the Fall of the Towers

i have been reading a chip delaney novel which i had never encountered before and, well, damn. it's called the fall of the towers & it's fabulous - but it's appallingly timely.

at this point i'd like to quote a review of said novel by georges dodds:

Perhaps I came to Delany's works from a different direction than most, but at least in terms of The Fall of the Towers, I might, first and foremost, hearken back to an old British term and describe the book as "a ripping good yarn". [...] When, upon rereading The Fall of the Towers for this review, some 25 years after my first reading, it struck me how remarkably topical the plot was: a government declaring war on an enemy which may simply not exist, and when it is clear that this is the case, creating an enemy that must be fought to sustain their control over society. And when the myth that sustains the war wrests control from the very individuals who created it, it's not long before the shit hits the fan, and what was a tottering empire comes crashing down. Was part of the original message of The Fall of the Towers a criticism U.S. policy in Vietnam? Or a comment upon the social and racial upheaval of early 60s America - I'll leave those questions to those wiser in the ways of Samuel Delany than I.

i agree with dodds that this isn't delaney's most moving and amazing creation. me, i'd put that squarely as the practically unobtainable stars in my pocket like grains of sand, possibly the most lyrical and incredible work delaney ever put to paper and one of my favourite books of all time. but that doesn't matter, because this collection of novellas is both imaginative and smack on the nose of our world's current condition:

war for war's sake, war for reasons of the political homefront, war because it fires up industry, war because it separates the rich and the poor, war because it relieves and maintains the prison industry, war because it takes the citizens' suffering eyes off of their own government and gives them something to fear.

war because.

thank you, chip, for writing these stories; they're just what i need to read right now.