Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany Gentleman
25 AUGUST 2011
LACE presents in conjunction with Speculative a rare screening of Fred
Barney Taylor's 2007 documentary The Polymath, or the Life and
Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman on August 25th 7:00 PM – 9:00
PM.
Polymath depicts the intense life of Samuel R. Delany. This self-
described "ordinary, dull, Black faggot" has been a rebellious pioneer
who opened up the white male universe of science fiction to issues of
race, gender and sexuality. In a career that spans over forty years he
has authored more than 40 books, including works of fiction, critical
essays, memoirs, pornography and several issues of Wonder Woman. In
his personal life, Delany has managed to confound social nor ms by
being married for 19 years to a bisexual white woman – poet Marilyn
Hacker – while tirelessly cruising New York gay sexual underground.
The documentary captures him while retelling the story and tracing a
lost geography of highly symbolic New York districts such as Times
Square, Harlem and the East Village. By juxtaposing Delany's flow of
memories, readings and archive footage with mesmerizing imagery of the
city, The Polymath expresses in vivid detail the complexities of an
eclectic intellectual.
ABOUT SAMUEL R. DELANY
Born in Harlem in 1942, Samuel R. Delany was the son of a funeral
parlor owner and the nephew of the Delany sisters immortalized in the
book (and play) "Having Our Say". Although raised in Harlem, he had
the financial wherewithal to cultivate interests in theatre and books
as well as math, science, and music. He was further distinguished, at
least inwardly, by an emerging sexual interest in other boys. By age
13, he began a novel, and the following year composed and orchestrated
a violin concerto.
As a teen Delany attended the Bronx High School of Science, but his
college career was shortlived. He dropped out of City College after
only one semester. Nonetheless by the time he was 20 he had published
his first novel, The Jewels of Aptor, an even more remarkable feat
considering it was his first-ever science fiction publication. Now
called the young "sci-fi prodigy", he immersed himself in the social
experimentation of the East Village. Like an outcropping of an alien
civilization it (and the strange subcultures belched out by the city
thereafter) would prove the impetus for much of his later fantastic
imaginings. He was also immersed in folk music, singing with The
Harbor Singers, Waldo & Oversoul, and later the folk-pop group The
Heavenly Breakfast (though none of them ever recorded).
Proving that the first novel was no fluke, Delany followed it up with
a steady stream of work, issuing eight novels between the ages of 20
and 27 — though the first five had been completed before he was 22.
Nor was he simply cranking out light, fluffy swordplay/spaceship
sagas; rather his works were informed by literary sensitivity and deep
interest in and knowledge of mythology. And they were challenging.
Sexual roles, racial stereotypes, morality, and even the structure of
language and narration were all played with, to varying effect. But he
seemed to hit the peak of shock value in the mid-1970s, a time when he
was also branching out as a literary critic, with his novels The Tides
of Lust (1973), Dhalgren (1975), and Triton (1976).
Although the two preceding novels, Einstein Intersection (1967) and
Nova (1968), are often judged his best works, it was these later three
that sharply challenged public sensibility and the sci-fi community's
hitherto status quo. The Tides of Lust was unequivocally deemed
pornographic. Dhalgren experimented wildly with viewpoint and stream
of consciousness storytelling to present a gritty apocalyptic youth
culture peppered with bisexuality. And Triton, subtitled An Ambiguous
Heterotopia, explored a bewildering array of unusual social and sexual
relationships and erotic forms.
Like others identified with the New Wave of science fiction, Delany
became synonymous with a new type of science fiction, one that dealt
less with hard science, space adventures, and little green men and
more with a kind of poking at the edges of the social reality taken
for granted. With Delany this naturally included going beyond
mainstream culture's cherished heterosexuality and its limited sense
of "natural" relationships. He dipped not only into the realms of
homoeroticism and bisexuality, but also into sadomasochism and other
even more exotic sensualities.
In his personal life meanwhile, Delany managed to confound social
norms with equal flourish. In 1961, despite his interest in men, he
fathered a child -– with a young, white, Jewish girl, Marilyn Hacker
who was herself bisexual. Local law however forbid interracial
marriage and designated Hacker as beneath the age of consent, so the
pair to took a Greyhound to Michigan where laws were more amenable.
They divorced in 1980. Delany later founded Gay Fathers of the Upper
West Side.
In 1975 he began teaching at various universities, eventually settling
in at Temple University in Philadelphia where he is now a tenured
professor. Despite this income, and despite his success as an author,
Delany lives in modest circumstances — no doubt due in part to the
fact that so many of his books were allowed to go out of print.
However, recent trends in publishing, and in public taste, have
motivated publishers to reissue his work, in many cases presenting the
first complete version ever released (as with Jewels of Aptor, which
had long been missing no less than a third of the book).
Delany's literary honors include Nebula Awards for his novels Babel-17
(1966) and The Einstein Intersection (1967) and for the short story
"Aye, and Gomorrah". He was awarded the Nebula and the Hugo for his
novelette "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones", and he
received the Hugo for his eyebrow-raising memoir The Motion of Light
in Water. One of his novels, Triton, has generated college courses
dedicated to its study and explication, and a number of books have
been published about Delany and his fiction.
For further information on Samuel R. Delany and to view his full
bibliography visit his website samualrdelany.com
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Fred Barney Taylor's 30-year career has consisted of a combination of
cultural interests, travel, filmmaking and teaching. He has made films
in North, Central and South America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
He has developed and taught film and video programs in England and
Mexico as well as New York. His films have appeared on Discovery
Network's Travel Channel, PBS and have been screened at festivals in
North and Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe. He lives in New
York City with his wife and daughter.
Image: Fred Barney Taylor's The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of
Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman, 2007, Film StillFred Barney Taylor's The
Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman,
2007, Film Still
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