“The Star-Pit”
| Title | “The Star-Pit” |
| Year for Search | 1967 |
| Authors | Delany, Samuel R[ay](b. 1942) |
| Secondary Title | Worlds of Tomorrow |
| Volume / Edition | 4.3 (22) |
| Pagination | 7-57 |
| Date Published | February 1967 |
| Keywords | African American author, Male author |
| Annotation | A very complex dystopia. Set in a future where, as the human race expanded into space, it came up against a psychological barrier that caused insanity in those who went further, except for a few who found to have psychological abnormalities that allow them to pass through. The story focuses of a man who feels excluded because he cannot pass through the barrier and deeply resents that fact. The story makes an explicit connection between white supremacy and those who can pass through the barrier, but at the end, such people are being created by manipulating them so as to develop the needed abnormality for the benefit of those in power. For a radio play first broadcast on WBAI (New York) in November 1967 and re-broadcast regularly for years, see Delany’s “Notes on The Star Pit.” https://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/TheStarPit/SamuelRDelany-NotesOnTheStarPit.html |
| Additional Publishers | Rpt. in his Driftglass. Ten Tales of Speculative Fiction (New York: New American Library, 1971), 13-71. Book rpt. without the subtitle. New York: Gregg Press, 1977. Book Club edition (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1971), 1-61; in his Driftglass/Starshards (London: Grafton, 1993), 17-93; and in his Aye and Gomorrah. Stories (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 91-101. |
| Info Notes | For a radio play first broadcast on WBAI (New York) in November 1967 and re-broadcast regularly for years, see Delany’s “Notes on The Star Pit.” https://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/TheStarPit/SamuelRDelany-NotesOnTheStarPit.html. A study of the story is Gerry Canavan, “Far Beyond the Star Pit: Samuel R. Delany.” Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction. Ed. Isiah Lavender, III (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014), 48-64. |
| Holding Institutions | PSt, PU |
| Author Note | African American author (b. 1942) |
| Full Text | 1967 Delany, Samuel R[ay] (b. 1942). “The Star-Pit.” Worlds of Tomorrow 4.3 (22) (February 1967): 7-57. Rpt. in his Driftglass. Ten Tales of Speculative Fiction (New York: New American Library, 1971), 13-71. Book rpt. without the subtitle. New York: Gregg Press, 1977. Book Club edition (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1971), 1-61; in his Driftglass/Starshards (London: Grafton, 1993), 17-93; and in his Aye and Gomorrah. Stories (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 91-101. PSt, PU A very complex dystopia. Set in a future where, as the human race expanded into space, it came up against a psychological barrier that caused insanity in those who went further, except for a few who found to have psychological abnormalities that allow them to pass through. The story focuses of a man who feels excluded because he cannot pass through the barrier and deeply resents that fact. The story makes an explicit connection between white supremacy and those who can pass through the barrier, but at the end, such people are being created by manipulating them so as to develop the needed abnormality for the benefit of those in power. For a radio play first broadcast on WBAI (New York) in November 1967 and re-broadcast regularly for years, see Delany’s “Notes on The Star Pit.” https://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/TheStarPit/SamuelRDelany-NotesOnTheStarPit.html. A study of the story is Gerry Canavan, “Far Beyond the Star Pit: Samuel R. Delany.” Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction. Ed. Isiah Lavender, III (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014), 48-64. African American author. |
