Babel-17 (S.F. MASTERWORKS): Samuel R. Delany

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Far from my favourite Delany novel, Babel-17 does confirm, I think, that I prefer his science fiction to his fantasy outings. That was impossible and ridiculous and too simple to explain what coursed and pulsed behind his eyes, inside his hands. He arrives in civilian clothes and feels uncomfortable since he lacks the normal shield of his uniform.

In terms of both ideas and prose style, it’s hard for me to name any other author, living or dead, who has similar work, though I can think of a fair few who cite Delany as one of their primary influences.Rydra decides she needs to take out a starship and crew and investigate the site of an upcoming attack by the Invaders, one that will help her understand the nature of Babel-17 once and for all. The idea that a type of consciousness without egoic identity can have significant advantages for understanding and coping with the world is an important part of contemporary philosophy and existential experimentation. When last I heard, they were already up to the B's, but I'm sure they don't have a thing on Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavdqx.

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. This readerly space-travelling pod-confinement inside Delany’s head was a result of the novel itself being a big mental puzzle, or rather the embodiment of an intellectual problem (on deep issues of language and its relation to reality and identity) posed by then solved by Delany. She puts her hand on the bar, she leans back on the stool, hip moving in knitted blue, and with each movement, I am amazed, surprised, bewildered. By the time I was twelve, I knew seven Earth languages and could make myself understood in five extraterrestrial tongues.Rydra’s investigation into Babel-17 hinges on her ability to parse, comprehend, and eventually speak this alien language. There’s lots to take in from this book, forms of communication from body language to computer languages, poetry and more.

I can’t work out if this book should be 5 stars and in my favourites folder, or if it was just quite good. This one was dated, riddled with anachronisms and some retro slightly offensive views on race and gender. After arriving at the Alliance weapons center, Rydra and crew are entertained by the Baron ver Dorco.Not quite up to Dhalgren, of course, but much better than Nova, which looks almost ordinary when viewed between these two others. The b-side is a novella referenced within the main narative, which Delaney apparently wrote in 10 days to fund a trip to Europe, a fast, witty fable about a boy chosen to deliver a message he does not know. Somehow, when I had too much work to do, and somewhere else I really wanted to be, and was scared my supervisor would start getting on my neck, suddenly everything I knew about communication would come together in my head, and it was easier to read the thing in front of me and say what it said than to be that scared and tired and miserable. There are some absurdities, especially concerning the oh-so-strange cast of characters, which I rather enjoyed.