Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

In the galaxy of Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand, societies are following either of the two different and competing ideologies: the conservative “Family” and the liberal “Sygn”. Simultaneous juxtaposition and deconstruction of identity categories and opposing opinions has often been an integral part of 20th-century identity politics, and Samuel Delany’s novel Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand (1984) is no exception. Keywords: Samuel Delany, Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand, deconstruction, the rhetorical theory of narrativeīiography: Päivi Väätänen (MA, English Philology) is a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki. By evoking associations between the conservative societies and the world readers live in, Stars in My Pocket presents a compelling social critique of our treatment of otherness, which is as topical today as it was in 1984.

In the end, though, it is clear that the conservative ideology and characters representing it evoke negative ethical judgments, whereas their liberal counterparts are seen in a positive light. Readers are led to make ethical judgments, which may change during the process of reading. This article argues that the rhetoric of Stars in My Pocket works largely by juxtaposing conservative and liberal ideologies, societies, and characters. Laying emphasis on ethical judgments that the novel evokes in the readers, I analyze the rhetorical strategies used in the novel to challenge its readers to reconsider and deconstruct the concepts of gender and sexuality. In this article, I conduct a rhetorical analysis of the novel using James Phelan’s notions of the rhetorical theory of narrative. Päivi Väätänen Opposing Forces and Ethical Judgments in Samuel Delany’s Stars in My Pocket like Grains of SandĪbstract: This article discusses the opposing forces of conservative and liberal ideologies in Samuel Delany’s science fiction novel Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand (1984). Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, pages 7-18.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany