E-Book Content
Samuel R. Delany
jiorier v lews 4er Vi Qw££r Thoughts àf The Politics of the Par aliterary
Samuel R. Delany
Wesleyan University
Press
Published by University Press of New England
•
Hanover and London
Wesleyan University Press Published by University Press of New England, Hanover, NH 03755 © 1999 by Samuel R. Delany All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2
1
CIP data appear at the end of the book For Patrick Merla & Marc Shell The following works in this collection were previously published: "The Rhetoric of S e x / T h e Discourse of Desire" was initially delivered as a lec ture at MIT; it first appeared in print in Heterotopias: The Body Politic, ed. Tobin Siebers, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. "Street Talk/Straight Talk" appeared in Difference, eds. Naomi Shor & Elizabeth Weed, special issue on Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities, guest edited by Teresa de Lauretis, vol. 3, summer 1991, Providence. "On the Unspeakable" first appeared in Everyday Life, eds. George and Chris Tysh, Detroit, 1987; subsequendy it appeared in Avant Pop: Fiction for a Daydream ing Nation, ed. Larry McCaffery, Fiction Collective-2, Boulder, Colorado, 1993. " C o m i n g / O u t " appeared first, in slightly different form, in Boys Like Us, edited by Patrick Merla, New York: Avon Books, 1997. "A Bend in the Road" first appeared in the YaleJournal of Criticism, eds. Esther da Costa et al, vol. 7, no. 1, spring 1994; New Haven. "The 'Gay' Writer/ 'Gay Writing' . . . ?" first appeared in the AWPJournal,
1993.
"The Black Leather in Color Interview" first appeared in Black Leather in Color, ed ited by Antoinette, Lidell Jackson, and S. Guy Giumento, no. 3, fall 1994, New York City. continued on page 458
Contents
Preface: On Creativity and Academic Writing
vii
Part One: Some Queer Thoughts 1
T h e Rhetoric o f S e x / T h e Discourse o f Desire
3
2
Street Talk / Straight Talk
41
3
O n the U n s p e a k a b l e
58
4
Coming/Out
67
5
A B e n d in the R o a d
98
6
T h e "Gay" Writer / "Gay Writing" . . . ?
111
7
T h e Black Leather in Color Interview
115
8
T h e T h o m a s L. L o n g Interview
123
Part Two: The Politics of the Paraliterary 9
Neither the First W o r d nor the Last o n D e c o n s t r u c t i o n , Structuralism, Poststructuralism, and Semiotics for SF Readers
141
10
T h e Para*doxa Interview: Inside a n d O u t s i d e the C a n o n
186
11
T h e Politics o f Paraliterary Criticism
218
12
Z e l a z n y / V a r l e y / G i b s o n — a n d Quality
271
13
Pornography and Censorship
292
14
T h e M a k i n g o f Hogg
298
15
T h e Phil L e g g i e r e Interview: R e a d i n g The Mad Man
311
16
T h e S e c o n d Science-Fiction Studies Interview: O f Trouble on Triton a n d O t h e r Matters
315
Part Three: Some Writing/Some Writers 17
A n t o n i a Byatt's Possession: A Romance
353
18
Neil G a i m a n , I, II, a n d III
359
19
A Tribute to Judith Merril
373
20
Michael Perkins's Evil Companions
377
21
N o w It's T i m e for Dale Peck
384
22
Othello in B r o o k l y n
388
23
A Prefatory N o t i c e to V i n c e n t Czyz's Adrift in a Vanishing City
396
24
U n d e r th