Review of 'Stars in my pocket like grains of sand' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Mind-boggling. Demanding. Tremendous.
368 pages
English language
Published Dec. 14, 1984 by Bantam Books.
Stars in my pocket like grains of sand
4 stars
(12 reviews)
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand (1984) is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. It is part of what would have been a "diptych", in Delany's description, of which the second half, The Splendor and Misery of Bodies, of Cities, remains unfinished.
Review of 'Stars in my pocket like grains of sand' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Having read several different blurbs for this book that seemed to have been mistaken about major events in this book, I am not optimistic about my own ability to comprehend it.
This books takes place in the unimaginably far future, in an indescribably immense galactic economy. Rat Korga is neurologically disabled to make him a cog in the economic machine. Marq Dyeth is a male woman who works as an Industrial Diplomat, a job which seems to entail interstellar travel. They meet, have sex, explore Marq's world, and are separated.
This description of the events of the book misses the point entirely, which is... hard to say. On one level, it is about encountering otherness; socially, linguistically, biologically, erotically, and about the impossibility of truly knowing the other. On some other level, it's about imagining worlds built on principles utterly unlike anything the reader can have encountered.
The writing reminds …
Having read several different blurbs for this book that seemed to have been mistaken about major events in this book, I am not optimistic about my own ability to comprehend it.
This books takes place in the unimaginably far future, in an indescribably immense galactic economy. Rat Korga is neurologically disabled to make him a cog in the economic machine. Marq Dyeth is a male woman who works as an Industrial Diplomat, a job which seems to entail interstellar travel. They meet, have sex, explore Marq's world, and are separated.
This description of the events of the book misses the point entirely, which is... hard to say. On one level, it is about encountering otherness; socially, linguistically, biologically, erotically, and about the impossibility of truly knowing the other. On some other level, it's about imagining worlds built on principles utterly unlike anything the reader can have encountered.
The writing reminds me of Tiptree, and of SF writers of the seventies who were deliberately trying to write something different, that didn't come from what came before. (This book was published 1985, so.)
