A new Delany novel is on its way

Issue 7 of Black Clock magazine contains "In the Valley of the Nest
of Spiders", a 16-thousand word novella by Samuel R. Delany. Through
the Valley of the Nest of Spiders,due from Bamberger Books in the summer
or fall of 2008, is a more than threefold expansion of that work. The
novel follows Eric, a young man just eleven days shy of his seventeenth
birthday.

It would not be unreasonable to look at Through the Valley of the Nest
of Spiders as a companion piece to Dark Reflections, Delany's most
recently published novel. But where that novel centers on themes of
loneliness, sexual repression,fear, and the difficult life of the
artist, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, in sharp contrast,
celebrates companionship, love, sexual openness, and freedom. Like Dark
Reflections, Spiders moves through time. However, Dark Reflections
starts in the present day and goes back towards Arnold Hawley's
teens. Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders takes a different
track, starting in the present day, jumping ahead to the twilight of
Eric's life, and then moving back in 20-odd short chapters to the
present day once again. Though it does move several decades into the
future and off-handedly mentions fictional future events and
technologies, I would hesitate to call this a science fiction novel.
(Then again, I wouldn't argue against that label, either.)

Another major contrast is that where Arnold's background, friends,
and experiences provide him with strongly intellectual surroundings and
attitude, Eric's life and surroundings are anything but. Yet I
believe it would be a huge mistake to take Arnold's life
(intellectual, lonely, and sexually repressed), compare it with
Eric's (satisfying, rewarding, yet unsophisticated), and read it as
a rejection of intellectualism by Delany!

Towards the end of Dark Reflections, we learn that Arnold Hawley ran
away in fear from a situation that would likely have changed the course
of his life. Early in Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders,Eric is
told a story by Bill Bottom, a neighbor of his. Bill, like Arnold,ran
away from a situation that had the potential for great happiness. He
concludes by asking Eric to promise that when he is presented with his
own choice—and, Bill insists, that moment will come—to choose
happiness, no matter how afraid he might be to take that path. Whatever
the genre may be (science fiction, gay porn, mainstream literature?),
this is a novel of love, relationships, and the consequences—both
good and bad—of taking that chance and making the choice to go after
what makes you happy.

I personally enjoyed this novel very much. Perhaps more so than any of
Delany's books since StarsIn My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. It made
me happy.



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