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I've long had a love-hate relationship with Delany's writing. He has perhaps the greatest amount of sheer verbal talent of any writer I'm acquainted with. Simpl
by mr_overalls 7y ago
I've long had a love-hate relationship with Delany's writing. He has perhaps the greatest amount of sheer verbal talent of any writer I'm acquainted with. Simply calling his work "lyrical" doesn't do it justice. He's a true poet who writes long fiction.
And he's used speculative fiction to brilliantly explore various social topics - including homosexuality - during a time when such explorations were unwelcome.
But to his detriment, he seem to be quite a. . . well, a pervert, in the most classical sense. I actually think that Delany delights in shocking his readers with detailed depictions of disgusting acts.
Reading his novel Hogg quickly becomes a kind of self-inflicted endurance test. It's just a non-stop description of graphic descriptions of murder, child molestation, incest, coprophilia, coprophagia, urolagnia, anal-oral contact, necrophilia, and rape. It's not that there's any one scene or act that's mind-blowingly horrible. It's more just the staggering quantity, and the unrelenting pace. There is literally not a single page in the book that does not describe some sexual or violent act. I found myself exhausted after each sitting, and extremely relieved when I finally reached the end of the book.
Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, his most recent major novel, is more of the same. (With the addition, I suppose, of sexualized booger-eating.)
The Tides of Lust is a study in pedophilia and sadomasochism.
A recent long essay of his in a major online publication (I can't seem to find it now) has Delany intimately describing his attendance at geriatric sex parties in random hotels. He lingers on the scene where he kisses a toothless man, describes the taste of his semen. etc. It's not educational or poetic. Again and again his desire seems to be to shock the reader.
And he has a record of defending NAMBLA.
He's a genius, no doubt - but my totally non-professional opinion is that he has something like histrionic personality disorder. And I certainly wouldn't trust my kids around him.
- kabdib 7y agoI've re-re-re-read most of his earlier works (Nova, Dhalgren, Driftglass and so on). I would recommend them to anyone, though Dhalgren and Triton are probably inappropriate and maybe incomprehensible for younger readers. I got maybe 50pp into Nest of Spiders and was done. Every few months I try to read a few more pages, and always put the book down again. However, I think that Delaney did not fail this reader. If anything, what he wrote in Spiders made me realize that I wasn't as open-minded as I thought I was. I don't care to expand those particular limits, the subject matter is definitely not my cup of tea. But I'm happy we live in a society where he can publish that work, and I'm happy to at least try to read it, and happy to do my bit to support him doing it.
- mr_overalls 7y ago> made me realize that I wasn't as open-minded as I thought I was. I really don't understand this use of the phrase "open-minded". Open-mindedness, to me, means being willing to question deeply-held opinions and beliefs. And being okay with other humans freely making very different decisions with regards to religion, sexuality, occupation, etc. None of that has the slightest thing to do with trying to quell instinctive reactions of disgust to pedophilia and booger-eating.
- pessimizer 7y agoPeople often have a stronger reaction to your religion than your booger-eating; I don't actually understand the distinction you're making here. It reads like being "open-minded" for you is to be tolerant of the things that you're currently tolerant of, but has nothing to do with the things that you are not currently tolerant of, reactions to which you deem "instinctive." I don't believe that disgust with either of those things are instincts, they seem like examples of things that are learned and vary by culture. Instincts are more like being startled by loud noises, or things unexpectedly touching your head.
- mr_overalls 7y agoThere's actually a good amount of evidence that the emotion of disgust - and even the associated facial expressions - are universal among human cultures. See research by Plutchik, Rozin, and Ekman. It's elicited typically by potential biological contaminants, like bodily fluids, spoiled foods, vermin, bodily violations (blood, gore, etc.), and infection.
- kabdib 7y agoPerhaps "open minded" is not the right phrase. "Acceptance of appalling and disgusting behavior" is closer. It's definitely a value judgement on my part, I'm more conservative than I thought. Eat all the boogers and ---- all the ----- that you want, I won't bother you and I'll even help protect your right to do it. I just don't want to know details.
- 7y ago
- sunstone 7y agoI tried to read one of his books back in the 80's and really couldn't get started. Now I have no regrets at all so thanks for that!
- coldtea 7y ago>He's a genius, no doubt - but my totally non-professional opinion is that he has something like histrionic personality disorder. And I certainly wouldn't trust my kids around him. Don't worry, the worst perverts, as evident by court documents and surprised neighbors when a case explodes, are usually prudes. Heck, some are even catholic priests!
- lowdose 7y agoThe worst perverts are everywhere and operate systematically from Micheal Jackson to catholic priests.