The Straits of Messina
The Straits of Messina is a 1989 non-fiction collection of essays, in which author and critic Samuel R. Delany discusses his own novels. The essays are published under his own name, and under the pen name K. Leslie Steiner.
The pieces by K. Leslie Steiner are written as an answer to the question "Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone say all the fine and brilliant things about my work I so desperately would like to hear…?" according to Delany's preface.
The Strait of Messina of the title is a reference to the treacherous waters between Scylla and Charybdis, a metaphor on how difficult it is for an author to write about his own works: "to negotiate the waters between the Scylla of overweening self-importance and the Charybdis of childish self-deprecation."
Contents
- Preface
- The Scorpion Garden
- "The Scorpion Garden" Revisited: A Note on the Anti-Pornography of Samuel R. Delany, by K. Leslie Steiner
- Of Sex, Objects, Signs, Systems, Sales, SF, and Other Things
- Some Remarks Toward a Reading of Dhalgren, by K. Leslie Steiner
- Trouble on Triton, by K. Leslie Steiner
- Ruins/Foundations; or: The Fall of the Towers Twenty Years After
- The Early DelanyTales of Nevèrÿon, by K. Leslie Steiner
- Return... by K. Leslie Steiner