Samuel R. Delany cytaty

Samuel Ray Delany Jr. – amerykański pisarz science fiction i krytyk literacki. Laureat nagród Nebula i Hugo.

Dorastał w Harlemie w dobrze sytuowanej rodzinie afroamerykańskiej. Jego matka była bibliotekarką, a ojciec przedsiębiorcą pogrzebowym. Uczęszczał do Bronx High School of Science. Mimo iż publicznie przyznaje się do bycia gejem, przez 19 lat był żonaty z poetką Marilyn Hacker i ma córkę Ivę Hacker-Delany.

Od 1988 r. Delany zajmował stanowisko profesora literatury na kilku uniwersytetach, m.in. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University at Buffalo, a ostatnio na Temple University w Filadelfii. Jest autorem książek z dziedziny literaturoznawstwa.

Debiutował jako pisarz w wieku 20 lat, powieścią The Jewels of Aptor. Uważany jest za czołowego twórcę Nowej Fali SF. Jego utwory charakteryzują się złożonością i wyrafinowaniem.

Oprócz powieści uznanie zdobyły także krótkie formy, np. opowiadania Aye, and Gomorrah i Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones .

Jest dyslektykiem. Wikipedia  

✵ 1. Kwiecień 1942
Samuel R. Delany Fotografia
Samuel R. Delany: 131   Cytatów 0   Polubień

Samuel R. Delany: Cytaty po angielsku

“Only a man afraid of freedom would want this power, who could conceive of wielding it. And that fear of freedom will turn him into a slave of this power.”

Samuel R. Delany książka The Jewels of Aptor

Źródło: The Jewels of Aptor (1962), Chapter X (p. 133)
Kontekst: A lesson which history should have taught us thousands of years ago was finally driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other men and still retain his own mind. For no matter how good his intentions are when he takes up the power, his alternate reason is that freedom, the freedom of other people and ultimately his own, terrifies him. Only a man afraid of freedom would want this power, who could conceive of wielding it. And that fear of freedom will turn him into a slave of this power.

“That is the basis of all magic.”

Samuel R. Delany książka Equinox

Equinox (1973)
Kontekst: Always remember the objects you are working with. When you make a bridge, remember you are putting steel on stone and dirt. … Some day you will write poems to a little girl: marks with ink on paper. … When you are making love, you are moving flesh against flesh. That is the basis of all magic. (p. 30)

“It is a magic book. Words mean things. When you put them together they speak.”

Samuel R. Delany książka Equinox

Equinox (1973)
Kontekst: It is a magic book. Words mean things. When you put them together they speak. Yes, sometimes they flatten out and nothing they say is real, and that is one kind of magic. But sometimes a vision will rip up from them and shriek and clank wings clear as the sweat smudge on the paper under your thumb. And that is another kind. (p. 163)

“Always remember the objects you are working with.”

Samuel R. Delany książka Equinox

Equinox (1973)
Kontekst: Always remember the objects you are working with. When you make a bridge, remember you are putting steel on stone and dirt. … Some day you will write poems to a little girl: marks with ink on paper. … When you are making love, you are moving flesh against flesh. That is the basis of all magic. (p. 30)

“Once I was as ignorant as you; I swear, though, I can’t remember when.”

Samuel R. Delany książka The Einstein Intersection

Section 9
The Einstein Intersection (1967)
Kontekst: I must remember my own origins. Once I was as ignorant as you; I swear, though, I can’t remember when.

“A lesson which history should have taught us thousands of years ago was finally driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other men and still retain his own mind.”

Samuel R. Delany książka The Jewels of Aptor

Źródło: The Jewels of Aptor (1962), Chapter X (p. 133)
Kontekst: A lesson which history should have taught us thousands of years ago was finally driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other men and still retain his own mind. For no matter how good his intentions are when he takes up the power, his alternate reason is that freedom, the freedom of other people and ultimately his own, terrifies him. Only a man afraid of freedom would want this power, who could conceive of wielding it. And that fear of freedom will turn him into a slave of this power.

“Dictators during the entire history of this planet have used similar techniques. By not letting the people of their country know what conditions existed outside their boundaries, they could get the people to fight to stay in those conditions.”

Samuel R. Delany książka The Jewels of Aptor

Źródło: The Jewels of Aptor (1962), Chapter X (p. 133)
Kontekst: Dictators during the entire history of this planet have used similar techniques. By not letting the people of their country know what conditions existed outside their boundaries, they could get the people to fight to stay in those conditions. It was the old adage: Convince a slave that he’s free, and he will fight to maintain his slavery.

“The science of probability gives mathematical expression to our ignorance, not to our wisdom.”

Samuel R. Delany Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones

Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones (1968)
Kontekst: If everything, everything were known, statistical estimates would be unnecessary. The science of probability gives mathematical expression to our ignorance, not to our wisdom.

“As morning branded the sea, darkness fell away at the far side of the beach. I turned to follow it.”

Samuel R. Delany książka The Einstein Intersection

Section 13 (closing words)
The Einstein Intersection (1967)

“Young writers take that most communal object, language, and perform on it that most individual act, creation.”

Samuel R. Delany książka Neveryóna

Appendix B, “Acknowledgments” (p. 447)
Neveryóna (1983)

“Honesty is the best policy; a policy is, after all, a strategy for living in the polis — in the city …”

Samuel R. Delany książka The Mad Man

Źródło: The Mad Man (1994), p. 67; ellipses in the original

“In myths things always turn into their opposites as one version supersedes the next.”

Samuel R. Delany książka The Einstein Intersection

Section 2
The Einstein Intersection (1967)

“You mean I’ve come all this way to kill a man, and you tell me he’s gone?”

Samuel R. Delany książka Tales of Nevèrÿon

Section 3 (p. 183)
Tales of Nevèrÿon (1979)