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ECO_NET


This page is CLOSED, is is OBSOLETE.
The current version is UMBERTO_NET.



                                             June 22, 2008


                                           There's a long anecdote in
                                           Samuel R. Delany "1984":

                                           Delany is attending a party
                                           held by Umberto Eco.  One gets
                                           an image of Delany bubbling
                                           around the room happily holding
                                           his own with the establishment
                                           intellectuals.

                                           The editor of "the New
                                           York Review of Books" is
                                           hanging around, and Delany gets
                                           the definite impression that
                                           this guy feels very
                                           uncomfortable with people
                                           actually talking about books.

                                           At one point Delany explains
                                           to someone his theory that
                                           "Science Fiction" is a
                                           "paraliterature", an outside,
                                           marginalized artform the
                                           existence of which is
                                           necessary in order to define
                                           "literature" (much as one
                                           must have "the poor" in order
                                           to have "the rich").

                                           As Delany is leaving, a drunken
                                           Umberto Eco takes him aside and
                                           rants about how he was telling
                                           the New York Review editor that
                                           they really should be publishing
                                           articles about Delany's own
                                           books.  Delany responds "Thank
                                           you very much Umberto... but it
                                           won't work."  Umberto Eco stops
                                           and laughs: "You're probably
                                           right!"

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