Longer Views: Extended EssaysWesleyan University Press, 15.03.2016 - 659 Seiten Six essays from the critic and award-winning author exploring topics such as theater, LGBTQ+ scholarship, cyborgs, metaphors, and Star Wars. “Reading is a many-layered process—like writing,” observes Samuel R. Delany, a Nebula and Hugo Award–winning author and a major commentator on American literature and culture. In this collection of six extended essays, Delany challenges what he calls “the hard-edged boundaries of meaning” by going beyond the customary limits of the genre in which he’s writing. By radically reworking the essay form, Delany can explore and express the many layers of his thinking about the nature of art, the workings of language, and the injustices and ironies of social, political, and sexual marginalization. Thus, Delany connects, in sometimes unexpected ways, topics as diverse as the origins of modern theater, the context of lesbian and gay scholarship, the theories of cyborgs, how metaphors mean, and the narrative structures in the Star Wars trilogy. “Over the course of his career,” Kenneth James writes in his extensive introduction, “Delany has again and again thrown into question the world-models that all too many of us unknowingly live by.” Indeed, Delany challenges an impressive list of world-models here, including High and Low Art, sanity and madness, mathematical logic and the mechanics of mythmaking, the distribution of wealth in our society, and the limitations of our sexual vocabulary. Also included are two essays that illustrate Delany’s unique chrestomathic technique, the grouping of textual fragments whose associative interrelationships a reader must actively trace to read them as a resonant argument. Whether writing about Wagner or Hart Crane, Foucault or Robert Mapplethorpe, Delany combines a fierce and often piercing vision with a powerful honesty that beckons us to share in the perspective of these Longer Views. “An intellectually adventurous book. . . . Every page of every essay here rewards a second reading, and a third. Delany has a fearsomely stocked intellect, and a wider range of experience than most writers can even imagine. . . . He is brilliant, driven, prolific.” —The Nation “One of science fiction’s grand masters. . . . Delany’s elegant command of language and deep insight into other authors’ works are delightful to behold.” —Booklist “Rare personal frankness and stunning erudition. . . . Recommended for readers who enjoy the challenge of being led into remote regions of a gifted mind.” —Library Journal |
Im Buch
Ergebnisse 1-5 von 58
Seite ix
... called “commercial”—though sometimes even more mystified than that) militate to present collections and chrestomathies as concentrated studies. The fiction writer is used to the same forces at work in the contouring of books: “Novels ...
... called “commercial”—though sometimes even more mystified than that) militate to present collections and chrestomathies as concentrated studies. The fiction writer is used to the same forces at work in the contouring of books: “Novels ...
Seite xviii
... called into question time and time again in his work.” With this collection, Delany continues his critique. As I've noted, at certain points along the way he deploys formal tropes which his longtime readers may find familiar. But ...
... called into question time and time again in his work.” With this collection, Delany continues his critique. As I've noted, at certain points along the way he deploys formal tropes which his longtime readers may find familiar. But ...
Seite 18
... called a “spear carrier.” Supers are costumed figures in the opera who neither sing, speak, nor dance, but who fill out the stage picture in the lavish, colorful spectacles. Supers were not paid for rehearsal. But they were given ...
... called a “spear carrier.” Supers are costumed figures in the opera who neither sing, speak, nor dance, but who fill out the stage picture in the lavish, colorful spectacles. Supers were not paid for rehearsal. But they were given ...
Seite 28
... called normal thought is the product of chance mechanisms. The suggestion here is, of course, that abnormal thought processes may provide insight into normal thinking. If you want to learn about the psychological mechanics of falling ...
... called normal thought is the product of chance mechanisms. The suggestion here is, of course, that abnormal thought processes may provide insight into normal thinking. If you want to learn about the psychological mechanics of falling ...
Seite 31
... called themselves modern—in terms of those gut responses all of us are still constantly arguing with as to what is and what is not art—in terms of art's hidden, inner-dimensional matrix and its external mythical and social moorings ...
... called themselves modern—in terms of those gut responses all of us are still constantly arguing with as to what is and what is not art—in terms of art's hidden, inner-dimensional matrix and its external mythical and social moorings ...
Inhalt
1 | |
A Reading of Donna Haraways Manifesto for Cyborgs Science Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s | 87 |
AversionPerversionDiversion | 119 |
Shadow and Ash | 144 |
Some Notes on Hart Crane | 174 |
Shadows | 251 |
Index | 325 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
actually already appear argument Artaud asked become begins Bridge called castration certainly complete considered context course Crane critical cyborg death Delany discourse English essay experience fact feel finally given hand Hart historical homosexual human idea interesting language later least less letter light lines lived logical look male meaning metaphor mind move myth never night notes object once opening play poem poet poetic poetry political position possible present Press problem produce published question radical reader relation rhetorical science fiction seems sense sentence sexual side simply social story structure suggests tell theater things thought tion true turn University various Wagner whole women writing written wrote York young