Neveryóna, Or: The Tale of Signs and Cities—Some Informal Remarks Towards the Modular Calculus, Part Four

Front Cover
Wesleyan University Press, Nov 29, 1993 - Fiction - 399 pages

A novel of myth and literacy about a long-ago land on the brink of civilization. Vol 2

In his four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Samuel R. Delany appropriated the conceits of sword-and-sorcery fantasy to explore his characteristic themes of language, power, gender, and the nature of civilization. Wesleyan University Press has reissued the long-unavailable Nevèrÿonvolumes in trade paperback.

The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon's four volumes chronicle a long-ago land on civilization's brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa, or even on the Mediterranean. Taken slave in childhood, Gorgik gains his freedom, leads a slave revolt, and becomes a minister of state, finally abolishing slavery. Ironically, however, he is sexually aroused by the iron slave collars of servitude. Does this contaminate his mission — or intensify it? Presumably elaborated from an ancient text of unknown geographical origin, the stories are sunk in translators' and commentators' introductions and appendices, forming a richly comic frame.

 

Contents

The Violence of the Letter
11
Of Roads Real Cities Streets and Strangers
30
Of Markets Maps Cellars and Cisterns
52
Of Fate Fortune Mayhem and Mystery
74
Of Matrons Mornings Motives and Machinations
91
Of Falls Fountains Notions and New Markets
114
Of Commerce Capital Myths and Missions
132
Of Models Mystery Moonlight and Authority
154
Of Night Noon Time and Transition
191
Of Bronze Brews Dragons and Dinners
245
Of Family Gatherings Grammatology More Models and More Mysteries
278
Of Models Monsters Night and the Numinous
307
Of Survival Celebration and Unlimited Semiosis
341
The Culhar Correspondence
381
Acknowledgments
397
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1993)

Samuel R. Delany Jr. was born in Harlem, New York on April 1, 1942. He is a science fiction and short story writer. His first novel, The Jewels of Aptor, was published in 1962. He has written more than 20 novels and collections of short stories, memoirs, and critical essays. He has received numerous awards including the Nebula Award for best novel for Babel-17 in 1966 and The Einstein Intersection in 1967, the Nebula Award for best short story for Aye, and Gomorrah and Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones, the Hugo Award for best short story for Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones in 1970 and for his non-fiction book, The Motion of Light in Water, and the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement in Gay Literature in 1993. He is as a professor in the department of English at the University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York.