{"id":3719,"date":"2009-04-01T12:38:11","date_gmt":"2009-04-01T16:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=3719"},"modified":"2009-04-01T14:14:19","modified_gmt":"2009-04-01T18:14:19","slug":"the-0-fer-intersection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-0-fer-intersection","title":{"rendered":"The 0-fer Intersection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many years ago, when I was a micropress publisher, the first book<\/a>\"\" I put out had an introduction written by Samuel R. Delany<\/a>. This was a coup, because Delany had built a significant fan-following over his years in publishing, first in science fiction and then in the high-brow world of literary theory. He loved the short stories that we were publishing and, while his introduction may not have convinced a single person to actually read<\/em> the stories, I believe his imprimatur did boost sales. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not exaggerating when I tell you that having his name on the cover helped us move tens<\/em> of books. (I keeeed: I was not a good publisher.)<\/p>\n

A year later, shooting the breeze in his impossibly book-lined<\/a> apartment, Chip (as I’d come to know him) asked me what the press’ next book would be. I had no ideas, so he offered me two collections of his letters, one set from 1984 and another from the early 1990s. I looked over both sets of bound photocopies. I thought about the cachet of publishing new work by a guy who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d written some of the seminal science fiction (and fantasy) novels of the 1960\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and ’70\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. I considered the kindness he was bestowing by essentially offering to waive any royalties in order to strengthen the micropress.<\/p>\n

And I told him, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122know, Chip, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to say yes right now, but I have to tell you: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never read a single book of yours. Given that fact, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a little nervous about committing to publishing a book by you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

He chewed on his lower lip for half a second, reached over to one of the many bookshelves<\/a> in his apartment, and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you read the Einstein Intersection<\/a>\"\"? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quick and somewhat representative of my earlier work. You can read it in a day or two and then let me know if you still want to publish my letters!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I did, and I did and we published 1984<\/a>\"\" a year later. (Neil Gaiman gave us a blurb for that one; I’d actually read his work beforehand.)<\/p>\n

So that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our 0-fer of the week: I was once asked to publish a book by someone whose books I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never read.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gone on to read a bunch of Chip\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work, including his best-known novel, Dhalgren<\/a>\"\". I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve even volunteered to proofread his galleys under crazy time constraints (the all-time craziest being the 30 hours I spent poring over the reissue of The Fall of the Towers<\/a>\"\" back in 2003). Despite my insecurities, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve stayed pals long after I closed the press down, and that brings me to the point of this piece: to wish my pal Chip a happy birthday!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many happy returns, y’hirsute galoot!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many years ago, when I was a micropress publisher, the first book I put out had an introduction written by Samuel R. Delany. This was a coup, because Delany had built a significant fan-following over his years in publishing, first in science fiction and then in the high-brow world of literary theory. He loved the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The 0-fer Intersection”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[568,4,19],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-3719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-0-fer","category-literature","category-urban-issues","tag-samuel-r-delany"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-XZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10264,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-212-samuel-r-delany","url_meta":{"origin":3719,"position":0},"title":"Episode 212 – Samuel R. Delany","author":"Gil","date":"April 3, 2017","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 212: Samuel R. Delany \"The most important thing I thought students needed was the one thing you're never allowed to teach.\" Legendary author (and longtime pal) Samuel R. Delany (a.k.a. Chip) joins the show to talk about the sex lives of older gay men, how he's taken\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13044,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-samuel-r-delany","url_meta":{"origin":3719,"position":1},"title":"COVID Check-In with Samuel R. Delany","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: Samuel R. Delany \"I may be one of those people who operates fairly well in chaos. So the very fact that there's chaos around gives me something to fight against and focus on what I'm doing.\" Happy birthday to legendary science fiction author Samuel R.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5167,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/happy-chipday","url_meta":{"origin":3719,"position":2},"title":"Happy Chipday","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"April may or may not be the cruellest month, but at least it kicks off with the birthday of my pal Chip Delany! Happy birthday, old boy! I still marvel over the fact that you thought I'd be a good publisher of your work. I took it as a compliment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0375706682","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5546,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/when-youre-a-bear-youre-a-bear-all-the-way","url_meta":{"origin":3719,"position":3},"title":"When You’re a Bear You’re a Bear All the Way","author":"Gil","date":"August 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I cleaned out the attic and our storage room this weekend, and have uncovered a bazillion photos I need to get around to scanning and writing about. Here's a pic from around 1999 or 2000 from a birthday diner for Samuel R. Delany. Chip is probably just holding his cane\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Chip Delany\"","block_context":{"text":"Chip Delany","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/chip-delany"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1978,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hot-chip","url_meta":{"origin":3719,"position":4},"title":"Hot Chip","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy birthday \/ April Fool's day to Chip Delany! Thank you for keeping faith in my abilities as a publisher, long after a sensible man would have given up.","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2142,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/a-chip-off-the-old-karadzic","url_meta":{"origin":3719,"position":5},"title":"A Chip off the Old Karadzic","author":"Gil","date":"July 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Last weekend, I wrote about my Sunday sidewalk brunch with Samuel Delany. I should have known something was wrong, the way Chip kept looking down the sidewalk and back into the restaurant, the way he kept nervously fingering his beard, the way he patted me down and confiscated my phone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/karadchipweb.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3719"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3725,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions\/3725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}