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Babel-17 (SF Masterworks, #06)

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 3,369 ratings · 152 reviews

In the far future, after human civilization has spread through the galaxy, communications begin to arrive in an apparently alien language. They appear to threaten invasion, but in order to counter the threat, the messages must first be understood.

Paperback, 195 pages

Published 2001 by Gollancz (first published 1966)

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Science Fiction using Languages or Linguistics as a Plot Device

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Jun 16, 2012 Nataliya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads, awesome-kickass-heroines, hugo-nebula, writing-and-language

I have always believed that the language you speak determines the way you think. How else can it be, really?

I am a trilingual person who has quite a few monolingual family members, and I can't even tell you how many times in frustrated fascination I have contemplated the peculiarities of languages, the plays on words that are often impossible to translate, the confusing idioms, and the frustrating lack of certain concepts in one language as compared to another. So many times I realized that merely voicing a concept in a different language changes your understanding of it, its connotation, and therefore the parts of its meaning. Something can be well-intentioned in one language and come off as condescending or rude or dismissive in another. Once you think about it - how much of the stereotype of Italians being passionate and loving, or the Germans being regimented and strict, or the French being seductive comes from the mere way their language sounds to the ears of the observer? Indeed, what you speak determines in part who you are. Because can you even conceive of something when there is no way to express it?

"She taught him how to say I and you. They wandered through the graveyard in evening, and we hovered over them while they taught each other who they were."

Ever since my teens, I have been fascinated by Samuel Delany's Babel-17, a sci-fi classic about an eponymous mysterious alien language that Rydra Wong, a poet far in the future in the middle of intergalactic war, is trying to decipher. This book has more than just linguistic appeal, however, - it details the futuristic society with genetic engineering, changed concepts of love, star ships, stellar battles, futuristic technology (of course, now riddled with unavoidable anachronisms, but fascinating nevertheless), discorporate members of the society - all this told through Delany's vivid haunting imagery, told in the language that shifts between crisp and poetic, fluidly transitioning between scenes and concepts, illustrated by modernistic and surreal poems at the beginning of each section.

But even by my mid-teens I have read many books that belonged to the excellent science fiction tradition. What impressed me about this one, what set this particular book apart for the language-nerdy daughter of a literature teacher was exactly the portrayal of language in it, the mystery of the highly analytical Babel-17, the allure and the power the language has over people, their perception of the world, even their own selves.

"Nominative, genitive, etative, accusative one, accusative two, ablative, partitive, illative, instructive, abessive, adessive, inessive, essive, allative, translative, comitative. Sixteen cases of the Finnish noun. Odd, some languages get by with only singular and plural. The American Indian languages even failed to distinguish number. Except Sioux, in which there was a plural only for animate objects. The blue room was round and warm and smooth. No way to say warm in French. There was only hot and tepid If there's no word for it, how do you think about it? And, if there isn't the proper form, you don't have the how even if you have the words."

Rydra Wong, the protagonist of this short novel, is a poet revered at the either side of the war, known and loved by the white and blue collar people alike (or, in the language of this world, the Customs and the Transport). She is strong, fiercely intelligent, and competent - a remarkable thing for a sci-fi novel written in 1960s, a time dominated by strong sci-fi manly men who usually got rewarded with beautiful sci-fi cardboard-cutouts women. She excels at reading people, their innermost thoughts and desires - be that through muscle movements or telepathy. As she cracks open the mystery of Babel-17, she discovers more about her inner world as well as some other deep secrets - revealed through the sheer power of language. And the way Delany gives us the glimpse into her - her mind, her reasoning, her perceptions - is so vivid and sophisticated that its almost unsettling, and begs for the reread of certain sections before moving on.

"You know what I do? I listen to other people, stumbling about with their half thoughts and half sentences and their clumsy feelings that they can't express, and it hurts me. So I go home and burnish it and polish it and weld it to a rhythmic frame, make the dull colors gleam, mute the garish artificiality to pastels, so it doesn't hurt any more: that's my poem. I know what they want to say, and I say it for them."

I figured out a big part of the conflict of the book rather early on, but it did not detract in the slightest from being fascinated and enthralled by it, and the fascination did not decrease at all during the reread. The ending is the only part that I have some qualms with - it felt a bit too rushed, too convenient, and lacking a bit compared to the wonder of the story leading up to the resolution. Thus, reluctantly, I have to take off a star.
======================================================
I loved this book when I first read it as a teenager, funnily enough, translated into a different language than it was written in. Loved it when I re-read it now, in it original language. A masterfully written and smart sci-fi book about the power of language - what's not to love? Wonderful "vintage" sci-fi, a classic that has aged well despite the unavoidable anachronisms. 4 well-deserved stars.

"Growing older I descended November.
The asymptotic cycle of the year
plummets to now. In crystal reveries
I pass beneath a fixed white line of trees
where dry leaves lie for footsteps to dismember.
They crackle with a muted sound like fear.
I ask cold air, "What is the word that frees?"
The wind says, "Change,"
and the white sun, "Remember."

(less)

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Outis You can't have zero understanding of French if you understand Spanish and English. :-)

Basically, during the French Revolution the informal you became...more
updated Jul 27, 2012 12:03pm

Nataliya Well, I can read a tiny bit of French (the bits that are similar to English and Spanish, I guess), but it is mostly understanding of separate words an...more
Jul 27, 2012 07:26pm

Aug 05, 2008 Ceridwen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: SF nerds who hate the usual SF prose

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Rob

Shelves: sci-fi, grok-this, aliens, books-about-books, the-future-is-now, space-the-final-frontier

Sometimes scifi of this vintage can really suck, and I can't grok it at all. (See what I did there? Anyone? Okay, it's kind of lame.) Sometimes the upheavals of the late 60s in terms of race, gender and the like get glossed in scifi in lieu of a future dominated by Joe Blaster righting the imperial imperatives of whatever Federation, Empire, etc. One could even argue that gleaming beauty of the Federation on Star Trek acts as a foil for the redemption of the white male protagonist. See everyone,...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: random-comments-review

...Babel-17 certainly deserves its status as a classic of the genre. Although a linguist would probably have a field day pointing out all the errors in Delany's novel, and the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is currently considered disproven, Delany has managed to build a very good novel around these concepts. It is a novel that does what science fiction ought to do, provoke thought on scientific theories and concepts that are packed into a good story. It's obvious why this novel ma...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, books-i-own, nebula-award-winners

The linguistic issue introduced here is not entirely new. For example, in The Languages of Pao (Jack Vance) a similar theme is addressed. Babel-17, however, is considered a Science Fiction classic. It was released around the same time as Dune, with a year or so separating them. Therein lies the problem. Dune had become the new standard, or benchmark, against which all Space Operas were gauged. And it had set the standard pretty darn high. So, Babel-17 is a colourful, clever book, but it's no Dun...more

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Sep 14, 2010 Virginia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction, read-2010

Well, that was quite the head-trip. I do not know if I am smart enough to understand even half of what went on in this book. Delany wields words at times like a surgeon - precise and meticulous, and at other times like a bludgeon. I barely understood what was going on, but the images! They swirled in and out and kept changing when new words and concepts were added in.

At times, I even felt as if this were a linguistics treatise (and it is, kind of...). I lacked the vocabulary to make sense of it...more

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Jan 24, 2011 agent zero rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anglofoni

Babel-17 è un linguaggio e che cosa sono i linguaggi? Non sono solo lo strumento attraverso cui esprimiamo i nostri pensieri, concetti, idee. Al contrario, le parole e le regole sintattiche servono a creare quei pensieri, quei concetti e quelle idee.
Alcuni pensieri semplicemente non potrebbero esistere se non fossero espressi da quelle parole.
E se la lingua in questione è quella utilizzata da una civiltà altamente progredita, ecco allora che cercare di comprenderla vuol dire soprattutto aprire...more

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May 04, 2010 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Abstract thoughts in a blue room: Nominative, genitive, elative, accusative one, accusative two, ablative, partitive, illative, instructive, abessive, adessive, inessive, essive, allative, translative, comatative.” Delany's work is always intriguing, and I enjoyed this more than The Einstein Intersection, which dealt more with music than language. Rydra Wong and her ragtag crew of cosmetically altered misfits fly in the ship Rimbaud, named for the legendary French poet, on a mission to find the...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Gabriel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To read something so playful in language, so inventive in language, is a treat. To read something so intelligent regarding language, to decide what language is important and how it becomes important and why different languages may possibly lead to different cultural ideas (and vice versa) is also a treat. To have it wrapped in a wonderful bundle of book full of spies, "pirates", Galactic War, far-flung trips through space, aliens, futuristic foods and body modification ... goes beyond the richne...more To read something so playful in language, so inventive in language, is a treat. To read something so intelligent regarding language, to decide what language is important and how it becomes important and why different languages may possibly lead to different cultural ideas (and vice versa) is also a treat. To have it wrapped in a wonderful bundle of book full of spies, "pirates", Galactic War, far-flung trips through space, aliens, futuristic foods and body modification ... goes beyond the richness of any dessert and into the gourmets' special reserve list for only the most important guests.

Wonder why languages are hard to learn? Not the idea of forcing the words around lips trained to say other things, but of the ideas the words form being alien. In Spanish, everything has a gender; there is a difference between acts done in the past and acts that were done in the past for longer periods of time; there is a difference in time length between what you are and what you are now. In other languages similar differences occur between the ideas behind the words and grammar of Japanese-Chinese-Indian-Hindu-German-Italian-French-Navajo-etc. and English. This book tracks those differences, reads them in body movements, shows change in the brain and the consequences when confronted with a language that may demand different actions.

What of a language with no sense of self? What of a language that numbers books differently then it numbers people? language that creates a complete picture of schematics in nine words? language that lacks the words for home, house, shelter.

And how does the interaction between those cultures - alien/cultural - affect the world?

Why did the Aztecs and Mayans accept Columbus and the Spanish Conquistadors that followed (at first only)?

Why do Americans portray themselves as "ugly" when outside of the US?

In short, this book gives the language to think of these questions and maybe even the language to answer them.

And it's a rollicking good story too!(less)

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Nov 08, 2010 Max rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

All the excitement and camp of vintage space action SF, plus the headiness and intellectual excitement I expect from Delany. Babel-17 overflows not just with vivid, hallucinatory imagery of the author's vision of the future, but with stimulating ideas about the nature of language and perception. Foregoing the ponderous exposition found in many SF books, Delany shows you the rules of his reality instead of telling you about them, which makes all the difference between a tight, well-paced book and...more

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May 19, 2011 Conor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book totally rocked my world. It's a sexy and intelligent kind of space opera that keeps you guessing. So much to like here... Delany isn't afraid to jump back and forth between dense dialogue and thrilling conflict. More than anything this is a psychological novel, one that explores the nuances of communication, identity and love. There is a lot of sci-fi out there that "sounds" the same, but Delany's voice here is startling. Babel-17 is comprised of engrossing action, romance, and ideas.....more

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Feb 10, 2013 Max rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

This was the first "traditional" sci-fi novel I have read, so it was a bit harder to get into at first. I know a lot of people love this book, and it's gained awards that establish its merit, but I just could not get into Delany's writing style. It's very scientific, so it loses me at a lot of parts where he describes things or has the characters talking about things that I have no idea how to process or materialize in my mind. The characters are interesting, but they weren't believable to me. R...more

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Nov 28, 2012 catcarlo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

La lettura di un libro di Delany non è mai semplice. L’ambientazione è fantascientifica, piena di idee ed immaginazione nel creare mondi nuovi, nuove società, nuovi esseri viventi, ma alla base della storia c’è sempre una riflessione ben più profonda. In questo romanzo, si riflette sulle lingue, e sui linguaggi di comunicazione in generale e, anche se si arriva a colpi di scena inattesi, non sempre il racconto è facile da seguire. Ci sono parti molto belle anche narrativamente, come tutto il per...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Bogdan Capitanoiu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(v0.1/07.10.12)
What is all about?(review,summary,UPS).
Do you remember about dreaming of going to a botanic garden? ...yes it's so beautiful, so exotic, so crowded with life&color, and it's so mind-blowing, it's like you are in dream.....
Honestly I do not want to understand what happened ... but it's about the theory of languages, the neuron-ic melody it generates in your mind.... it's about humans, less about evolution(inter galaxy traveling) and more about what we are and what we are togeth...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Izzy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought I spoke decent English till I ran into Robin Hobb's Assasin books. I thought I could write a decent English sentence till I read Samuel Delaney's "Babel 17" this week, 3 times.
For the first time since I was 8 or 9 and struggled with an old dictionary to read a John Steinbeck story by myself, I feel I am a guest in the English language and don't know much more of it's house than the room I have had a wonderful evening in and the bathroom.
Babel 17 is simply mind blowing. It is written i...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Outis rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: space-fantasy, fantasy, transhumanism, space-opera

I don't get this book.
Worse, I don't buy its setting. If it was comedy or possibly allegory, fine. But it seems to be Big Idea SF. Or is it? It's so preposterous and baroque (it's even got ghosts) that I'm not sure. I don't find it particularly funny anyway.
Still worse, the ending is painfully bad. Exposition! The mysteries are revealed! Lots of books are like this but this time we get preached bad science and plain nonsense. The final clever trick theatratically revelead to the reader involves...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Julio rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cf

Luego de Nova, antojado de Delany, encontré en mi lista de espera esta (corta) Balada. Menos osado en su estilo y con personajes más modestos, pero una historia atractiva: Un estudiante analiza una aislada colonia migrante, que tras generaciones llega a su destino cuando el viaje translumínico ya es costumbre. La antigua colonia, renuente al contacto, es estudiada a través de una enigmática Balada. Mas, luego de una osada visita, el estudiante descubre que tras siglos de degradación genética (lo...more

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Nov 28, 2010 DoctorM rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Samuel R. Delany was always one of the great wasted talents of sci-fi. In the very early Sixties, he was one of the first writers to bring a deliberately literary edge to sci-fi, to try to go beyond the hard-science, alien invasion, starship wars conventions of the genre. Delany's early books just turned genre tales inside out, and by the time he reached "The Einstein Intersection" and "Nova" at decade's end, he was writing beautiful, eerie, thought-provoking tales that let you feel part of new...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Max rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

SF books rely on the ability to create a world with - in our view - impossible elements and make it appear believable. This book is set in a world where humans have colonized many planets, can travel in a sort of warp-speed way, are able to bring the dead back to life and are all enthralled by the poetry of a single writer. Especially the parts set at earth (searching for a crew) and on Armsedge really took me in.
The narrator writes in two gears: very fast and very slow. He does not like to dawd...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Algernon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

[9/10] Spectacular. I can see whay it has won some literary prizes back in its day. It packs quite a lot of ideas for the number of pages it has. Most of those ideas relate to language and communication, but there is also weapon development, faster than light navigation, genetic enhancement, a bit of battle action and a memorable trip through a dystopian city peopled with oddball characters, both alive and incorporate.

Beyond the scientific speculations, I have to comment on the narrative style o...more [9/10] Spectacular. I can see whay it has won some literary prizes back in its day. It packs quite a lot of ideas for the number of pages it has. Most of those ideas relate to language and communication, but there is also weapon development, faster than light navigation, genetic enhancement, a bit of battle action and a memorable trip through a dystopian city peopled with oddball characters, both alive and incorporate.

Beyond the scientific speculations, I have to comment on the narrative style of Delany - beautiful and haunting images, understated but powerful emotional content. The choice of a poet as the main character is an apt one. Other authors have used this device in the form of SF writer to help them insert in the text essays about the role of science fiction in shaping the future. Delany goes further in analyzing the way we use language to connect with one another and to find structure / meaning in the world around us:

Poet in Greek means maker or builder

even more relevant :

You know what I do? I listen to other people, stumbling about with their half thoughts and half sentences and their clumsy feelings that they can't express, and it hurts me. So I go home and burnish it and polish it and weld it to a rhythmic frame, make the dull colors gleam, mute the garish artificiality to pastels, so it doesn't hurt any more: that's my poem. I know what they want to say, and I say it for them.

a worthy pursuit this for any aspiring author.

When it comes to actual poems by the fictional Rydra Wong, they are modernist in feeling, making me think of stream of conscience drawlings on piece of paper in a bar. I wonder if Delany ever published his poetry in a collection. Must check on wikipedia. Until then here's the one poen I liked best from Babel - 17

Growing older I descended November.
The asymptotic cycle of the year
plummets to now. In crystal reveries
I pass beneath a fixed white line of trees
where dry leaves lie for footsteps to dismember.
They crackle with a muted sound like fear.
I ask cold air, "What is the word that frees?"
The wind says, "Change,"
and the white sun, "Remember."
(less)

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Dec 06, 2012 Apatt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Samuel R. Delany was on a short list of famous sf authors I have never read, the list includes Cordwainer Smith, Henry Kuttner, C. J. Cherryh, Stephen Baxter and Neal Asher. I will try to get to all of them next year, any recommendations concerning these authors would be welcome.

Babel-17 is a very short novel (too long to be a novella may be) about the power of language, a culture called The Invaders creates a language which can be used to control thoughts and actions through the structure and c...more Samuel R. Delany was on a short list of famous sf authors I have never read, the list includes Cordwainer Smith, Henry Kuttner, C. J. Cherryh, Stephen Baxter and Neal Asher. I will try to get to all of them next year, any recommendations concerning these authors would be welcome.

Babel-17 is a very short novel (too long to be a novella may be) about the power of language, a culture called The Invaders creates a language which can be used to control thoughts and actions through the structure and content of the language itself, more like brain washing than mind control or hypnosis. The concept is based on the "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis" which (if I understand it correctly) posits that ideas can not be thought of without words to facilitate them. The theory has since been disproved so I wouldn't give too much credence to it. Excellent basis for an sf novel certainly.

The weaponized language is the eponymous Babel-17 which is being used to sabotage the war efforts of The Alliance, the side of the war the story is narrated from; whether this is the "right" side is not really dwelled upon in the book. The protagonist is genius poet turned starship captain Rydra Wong, she puts a crew of some very odd people together to find the secrets of Babel-17 in order to put an end to the seemingly unstoppable sabotages. Members of her crew are all genetically modified and some are actually dead but serving as a kind of high tech ghosts. The dialogue concerning a language without the concept of I and Me is one of the highlights of the book. The denouement at the in the last chapter is fascinating, though the actual ending is a little abrupt.

While I found the ideas and concepts very interesting and thought provoking I also found the pacing to be a little uneven, a couple of chapters simply dragged, in a short novel like this I expected a tighter narrative. The character of Rydra Wong is well developed, she is complex and believable, though I don't find her particularly appealing. Given the short length of the book the other characters are at least adequately developed, but again I did not feel any emotional investment in them.

I would recommend this book to sf readers looking for a short and thought provoking read. Don't expect edge of the seat entertainment, but plenty of food for thought.(less)

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May 30, 2012 Kristina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: not-owned

Finished up tonight.

Very strange read. I feel like I must have missed about half of what Delany was trying to do here. But the half I did catch was alternately interesting and frustrating. I felt some of his stylistic and metaphor choices kept pulling me out of the story and into a critical sphere where I was intellectually analyzing the story rather than staying involved in the story. I'm interested to dig up some reviews or other responses to the book to see what others thought.

One of the "big...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Alazzar rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Samuel R. Delany is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Like, top-3 material. He’d have to beat out Richard Matheson for that last slot (after Roger Zelazny and Neil Gaiman), which is no easy task, but if Babel-17 is any indication, he’s got a solid chance.

The Einstein Intersection was amazing. The only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars was that I had no idea what happened at the end. Babel-17 was just as good throughout, but had the added bonus of not confusing the crap out of...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Yuta Tamberg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read_twice

It is, above all adventures in space and soul, largely a novel about language. Those with linguistic turn may find it interesting, arguable and poetic. I would recommend to check Steven Pinker's books on language for another, more scientific, view on the subject. It is a good reading for someone who is at the moment writing or translating something of one's own. For someone who is not it is still a good reading. Read it twice myself.

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Aug 12, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, audiobook

This is a 2,5 star book. I was generous and gave it 3 stars.
I discovered Samuel R. Delany via Jo Walton's book Among Others.
Unfortunately Trouble on Triton, which was written partly in dialogue with Ursula K. Le Guin's anarchist science fiction novel The Dispossessed which I found to be immensely thought-provoking, wasn't available as an audiobook.
After an unpleasant experience with science fictions books about language, Embassytown, I was willing to give the subject another chance.
Babel-17 is m...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Tina rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's always much more difficult to write a review of something that you loved than of something you didn't. Nothing proves it as much as this book.

The first thing that drew me in was the way it was written. The writing is simply beautiful, and Delany uses vivid, elegant descriptions to paint a picture of his world. It's hard for me to put the feeling of his writing into words, but I can try with this comparison:
We spend a part of our summer by the seaside, in a small village. At night, the sea...more

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May 17, 2011 Zare rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Idea of language used as a weapon is very fascinating. Main character is a linguist and a poet, simply put a prodigy when it comes to communication on any level. Now she is sent to investigate a mysterious form of communication - universal language, codenamed Babel-17 by the military - used by mysterious invading forces that are slowly crawling into space controlled by humans.

Author's style is, mildly put :), unique. First few chapters (when the main character is on a search for the ship crew) f...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-geek

There's a fascinating quality to "vintage" sci-fi. Maybe it's because there weren't as many subgenres of sci-fi back then; no cyberpunk, no steampunk, no tedious pedants arguing whether "hard" sci-fi or "soft" sci-fi was the truest expression of the genre. Vintage sci-fi, at its best, feels like the writer has a whole universe awaiting them, and that no idea is too outlandish, no territory is too strange to tread. Vintage science fiction feels like anything can happen the next time you turn the...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hugos, nebula, sci-fi

Babel-17 (B17) implements a strong version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (SSW) that is really fun*. It is interesting to consider the increasable abstract advantages of picking one language over another. I love the idea of viral language, (how memes actually do work) and how SWH pushest this idea is fun. In theory B17 is my kind of book (especially after just finishing Mieville's Embassytown, which I really enjoyed), it has great ideas and lots to think about. With that said, the plot and the ch...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, owned, 2008, done

"This book was formative for me. I read it in elementary school, and the powerful message it conveyed about how the language you know shapes the way you are able to think affects me to this day. It's science fiction, won a Nebula Award, reads more like poetry than prose at various points, and isn't for everyone - but if it's for you, it's powerful."

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Oct 24, 2011 Sarah Pi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, brains

I'm wavering between three and four stars, but I think this gets the benefit of the doubt. Three stars for the fact that the ending - and the last section - felt a little rushed. Four stars for the complex and competent female protagonist (somewhat unusual in SF of the time), the fascinating systems of travel, and the examination of language.

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by Michael Bishop

About Samuel R. Delany

Samuel Ray Delany, also known as "Chip," is an award-winning American science fiction author. He was born to a prominent black family on April 1, 1942, and raised in Harlem. His mother, Margaret Carey Boyd Delany, was a library clerk in the New York Public Library system. His father, Samuel Ray Delany, Senior, ran a successful Harlem undertaking establishment, Levy & Delany Funeral Home, on 7t...more Samuel Ray Delany, also known as "Chip," is an award-winning American science fiction author. He was born to a prominent black family on April 1, 1942, and raised in Harlem. His mother, Margaret Carey Boyd Delany, was a library clerk in the New York Public Library system. His father, Samuel Ray Delany, Senior, ran a successful Harlem undertaking establishment, Levy & Delany Funeral Home, on 7th Avenue, between 1938 and his death in 1960. The family lived in the top two floors of the three-story private house between five- and six-story Harlem apartment buildings. Delany's aunts were Sadie and Bessie Delany; Delany used some of their adventures as the basis for the adventures of his characters Elsie and Corry in the opening novella Atlantis: Model 1924 in his book of largely autobiographical stories Atlantis: Three Tales.

Delany attended the Dalton School and the Bronx High School of Science, during which he was selected to attend Camp Rising Sun, the Louis August Jonas Foundation's international summer scholarship program. Delany and poet Marilyn Hacker met in high school, and were married in 1961. Their marriage lasted nineteen years. They had a daughter, Iva Hacker-Delany (b. 1974), who spent a decade working in theater in New York City.

Delany was a published science fiction author by the age of 20. He published nine well-regarded science fiction novels between 1962 and 1968, as well as several prize-winning short stories (collected in Driftglass [1971] and more recently in Aye, and Gomorrah, and other stories [2002]). His eleventh and most popular novel, Dhalgren, was published in 1975. His main literary project through the late 1970s and 1980s was the Return to Nevèrÿon series, the overall title of the four volumes and also the title of the fourth and final book.

Delany has published several autobiographical/semi-autobiographical accounts of his life as a black, gay, and highly dyslexic writer, including his Hugo award winning autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water.

Since 1988, Delany has been a professor at several universities. This includes eleven years as a professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year and a half as an English professor at the University at Buffalo. He then moved to the English Department of Temple University in 2001, where he has been teaching since. He has had several visiting guest professorships before and during these same years. He has also published several books of criticism, interviews, and essays. In one of his non-fiction books, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999), he draws on personal experience to examine the relationship between the effort to redevelop Times Square and the public sex lives of working-class men, gay and straight, in New York City.

In 2007, Delany was the subject of a documentary film, The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman. The film debuted on April 25 at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.(less)

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Quotes from Babel-17

“ABSTRACT THOUGHTS in a blue room; Nominative, genitive, etative, accusative one, accusative two, ablative, partitive, illative, instructive, abessive, adessive, inessive, essive, allative, translative, comitative. Sixteen cases of the Finnish noun. Odd, some languages get by with only singular and plural. The American Indian languages even failed to distinguish number. Except Sioux, in which there was a plural only for animate objects. The blue room was round and warm and smooth. No way to say warm in French. There was only hot and tepid If there's no word for it, how do you think about it? And, if there isn't the proper form, you don't have the how even if you have the words. Imagine, in Spanish having to assign a sex to every object: dog, table, tree, can-opener. Imagine, in Hungarian, not being able to assign a sex to anything: he, she, it all the same word. Thou art my friend, but you are my king; thus the distinctions of Elizabeth the First's English. But with some oriental languages, which all but dispense with gender and number, you are my friend, you are my parent, and YOU are my priest, and YOU are my king, and YOU are my servant, and YOU are my servant whom I'm going to fire tomorrow if YOU don't watch it, and YOU are my king whose policies I totally disagree with and have sawdust in YOUR head instead of brains, YOUR highness, and YOU may be my friend, but I'm still gonna smack YOU up side the head if YOU ever say that to me again;
And who the hell are you anyway . . .?” — 17 people liked it

“Sometimes you want to say things, and you're missing an idea to make them with, and missing a word to make the idea with. In the beginning was the word. That's how somebody tried to explain it once. Until something is named, it doesn't exist.” — 6 people liked it

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Babel-17 (SF Masterworks, #06)

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