A Bite of Stars, A Slug of Time, and Thou – Episode 11

Victoria de Rijke joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about “Aye, and Gomorrah”, a tale of sexless astronaut prostitutes and the people who worship them. I’m not making that up! It was written by Samuel R. Delany in 1966 and Elisha reads it at the beginning in case you haven’t. Music is “I Blood Brother Be” by the Shock Headed Peters.

Produced by Elisha Sessions

Its Not Easy Being Green

Let’s make our way to the Garden of the Night

Name*

Website

Name*

Website

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

6 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Jack Fear

24 Sep 2008 14:17

Now, this is where science fiction begins, for me. (Well, this and Heinlein.) DANGEROUS VISIONS was published the year that I was born, and by the time I started reading SF in by the early 80s, the pages of ASIMOV’S and F&SF were alive with provocative ideas, rendered in prose both unflinchingly explicit and self-consciously “literary.” The themes and techniques of the New Wave had been thoroughly absorbed into the mainstream by a next generation of writers.

While I was reading a steady diet of that stuff, I plowed through the two volumes of DANGEROUS VISIONS and quite liked most of it – but as for “Aye, and Gomorrah,” I distinctly remember struggling through and not understanding a word of it. Says more about 14-year-old me than about Delany, of course.

Sinker briefly alluded to a Heinlein influence/connection, as well. He’d be an interesting topic for the show; problematic, though, in that the short story wasn’t really his medium, and any discussion of his influence would have to dwell primarily on the novels.

mark sinker

24 Sep 2008 14:54

yes i probably first read A&G in my teens — i’ve had a copy of SRD’s short-story collection “driftglass” since the mid70s — but it left no impact at all beyond the title, which i assume means it just made no sense to me

sadly i think we will have to leave heinlein for a while — i’d have to do a TON of catch-up reading — even though i think he’d be enormously interesting

(incidentally, i think the reason that A&G isn’t in my copy of dangerous visions is that i only have vol.1 of vol.1, so to speak)

Martin Skidmore

24 Sep 2008 15:34

I don’t think we know anything about Gomorrah’s offences – I think the whole narrative (where the main offence is not specifically sodomy, but a group of men wanting to rape an angel) is set in Sodom, and it was a case of wiping out all the cities of the plain (I think there were a couple of others, but I don’t know their names).

I really enjoyed this episode – one of my favourite writers, as you know. I think he had a real advantage in understanding various kinds of outsider statuses and social distinctions because, as he has said, he was a black man who has at times ‘passed’ as white and, less unusually, a gay or bi man who has lived as straight.

Martin Skidmore

24 Sep 2008 15:38

The only Heinlein I like is a couple of short stories! By His Bootstraps is one, one of the best time paradox stories, and there’s another that uses a tesseract projected into our 3-D world. I rather hate his big novels with adult content in particular.

My start with Delany was when my school friend Dave recommended him to me – I’d moved from Asimov, Clarke and the like on to Dick, Sturgeon and others, and he told me how much he loved Dhalgren, though I think I first read one of the smaller ones (Einstein Intersection or Nova, I think). I read Dhalgren soon after, and many times since, and I think it is still my favourite novel.

Mark G

24 Sep 2008 16:13

So, weep in a way, and rejoice in another…

Anne Dambrowski

12 Oct 2008 13:45

I read A&G as a teen. I was surprised how well I remember it. Certain turns of phrase and imagery are still as striking as in my first reading. Love the radio version.
Thank you.

wpDiscuz

Latest comments on FT

Alexx Kay on Aard Labour 15: Latter Days18 Apr 2024
No offense taken! I don't have the ego to have alarms about myself. I do, still, have sufficient fondness for…
Alexx Kay on Aard Labour Epilogue: Dance Of The Aardvark Catchers18 Apr 2024
Rereading Cerebus myself, and was struck by the following passage in issue 159: The monument was of great and vital…
Andrew F on Aard Labour 16: The Last Day18 Apr 2024
The older I get, the more I think about Cerebus's relationship with cheese.
chalsey klare on Aard Labour Epilogue: Dance Of The Aardvark Catchers18 Apr 2024
business by equipping them with the right marketing campaigns, automation, and a frictionless customer journey by 2030. Agency services
Derek Moreland on Aard Labour 16: The Last Day17 Apr 2024
Count me as one of the people oddly affected by issue 300. Although... The thing I most remember about this…
aldo on Aard Labour Epilogue: Dance Of The Aardvark Catchers17 Apr 2024
There's a lot of competition but I still think "Dav(e) is, Viktor" is Sim's worst ever pun/DO YOU SEE gotcha.
Tom on Aard Labour Epilogue: Dance Of The Aardvark Catchers17 Apr 2024
All the 'relatonship advice' in the comic itself - some of which is explicitly characterised as coming from Sim-analogue Viktor…
aldo on Aard Labour Epilogue: Dance Of The Aardvark Catchers17 Apr 2024
I actually think Burning Hell and Believer's Heaven are better Pinkus-bait but neither have the Communist edge that mark out…

Pages

Tags

A Bite of Stars, A Slug of Time, and Thou – Episode 11

Its Not Easy Being Green

Let’s make our way to the Garden of the Night

Latest comments on FT