The Motion of Light in Water

The Motion of Light in Water

Dust-jacket from the first edition
Author Samuel R. Delany
Country United States
Language English
Genre Autobiography
Publisher Arbor House
Publication date
1988
Media type Print (Hardcover)(Paperback)
Pages 302
ISBN 0-87795-947-1
OCLC 16833709

The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village is an autobiography by science fiction author Samuel R. Delany in which he recounts his experiences as growing up a gay African American, as well as some of his time in an interracial and open marriage with Marilyn Hacker. It describes encounters with Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, and Stokely Carmichael, a dinner with W. H. Auden, and a phone call to James Baldwin. Hazel Carby called it one of two contemporary autobiographies that are "absolutely central to any consideration of black manhood" (the other being that of Miles Davis).[1] Among many cultural events of the decade that he witnessed, Delany recounts his attendance at the first New York City performance of artist Allan Kaprow's 18 Happenings in 6 Parts, the 1959 performance piece that, for many, marks the end of modernism and the beginning of postmodernism.[2] In section 17.4 of the University of Minnesota Press edition, he describes the event and its venue, and speculates on its artistic significance.[3] The introduction puts an emphasis on the idea of the unreliable narrator; Delany's accounts often contrast his life as it "felt" to ways in which it actually occurred.

Awards

Publication history

References

  1. Hazel V. Carby (2009). Race Men. Harvard University Press. p. 135. ISBN 0674029194.
  2. "Many times now Kaprow's piece (today we would call it 'performance art') has been cited by art historians as the (equally arbitrary) transition between the modern and the postmodern in cultural developments" (Delany, Samuel R. (1988), The Motion of Light in Water (1st ed.), New York: Arbor House, p. 110, ISBN 0877959471).
  3. Brown, Charles N.; William G. Contento. "The Locus Index to Science Fiction (1984-1998)". Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  4. Yarrow, Andrew L. (September 4, 1989). "Sci-Fi Fans Meet to Ponder Genre's Present". The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2010.

External links


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