Of Solids and Surds, by Samuel R. Delany

This short book is part of the "Why I Write" series based on some annual lectures delivered at Yale University. Delany was the lecturer in 2020. It is a series of some 67 numbered sections, some short, others long, which meander around the subject of why Delany became a writer, wrote a particular way, or wrote a particular book, with many asides and random anecdotes. As a dyslexic, gay, black American man his viewpoint can be especially interesting. And so the book is, fascinating here, less interesting there, occasionally too discursive and even cryptic (e.g., even having read the book I'm unsure which meaning of surds is implied in the title). Delany also distractingly adds footnotes detailing his conversation with his copyeditor over specific points in the text. It could be an interesting way to define more clearly why Delany has written what he has written, but overall it feels more like an empty gesture, adding little to the text. Thus the book is a meandering collage of thoughts, but coming from Delany they are mostly worth reading. Here are a few of the passages I noted in the book:

I believe that if there were a god, it would have to be such a complex entity that for a human being even to say that he or she "believed" in it would be tantamount to an ant saying that it believed in the black hole at the center of our galaxy. (p.61)

I write because certain aspects of writing are difficult--and, as Yeats said, the fascination with what's difficult has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent spontaneous joy and natural content out of my heart, which is another way of saying it keeps me calm in a world where there are often things to get upset over. (p. 77)