RE: Just a little way into _Spiders_, and...

Ron wrote:

> This discussion reminds me of how non-science fiction readers talk

> about sf -- "if it weren't for all the never-ending stuff about

> rockets and aliens and science and stuff, I could just enjoy the story

> and characters."

> 

> I can't help but think this is (at least part of) Delany's point with

> this new book. Genre is about indulging fetishes, whether they be

> technological or sexual (or in other instances romantic or criminal,

> etc.)

I have no argument with any of that. My point isn't that there's so much sex, or even that there's so much transgressive or fetishistic gay sex. I can deal with that: I greatly enjoyed _The Mad Man_.

My problem is that it's _boring_ sex: I am not _so_ straight (though I am, pretty damn, straight) that some of the scenes in his previous books -- I particularly mind me of one in _Flight from Neveryon_ -- didn't turn me on. The sex in _Spiders_, at least so far, seems as if it were more about mathematical combinatorics ("How many ways can we permute this many organs in this much time?") than desire.

This disappoints the _hell_ out of me, particularly if/since (apparently) this is what a large part of the book consists of. 

In _Interviews with SRD_ -- it's quoted on the back cover -- he says that he's interested in characters only insofar as they allow him to write certain sentences. I came away thinking that was an exaggeration; certainly I've rarely read a more character-driven book than _Dark Reflections_--!

But now I find myself wondering whether he wasn't speaking the literal truth. If so, then I'm at a loss for what kinds of sentences drove him to write this book. I'm not finding any, so far, that make me go "Wow" as they glitter before me...
 		 	   		  

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