Samuel R. Delany on Gender and Sexuality

[Babel_17]

He's one of our greatest writers (four Nebula awards and two Hugo awards) and a fascinating character in his own right. He's written much about gender and he is a gay man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_in_My_Pocket_Like_Grains_of_Sand

Gender: Completely transforming the strict male/female paradigm in the reader’s world, Delany shows how gender, especially with the presence of alien species, is incredibly fluid, changing from planet to planet. On Rhyonon (where slavery is legal and several levels of sexual discrimination exist), gender is likened to present Western civilization, defined by biological sex. However, on Velm (and in many other worlds, presumably), gender is defined by desire. The default pronoun for all beings is female ("she" or "her&quot , unless one is the object of one’s attraction, in which case “she” becomes “he.” This is, quite intentionally, extremely confusing for the reader and eventually functions to completely alter the view of Marq Dyeth’s narrative voice (which, unless serious effort is put forth, simply becomes a womanly figure). Homosexuality is tolerated in the more developed worlds, but because desire is what defines gender, each person who has sex with another would view the act as “a woman (themselves) having sex with a man.” Delany's project here is clear: identity, whether it is signified by gender, race or any other attribute is incredibly fluid, and creating distinct labels only serves to limit the way in which people can express and define themselves. In making this notion explicit through his many worlds, Delany’s text deconstructs the reader’s faith in any “concrete” identity-based institution in the present. Race and gender are important themes in this text. It is commonplace for Delany to bend the "rules" with this subjects. He is interested in exploring gender fluidity which he addressed in his novel Trouble on Triton[5] The protagonist in that text actually undergoes sexual reassignment and becomes a woman which leads him to a host of difficulties and dissatisfaction since it was done for the wrong reasons. However Delany seems to be proposing with both of these novels that in the future gender won't be as rigid nor as important as the stock we give it now. Masculinity and femininity can coexist in one body without undermining the goal of that body and sexuality is also more loosely defined. What Delany doesn't really address in the way that I would expect a black science fiction author to is race. There is a clear hegemonic construction in this Universe that the characters inhabit, and they are mostly human. There is also a binary that seems in some ways racial driven. What is not clear is the notion of Blackness and the Black experience in this text and the characters who populate the novel expressing their experiences in those terms.


Sexuality: Delany explores individual sexuality as more than simply heterosexual or homosexual. Marq says that his "structure of desire" is "a beautiful universe" populated by a vast and unique collection of attractive and unattractive attributes.[6] Desire, when explored, populates the universe around him with beauty and intrigue, as he notes in the world around him the specific things that are beautiful and desirable to him. Sexuality is intensely personal and multifaceted, a pattern of desire that guides interaction and defies simple categorization. Freedom/Desire: As in Trouble on Triton, the novel explores conflicting ideas about personal freedom and desire (Korga has voluntarily opted for a form of psychosurgery making him incapable of anxiety or independent thought), and definitions of gender (which is defined by desire, as described above). Like several of Delany's other works, it portrays a relationship between an intellectual and a disadvantaged person. It also includes extended digressions by Dyeth as the narrator, speaking to the reader about history, art, sex, politics and civilization.

I was fascinated by his take on the use of language in his novel Babel-17* so I use that as my handle. I was going to post this in the LGBT group but I stopped as I thought that not being LGBT might make it presumptuous to recommend authors.

Stars in My Pocket .... was a bit too challenging for me when it came out, and I'm a pretty avid reader of SF, but I want to give it another go. Delany can be graphic in his depiction of sex in his later works.

Dhalgren and Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand include several sexually explicit passages, and several of his books such as Equinox (originally published as The Tides of Lust, a title that Delany does not endorse), The Mad Man, Hogg and, Phallos can be considered pornography, a label Delany himself endorses.

*Still a great read, I recently scored a first edition paperback.

[shenmue]

1. Always been meaning to read his stuff

Should get around to it soon.

[Babel_17]

3. You can't go wrong with Babel-17

lol, or Nova.

Algis Budrys, describing Delany as "the best science-fiction writer in the world," praised Nova as "highly entertaining to read" and commended Delany's integration of his sociopolitical extrapolation into his story, his accomplished characterization, and his "virtuosity" in presenting the novel's "classically posed scientific puzzle."

[shenmue]

5. Thanks! I will get that out of the library.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Delany is an artist of words and concepts, moreso than most writers. Any turned off by "SF"

should not allow that to come between them and any Delany works. Brilliant, relatively unknown, humanist...I'm only sorry I've not yet read every single one of his books. How wonderful his works on sexuality can come into further consideration!

[Babel_17]

6. Yeah, I was going to interject his themes on gender into one of the Manning threads

I was going to interject his themes on gender into one of the Manning threads but it didn't feel totally appropriate.

[mike_c]

4. Dhalgren is one of my all time favorite novels....

eom

[Babel_17]

7. Wikipedia has an extremely well written page on it

It was amazing how that wikipedia page brought back, long unused, memories of it. You can tell some literate fan(s) gave it their best effort(s).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhalgren

Definitely deserving a re-read.

[mike_c]

8. thanks for that....

I clicked just to look, ended up reading the whole entry. It was fascinating. I especially appreciated the comparison to Joyce, a connection I hadn't made but which makes perfect sense. It's been several years since the last time I read Dhalgren, probably more than a decade. Might be time to dust it off again. I've always loved its circularity.

[CBGLuthier]

9. I think reading Dhalgren at 14 is how I grew up without childish biases.

Then I was a fan of Wendy Carlos and read her brave interview with Playboy and it was years later when I met a woman named Jan and how can anyone hate just because some are different and now I am over 50 and I know there is a little woman living inside me, long suppressed but present.

We are what we are and we ain't all really the same. I celebrate the differences and deplore the conformists.