Re: finished reading _Spiders_

I'm 500+ pages in and so far it feels very... instructive. I don't know how else to describe all those moments where a character is teaching another something. Also, at times it feels like a 19th century novel. Probably that's intentional.

I can see that Delany is expanding his transgressive pursuits (remember that character in The Mad Man saying that snot eating is the thing he would not do? In TVNS projectile vomiting is passingly mentioned in the same manner as snot eating in The Mad Man: should this tell us something about Delany's next novel?), but some scenes are just too much and too tiring. I also don't like and care much about Dynamite. He's more a discursive tool than a character to me.

There are moments of pure brilliance in TVNS, some of the scenes are heartbreaking, many are something only a Delany novel can offer (Delany IS a master of narrative tone). For me, that's enough. Of course, I'd be happy if his next work is pure SF or something in the vein of the lovely Dark Reflections, but I am glad that TVNS is now part of Delany's oeuvre.

--- In [email protected], Erich Schneider <erich@...> 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  erich@...
>