Re: finished reading _Spiders_

I'm about halfway.  I've kinda stalled because of all the lengthly sex
scenes. To be honest, I've been skimming them. It makes me say to
myself: I love you, Chip. But can't we have a book that _isn't_ about
the many ways men can have sex with each other?

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 3:51 PM, Erich Schneider
<[email protected]> wrote:
> 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]
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> == Posted to delany-list, hosted at yahoo groups ==
> == A mailing list for the discussion of the works of Samuel R. Delany. ==Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>