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

I've been slowly working my way through "Spiders" since it came out. I'm about 2/3 of the way through, and I'm giving serious consideration to bailing.

I read a few chapters, then have to flee and read something less... unpleasant before returning. As one earlier poster commented, it's not the sex, it's the fact that the sex is boring. I mean, if Delany wants to bring pornography into the literary conversation, it somewhat behooves him to, you know, make the porno HOT!

Sadly, it's not. I get more excitement out of a few minutes on xtube or the "nifty" erotic story archive. As a middle-aged gay man, I've participated in a significant percentage of the "transgressive" activities detailed in the book. Not in the volumes as the characters, and not with the dedication to plumbing the depths of dinge evidenced by Eric, Shit, Dynamite and their neighbors, but none of it is really shocking to me. Just kind of exhausting.

So, OK, it's porno that's not meant to arouse. So then it must be trying to tell me something about the world, or at least about the world inhabited by Eric and Shit. I suspect Eric's attempts to read Spinoza are a clue, but I'm just not getting it. Do I need to stop reading "Spiders" and go read Spinoza before it will make sense?

I keep waiting for something to happen that will connect with me as a reader. Instead, I get a torrent of the kind of stuff that, if you're not into it, just means nothing. I'm far more interested in an emotional connection that the mechanics of extreme fetishism.

So, can someone tell me if there is ever any kind of emotional payoff? I'm starting to lose hope.