Samuel R. Delany is one of those criminally under-read science fiction authors, the size of whose readership seems inversely proportional to the quality of his writing. Part of the reason, I think, is that Delany writes literary-intellectual science fiction: “intellectuals” tend to turn up their noses at anything even vaguely associated with genre-fiction, while hardcore sci-fi fans want more guns & fewer inquiries, say, into the nature of language. Well, too bad for them.

When I find someone interested in picking up some Delany, I always recommend Babel-17 (& its accompanying novella, Empire Star) as a point of entry into Delany’s peculiar worlds. Babel-17 can be described either as the adventure of interstellar captain & poet Rydra Wong as she tries to track down the alien threat that’s been sabotaging the galactic system or as an extended inquiry into the ways in which language drives—either to promote or to limit—thought, from the ontological & existential base-structure to the nuances of social chat. The novel is, in fact, both, & holds up under examination from either angle. Lyricism, referentiality, complexity; drugs, sex, space-fights. The only bad thing about Babel-17 (which won the Nebula) is that Delany wrote it when he was 23—no one has any right to be so talented.

[originally written for publication over at plasmapool.org]

I tried to see that Stellet Licht movie at Cinematheque tonight, but I was about a dozen people away from purchasing a ticket when the place sold out. You could so tell that everyone in that line had a relationship with the language of Low German. Most people probably in the “I can understand more than I could possibly speak but oh please let there be subtitles” camp.

Also, I learned that I’m second in line for the LSA 1/2 position at Millennium I applied for a while ago. That’s not something that requires me to have passed the tests I’ve been doing. LSA 1/2s check in and out your books and collect your fines and sign you up for a library card. They’re interviewing someone else on Tuesday and if he doesn’t take it they’ll interview me. Jeff said the person’ll probably take it, but that I should keep applying because there’ll be three more of these positions coming up in the next little while. I wouldn’t mind getting one of these jobs, but it wouldn’t stop me from applying for LSA 3 positions, which I’d like a bunch more.

This morning I finished reading a Samuel R Delany book, Empire Star. Holy shit, I cannot get enough of his work. And what’s great is that he’s been writing since 1960 something and for decades was published in cheapo paperback editions, which are very findable in used bookstores. I’ve deliberately stayed away from finding some master list of his books so I’ll never quite know when I’ve exhausted this vein of material.