The Motion of Light in Water by Samuel R. Delany
"The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, 1957-1965" by Samuel R. Delany is a memoir that explores the author's formative years as a prominent science fiction writer during the 1960s. Delany, notable for being one of the first Black writers to achieve recognition in the genre, reflects on his journey towards understanding his homosexual identity, which was influenced by his early marriage to poet Marilyn Hacker and their life in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
The narrative unfolds in a non-linear fashion, presenting a mosaic of experiences rather than a straightforward chronology, capturing his transition from a structured educational environment to the complexities of adult life and creative expression. Throughout the memoir, Delany shares candid accounts of his early writing endeavors and intimate encounters, offering a unique blend of warmth and clinical observation. The writing is marked by a distinctive style that emphasizes the fluidity of memory, showcasing how personal experiences inform self-understanding.
The title metaphorically underscores the elusive nature of memory and its transformative impact on identity. Delany’s work is recognized for its frankness and depth, making it a significant contribution to both memoir and science fiction literature, as it celebrates the intricacies of personal narrative and the rich tapestry of human experience.
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Subject Terms
The Motion of Light in Water by Samuel R. Delany
First published: 1988
The Work
The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, 1957-1965 is an account of the late adolescence and early adulthood of one of the finest science-fiction writers to emerge in the 1960’s. Samuel Delany was the first black writer to rise to eminence in the genre and was one of the first writers to take advantage of the decline of censorship in the investigation of sexual identities. This memoir stops short of the period when he became a literary pioneer, but it examines in great detail the personal experiences that were later to feed that work. Its primary concern is the awakening of the author’s homosexual identity, augmented—and slightly confused—by his early marriage to Marilyn Hacker, a white poet, and their setting up home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
The memoir describes—but not in strictly chronological order—Delany’s unsteady emergence from the educational hothouse of the Bronx High School of Science into the “real world” of work and marriage. It contemplates, with slightly self-demeaning but sympathetic fascination, his early and precocious adventures in science-fiction writing and the gradual forging of his highly distinctive literary voice. It ends, after an astonishing profusion of erotic encounters, with his setting forth from the city of his birth to cross the Atlantic and explore the Old World, modestly recapitulating the kind of experiential quest pursued by all the heroes of his early novels.
The text of The Motion of Light in Water is broken up into brief numbered subchapters, some of which have further subchapters presumably introduced as elaborations and afterthoughts, emphasizing that it grew in a mosaic fashion rather than being written in a straightforward, linear manner. The second edition of the book is further augmented, offering additional testimony to the relentless curiosity with which the author has repeatedly worked through the catalog of his experiences.
The Motion of Light in Water is remarkable for its frankness and for its scrupulousness. It attains a paradoxical combination of warm intimacy and clinical objectivity that is unique. The analysis of actual experiences is combined with and subtly tempered by an extended reflection on the vagaries of memory. The metaphorical title refers to the essential elusiveness of the process by which the filtration of memory converts the raw material of incident and confrontation into the wealth of self-knowledge. There are very few works that capture the elusiveness of memory and celebrate its mercurial quality as well as Delany’s.
Bibliography
Fitting, Peter. “Positioning and Closure: On ‘Reading Effect’ of Contemporary Utopian Fiction.” Utopian Studies 1 (1987): 23-36. Looks at Delany’s creation of utopian worlds and compares those worlds to similar ones depicted in the fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin and Marge Piercy.
Johnson, Charles. Being and Race: Black Writing Since 1970. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. Focuses on Samuel R. Delany in his discussion of black male writers. Argues that Delany is a part of the tradition in black writing that calls for diversity of subject matter and theme.
Peplow, Michael W., and Robert S. Bravard. Samuel R. Delany: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography, 1962-1979. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980. An extremely useful compilation of material on Delany’s writing to 1979. All of the major reviews, articles, and essays are included.
Philmus, Robert, ed. “On Triton and Other Matters: An Interview with Samuel R. Delany.” Science Fiction Studies 3 (November, 1990): 295-324. Includes an interview conducted in 1986 in which Delany discusses the genesis of the Triton (1976) novel and his return to the more conventional science fiction form.
Stone-Blackburn, Susan. “Adult Telepathy: Babel-17 and The Left Hand of Darkness.” Extrapolation 30 (Fall, 1989): 243-253. Extensive treatment of the phenomenon of telepathy in Delany’s Babel-17 (1966) and the comparison of that treatment to Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).