turn Delany challenges the concept of a Gay Identity, an entity of being that could be defined as referential. "The point to the notion of Gay Identity is that, in terms of a transcendent reality concerned with sexuality per se (a universal similarity, a shared necessary condition, a defining aspect, a generalizable and inescapable essence common to all men and women called 'gay'), I believe Gay Identity has no more existence than a single, essential, transcendental sexual difference" (Delany 1991:131)
The exploration of space is a common occurrence in science fiction. Two of Samuel R. Delany’s short stories, Star Pit and aye, and gomorrah, take that standard story line and complicates it, adding the caveat that only certain types of people are granted full access. In both Star Pit and aye, and gomorrah, Delany establishes story-worlds that contain a select group of individuals who are chosen to venture into space in a capacity the rest of their society is unable to do. In Star Pit, they are “golden”
Transcendence and Technology in Neuromancer "Where do we go from here?" Case asks near the conclusion of William Gibson's novel Neuromancer (259). One answer suggested throughout most of the narrative is nowhere. True, geographically we are whisked around the urban centers of Earth in the near future, Chiba City, the Sprawl, Istanbul, and then to the orbital pleasure domes and corporate stronghold of Freeside and Straylight. The kind of movement to which I am referring is not overtly physical
thinking about how that world might be - a particularly important exercise for those who are oppressed, because if they're going to change the world we live in, they - and all of us - have to be able to think about a world that works differently,” -Samuel R. Delany. This states that science fiction indicates thinking about how things would work if this were to happen or this, but isn’t always thought out to be about what lies out in the world. Science fiction gives you the opportunity to think of what could
Apathy and Addiction in Neuromancer In the postmodern world of William Gibson's Neuromancer, nature is dead, and the world is run by the logic of the corporate machine. Confronted by a reality that is stark, barren, and metallic, and the hopelessness that this reality engenders, the postmodern protagonist, like Case, often immerses himself or herself in an alternate form of reality that is offered in the form of addiction (to virtual reality or drugs, for example), addictions that are
In James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, the narrator acknowledges how people of different social classes are treated differently amongst society. Characters of high status are often described as being as manipulative and having the ability to control those around them with their money, but still respected. While characters of low status are shown as being naive and clinging to others for their own personal gain and, looked down upon. In James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, the narrator demonstrates how society
Science fiction, as Samuel R. Delany writes, is a 'significant distortion of the present' (1984, p.177). In an age where our social and political discourse are constructed by the images of the media, from the way we think about issues such as the 9/11 attacks to even those that concern gender; where then do we draw the line between the realities of the present and the fantasies and magic science fiction has manufactured for its viewers (Gamsom, Croteau, Hoynes & Sasson, 1992, p.374)? How can we then
INTRODUCTION “Probably no other city in the world has a street or square as sufficient unto itself and so largely a separate civic entity as is Times Square.” – The New York Times, Sunday December 16, 1906. Times Square is located at the junction of Broadway (now a pedestrian plaza) and 7th avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th streets. Preceding to the American Revolution and afterwards, it belonged to John Morin Scott, a general that served under George Washington who had a manor