. His device talks to you, in words.
In other words, I don't think Delany is a very visual guy! He is a word guy, and the stuff with words in this book is fantastic. Stars in My Pocket is set in a universe with six thousand (in some cases barely) inhabitable planets, but travel between planets is rare, reserved for the privileged 1%. So culture on these planets can be quite distinct, and language can be used in unusual ways.... and also Delany, to trick you (the reader). For instance, there are planets where one default gender (call it "she") is used for everyone most of the time, but another gender (call it "he") is used for people you are sexually attracted to. And so, therefore, you read a sex scene and only afterward realize that actually, it was a gay sex scene1 And then you go back to the previous chapter and realize that the (female) human and the (female) alien were totally attracted to each other! And then you are like, I see what you did there, Delany.
Another example: in the first story in the book, you learn that "bitches" is what men on this one planet call the women on the planet when the women aren't there to overhear them. And maybe you think, like I did, "Oh, that's just like it is here on Earth." But then you read on, and eventually you realize that the culture on this planet is sick, and the casual and ubiquitous use of "bitches" is in fact a symptom of the disease. And that, in turn, causes you to question the way that "bitches" is used in our society.
In fact the writing is full of little things like that - redefining the way language is used in order to get you to question your underlying assumptions about how the universe works, particularly how privilege works. I'm trying to stay vague here because I think the effect is greater when you read the book yourself, and have to put the pieces into place yourself - the insight you finally get when you make the connection between how emotion and cognition are linked in Delany's SF scenario, compared to how the same forces play out in our world, is something that sticks with you more than if you'd read the same thing by a very accomplished author who laid all those principles out for you and just kind of took you along on a guided tour, because YOU had to make the connection, meaning you had to THINK.
And I think that goes for the physical descriptions too. I'm even kind of fond of the description of the car moving through the rings under a bright blue sky, with little bits of things glittering in the canyon walls, far away below - because Delany forgot to mention that the car is a flying car, and somehow having to go back and mentally insert that detail makes the scene more vivid.
I have some specific commentary on the first hundred pages, which I will put below the cut. Took these notes as I was reading, so there's some repetition and LOTS of speculation. No spoilers, please!
( On the opening novella )
( On the first 5 sections of the next chapter )
I'm at the "dinner party" and so I ask that all further spoilers be limited.
Context: I had a warped view of Delany after reading The Fall of the Towers, a novel he apparently completed when he was 17 or 18. Here is the livejournal post where I complain about how bad it was. The thing is that you can still see some of the same elements at play in this novel - the obsession with complexity and systems that don't function properly, the ambition, and the poor physical description - but they are so much more interesting and better thought out in this novel that it's like reading a totally different author.
For instance, take the (poor) physical description. There's a device in this book puts information directly into your brain, like being permanently connected to the Hitchhiker's Guide, only you never have to interact with a physical device because it responds to mental requests for into, and you actually know everything you ask the device after you've asked it, without having to look up the words you've never heard of, because everything is cross-referenced and, again, linked directly with your brain.
When other storytellers put a "direct transfer of knowledge into the brain" device in their stories, they'll show that it is "direct" by making the transfer wordless: images, sounds, sensations and did I mention images? are what the brain receives. BUT NOT DELANY. His device talks to you, in words.
In other words, I don't think Delany is a very visual guy! He is a word guy, and the stuff with words in this book is fantastic. Stars in My Pocket is set in a universe with six thousand (in some cases barely) inhabitable planets, but travel between planets is rare, reserved for the privileged 1%. So culture on these planets can be quite distinct, and language can be used in unusual ways.... and also Delany, to trick you (the reader). For instance, there are planets where one default gender (call it "she") is used for everyone most of the time, but another gender (call it "he") is used for people you are sexually attracted to. And so, therefore, you read a sex scene and only afterward realize that actually, it was a gay sex scene1 And then you go back to the previous chapter and realize that the (female) human and the (female) alien were totally attracted to each other! And then you are like, I see what you did there, Delany.
Another example: in the first story in the book, you learn that "bitches" is what men on this one planet call the women on the planet when the women aren't there to overhear them. And maybe you think, like I did, "Oh, that's just like it is here on Earth." But then you read on, and eventually you realize that the culture on this planet is sick, and the casual and ubiquitous use of "bitches" is in fact a symptom of the disease. And that, in turn, causes you to question the way that "bitches" is used in our society.
In fact the writing is full of little things like that - redefining the way language is used in order to get you to question your underlying assumptions about how the universe works, particularly how privilege works. I'm trying to stay vague here because I think the effect is greater when you read the book yourself, and have to put the pieces into place yourself - the insight you finally get when you make the connection between how emotion and cognition are linked in Delany's SF scenario, compared to how the same forces play out in our world, is something that sticks with you more than if you'd read the same thing by a very accomplished author who laid all those principles out for you and just kind of took you along on a guided tour, because YOU had to make the connection, meaning you had to THINK.
And I think that goes for the physical descriptions too. I'm even kind of fond of the description of the car moving through the rings under a bright blue sky, with little bits of things glittering in the canyon walls, far away below - because Delany forgot to mention that the car is a flying car, and somehow having to go back and mentally insert that detail makes the scene more vivid.
I have some specific commentary on the first hundred pages, which I will put below the cut. Took these notes as I was reading, so there's some repetition and LOTS of speculation. No spoilers, please!
( On the opening novella )
( On the first 5 sections of the next chapter )
I'm at the "dinner party" and so I ask that all further spoilers be limited.