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Originally Posted by FlorenceArt
The book sounds interesting...
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It was a cult classic over here. Fred Pohl bought it for the Bantam Books SF line (before they came up with the Spectra imprint). He assumed he would be fired as editor, sooner rather than later, and decided he might as well publish some interesting stuff before getting the chop. (Another acquisition was Sterling Lanier's _Hiero's Journey_)
Ironically, I think _Dhalgren_ extended his tenure, as it became a hit among college students, and I believe was a PB bestseller for Bantam for a time. (My copy says "Tenth printing.")
There was a lot of discussion in my circles about what Chip was up to. The late Lester Del Ray gave it a review that reduced to "I didn't understand it. If I don't understand it, it can't be understood. Therefore, it's a very bad book." I wasn't sure I understood it, but gave it more credit than Lester did.
Looking back, I see it in part as a meditation on civilization as a shared construct. A lot of the social controls that govern behavior are external. What happens if those controls are removed? (One character comments that you become "exactly what you are", which is his case was an out gay man with a leather fetish.)
I saw Delany as working in somewhat the same territory as William Golding's _Lord of the Flies_.
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Dennis