Re: A new Delany novel is on its way

Bamberger Books!  A very small (but old) press. 

nivekgnir <[email protected]> wrote:                               
 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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Michael Hemmingson
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The Watermelon, my first feature film, coming to a theater near YOU in 2008! 
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0945521/ 
 
http://www.thewatermelon.net 
 
see the trailer about a trailer 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDimaB95fK0

       
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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