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Mike Paar
After Class Summery
4/11/16
âAye, and Gomorrah,â by Samuel Delany, is a SF story exploring social and sexual constructs in a world in which children are neutered for space exploration and a fetishized by a group of people known as Frelks due to their lack of sexual desires. The story begins with a group of Spacers on leave from their work dropping down into various citys. Spacers will often exploit the desires of Frelks in order to make some extra money, even though they themselves have no interest sexually in what other people have to offer. They are often turned away though, neither being referred to as either a male or a female, but instead they are referred, often hesitantly, as simply âpeople.â They eventually arrive in Istanbul and the three of them separate to explore the city on their own.
While exploring the city, the main character encounters a female Frelk who initially calls out to them, but insists that she does not have enough money for the Spacer’s services. The Spacer, feeling alone and desiring a friend, regardless, continues to converse with the Frelk, trying to figure out what it is that they desire from Spacers. But the Frelk insists that it is the lack of interest from Spacers that attracts them, that if they were to show interest in the Frelks, the Frelks in turn would lose sexual interest. Insisting that the Frelk should at least give them something to hang on to as a reminder of this experience, the Spacer returns to the Frelk’s apartment where they converse some more. Admitting it’s lonliness, the Frelk insists that they Spacer should return to it’s friends and that the Frelk will remain alone and dream of the one who got away.
For class, we discussed the works if Samuel Delany, an African American SF writer who lived here in NYC and explored his own sexuality through his writing. Often his stories were sexually themed and centered around a character that is either physically or psychologically damaged. Language plays an important role in his stories, often he explores how language relates to and is deciphered by the brain. And finally, as seen in âAye, and Gomorrah,â cultural differences and social backgrounds are something that plays a critical role in his stories, something that was reflected by living in New York throughout the 60s and 70s.
âAye, and Gomorrah,â by Samuel Delany, is a short science fiction story which takes place in the future, where a group of intersexual people of men and women called spacers that work for the government, exploring space as astronauts, but to explore space theyâre neutered at puberty as children so that they can work in space with no problems of feeling the unsafe consequences of radiation up there. Though it sort of takes away the function or being able to have sex. Though even apparently citizens love and respect them, they donât really belong to any place and usually are asked to leave at times. Although with the rest of society spacers arenât likeable or easily accepted like the Frelks do. In the story thereâs a lot of homosexuality acceptance in this world, especially when in Paris, one of the Spacers named Kelly, happens to interrupt a couple of men Frelks who are attracted to the spacers inside a pissoir; a blond haired man tells the spacers to leave, but as he tells Kelly to leave, said and feels that its disappointing that spacers look as though they were may have once have been a man. This shows that thereâs a sexual desire of gay men seeking sexual partners while another encounter with a other Frelk but a women this time ask the Spacers, as they travel some more âdo you not think you guys should leave due to the fact Itâd too bad, that they looked like as they were once a woman, no? And I like women, too.â The Frelks being attracted to the spacers they know based on their condition or what it means to be a spacers thereâs sort of have a unavailability for Frelks to have all to themselves, and thatâs why the relationship among both is usually prostitution, where the Frelks often pay Spacers for sexual contact, the problem is a love for those who arenât incapable of sharing those feelings back and forth so they resort to this. As the story goes on the Spacers arrive in Istanbul, where they meet an attractive Turkish female named Frelk. As they talk the woman admits she hates being g a frelk, and the Spacer simply tells her to become something else. Replying the Turkish female Frelk said, âYou donât choose your perversions. You have no perversions at all. Youâre free of the whole business. I love you for that, Spacer. My love starts with the fear of love. Isnât that beautiful? A pervert substitutes something unattainable for ânormalâ love: the homosexual, a mirror, the fetishist, a shoe or a watch or a girdle.â Meaning that since spacers are the way they are they are lucky to not be in conflict with the worries of love for the same sex whom possesâ different bodily functions. Itâs that same fear of Homosexuality in class we learned of writer Samuel Delany, an African American Science Fiction writer from NYC had studied his own sexuality and used it through his writing of stories and the cultural differences and social backgrounds that play a part in exploring his sexuality and how it affects the world.
The story, âAye, and GomorrahâŚâ is written by Samuel R. Delany. The story was a bit confusing to read at first and it only made sense after reading the whole thing completely. Itâs about a world where astronauts are neutered because working in another planet with radiation can cause ill effects on their reproductive organs. The astronauts are called âSpacersâ and there are people who fetishes off the Spacers because they find it sexually fulfilling about trying to get it on with someone who canât. Those people are called âFrelks.â Frelks pay Spacers to have âsexâ with them. One of the spacer met an attractive Frelk, but what the Spacers wanted wasnât money, it was something more and emotionally deep that they wanted. Although some Spacers just exploits the Frelkâs fetish to get money.
In class, we learned about Samuel R. Delany, also known as Chip Delany. He was born in 1942 and is still alive. Delany is both a writer and a critic and he taught at universities. Delany is an African American writer of SF and one of the few openly gay SF writer. He had a daughter with Marilyn Hacker. His stories has 6 characteristics, which are: 1. Main character usually have physical or psychological damage, 2. He highlights social background in detail, 3. Mythology is important to many of his stories, 4. Linguistics and language, 5. He explores the cultural difference and social construction of identity, and 6. Sexuality and eroticism.
âAye and Gomorrahâ by Samuel R. Delany is a short story about astronauts known as spacers who are neutered some time before puberty and in the process do not go through puberty and are seen as children in a way. This leaves them having an androgynous appearance, meaning they appear neither male or female. In the story there are those who have a fetish for these spacers known as frelks, they are sought out due to their inability to be sexually aroused. Because of this they are not attracted to anyone making them more desirable to frelks. Many spacers exploit these desires of the frelks and turn to prostitution. the In the story a spacer attempts to âbefriendâ a frelk but she says she has no money to offer. The spacer attempts to understand this desire the frelks have of them. The spacer angered by the thought of wanting money told the frelk that he wanted something, something that actually meant something to the frelk. He was lonely but she couldn’t offer him anything. She tells the spacer to leave her place and suggests a place for the spacer to go. A hangout for spacers and maybe he might find someone he knows there. In class we discussed the works of Samuel Delany. He is an African American openly gay writer of SF. He was raised in Harlem New York and his stories explore themes of sexuality, social backgrounds, and society. His characters are usually âbrokenâ characters, who are either physically or psychologically scarred.
âAye, and Gomorrahâ by Sameul Delany is Science Fiction story which is about astronauts who works for their government and exploring space, because of long exposure to radiation. This alteration kills their sexual nature – they’re now neither male nor female. The operation is done when they’re still kids – “children whose sexual responses are hopelessly retarded at puberty. When they came to explore the city they met people who fetishes off another word they are Frelks who give money for to have sex with them. Then main character encounters a female Frelk who initially calls out to them for sex but then she thought she doesnât have enough money for spacers service. But there are more to it the spacers doesnât want money he told her that he is lonely. Then the Frelk told him to leave the planet and go to their space to find a someone like him.
In class, we learned about Samuel R. Delany. He was born in 1942. He is both a writer and a critic. He is a gay and he has relationship with a lesbian girl name Marilyn Hacker, but they had a daughter. His stories has 6 characteristics, which are: 1. Main character usually have physical or psychological damage, 2. He highlights social background in detail, 3. Mythology is important to many of his stories, 4. Linguistics and language, 5. He explores the cultural difference and social construction of identity, and 6. Sexuality and eroticism.
âAye and Gomorrahâ by Samuel R. Delany is a story set in a universe where astronauts are neutered at a young age to facilitate space work. These astronauts called âspacersâ are gelded before reaching puberty to protect their gonads from the harmful effects of space radiation. As an effect of this procedure, these spacers have an androgynous appearance and no sex drive. This results in spacers being outcasts in society, as they never really belong to any group due to their differences. Despite this androgynous appearance, there are groups of people called âfrelkâ who fetishizes these spacers. These frelkers often pay a large sum of money to fulfill their desires. Spacers know that frelkers are willing to pay a large sum for their attention and many turn to prostitution to address their loneliness. The protagonist meets a young female frelk who does not have the money to pay him. However to the protagonist this is fine, as all he wants is a place to belong to. While conversing with the young frelk, the protagonist learns that frelks do not actually want sex with spacers. It is the idea of sex with an object that has no desire for sex, which drives the fetish of the frelks. After the discussion the young frelk tells the protagonist to go to a spacer hangout and to seek what he finds there.
Samuel Delany was born and raised in Harlem, NY. Heâs an openly gay writer in SF who had a child with a lesbian named Marilyn Hacker. His stories contains 6 characteristics. 1. Protagonist usually have physical or psychological damage 2. He highlights social background in detail 3. Mythology is important to many of his stories 4. Linguistics and language 5. He explores the cultural difference and social construction of identity 6. Sexuality and eroticism.
âAye, And GomorrahâŚâ written by Samuel R Delany (Chip), born on 1942, started in Turkey where spacers returned from a mission. During this mission the spacers had to be neutered because of the radiation. The people on Earth had a respect for the work being done but they were outcasts because of the surgery done to them. As they walked through Turkey there was sense of not belonging was in that society. Their travel continues to Mexico/Texas for possibly a better experience. This area was known for people that had a fetish for spacers called the âFrelksâ. The Frelks would pay or there would be an exchange of goods with the spacers for a sexual encounter. The spacer did not want that type of interaction. He met a Frelk that brought him back to her place. There she tried to entice him with seductive movements but he denied her of sex. He was blunt about just having just a friendship. There she stated, âYou donât choose your perversions. You have no perversions at all. Youâre free of this whole business. I love you for that, spacer.â The perversion that she has are not controlled by her and envies the spacer for not having those. On the other side the spacers are neutered at a young age. âIt always greener on the other sideâ
Samuel R Delany has 6 characteristics of his writing which are main characters usually have physical or psychological problems, he focuses on the social background, mythology is very important to his stories, linguistics and language, explores how we construct our identity, and Sexuality and eroticism.
Darius Freeman
ENG 2420
Professor Ellis
After Class Summary âAye, and Gammorahâ
âAye, and Gammorahâ by Samuel Delaney is a short story in which the Spacers, astronauts are essentially neutered for life in space. As a result they look quite androgynous, somewhere between male and female but not quite either of those. They come to Earth seeking acceptance from the general population. However, every the Spacers happen to seek people out and try to interact with them; they are not accepted at all. They are respected for being astronauts and all but society prefers to keep them at armâs length. They continue their futile search until they come across the Frelks. The Frelks are normal humans that fetishize the Spacers and often use them for prostitution. While the Frelks are pretty much the only ones that bother to interact with the Spacers, this is not the kind of attention and acceptance that they so desperately wanted, needed even.
In class we learned that Samuel Delaney used his own homosexuality and experience as a reference point in his writings in order to provide a social commentary and critic what was going on in the world at the time. We also discussed that he is from New York and that his characters are usually scarred in some way shape or form.
In this story there are astronauts called spacers that have to give up their genitalia because of the job environment. They are highly regarded in private but still forced out of public spaces because for whatever realistically idiotic reason since they have no genitals, people think they can’t relate to them. They see them as great and strange. People who deserve respect but not enough to sit and talk about them and see who they are and what they like. So they have some interactions with some people who reject their company because they don’t look like men or women. Then they interact with this group called the Frelks. The Frelks fetishize the Spacers and its the closest to acceptance that the Spacers can get.
Samuel Delany is an openly gay SF writer born in Harlem. He had a child with a lesbian named Marilyn Hacker. His stories 6 characteristics are that the main character usually has physical or psychological damage, 2. He highlights social background in detail, 3. Mythology is important in many of his stories, 4. Linguistics and language, 5. He explores the cultural difference and social construction of identity, and 6. Sexuality and eroticism.
In this story there are astronauts called spacers that have to give up their genitalia because of the job environment. They are highly regarded in private but still forced out of public spaces because for whatever realistically idiotic reason since they have no genitals, people think they can’t relate to them. They see them as great and strange. People who deserve respect but not enough to sit and talk about them and see who they are and what they like. So they have some interactions with some people who reject their company because they don’t look like men or women. Then they interact with this group called the Frelks. The Frelks fetishize the Spacers and its the closest to acceptance that the Spacers can get.
Samuel Delany is an openly gay SF writer born in Harlem. He had a child with a lesbian named Marilyn Hacker. His stories 6 characteristics are that the main character usually has physical or psychological damage, 2. He highlights social background in detail, 3. Mythology is important in many of his stories, 4. Linguistics and language, 5. He explores the cultural difference and social construction of identity, and 6. Sexuality and eroticism.
The Story “Aye, and Gomorrah…” by Samuel R. Delany and it was published in 1967, the story was based on spacer that do to radiations their genitals most be remove from their bodies in order for them to complete the mission and decrease the risk of any diseases do to radiation. While they come back to earth their lives were not the same anymore, people doesn’t see them as humans anymore, they lost their lives as humans, meaning that nobody could like to be with them because they didn’t have their sex organs. people started making fun of them. they were so destroy as human beings that they decide to became prostitutes meaning objects of love for money and pleasure for themselves in hands of others.
During class we discuss about Delany’s life, he was open mind gay African American and live in NYC Manhattan neighborhood Harlem. He was born in1942 and till alive until now. he has six characteristic as an style of his writing 1. main characters usually have physical or psychological damage 2. he highlight the social background in his stories 3. Natology is important for many of his stories 4. linguistic and language 5.sexuality and 6. He explores the cultural difference and the social construction of identity.
Mathew Tackett
5/24/16
The story âAye, And Gammorahâ was written by Samuel Delaney and was published in 1967. The plot is based on a spacer that has his genitals removed to avoid the radiation deterioration that occurs due to his profession. When they arrive back on Earth their lives are not the same, because they arenât seen as humans any longer. They lost their place as people because they no longer have their sex organs, people harass and discriminate against them. Most of them are respected as spacers but society rejects them for the things they had to do to survive in space. They come across Frelks who basically enjoy spacers as a fetish. They use the Frelks to satisfy their emotional and sexual needs. In class we learned a little bit about Samuel Delaney, and that his homosexuality and experiences both play a significant part in his writing style.
âChipâ Delany (Samuel R. Delany) (1942 – ) wrote âAye, and Gomorrahâ in 1967. Delany is a writer and critic and has taught at many universities. He is an African American writer of SF and openly gay.
Characteristics of Delanyâs writing
Physical or psychological damage
Highlight social backgrounds in colorful details
Mythology is important
Linguistics and language
He explores cultural and social constructs of identity
Sexuality and eroticism
For class we read âAye, and Gomorrahâ
In the universe of âAye, and Gomorrahâ, there are astronauts known as Spacers who at neutered at a young age. They are neutered because the radiation from working in space would severely harm the. Because of this they puberty does not occur and the appear androgynous and their born sex is unclear. They do not fit in with anyone on earth, people respect the work that they do but they will not let them into their circles. They engage in prostitution but they still empty inside.
The story âAye, And Gammorahâ written by Samuel Delaney
The story is about some spacer who are on a mission but their genitals were remove from their bodies since they where going to be expose to radiation while they were on this mission. As the spacer return back to earth they notice thatâs they were not seen as human any more since they no longer able to procreate due to them not having sex organs. Since the spacer were no longer seeing as human they started to become prostitutes and let other stake advantage of them to used their bodies how others like.
In class we discuss Delany 6 characteristics 1-the main character usually has physical or psychological damage, 2-He highlights social background in detail, 3- Mythology is important in many of his stories, 4-Linguistics and language, 5- He explores the cultural difference and social construction of identity, and 6-Sexuality and eroticism.
The story âAye, And Gammorahâ written by Samuel Delaney
The story is about some spacer who are on a mission but their genitals were remove from their bodies since they where going to be expose to radiation while they were on this mission. As the spacer return back to earth they notice thatâs they were not seen as human any more since they no longer able to procreate due to them not having sex organs. Since the spacer were no longer seeing as human they started to become prostitutes and let other stake advantage of them to used their bodies how others like.
In class we discuss Delany 6 characteristics 1-the main character usually has physical or psychological damage, 2-He highlights social background in detail, 3- Mythology is important in many of his stories, 4-Linguistics and language, 5- He explores the cultural difference and social construction of identity, and 6-Sexuality and eroticism.