finished reading _Spiders_

A short while ago I finished _Through the Valley of the Nest of
Spiders_. I have to say, it's not up there among my favorites of his
(those would be _Stars_, _Dhalgren_, _Triton_, and the
autobiographical works). The feeling I get is that the block of marble
needed some more chiseling to more clearly reveal the statue within.

I find myself agreeing with a few of the specific points made in
this review (but I would stop short at saying it was "bad"):

http://jwcampb.blogspot.com/2012/05/review-of-through-valley-of-nest-of.html

I'm sure Delany could explain exactly why every one of the many sex
scenes was kept in at the length and level of detail it was, but I did
start to mentally say "oh, not another one" as things went on. 

The relationship of Eric and Shit did remind me of that between Marq and
Rat in _Stars_, only here, the question asked is "so you meet your
perfect erotic match... and then get to live with them for 70 years in
a milieu where sex is the primary way you spend your free time, at
least for the first few decades. What happens?" In _Stars_ I felt like
I got to get up and walk around Velm or Rhyonon a little, and when I
did, what I saw made my brain light up like a Christmas tree. There
was the potential for that here, but it largely didn't happen.

The scene in the "Gay Friendly" men's room is the funniest scene I can
remember in all of Delany's fiction. 

I found the depiction of Eric and Shit as old men touching without
being mawkish.

I read _The Mad Man_ once, when the first edition was published
(although I own the latest, as I have heard it is vastly improved
there, but I haven't been motivated enough to read it), and also
_Phallos_, and the statue depicted on the covers of those gets quite a
few pages devoted to it in _Spiders_. I don't remember what the
significance of it in the other works was, though. If any of you would
care to summarize for me, I'd be grateful.

Who else here has finished it?

-- 
Erich Schneider  [email protected]