The Motion Of Light In Water: Sex And Science Fiction Writing In The East Village [Hardcover]

Samuel R. Delany (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 2004 | ISBN-10: 081664523X | ISBN-13: 978-0816645237 | Edition: 1

"A very moving, intensely fascinating literary biography from an extraordinary writer. Thoroughly admirable candor and luminous stylistic precision; the artist as a young man and a memorable picture of an age." —William Gibson

"Absolutely central to any consideration of black manhood. . . . Delany’s vision of the necessity for total social and political transformation is revolutionary." —Hazel Carby

"The prose of The Motion of Light in Water often has the shimmering beauty of the title itself. . . . This book is invaluable gay history." —Inches Magazine

Born in New York City’s black ghetto Harlem at the start of World War II, Samuel R. Delany married white poet Marilyn Hacker right out of high school. The interracial couple moved into the city’s new bohemian quarter, the Lower East Side, in summer 1961. Through the decade’s opening years, new art, new sexual practices, new music, and new political awareness burgeoned among the crowded streets and cheap railroad apartments. Beautifully, vividly, insightfully, Delany calls up this era of exploration and adventure as he details his development as a black gay writer in an open marriage, with tertiary walk-ons by Bob Dylan, Stokely Carmichael, W. H. Auden, and James Baldwin, and a panoply of brilliantly drawn secondary characters.

Winner of the 1989 Hugo Award for Non-fiction

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About the Author

Samuel R. Delany is the author of numerous science fiction books including, Dhalgren and The Mad Man, as well as the best-selling nonfiction study Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. He lives in New York City and teaches at Temple University. The Lambda Book Report chose Delany as one of the fifty most significant men and women of the past hundred years to change our concept of gayness, and he is a recipient of the William Whitehead Memorial Award for a lifetime’s contribution to lesbian and gay literature.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 584 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1 edition (May 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081664523X
• ISBN-13: 978-0816645237
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #414,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating New York, October 7, 2010

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This review is from: The Motion Of Light In Water: Sex And Science Fiction Writing In The East Village (Paperback)

I am amazed that I'm the first person to write a review of this terrific book.It's a fascinating autobiographical portrait of 1960's bohemian - literary New York .Delany was in an almost unique position as a native New Yorker who grew up within the Harlem middle class.His family has become rather famous in recent years due to a play about his aunts.When you think of New York "Bohemians" , you think White,if from New York probably Jewish. As a black gay man with an observant eye and real talent as a writer he brings something different and actually refreshing to our view of this particular milieu.His portrait of the development of New Yorks' gay scene is also very interesting.You can profitably read Dealany as a social historian.One thing you won't doubt after reading this book is that something was happening in early '60s New York which almost no one grasped.Bob Dylans BALLAD OF A THINMAN is good companion piece to this work.By the way I find the tag suggestions for reviews of this book rather off.It deals at length with gayness but why consign a book this acute to a literary ghetto.It also deals with heterosexuality ,blackness,art, culture and social change.This book functions on a number of different levels.It doesn't need to be pidgeonholed and people shouldn't pidgeonhole their reading .