Quotes from book
Flight from Nevèrÿon

Name: Flight from Nevèrÿon
Author: Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany

A novel of myth and literacy about a long-ago land on the brink of civilization. Vol 3

“In a sense, modern philosophy is a series of introductions to introductions to introductions, the movement between them controlled by the pro-tective/pro-textive play of forces about desire.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Appendix B, “Closures and Openings” Section 8 (p. 368; see note on Discussion page)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“But as soon as any of us dies, there is only the monster left. What I had been pursuing was not Belham but the monster called Belham. And what my whole journey had taught me was precisely what sort of monster it was: it was made, as all such monsters are, of contradiction, supposition, miscalculation, impossibility, and ignorance.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 9.82 (p. 302)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“I believe art is a wholly formal enterprise, encompassing almost all the tenets that the nineteenth century spoke of as l’art pour l’art, tenets which have made twentieth century’s experimentation possible.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

What postmodern doesn’t?
Section 9.811 (p. 273)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“I confess, the Amnewor is new to me. Yes, I’ve heard the name—as a minor fact in some other god’s story. Precisely what it did, though, I can’t remember. That, of course, makes it more intriguing. Death. It was associated with endless, mindless, pointless death. But which of them isn’t?”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 9.81 (p. 273)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“You understand, Pryn, I don’t believe in any of it: magic, miracles, religion, the calling of the gods, named or unnamed.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 9.21 (p. 248)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“If all human production (aesthetic or otherwise) has its documentary aspect (i. e., it can be associated, by a knowledgeable reader, with a time and place), does this endanger its aesthetic aspects per se? It is the richness of the pattern that is aesthetically at stake. How many art histories does it take to make us understand that reference (a use context) and historicity are not the same?”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 8.55 (p. 241)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“Content, of course, must have some form. And form, of course, creates its content/commentary. This is why their chimeras have chased each other through moment after moment of history, the intense perception of one or the other producing the overwhelming effect: Art.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 8.21 (p. 232)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“It is the rare society that does not abuse its artists.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 7.2 (p. 216)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“But whatever you say of them, finally I had to dismiss such notions as the ratiocinations desire can entangle about the most sensible of us.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Source: Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985), Section 4 (p. 164)

“What makes a boy interesting does not make a man interesting.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 1 (p. 136)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“Life is hard for everyone, and we must not take credit ourselves for the little that others can do with theirs. Rather look instead to whom we can give credit, if not thanks, for what little we have been able to do with our own.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Source: Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985), Chapter 2, “The Mummer’s Tale” Section 1 (p. 134)

“But that kind has not a true word in him. I wouldn’t be surprised if everything he said were a lie. Such as he lies as he breathes. Truth is something he’s never even learned to speak.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 11 (p. 123)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“Could it be, he wondered, he’d only thought he’d seen what he’d seen because of his own desires, researches, expectations?”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 10 (pp. 117-118)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“I’m a public man, my princess. That means my only meaning is the web of signs I publicly inhabit.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 10 (p. 111)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“Life, I sometimes think—like dreams, like stories, like plans, even like lies if you will—is to be pondered on, interpreted, interrogated: but you had best not try to change it too radically in the middle, or you risk never finding its secret.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 10 (p. 109)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

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