Today is Samuel Delany's 82nd birthday. As related by Wikipedia, "Samuel R. 'Chip' Delany is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society."
This is one of a number of science fiction writers I haven't given as much attention to as I intend; I think the only novel of his I've read so far is Babel-17, which explores the relationship between language and thought. I did get to meet him once rather serendipitously several years ago, while I was running a Meetup group on Psychology and Social Change which was meeting at Robin's Bookstore. He happened to be in the store and saw us there, and we spent some time conversing. I also heard him at Temple University a number of years ago when he introduced a talk by Neil Gaiman, another great writer.
Wikipedia further notes:
"Delany's sustained thematic engagement with difference, normativity, and their potential subversions or reifications ... [place] him as an important interlocutor in the fields of Queer theory and Black studies.
[...]
He has commented that he believes that to omit the sexual practices that he portrays in his writing would limit the dialogue children and adults can have about it themselves, and that this lack of knowledge can be fatal."
This understanding is partially rooted in an experience he and a friend had at the age of six -- which he has described as having been "a big help" later when he was coming to terms with his homosexuality, "when I was seventeen or so" -- which is described in the interview at the url pictured below.
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