RE: Ash of Stars

Actually, I don't think that criminals stand in opposition to society 
at all. But rather than argue the obvious, when I think of this my 
first thoughts go to Richard Wright, who wondered about the potential 
of outsiderness in NATIVE SON (1940) and THE OUTSIDER (1953), both 
with gruesome implicit conclusions. Real criminality is not remotely 
oppositional. But there's the question of the potentials of the 
outsider perspective, explored by Wright in all his work from at least 
1940 on. Delany, like Wright, is a highly civilzed man, though not a 
product of the dire circumstances of the latter, so that, whatever he 
has experienced in the Unlicensed Zone, he wouldn't do well with real 
criminals. He's probably been around thugs, as I have, and hopefully 
he'd be smart enough to see them as the enemy. 
   
  But there's something else I vaguel recall from BABEL-17, as much as 
I can remember from three and a half decades ago. Was not the 
criminality of one of the main characters due to his inarticulateness, 
his inability to conceptualize his experience? This factor changes the 
entire perspective. 
   
   
  On Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:26:58 -0700, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

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> Ralph,
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> The "union of the criminal and the artist" comes, I think, from two things. 
>
> The first is the existence of a few notable poets in history who were 
> outlaws (notably Francois Villon, arguably the best French poet of 
> his century). 
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> The second, and more important to my mind, is that both artists and 
> criminals stand in opposition to society. 
>
> --Dan'l
>
> To: [email protected]; [email protected]
> From: [email protected]
> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:18:19 -0400
> Subject: Re: [delany-list] Ash of Stars
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> I haven't read Delany himself in many years, but reading the first 
> few essays in this book have blown my mind. There are certain aspects 
> of contemporary academic writing and ideology in the book, and the 
> framing of academic concerns, that always irritate me, but the 
> observations of some of these authors give me something new to think 
> about as well as to pinpoint my particular reactions to Delany, to 
> reception of Delany, to subcultures, etc. I don't believe in the 
> union of the criminal and the artist, by the way. That kind of 
> thinking has got to go. On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:05:46 -0400, 
> [email protected] wrote:
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> Well, I finally located a cheap copy in a used book store, been on my 
> list for some time. Actually, though, it's been some years since I 
> read anything by or about Delany.Maybe the attempts to decipher k> 
> Leslie Steiner will pique my interest. [Non-text portions of this 
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> Delany. ==Yahoo! Groups Links
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