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Atlantis
Three Tales
Sales Date: 1995-07-28
224 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in
Three marvelously structured stories trace the intricate interdependencies of memory, experience, and the self.
Wesleyan University Press has made a significant commitment to the publication of the work of Samuel R. Delany, including this recent fiction, now available in paperback. The three long stories collected in Atlantis: three tales — "Atlantis: Model 1924," "Erik, Gwen, and D. H. Lawrence's Aesthetic of Unrectified Feeling," and "Citre et Trans" — explore problems of memory, history, and transgression.
Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and Guest of Honor at the 1995 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Delany was won a broad audience among fans of postmodern fiction with his theoretically sophisticated science fiction and fantasy. The stories of Atlantis: three tales are not SF, yet Locus, the trade publication of the science fiction field, notes that the title story "has an odd, unsettling power not usually associated with mainstream fiction."
A writer whose audience extends across and beyond science fiction, black, gay, postmodern, and academic constituencies, Delany is finally beginning to achieve the broader recognition he deserves.
Atlantis, Model 1924
1. Eric, Gwen, and D.H. Lawrence's Esthetic of Unrectified Feeling
2. Citre et Trans
SAMUEL R. DELANY many prizes include the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the William Whitehead Memorial Award for a lifetime's contribution to gay and lesbian literature. Wesleyan has published both his fiction and nonfiction, including Atlantis: three tales (1995), Silent Interviews: On Language, Race, Sex, Science Fiction, and Some Comics (1994), Longer Views: Extended Essays (1996), and Shorter Views: Queer Thoughts & the Politics of the Paraliterary. The press has also reissued his classic science fiction and fantasy novels Dhalgren (1996), The Einstein Intersection (1998) and the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series.
"[Delany] works real magic in these pages . . . Portions of Atlantis: Model 1924 linger, even loom, in my memory, and I suspect they will long endure there."
~Hungry Mind Review
""Delany, who's best known for his science fiction, takes a variety of literary turns in these three novellas that chronicle the experience of the African American writer in the 20th century . . . Balanced and full of intricate layers of prose, these novellas present a potpourri literary references, detailed flashbacks and experimental page layouts. Delany seamlessly meshes graceful prose, cultural and philosophical depth and a knowledge of different forms and voices into a truly heady, literate blend.""
~Publishers Weekly
""The language is lush and striking. Deftly, Delany uses stream of consciousness, Surrealism, and typographic innovation to juxtapose fact, memory, and time.""
~Boston Phoenix Literary Supplement
""[Delany] works real magic in these pages . . . Portions of "Atlantis: Model 1924" linger, even loom, in my memory, and I suspect they will long endure there.""
~Hungry Mind Review
""Delany sketches sympathetic portraits of young black men aswim in the dense, sweet hives of American cities.""
~New York Times Book Review