#Samuel R Delany
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Vintage Paperback - Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Ace (1980)
#Paperback Cover#Paperback Art#Science Fiction#Samuel R Delany#Babel-17#Vintage#Art#Paperback#Paperbacks#Ace Books#Ace#1980#1980s#80s
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π΅πππ π·πΏπΌπΎ ππ, πΈ π ππ ππππππ’ ππππ "πππ πππππ, πππ’, πππππππ πππππππ π πππππ."
- sα΄α΄α΄α΄Κ Κ. α΄
α΄Κα΄Ι΄Κ, 2001 - via sfsite.com. Photograph by Shikeith, 2021.
#samuel r delany#black history#20th century#literature#poetry#academia#lit#fantasy#shikeith#black excellence#science fiction#books & libraries#sci fi#1960s#1970s#bookworm#portrait#lgbt#people#black tumblr#π
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#stars in my pocket like grains of sand#samuel r delany#science fiction#book poll#have you read this book poll#polls
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Iβve been so excited to get to this point in my lit of the Harlem Renaissance class!!!
Itβs hard to quantify the impact Delanyβs work has had on my life. The only piece of his Ive truly read so far is βAye and Gommorahβ which I red in December 2021, weeks before realizing my true gender identity. βAyeβ¦β is a very queer story, and I read it while preparing a submission for the inaugural Delany Fellowship (which I wasnt even longlisted for. Which was more than fair, my work wasnt ready). But thatβs when I first seriously encountered Delanyβs work.
Delanyβs history as a gay writer coming from Harlem and shaking up the Science Fiction world was really important to me. Iβd read contemporary queer works (all my followers know how much I love Dickinsonβs The Masquerade) but I was less familiar with our history in Science Fiction and family. Delanyβs work inspired me to learn more about the history of queer fiction, which prompted my research into vampires that got me the scholarships and awards that moved me fron my beloved community college to my current private 4-year institution.
It was my failure to land that fellowship but my discovery of our history that prompted me to actually go back to school. And Delanyβs work being part of the coursework for this specific class is what prompted me to take it and read all the incredible (and incredibly timely) work Ive read this semester.
Anyways Im excited to dig and read more deeply on Delanyβs work! Im grateful for the opportunity, and for the material and emotional impact his work has had on me. I also just have? Idk a renewed appreciation of literature because of his works.
#my posts#briannaβs collegeposting again#samuel r delany#Atlantis Three Tales#excuse me while i get sappy and introspective
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we've just been reading one of our favourite sci-fi novels again, Babel-17 by Samuel R Delany, and we want to share and celebrate the positive impact it had on us, a closet trans teenager in the 70s, to read this passage, casually thrown into the story - the local culture is divided into Customs and Transport people, and think of them as apollonian vs dionysian, middle class vs working class - and this Customs officer had a brush with proper fun a while back and is now going to get himself a little dragon behind a cage door implanted into his right shoulder, which once you've assimilated it you can make it come out of its cage and roar and spit sparks (we'll spare you the perhaps three minutes of surgery it takes to do this);
βYou know,β the Customs Officer was saying, βIβve had quite a battle with myself; Iβve wanted to do it ever since I first came down here β hell, ever since I first went to the movies and saw pictures. But anything really bizarre just wouldnβt go at the office. Then I said to myself, it could be something simple, covered up when I was wearing clothes. Here we are.β
The Officer pushed open the door of Plastiplasm Plus (βAddendums, Superscripts, and Footnotes to the Beautiful Bodyβ). βYou know I always meant to ask someone who was an authority; do you think thereβs anything psychologically off about wanting something like this?β
βNot at all.β
A young lady with blue eyes, lips, hair and wings said, βYou can go right in. Unless you want to check our catalogue first.β
βOh, I know exactly what I want,β the Customs Officer assured her. βThis way?β
βThatβs right.β
βActually,β Dr Tβmwarba went on, βitβs psychologically important to feel in control of your body, that you can change it, shape it. Going on a six month diet or a successful muscle building program can give quite a sense of satisfaction. So can a new nose, chin, or set of scales and feathers.β
this was such a relief for read, even before we acknowledged a strong need to change our body - and then in another of his books Triton, the main character (he's frankly kind of an arsehole), about four fifths through the book suddenly pops into a clinic and comes out like an hour later as a woman (and happier but still kind of an arsehole because realism), and half of that hour is just making sure of exactly what kind of tranformation she's after
anyway the point for us was that his books normalised the idea of sex, gender, sexuality, relationship, and body modification diversity, and we will always be incredibly grateful
and it warms our old heart to see how normal transition and furrydom and therian etc stuff is now among younger people - make of yourselves whatever you need or want to be, it's okay to be this
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3 Word Review: βBabel-17β by Samuel R. Delany -
Fascinating sf yarn from a master world-builder on how our language might be manipulated against us.
#bookworm#literature#book reviews#read read read#books#3 words#samuel r delany#babel 17#science fiction#sapir whorf hypothesis#language#scifi#black literature#lgbtqia
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#mordicus#boredoms#liquid sky#stars in my pocket like grains of sand#24/7#the book of thoth#samuel r delany#jonathan crary#aleister crowley#slava tsukerman#sci-fi#death metal#finnish death metal#black death metal#noise rock#noise music#political philosophy#critical theory#thoth tarot#thelema#magick#physical media#cds#cassette#death metal tapes#collection#personal
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If not for climate change, I could roughly predict what kind of racism I will face for the rest of my life, because I have faced the same kind of racism for my entire life so far. What destabilizes that future survivance is precisely the climate. Current models predict that global warming will result in a global refugee crisis. That crisis has already started. Russia has invaded the Ukraine for oil. South Asians are being shot in the Mediterranean trying to get to Europe. It is easier to write about a future you can make up to the last detail than it is to write about a present you canβt describe. How do you imagine being in the world when the world is unimaginable?
Here is the whole Samuel Delany quote: βScience fiction is not βabout the future.β Science fictionΒ is in dialogue with the presentΒ . We SF [sic] writers often say that science fiction prepares people to think about the real future β but thatβs because it relates to the real present in the particular way it does; and that relation is neither one of prediction nor one of prophecy. It is one of dialogic, contestatory, agonistic creativity. In science fiction the future is only a writerly convention that allows the SF writer to indulge in a significant distortion of the present that sets up a rich and complex dialogue with the readerβs here and now.β
In other words, climate fiction set in the future presents us with possibilities we might use to know and contest the present reality. And yet, I confess my interest lies in the possibility of alienating readers from Delanyβs dialogue, in making the experience of distortion the experience itself. Iβm talking about climate fiction where what is possible is already distorted by racism and sexism and other structural inequalities, so distorted that only a present breakdown of reality might help prepare us to survive what it is currently impossible to story.
Matthew Salesses, The Possibilities of Climate Fiction. [emphasis added]
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Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany
Cover art by Louis S. Glanzman
Bantam Books, September 1979
Tales of Nevèryon
A barbarous alien empire ruled by primal brutality, intrigue and fear. A world of bizarre paradoxes, powerful mysteries and sexual abandon...
The world of Gorgik -- thick-hewn mine slave whose prowess defies the mighty. Lady Myrgot -- who takes him as a plaything de Neveryon's imperial court. Small Sarg Gorgik's princely lover. Norema -- the island girl clad in shimmering secrets. And her companion Raven -- masked woman warrior.
#book cover art#cover illustration#cover art#70s fantasy#80s fantasy#Louis S Glanzman#Louis S. Glanzman#samuel r delany#Tales of Nevèrÿon#Nevèrÿon
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Trying to make my day off a calm one because I've been stressed recently. Put together a couple of bags of books to take to the local book swap. Loving Samuel R. Delany.
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"πΆππππππ ππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππ . . ." πππππ πππ πππππππ ππ’ ππππ. ππππππππ’ πΈ ππππππ£ππ πΈ ππππ'π ππππ πππππππππ πππππππππ’ ππππππ; πΈ'π πππππ πππ πππππ ππ ππ πππ π ππππ πππππ. πππ ππππππ π πππ πΈ'π πππππ οΏ½οΏ½π ππππππ πππ ππππ - πππ πππ ππππ πππ πππππππ - πππ ππππ πππππππππ ππ ππ’ ππππ π ππ ". . . π³πππππππ . . ." πΈ π ππππ ππ’ππππ π πππ ππππ ππ πππ ππππππ ππππ ππ πππ π±ππππππ πππππ, πΉππππππ’ πΈπΈ, π·π½π½πΌ.
- Samuel R. Delany from α΄
Κα΄ΚΙ’Κα΄Ι΄ (1975). --Artwork by Dean Ellis.
#samuel r delany#black excellence#dark#1970s#words#language#science fiction#lit#surreal#70s#samuel delany#quotes#fantasy#dean ellis#illustration#dhalgren#dark academia#20th century#black history#book nerd#βοΈ
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#short story collection#short story collections#aye gomorrah and other stories#samuel r delany#21st century literature#english language literature#african american literature#black literature#american literature#have you read this short fiction?#book polls#completed polls
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There's two kinds of people in the world. Baseball players and cock-suckers. And the baseball players don't hardly ever see the cock-suckers.
The Mad Man by Samuel R. Delany
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