Beyond Reality discussion

Please let us know if you're reading, planning to read, or have read Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany.

No spoilers in this topic, please!

I picked it up from the library yesterday and will begin reading it soon.

I read this one many years ago and, of course, no longer have a copy. I'll be trying to snag one to refresh my memory and for the sake of this discussion.

Yup, I'm gonna try to fit it in. I haven't read it, but "Einstein Intersection" is one of my all time fav's and the "Neveryona" quartet is one of the strangest series around.

I love this book. Unfortunately, I won't have a chance to re-read it this month. It's been a few years since I read it, so I'm fuzzy on but details, but I'll watch the discussion and pop in if I feel like I have anything worthwhile to contribute.

Linguistics, yay! When Babel-17 was published in 1966, Linguistic relativity - in short: language structure forms the world-view - was a valid theory and Delany seems (I'm just a third in) to embrace the idea masterfully.

There are other linguistically oriented SF works, as well - check out the earlier The Languages of Pao or The Embedding. There even is a GR list for Science fiction using linguistics as plot device.

That's where China Miéville should have learned from for his Embassytown but failed (cf. this article.

It seems that my library will be able to get the book from another branch in about ten days, so I should be able to read it in time :)

Aw, I wish I had time to reread this one this month, in light of Samuel Delany (FINALLY) being awarded this year's Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award!

That is perfect timing, I'd say :)

I'm sadly not going to be able to get around to it, but hopefully I'll read it in the new year and maybe make a few over-late comments here when I do.

I'm not sure what to expect, really - I read Dhalgren, and had very... mixed... responses to it.

ETA: my reaction to the grand master award is the same as the one the sfwa president mention: 'he wasn't already?'

Ha, just noticed that Candiss beat me to it with this announcement. Well, at least it now has its own Special Dedicated Thread.

Wastrel wrote: "I'm not sure what to expect, really - I read Dhalgren, and had very... mixed... responses to it."

You'll find this one to be much more accessible, I would venture to say.

I'm a chapter in and I'm hooked. Really great so far.

I really have to keep my on the next read.
Right now I am in the middle of Reamde and I wont have time to read this one. Its something I have been meaning to read

I recently read Embassytown, so have been thinking about language, and loved, loved, loved Delany's The Einstein Intersection, so I am excited to read this--starting tomorrow.

I just got the book, and I have to confess that I want to go home and keep reading.

I'm getting used to the style, it's not difficult just different. I am into all the alien talk and hope we have some alien interaction at some point soon. I'm about 1/3 way in.

Andreas wrote: "Linguistics, yay!

I found Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash pretty interesting, although it's linquistics thread wasn't very plausible. One sentence summary from wikipedia: "The book presents the Sumerian language as the firmware programming language for the brainstem, which is supposedly functioning as the BIOS for the human brain"