David Letterman style.
#5
The Einstein Intersection (1967): Humans have left the Earth, and an alien race has settled down on the planet to live among the remnants of human culture. The story is told by Lo Lobey, a brown-skinned simian-like humanoid, who has the gift of music: he plays on his machete. The functional members of this alien society have titles such as Lo, La, and Le, denoting purity and normalcy among the race, whereas the unfunctional are caged, cared for, and killed when necessary. Lobey learns his music through old recordings of groups like the Beatles and by listening to his elders make connections between 60s pop culture and Greek myths such as Orpheus. The story centers on Lobeyâs search for his lost love La Friza through the debris of human culture as he encounters a giant bull underground, a feminine computer named Phaedra, killer flowers, dragon herders, and other functionals who are different such as Spider, Green-eye, Dove, and Kid Death. Delany suggests that we break away from entrapping myths through this absolutely brilliant race novel.
#4
Dhalgren (1975): I enjoy the challenge of
Dhalgren
and understand it as an ironic commentary on segregation.
Dhalgren
forced me to take my time, reading in five- to ten-page spurts on a nearly daily basis in order to absorb its many textures. Kid, a half-Native American drifter-poet-criminal in search of his forgotten identity, enters the stricken imaginary Midwestern city of Bellona, a city where the fabric of reality unravels. Some nameless disaster impacts this city to the extent that entire city blocks burn one week and are unharmed a week later; time dilates and does strange things; two moons rise on some evenings, or a gigantic sun rises and sets. For Kid, Bellona âis a city of inner discordances and natural distortionsâ populated by youth gangs, rapists, and murderers, as well as gays, transvestites, and local celebrities, in addition to questionably sane individuals (14). While othering himself in the process, Kid finds no resolution in this broken city despite trying out many identities not his own. The novel culminates at its beginning and continues to challenge me.
#3
Trouble on Triton (1976): The reformed Martian prostitute Bron Helstrom, immigrates to the Neptunian moon Triton in search of happiness as some kind of masculine ideal, as near as I can figure. Political and economic tensions escalate between the inner planets (Earth and Mars) and the solar systemâs outer moons, eventually leading to interplanetary war. Against such a backdrop, Bron does not find happiness, because of his self-absorption and the difficulty he has in forming meaningful relationships. He meets and falls in love with a theater woman known as the Spike, and loses her in his desire to possess her. Ultimately, he becomes a woman by undergoing sexual orientation reassignment and body modification in the hope of finding the male that he desperately wanted to be before the change. Bron as man or woman cannot be happy. This novel taught me a great deal more about identity politics beyond racial parameters.
# 2
Babel-17 (1966): Galaxy-famous âOrientalâ poet Rydra Wong is enlisted by the military to decode an alien language known as Babel-17 and help fight the invasion of alien humans. She puts a spaceship crew together herself to decipher the language from the site of the next incident. From the start of the mission, things go wrong: her ship communications are sabotaged, she realizes that there is a traitor among her crew, an important military official is assassinated in her presence, her ship is tampered with again, and she and her crew are taken captive, then rescued by a space pirate working for the alliance. While participating in the fighting, Rydra teaches a murderer named the Butcher the concept of âIâ in language. Somehow, Rydraâs mind becomes linked with the Butcherâs through Babel-17, whereupon Rydra figures out that
#5
The Einstein Intersection (1967): Humans have left the Earth, and an alien race has settled down on the planet to live among the remnants of human culture. The story is told by Lo Lobey, a brown-skinned simian-like humanoid, who has the gift of music: he plays on his machete. The functional members of this alien society have titles such as Lo, La, and Le, denoting purity and normalcy among the race, whereas the unfunctional are caged, cared for, and killed when necessary. Lobey learns his music through old recordings of groups like the Beatles and by listening to his elders make connections between 60s pop culture and Greek myths such as Orpheus. The story centers on Lobeyâs search for his lost love La Friza through the debris of human culture as he encounters a giant bull underground, a feminine computer named Phaedra, killer flowers, dragon herders, and other functionals who are different such as Spider, Green-eye, Dove, and Kid Death. Delany suggests that we break away from entrapping myths through this absolutely brilliant race novel.
#4
Dhalgren (1975): I enjoy the challenge of
Dhalgren
and understand it as an ironic commentary on segregation.
Dhalgren
forced me to take my time, reading in five- to ten-page spurts on a nearly daily basis in order to absorb its many textures. Kid, a half-Native American drifter-poet-criminal in search of his forgotten identity, enters the stricken imaginary Midwestern city of Bellona, a city where the fabric of reality unravels. Some nameless disaster impacts this city to the extent that entire city blocks burn one week and are unharmed a week later; time dilates and does strange things; two moons rise on some evenings, or a gigantic sun rises and sets. For Kid, Bellona âis a city of inner discordances and natural distortionsâ populated by youth gangs, rapists, and murderers, as well as gays, transvestites, and local celebrities, in addition to questionably sane individuals (14). While othering himself in the process, Kid finds no resolution in this broken city despite trying out many identities not his own. The novel culminates at its beginning and continues to challenge me.
#3
Trouble on Triton (1976): The reformed Martian prostitute Bron Helstrom, immigrates to the Neptunian moon Triton in search of happiness as some kind of masculine ideal, as near as I can figure. Political and economic tensions escalate between the inner planets (Earth and Mars) and the solar systemâs outer moons, eventually leading to interplanetary war. Against such a backdrop, Bron does not find happiness, because of his self-absorption and the difficulty he has in forming meaningful relationships. He meets and falls in love with a theater woman known as the Spike, and loses her in his desire to possess her. Ultimately, he becomes a woman by undergoing sexual orientation reassignment and body modification in the hope of finding the male that he desperately wanted to be before the change. Bron as man or woman cannot be happy. This novel taught me a great deal more about identity politics beyond racial parameters.
# 2
Babel-17 (1966): Galaxy-famous âOrientalâ poet Rydra Wong is enlisted by the military to decode an alien language known as Babel-17 and help fight the invasion of alien humans. She puts a spaceship crew together herself to decipher the language from the site of the next incident. From the start of the mission, things go wrong: her ship communications are sabotaged, she realizes that there is a traitor among her crew, an important military official is assassinated in her presence, her ship is tampered with again, and she and her crew are taken captive, then rescued by a space pirate working for the alliance. While participating in the fighting, Rydra teaches a murderer named the Butcher the concept of âIâ in language. Somehow, Rydraâs mind becomes linked with the Butcherâs through Babel-17, whereupon Rydra figures out that
Similar Books
