samuel r. delany

i'm not really an obsessive fantasy/scifi fan but most of you seem to be so and i think every obsessive fantasy/scifi fan should have the experience of reading at least one samuel delany book. delany is an award-winning science fiction writer who has also been awarded the William Whitehead Memorial Award for his contributions to gay and lesbian literature. a black homosexual himself, you can be sure one of his major themes is how society deals with difference. i will not give any reviews cos i'm not in an apt position to do so. i'm sure you'll find lots of stuff on delany on the net. i've read only 1 delany book - THE EINSTEIN INTERSECTION. it was one of my lit texts for an american lit module i did in uni. i liked it very much even tho' i found it quite difficult. it was a pity i couldn't spend too much time thinking it through then cos i had 2 books to read and an essay to write by daybreak (in the end, a larger part of the essay was on KEROUAC'S ON THE ROAD which IS a HORRIBLY OVERRATED book). just got my own copy of the EINSTEIN INTERSECTION (was using a friend's) from amazon.com and started rereading a bit. i think you'll either find yourself disengaged and thinking what the??? and give up reading or you'll love it. for me, the prose has a kind of seductive charm, understated but very effective.