
Samuel R. Delany’s Life of Contradictions - samclemens
https://newrepublic.com/article/142767/samuel-r-delanys-life-contradictions
======
ludicast
I lived about 3 blocks away from him and was friends with his daughter when we
were about preschool/kindergarten age. Back then I said I would marry her
someday (I grew up and eventually married someone else in the end).

Chip was an interesting guy, he always was a jolly santalike figure and seemed
really involved with his daughter's life (She split time between him and his
ex-wife). I didnt know then about his sex life (would be weird if I did) but
knowing about him now I can admire the way he candidly wrote about himself.

But he was a great author and I remember once interviewing him for a class
when I needed some book report insights.

Fun fact. In some essay-book he wrote about a time his daughter Iva beat me
and some other boys in a peeing contest. Maybe that s why I never made the cut
to marrying her.

~~~
observation
> I didnt know then about his sex life

Did you know he was a pedophile? Did you read "in the valley of the spiders"?

Because in that context your entire post makes me ill.

~~~
ludicast
I didn't to either. After a quick googling I see some pro-nambla weirdnesses
with him. Don't see anything looking like victims coming forward so I'd give
him the benefit of the doubt. I think...

But I only had good experiences with his daughter and him. Doubt I have any
repressed memories there - would have repressed other worse shit in my life
too :).

But I might Google more later. At a starbucks so I don't feel like googling
for the word "pedophilia".

~~~
user2994cb
2014 interview with Delany about this here:
[http://shetterly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/a-conversation-
with-...](http://shetterly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/a-conversation-with-samuel-
r-delany.html)

~~~
ludicast
Interesting article and a cautionary tale for moral relativists.

Still hold to my initial impressions of him. That he was a big hearted fellow,
a brilliant author, a doting father, and in his books/interviews very open
about his sexuality.

His opinions on kids are odd, granted. It seems like a lot of people like him
who get molested at a young age (thinking of Milo) rewrite their lives to be
hypersexual.

------
ethbro
Plug for _Dhalgren_ ( [https://www.amazon.com/Dhalgren-Samuel-R-
Delany/dp/037570668...](https://www.amazon.com/Dhalgren-Samuel-R-
Delany/dp/0375706682) ).

I won't claim it's a great work of English literature, because that's not what
my training is in.

But it sure as hell makes _my_ Top 5 "Books I finished a different man than I
started."

Disclaimer: I recommend reading it while traveling in a country where you
don't speak the native language for full effect.

~~~
nickynickell
The best 879 pages of urgent meaninglessness and near-constant déjà vu ever
written.

I found picking different starting points on later re-reads rather
interesting. For anyone who hasn't read it, Dhalgren is circular, but there
are a handful of places where it could start that make about as much sense as
starting on page 1.

Definitely worth a read, but you'll never figure out how to make that discord
on a harmonica.

------
marktangotango
"Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand" really messed me up as a young lad, I
had no business reading that at that age. As an adult I went back and read
most of his stuff, it aged really well, Star Pit and Einstein Intersection are
two favorites of mine. His work really had no contemporaries in that era. At
least not that I ever read.

~~~
lobster_johnson
I dunno, Philip K. Dick, Stanislaw Lem, Ursula LeGuin and Harlan Ellison were
certainly on par with Delaney in the soft/mind-bending category. In my
opinion, they have aged better; much of the more overtly experimental sci-fi
of the late 1960s and early 1970s feels a bit dated today. J. G. Ballard comes
to mind (his non-sci-fi novels are much better).

On the other hand, there is some brilliant stuff (like R. A. Lafferty, and
William Borroughs's sci-fi stuff) that is undeservedly forgotten.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
My first introduction to SF was finding Lafferty and Delaney and Lem and Dick
in random raids of the SF section in a small provincial library.

I've been spoiled ever since. I grew up assuming all SF was that creative,
literate, and fascinatingly weird. Sadly that turned out not to be true.

------
jhallenworld
Also interesting:
[https://nyupress.org/books/9780814719206/](https://nyupress.org/books/9780814719206/)

He laments the loss of the 1970s New York Times Square "temporary autonomous
zone".

(see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Autonomous_Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Autonomous_Zone)
)

~~~
busterarm
Great book! I loaned it to someone and never got it back!

------
observation
Contradictions like being a popular icon while at the same time supporting
child abuse if I remember right.

Checked it again, and yup:

“I read the NAMBLA [Bulletin] fairly regularly and I think it is one of the
most intelligent discussions of sexuality I’ve ever found. I think before you
start judging what NAMBLA is about, expose yourself to it and see what it is
really about. What the issues they are really talking about, and deal with
what’s really there rather than this demonized notion of guys running about
trying to screw little boys. I would have been so much happier as an
adolescent if NAMBLA had been around when I was 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.” — Samuel
R. Delany, June 25, 1994.

