hsut@pur-ee.UUCP (Yuk Hsu) (08/27/85)
I've stayed out of the Dhalgren controversy so far, despite being one of the most rabid (tho not vocal) Delany fans on the net. A few remarks about Delany and the Nebula award... As somebody else (Jerry Boyajian, I think) pointed out, Dhalgren did NOT win a Nebula award. Delany won four Nebulas, for Babel-17, Einstein Intersection, Aye and Gomorrah, and Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones. Dhalgren was nominated in 1976 but finished third (according to a SF reference book, title available on request). The winner was Joe Haldeman's Forever War, and Niven/Pournelle's Mote In God's Eye came in second. Both of these are fine books, in my opinion perhaps not as daring as Dhalgren, but perhaps more technically finished (this is not to say that Dhalgren was sloppily written.) HOWEVER, Dhalgren did come ahead of such fine nominees as Michael Bishop's A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (which I don't consider SF or fantasy), Tanith Lee's Birthgrave, Joanna Russ' Female Man, Robert Silverberg's The Stochastic Man, and Zelazney's Doorways in the Sand. I am not implying that Dhalgren is better (or worse) then the listed books. There are always lots of politics involved in awards (and that includes the Nebula), so I personally use them only as references rather than as measures of quality. (Sometime in the future, I may post an article on great SF books NEVER nominated for a Nebula. Hmm, that would make a great poll. Is there interest out there?) As far as I'm aware of, Dhalgren did not finish in the top 5 for the Hugo (Forever War also won the Hugo.) Triton was nominated for the 1977 Nebulas and did not finish in the top 3 (Pohl's Man Plus won.) The Tale of Gorgik (from Tales of Neveryon) finished 3rd in the balloting for best novella, 1980. Also, as far as I know, Stars In My Pocket like Grains of Sand was not nominated for 1984's Nebulas. I'm sure it came out around Christmas of 1984, so it should be eligible. And Nova was noimated for the 1969 Hugos but did not finish in the top 2 (Nova was not nominated for the Nebula.) While I enjoyed Dhalgren enough to read it several times, I do feel that it is flawed in some ways. Perhaps some sections could have been more concise, and it is somewhat self-indulgent (though some people, including myself, do not consider this to be a fault!) It is a narrative of experience, and it tries to suck the reader into the totality of the experience of the protagonist. Personally, I do not find it unreadable (though that is again an subjective thing.) There are many clever little things going on in the book to hold my attention through its 900 pages. While I feel that SF fans (or anyone who enjoys reading) who want a challenge and a different reading experience should try Dhalgren, I don't expect everybody to like it. What Delany learned in writing Dhalgren, Triton and the Neveryon books have borne fruit in Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand. This is a rich, fascinating book, very different from Dhalgren. Since I posted a review of Stars many months ago, I'll just plug that the paperback edition of Stars has been out for a few weeks, and that it is a very readable and interesting book, despite not having won the Nebula. Bill "Delany-historian" Hsu pur-ee!hsut
tom@utcsri.UUCP (Tom Nadas) (08/29/85)
I visited Delany in July to interview him for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's IDEAS radio program. He uses his four Nebulas for bookends -- _now_ that's a classy bookshelf. Robert J. Sawyer Posted through the good graces of Tom Nadas CSRI -- University of Toronto