The motion of light in or on water is often serene and quite beautiful. It's such a simple pleasure that the beauty of it is often taken for granted. Even when the waters are murky it can still be rather illuminating if we care to see at all. When I finished reading Sameul R. Delany's 500-page plus tome of autobiographical memory reconstruction, The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, I wasn't so much amazed by everything I read as I was by how it was written.
Exploring the vulnerability of memory as much as it does art, music and the coming of age experiences of a young man at the intersection of race & sexual identity in early 60's New York, it's a masterwork in the art of minimalist writing. And the brotha is writing about HIMSELF!
Despite the pressure of growing up as a member of one of America's most distinguished black families, not looking quite black nor quite white, and the added dilemma of being a self-professed homosexual living in an open marriage with a Jewish woman, every aspect of the renowned science fiction writer's life is handled with transparency. The walk-on roles of James Baldwin, Stokely Carmichael, and others are no more than what they are because all things considered, that's all they are. The early sexual attraction of a brilliant, extremely nerdy, maybe almost genius little boy to the dead bodies on the embalming table in his father's Harlem funeral parlor is handled quite matter of factly and offers a bit of insight at what lay at the root of the bizarre stories that Delany would one day become famous for - like Hogg and The Mad Man. Upon the realization that by age 21, the author was having sex with old men, young men, and black & white men in Manhattan doorways, restrooms, truck stops, theatres and at the infamous Christopher Street piers - it all makes sense! Mind you, this is all pre-1970's before the Sexual Revolution and pre-1980's before HIV/AIDS.
But it's all about the motion and politics of life among the crowded streets and apartments in New York's Lower East Side in the early 60's.
I do not have Aids. I am surprised that I don't. I have actively had sex with other men weekly, sometimes daily - without condoms - for the last decade and a half. Looking back, I'm sure that particular blurb on the dustjacket of The Mad Man must have been what made my father read at least half of the book. Almost 20 years ago, I asked him to pick the book up for a friend at a bookstore near his house. The friend never bothered to tell me what the book was about but my father did.
DON'T YOU EVAH ask me to pick up that kind of filth for you, he told me. JUST WHAT KIND OF GARBAGE are you reading these days, he demanded to know. He also wanted to know WHO would read about such vile things but when I pointed out the fact that in between his repulsion and obvious intrigue, HE was the one who'd already read most of the book, he very quickly calmed down. So at this juncture, I'm willing to wager that my dad was also captivated by the author's writing style! Thus proving it wasn't totally about filth and vile things - the author's meat - but all about his motion!
Upon finishing The Motion of Light, I was totally left awestruck by the stylistic deftness Delany employed in telling his story. I was also moved to admit to myself that I often fall into the trap of taking a mundane subject and trying to BUILD IT UP beyond what it really is. There is nothing remotely simple nor ordinary about Samuel R. Delany, I'm just inspired to take my simple stories and tell them SIMPLY without flourish in style and wordage to make them seem more interesting than what they really are. Hopefully, they'll rest on their own merit!
I have an enormous amount of respect & admiration for Samuel Delaney because in his non-fiction work; Times Square Red Times Square Blue he writes so matter of factly about his own sex life with other men while at the same time discussing the revitalization of Times Square and how that effort adversely affected the sex lives of gay and straight men searching for sex in an area that provided it for many decades.
The documentary of which he is the subject; "The Polymath" is very good also and I highly recommend it.
But overall it is Samuel R. Delaney and his writings that have made me not regret my sexuality one iota. I don't feel that I am sick or "the other" because of stand-up dudes like him who function quite highly and effectively in society while enjoying & fulfilling his passions the way he wants to.
Posted by: Greg | October 11, 2011 at 11:19 PM
@Greg, I think the book you mentioned will be the NEXT work by Delany that I read. THANK YOU! I've also had a really hard time finding the documentary, too! Do you have a copy?
Yes, whatever anyone has to say about Delany, he was and is HIS OWN MAN and NOBODY can EVER take that away from him!
Posted by: Corey | October 11, 2011 at 11:42 PM
No, I don't have a copy but I wish I did. I actually saw it at a HOMO HARLEM Screening here in NYC a couple of years ago. Google California Newsreel. They usually have a great collection of lgbt documentaries.
Posted by: Greg | October 12, 2011 at 05:21 PM
Hi, Corey & Greg:
I also enjoyed reading "Times Square Red Times Square Blue". I especially enjoyed how Delany showed that these "sex venues" (all night movie theaters, the peer, public parks)--how they forced Gay and Down Low men of different economic/social/educational backgrounds to interact. It was hard to be a stuck-up snob when you're in the bushes with everybody else.
It wasn't all just sex. There was also conversation...and oh, the heated debates. I almost got killed one night out in Gay Acres for saying that Queen Aretha was a greater singer than Diana Ross.
I used to wonder (and be questioned by others) why I was never ashamed of my whorin' years. Reading Chip Delany's autobiographical work has helped me to understand that there was no need to be ashamed... if you just be nice to people.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | October 12, 2011 at 05:54 PM
@Greg & Derrick. I guess all I had to do was call the main branch of my local library. Times Square Red Times Square Blue AND The Polymath DVD are on the way to me. Sure, I had to place an inter-library loan but that's part of the beauty of the system.
Posted by: Corey | October 12, 2011 at 08:32 PM
Reading “Times Square Red Times Square Blue” made me mourn for New York, for the city that will never return. The completely unrestrained financial industry, beginning in the Reagan years, and sleazebags like Giuliani destroyed it forever. It’s become nothing but a playground for trust fund babies who are as self-satisfied and as ignorant as their parents’ bank accounts are over-stuffed.
There were always the rich in New York, of course, but now the city is solely for them. Anyone else is there just to change their diapers.
I had the good fortune of attending a talk and Q&A with Mr. Delaney, and he is as brilliant and contrary in person as he is on paper.
Posted by: Jim | October 13, 2011 at 01:51 AM