Subject: Re: (urth) Baldanders, Delany, Blattid
From: Josh Geller 
Date: 28 Jul 2003 17:06:45 -0700

On Mon, 2003-07-28 at 16:09, Andrew Bollen wrote:
> mantis offered:

>> A week ago Josh asked/made his statement about Baldanders being based on
>> Delany as clearly to him (Josh) as Ultan is based on Borges.

>> Blattid is our Designated Delany expert, and I would like him to address
>> Josh's notion.  Others can chime in as well.

> Pedophilia? One slim pornographic work by Delany which was chock full of it;
> can't remember the name.

You are probably thinking of 'Hogg'. Delany, BTW, questions its
appellation as 'pornography'. He said, if I recall correctly,
that people read pornography to become sexually excited, and he
didn't know anyone who read 'Hogg' to become sexually excited. He
described it as a realistic novel about sex and violence. I have
not read 'Hogg', but I have read Delany's other so-called 
'pornographic' work, 'The Mad Man'. This is the only Delany that I
have not been able to read multiple times. It is the opposite of
slim. It is brilliantly written, like everything he writes, but it 
is strong and disturbing. Without getting too confessional here, 
I can say that most sexual things that freak out men in my 
demographic don't bother me, but there was stuff in 'The Mad Man' 
that bothered me. I believe I will read it again, sometime. Not
for a while.

You see, I suspect that Gene Wolfe considers Borges and Delany both
to be better writers than he is. I don't know if I would agree with 
that, but it is my perception of his perception, and like all such
things could be totally wrong. I don't normally talk about this kind
of thing, and ask your kind indulgences if I am in any way unclear.

Master Ultan stands head and shoulders above Severian. Baldanders is
gigantic, monstrous, larger than Severian in all ways. Baldanders is 
up to no good. Still, Severian can't help but like and respect 
Baldanders, although they look at things very differently. Severian 
can't even bring himself to believe that Baldanders was boofing his 
force grown boyfriend, there. Why not? This is a man who eviscerates 
women and puts them under bell jars, after all.

These are some of my thoughts on the matter. There are others. Why did
the innkeeper call Baldanders Baldy? He's not bald. 

May the hour of my silence return.









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