Tales of Nevèrÿon (Return to Nevèrÿon, #1) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Oct 11, 2014 Bryn Hammond rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery

This is, among other things, historical fiction that looks at inventions and social change: for example, the introduction of money into a barter tribe, and the consequent devaluation of women, and why – as explored within a gorgeous ethnographic tale; attached to which is a satire of Freud’s penis-envy theory, at once funny and seriously mind-warping.

At one point in this book, when the introduction of writing is critiqued, because writing's first uses were to convenience slavery, I thought of a This is, among other things, historical fiction that looks at inventions and social change: for example, the introduction of money into a barter tribe, and the consequent devaluation of women, and why – as explored within a gorgeous ethnographic tale; attached to which is a satire of Freud’s penis-envy theory, at once funny and seriously mind-warping.

At one point in this book, when the introduction of writing is critiqued, because writing's first uses were to convenience slavery, I thought of a revelatory chapter in The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, ‘Orality, Writing and Texts’ about why peoples might want to hang onto the freedoms of an oral culture and resist writing. I thought, I needn’t have read that, I can read this fantasy fiction instead. I’d been clobbered by that chapter in The Art, but it’s here in Delany, and much more to come…

Slavery is about the most important institution there was in every history up to recent times… this fantasy-history gives slavery its large place. I have ambitions to leaf through Cambridge’s World History of Slavery – but maybe I can just read Delany… Anyway, is the Cambridge going to inspect us on how we can hate coercive power yet want sex games around it? As Gorgik and Small Sarg, the Spartacuses of this world, do.

I’ll avow that I love both Gorgik and Small Sarg: the one a giant noted to be unhandsome, with a brutish but affable face; the other captured from a forest tribe (his tale begins, “In that brutal and barbaric time he was a real barbarian prince – which meant that his mother’s brother wore women’s jewelry and was consulted about animals and sickness.”) Delany loves the ironies he can wring from ‘these barbaric times’ and those adjectives ‘civilized’ and ‘savage’. The anthropology on savage tribes here is wonderful. But neither are the aristocrats in court anything other than human beings first and not to be blamed for where they are.

The other half of the book is Norema and Raven. The women of Norema’s island, thought more or less barbaric, tend to invent things and ideas that civilization runs on. Raven is his woman warrior. Now, she is hard to like, as is her culture. On Norema’s island you can see sailor women who rub along in near-equality, at least an equality of work, but Raven inverts patriarchy and its ills: inverted, you see how horrible it is. Nevertheless these two strike up a friendship.

At the end the four of them meet and talk. Talk like university intellectuals, as often happens in this book. At times I explain that to myself as Delany translating, capturing thoughts they have but cannot possibly express so well; at other times I accuse myself of prejudice and see it as a statement in itself, that even primitive people in this novel can argue Derrida into the ground. Either way, I like this technique. It lives beside an unusual sense of realness… that in part comes from his attention to the underprivileged, in part is the detail with which he pictures people... I'll admit this realness is intermittent. Still astonishing. ...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Bryn Hammond rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery

This is, among other things, historical fiction that looks at inventions and social change: for example, the introduction of money into a barter tribe, and the consequent devaluation of women, and why – as explored within a gorgeous ethnographic tale; attached to which is a satire of Freud’s penis-envy theory, at once funny and seriously mind-warping.

At one point in this book, when the introduction of writing is critiqued, because writing's first uses were to convenience slavery, I thought of a This is, among other things, historical fiction that looks at inventions and social change: for example, the introduction of money into a barter tribe, and the consequent devaluation of women, and why – as explored within a gorgeous ethnographic tale; attached to which is a satire of Freud’s penis-envy theory, at once funny and seriously mind-warping.

At one point in this book, when the introduction of writing is critiqued, because writing's first uses were to convenience slavery, I thought of a revelatory chapter in The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, ‘Orality, Writing and Texts’ about why peoples might want to hang onto the freedoms of an oral culture and resist writing. I thought, I needn’t have read that, I can read this fantasy fiction instead. I’d been clobbered by that chapter in The Art, but it’s here in Delany, and much more to come…

Slavery is about the most important institution there was in every history up to recent times… this fantasy-history gives slavery its large place. I have ambitions to leaf through Cambridge’s World History of Slavery – but maybe I can just read Delany… Anyway, is the Cambridge going to inspect us on how we can hate coercive power yet want sex games around it? As Gorgik and Small Sarg, the Spartacuses of this world, do.

I’ll avow that I love both Gorgik and Small Sarg: the one a giant noted to be unhandsome, with a brutish but affable face; the other captured from a forest tribe (his tale begins, “In that brutal and barbaric time he was a real barbarian prince – which meant that his mother’s brother wore women’s jewelry and was consulted about animals and sickness.”) Delany loves the ironies he can wring from ‘these barbaric times’ and those adjectives ‘civilized’ and ‘savage’. The anthropology on savage tribes here is wonderful. But neither are the aristocrats in court anything other than human beings first and not to be blamed for where they are.

The other half of the book is Norema and Raven. The women of Norema’s island, thought more or less barbaric, tend to invent things and ideas that civilization runs on. Raven is his woman warrior. Now, she is hard to like, as is her culture. On Norema’s island you can see sailor women who rub along in near-equality, at least an equality of work, but Raven inverts patriarchy and its ills: inverted, you see how horrible it is. Nevertheless these two strike up a friendship.

At the end the four of them meet and talk. Talk like university intellectuals, as often happens in this book. At times I explain that to myself as Delany translating, capturing thoughts they have but cannot possibly express so well; at other times I accuse myself of prejudice and see it as a statement in itself, that even primitive people in this novel can argue Derrida into the ground. Either way, I like this technique. It lives beside an unusual sense of realness… that in part comes from his attention to the underprivileged, in part is the detail with which he pictures people... I'll admit this realness is intermittent. Still astonishing.
...more

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Mar 25, 2023 Christopher rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

There are certain authors I am constantly told how much I would like and lo, despite multiple attempts with, I never do. Michael Moorcock is one of them, Samuel Delany is the other. I remember having the same reaction to Triton years ago. It goes to show how much style and pacing goes into how I react to stories and how merely having the ingredients I like alone does not suffice.

This being said, I liked this collection enough to finish and even enjoy specific parts. But it was really the charact ...more

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Jun 22, 2013 Vincent Stoessel rated it really liked it

Shelves: re-reading

Retro review: I had a "Delany period" , in the 80s , his books seemed to always on the shelves and he seemed highly regarded in the non-SF literary set. This book is weird, kind of like Conan vs the monetary system. My memory is vague and this will be revisited, but I remember it being very odd but also very brilliant as well. ...more

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Aug 07, 2009 Charles rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Beautifully and lovingly written. The stories are really more literary fiction than anything. If you ask me. Great world building detail, but the action was rather slim. Enjoyable if you're in the right kind of mood. ...more

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