Of Solids and Surds: Notes for Noël Sturgeon, Marilyn Hacker, Josh Lukin, Mia Wolff, Bill Stribling, and Bob White

by Samuel R. Delany

Overview

In the fourth volume in the Why I Write series, the iconic Samuel Delany remembers fifty years of writing and shaping the world of speculative fiction
 
“Delany’s prismatic output is among the most significant, immense and innovative in American letters.”—Jordy Rosenberg, New York Times
 
“He dispenses wisdom about craft—including the demanding revision process his dyslexia requires—but most moving are the moments when he sheds light on connections he has made with other readers and writers. . . . Delany’s fans are in for a treat.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
 
Language is the way humans deal with past, present, and future possibilities, as well as the subset called the probable. This is where Samuel Delany finds his justification for the writing life.
 
Since the 1960s, occurrences such as Sputnik, school desegregation, and the advent of AIDS have given Delany, as a gay man, as a black man, access to certain truths and facts he could write about, and the language—sometimes fiction, sometimes nonfiction—in which to present them. “We write,” Delany believes, “at the intersection of your experience and mine in a way, I hope, that allows recognition.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300250404
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	09/14/2021
Series:	Why I Write
Pages:	168
Sales rank:	1,077,495
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Samuel R. Delany is an award‑winning novelist and critic who taught literature and creative writing at the University of Massachusetts, Temple University, and the State University of New York.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/12/2021

The latest entry in Yale’s “Why I Write” series provides a fascinating glimpse into the creative life of novelist and critic Delany (Dark Reflections). While he is fond of Samuel Johnson’s saying that “no man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money,” payment is only one of the 68 reasons Delany gives here for his craft. Other reasons: because he loves to play with language, and because it “was fun” (past tense intentional, he notes). He also writes as a way to “tell the truth.” The explicit sex in The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals, for example, was written as a kind of duty in light of the AIDS crisis: “To indulge in a general mystification... was tantamount to encouraging murder.” Along the way, he dispenses wisdom about craft—including the demanding revision process his dyslexia requires—but most moving are the moments when he sheds light on connections he has made with others readers and writers. (One anecdote recounts an off-the-cuff conversation he had with a sanitation worker who recognized him and loved his work.) Delany’s fans are in for a treat. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A fascinating glimpse into the creative life of novelist and critic Delany. . . . He dispenses wisdom about craft—including the demanding revision process his dyslexia requires—but most moving are the moments when he sheds light on connections he has made with other readers and writers. . . . Delany’s fans are in for a treat.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Praise for Samuel R. Delany:
 
“Delany’s prismatic output is among the most significant, immense and innovative in American letters.”—Jordy Rosenberg, New York Times

From the Publisher