[continued from previous message]   
      
   at least not until I'm retired and can dedicate the amount of time   
   necessary to try to understand it.   
      
   So, it's been fifty years since I've read DAHLGREN, or any other   
   Delany novel, until now.  I've had STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS   
   OF SAND on my book shelf (well, one of my bookshelves, anyway) for   
   decades.  I thought I'd bought it via the now defunct Science   
   Fiction Book Club, but I can find no indication either on the dust   
   jacket or in the book itself indicating that.  I realize that   
   doesn't matter, but it did surprise me once I picked it up.  It   
   was published in 1984, nine years after DAHLGREN.  I'm 50 years   
   older than I was when I read DAHLGREN, and while I think STARS is   
   less dense and confusing than DAHLGREN, I'm not sure I was mature   
   enough as a reader to understand this book and all its nuances.   
   And there seem to be a lot of them.   
      
   The novel is broken into three sections, the first being   
   "Prologue:  A World Apart", in which we meet Korga, a slave on a   
   relatively non-descript planet which appears to be cut off from   
   the General Information (GI) service, a web of knowledge (as   
   opposed to the Web, so hold that thought) that can be accessed   
   simply by thinking about what you want to know.  He has led a life   
   of intensely physical and demanding labor.  Korga undergoes the   
   "Radical Anxiety Transformation" procedure, which makes a slave,   
   but a happy one.  Rat Korga, as he is called after that procedure,   
   is owned by any number of masters until all life on his planet is   
   destroyed. The destruction of the planet might be from a   
   phenomenon called Cultural Fugue, and here I freely admit that I'm   
   quoting the definition of Cultural Fugue from Wikipedia since I   
   know of no other way to explain it, 'a process where   
   "socioeconomic pressures [reach] a point of technological   
   recomplication and perturbation where the population completely   
   destroys all life across the planetary surface"', or from an   
   attack from a spacecraft in orbit around the planet.  He should   
   have died, but he survived deep beneath the surface of the planet   
   in a refrigerated room.   
      
   The second section is entitled "Monologues:  Visible and Invisible   
   Persons Distributed in Space", which takes place on the planet   
   Velm, where we meet Marq Dyeth, an "Industrial Diplomat", an   
   "individual who helps manage the transfer of technology between   
   different societies" (again, quoting from Wikipedia).  We as   
   readers don't actually read about Marq doing much, if anything, of   
   that function.  Suffice it to say that Marq a prominent and   
   well-known Industrial Diplomat, as these things go in novels   
   whether they're written by Delany or anyone else.  Rat Korga is   
   taken to Velm and is introduced to Marq.  According to an   
   associate who works for the Web, an organization that controls and   
   manages information flow between planets, Marq and Korga are   
   perfect sexual matches for each other.   
      
   Much of the Monologues is spent exploring the relationship between   
   Korga and Marq, as well as the cult phenomenon that is growing   
   around Rat Korga as "the only survivor of the destruction of the   
   planet Rhyonon".  Huge crowds appear where ever he goes, as the   
   curiosity seekers come out of the woodwork to catch a glimpse of   
   the man who survived.   
      
   The final section is entitled "Epilogue", where in we learned more   
   about the Web and the "experiment" that brought Korga and Marq   
   together.  Saying much more than that would give away the ending   
   of the novel.   
      
   What I've described up until now is basically a summary of the   
   story, such as it is.  STARS is much deeper than all of that,   
   exploring gender and sexual politics.  One of the more jarring   
   things of the novel is that everyone is considered female, and   
   being a male is one of choice (I probably didn't even describe   
   that correctly).  There are times this distinction is confusing,   
   as Delany calls certain characters both "he" and "she", and it is   
   left to the reader to determine what Delany is trying to say.  To   
   be fair, there is a lot to discuss about the themes of this novel,   
   much more than I am not only qualified to talk about, but probably   
   much that I don't understand anyway.  I once said of Gene Wolfe's   
   novels that I needed to be a more mature reader to understand   
   them, but Delany is taking it to a higher level for me.  And   
   really, there is no discernable plot to this novel. while that's   
   usually a turn off for me, there are writers that can pull it off   
   to suit my tastes--Kim Stanley Robinson for one.  But not here.   
      
   I'm sure that this is a fascinating story for those who are   
   willing and able to dig down deep into what Delany is trying to   
   say here.  While there are a number of influential people and   
   publications that call this book a masterpiece, I will just say   
   that it's just not for me.  I do plan to read other Delany novels,   
   but like DAHLGREN, I'm not likely to come back to STARS IN MY   
   POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND.  [-jak]   
      
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   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)