"Ay, and Gomorra by Samuel Delany" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Samuel R)

What can I say about Samuel "Chip" Delany? That he is
good? The bottom of this page testifies to the fact that we all
think so. He is a story-teller who here has projected something
quite different from those three who have preceded him in this
volume. I saved his story for this precise moment for a rea-
son. He is a gentleman, an artist. He is gifted with a peculiar
insight into the workings of the psyche and the English
language. This particular story, however, is very science fic-
tion; i.e., it expands upon, extrapolates, guesses at, a possible
thing. In this sense, it follows the rigorous, near-mathematical
dicta of science fiction critics, to witgiven this, one day,
then this follows, (im)pure and (un)simple.
But enough about the story, since you're about to read it. I
am of Polish origin, and therefore the words of the disaffected
Polish socialist Czeslaw Milosz occasionally ring in my head.
He once said something in his book. The Captive Mind, which
came to me strongly about a year ago when talking to Chip:
When, as my friend suggested, I stand before Zeus
(whether I die naturally, or under sentence of History)
I will repeat all this that I have written as my defense.
Many people spend their lives collecting stamps or old
coins, or growing tulips. I am sure that Zeus will be mer-
ciful toward people who have given themselves entirely
to these hobbies, even though they are only amusing and
pointless diversions. I shall say to him: "It is not my
fault that you made me a poet, and that you gave me the
gift of seeing simultaneously what was happening in
Omaha and Prague, in the Baltic States and on the
shores of the Arctic Ocean. I felt that if I did not use
that gift my poetry would be tasteless to me and fame
detestable. Forgive me." And perhaps Zeus, who does not
call stamp-collectors and tulip-growers silly, will forgive.*
Anytime, anywhere. Chip will write about that which moves
him strongly. He is a poet, with the gift of seeing simultane-
ously what is happening here, today, and there, tomorrow.
Whether that tomorrow ever materialize's is unimportant.
What is important is that he saw it and captured it, today, and
not even Zeus can take that away from him.
* "The Captive Mind," Czeslaw Mflosz, Vintage Books, N.Y.,
1955.
AYE, AND GOMORRAH

Samuel R. Delany

And came down in Paris:
Where we raced along the Rue de Medicis with Bo and
. Lou and Muse inside the fence, Kelly and me outside, making
faces through the bars, making noise, making the Luxem-
bourg Gardens roar at two in the morning. Then climbed out,