Samuel R. Delany - anyone ever read his books?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Is anyone here familiar with the author, Samuel R. Delany? Since his books came out in early/mid 70's and many of them have been out of print, or recently re-printed, I'm guessing not too many people under the age of 45-50 have ready any of his books.

If you have, can you recommend one?

[38thBeatle]

I am a voracious reader Ben but I can't help you here I am afraid.

[TwilightOdyssey]

LOL, I figured that I wouldn't get any 'hits' by posting this on the guitar forums I frequent. Not too many obscure-early-70's-Dystopian-Sci-Fi-gurus among the guitar set!

[willo]

I'll ask around. I'm studying English Literature at university, and one of my current modules is on Techno/Cybercultures - all stuff from TRON to the Matrix, Neuromancer, Snow Crash and all that. We just had a lecture on the history of the Cyberpunk genre, and it has it's roots in sci-fi, fantasy, adventure and so on, so I'll keep my ears peeled and see if his name crops up!

[TwilightOdyssey]

Thanx!
Those guys will probably know who I'm talking about.

That sounds like an interesting class -- Cyberpunk definitely started with the Neuromancer, as well as Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep. It's interesting how anime really took off with the actual LOOK of cyberpunk, tho, with stuff like Bubblegum Crisis, and, of course, Ghost In The Shell.

Some say Blade Runner is cyberpunk, but I agree with the book Future Noir; it's much more of a sci fi take on film noir than cyberpunk. It's a good mixture, tho!!

[froglord]

TO,

Yes - I've read some Samuel R. Delany! I've got an early 90s copy of The Einstein Intersection, but I read it so long ago I can hardly remember what it was about. I do remember that it wasn't really my cup of tea.

Delany is one of those very literary SF writers, like Thomas Disch or to a lesser extent Ursula LeGuin. His most famous novels (according to my SF encyclopedia) are Babel-17, Nova, Dhalgren and The Einstein Intersection.

There - bet you weren't expecting that!

[TwilightOdyssey]

Thanx for the info, froglord!

My main interest in Delany is that his 1st book, Fall Of The Towers (1971?) had a huge influence on Rush's lyricist, Neil Peart, and influenced the  concept to the song Cygnus X-1, and another one I forget.

[Searcher]

Hey, I started reading his Neveryon series, but it didn't do much for me and I didn't get through it.  He also wrote some gay erotic fiction and some sci-fi stuff, but I haven't read either.  I think that the way he wrote his characters and their relationships was one of the things I didn't like about his writing.

I read a fair bit though and if you're after recommendations, give me a list of authors you do like and I might be able to come up with a few suggestions.

[willo]

Hey Ben, sorry to take this back a few steps (so feel free to disregard this post) I just wanted to say that it's interesting what you have to say about Blade Runner. I'm actually doing a presentation on Cyber-Noir in a few weeks, so I'll try and check out that book you mentioned - Future Noir. It definitely has huge elements of cyberpunk in it, personally I'd say it edged closer to cyberpunk just by virtue of it's setting, the roles the characters play and the importance of technology within it, but I'm by no means an expert an either genre!

Thanks for the tip off on that book though, it should be interesting to read. I'll see if it's in my university library.

[TwilightOdyssey]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061053147/sr=8-1/qid=1141593361/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9549853-2781660?%5Fencoding=UTF8

:)

[willo]

Cheers for the link Ben, I'll be sure to check it out