spacestationtrustfund's review
3.0
Let's talk about recursion. Can we talk about recursion? I've been dying to talk about recursion.
akirathelemur's review
5.0
This is an odd one. A somewhat scholarly analysis/summary of what is may be a work of gay erotica from the 17th? century or a hoax from 1969 (in Delany's next novel, Dark Reflections, the protagonist describes writing the novel, so it's probably the latter). Most of the actual erotic content is elided as the text summarizes a story involving the pursuit of the phallos of the unnamed god (itself quite similar to the beast/creature appearing in the Mad Man) that may or may not exist and may or may not symbolize an assortment of things.
For me it all works. It's a tangled and convoluted story that promises to reward rereadings (and, while the premise seems to owe much to Borges, the text itself reminds me not at all of him) and there are multiple layers of the tale itself to engage with. And, being Delany, there are moments of writing that are absolutely spellbinding - the last paragraph of the 1969 text is amazing.
Probably not for everyone - even in summary things are rather explicit - but quite rewarding nonetheless.
For me it all works. It's a tangled and convoluted story that promises to reward rereadings (and, while the premise seems to owe much to Borges, the text itself reminds me not at all of him) and there are multiple layers of the tale itself to engage with. And, being Delany, there are moments of writing that are absolutely spellbinding - the last paragraph of the 1969 text is amazing.
Probably not for everyone - even in summary things are rather explicit - but quite rewarding nonetheless.
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