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amuel R. Delany is one of the most important science fiction writers of the second half of the 20th century. His first novel was published (in 1962) when he was 20. His novels have won HUGOS (the highest award of the World Science Fiction Society), Nebulas (Science Fiction Society of America) as well as other awards. I discovered Delany forty years ago and have read and re-read him ever since.
I am not going to "review" About Writing other than to say that it is a must read for anyone who writes science fiction, fantasy or speculative fiction. It is full of insights profound and prosaic (including how to use apostrophes).
In addition to being a prolific writer, Delany has been teaching writing for four decades. That combination makes his insights particularly relevant to those refining their skills today.
A final thought: About Writing is not necesarily something one reads from cover to cover. It can be digested in small doses over time.
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I will admit that I am not a regular reader of science fiction, and I have not read anything else by Samuel R. Delany. I enjoyed an excerpt of ABOUT WRITING in the online magazine BRAINPICKINGS and decided to check it out. It turned out to be a strange mix of writing advice, literary criticism, and academic argument.
The essays and the letters are interesting and enjoyable. Though long-winded and (at times) rather elitist in tone, they offer considerable insight into the difference between wanting to write and producing something that is actually worth being read. I do not necessarily agree with his premise that the democratization of writing--encouraging everyday Johns and Janes to spill their mundane guts on the page--is making life rough for "real" writers. I mean, Charles Dickens was the pulp writer of his age, and his works have survived to be loved and taught. Also, who is to say that the mediocre scribbling of Joe Normal in his private journal is of less value to the world than the polished prose of the next Pulitzer winner? What if it keeps him from hitting his wife or jumping off of a bridge before he invents a more sanitary garbage disposal? Really, what does any of us know about the ultimate value of ANYTHING we do?
The interviews are a challenge. The author doesn't seem to be able to answer a question, say, about the differences between teaching students to write mainstream and alternative fiction, without launching into a pages-long discourse on literary history and the development of personal reading tastes. This verbosity is probably due to the questions having been asked and answered in writing rather than in person or over the phone.Read more ›
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An impressive book by one of my favorite authors, this provides abundant food for thought. Delany's writing is truly intelligent, at a level well beyond what's found in most books on the subject of writing. Delany is primarily a writer of science fiction, but my opinion is that his work falls into the category of 'literature' due to its quality. The book covers science fiction, but also far more.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Delany has one of the most penetrating minds of anyone writing in English. This book should be a first resource for anyone considering writing novels--Delany discusses it as the serious pursuit that it is. I find myself reconsidering many aspects of my own writing, and not always comfortably. I'll be a better writer for it.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
For writers, About Writing is a drop-everything-and-read-right-now kind of book that can be used while you're going over your outline, while you're writing a scene or a chapter, and while you're revising that scene or chapter. This is not the kind of book you'll want to wait until the end of writing to read, rather you should consider using About Writing as a reference during the process. For teachers, his Introduction, essays, and appendix could be useful tools in an intermediate to advanced fiction writing course--although not as hand outs but as points of discussion.
Do not skip the Preface or the Introduction, as both are packed with ideas on good writing versus talented writing, which will make you study each paragraph of your writing for clarity and language. Of his essays, "Some Notes for the Intermediate and Advanced Creative Writing Student" is the most inspired and inspiring. This essay is on narrative structure, but more than that, it is about breaking away from the formulaic narrative structures that can hold a novel to mediocre writing. He advocates knowing the old structure in order to revise or subvert it. He makes a point of differentiating plot and structure: "Plot exists as a synopsis that often has no correspondence to text.... Structure exists, however, only in terms of a particular text, so that to talk about it in any specificity or detail you must constantly be pointing to one part of a page or another, at these words or at those: structure is specifically the organization of various and varied textual units." (p. 144)
Of his letters, read Letter to Q--. It is a criticism of Toni Morrison's Bluest Eye, from the intention of the writer to the failure of the historical milieu to the biased discussion on intra-racial discrimination.Read more ›
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This item: About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, & Five Interviews
