The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, is the autobiography of the science fiction author Samuel R. Delany in which he recounts his experiences growing up as a gay African American man, as well as some of his time in an interracial and open marriage with Marilyn Hacker. It describes encounters with Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Stokely Carmichael and Stormé DeLarverie, a dinner with W. H. Auden, and a phone call to James Baldwin.

Among many cultural events of the decade that he witnessed, Delany recounts his attendance at the first New York City performance of the artist Allan Kaprow's 18 Happenings in 6 Parts, the 1959 performance piece that, for many, marked the end of modernism and the beginning of postmodernism. In section 17.4 of the University of Minnesota Press edition, he describes the event and its venue, and speculates on its artistic significance.

In the chapter, "The Future Is in the Present" of the book Cruising Utopia by José Esteban Munoz, Delany's The Motion of Light in the Water serves to explain how the future, as a form of utopia, can be "glimpsed" in the present through what Delany employed as "the massed bodies" of sexual dissidence.

Masha Gessen in O, The Oprah Magazine selected this title as a pick for the "Best LGBTQ Books of All Time", describing it as "a textbook in observing the self, thinking about sex and love, and the best writing manual I know".

Publication history

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| 1988 || Arbor House || || 302 pages || First edition

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| 1989 || Plume || || 302 pages || Paperback

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| 1993 || Richard Kasak || || 520 pages || "The first unexpurgated American edition"

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| 2004 || University of Minnesota Press || || 584 pages ||

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| 2004 || InsightOut Books || || 572 pages ||

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| 2014 || Open Road Media || || || Kindle edition

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The first edition is subtitled "1957–1965", the revised 1993 edition is subtitled "1960–1965".

References

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  • Review of Delany's autobiography by Jo Walton