Phallos: Enhanced and Revised Edition

Front Cover
Wesleyan University Press, May 20, 2013 - Fiction - 224 pages

Phallos is a 2004 novel by the acclaimed novelist and critic Samuel R. Delany. Taking the form of a gay pornographic novella, with the explicit sex omitted, Phallos is set during the reign of the second-century Roman emperor Hadrian, and circles around the historical account of the murder of the emperor's favorite, Antinous. The story moves from Syracuse to Egypt, from the Pillars of Hercules to Rome, from Athens to Byzantium, and back. Young Neoptolomus searches after the stolen phallus of the nameless god of Hermopolis, crafted of gold and encrusted with jewels, within which are reputedly the ancient secrets of science and society that will lead to power, knowledge, and wealth. Vivid and clever, the original novella has been expanded by nearly a third. Appended to the text are an afterword by Robert F. Reid-Pharr and three astute speculative essays by Steven Shaviro, Kenneth R. James, and Darieck Scott.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Critical Essays
125
Afterword by Robert F ReidPharr
127
Radical Reading In and Around Phallos by Kenneth R James
135
Delanys Philosophical Fable by Steven Shaviro
159
Sex Fantasy and Phallos by Darieck Scott
173
About the Author and Contributors
189
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Phallos
Samuel R. Delany
Snippet view - 2004
Phallos: Enhanced and Revised Edition
Samuel R. Delany
No preview available - 2013

Common terms and phrases

absence Anaximander Antinopolis Antinous bandit Bellona Binky Blutus book’s catamite Chalice Clivus Cronin dark Delany Delany’s desert desire Dhalgren discourse dream Egon emperor feel fiction finally Hadrian Heracleon Heraclitus Hermopolis High Priestess Hir-wer Ihelva Jason jouissance Lacan Lacanian later laughs lover Lucius Lucius’s Lukey Maximin Muddle and Need mysteries naked nameless narrative Neoptolo Neoptolomus Neoptolomus and Nivek Neoptolomus decides Neoptolomus finds Neoptolomus learns never Nevčr˙on night Nivek Nivek and Neoptolomus novel Phallos novel-within-the-novel novella once optolomus orgy Osudh Otho Pater patron perhaps phallos phallos’s philosophical Phyllis pleasure plot pornographic priests Randy Randy’s readers reading realizes Return to Nevčr˙on ritual Roman Rome Rubin Satyricon secrets sexual Shaviro smile social someone story structure synopsis Syracuse tells Neoptolomus temple things Thoth told Trouble on Triton turns villa Walter Pater warehouse wealth woman women wonders young

About the author (2013)

SAMUEL R. DELANY teaches English and creative writing at Temple University and is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, most recently his novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. ROBERT F. REID-PHARR is Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and author of Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, and the Black American Intellectual.

Bibliographic information

TitlePhallos: Enhanced and Revised Edition
AuthorSamuel R. Delany
EditorRobert F. Reid-Pharr
Editionrevised
PublisherWesleyan University Press, 2013
ISBN0819573566, 9780819573568
Length224 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Fiction / General
Social Science / LGBTQ+ Studies / Gay Studies
  
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