The best part about Samuel Delany's Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is the immense amount of detail he puts into his world. In the introductory passage about Rat Korga, the amount of back-story in the world is simply incredible. At first, the novel merely hints at interesting events, polar research stations, and the q-plague. But when Korga is bought illegally and hooked up to General Information, the amount of work Delany has put into his world really shows. Korga is soon asked what the four largest geosectors on the world are. He answers perfectly, with four names that actually sound like they fit into the world he is on. Next, the four smallest. And yet again, Korga answers with names that fit into the world. "Hebel-E" is my favorite, because it suggests something behind that strange hyphenated E at the end of the word. The four names weren't merely random made up words; they seem to have some though behind them. That really helps Delany's world come to life. Next come the books that Korga reads. He reads over 50 books, and to most authors that would be enough to say. Delany on the other hand names almost all of them, and names that seem to make sense for the planet they live on. Two are named a variant of sand, one after wind. Each of the books has some sort of blurb given about it as Korga assimilates its text. Here the sheer though Delany puts into his back story is amazing. Not only does each novel fully realize itself, it also makes references to other authors and novels that Korga read, in a way that doesn't seem contrived. When these books that Korga read fit together, they bring forth a life on the world that seems far stronger than that seen through the rat so far. Delany is a master at giving hints of back-story, which fit in well with the story and keep the work entertaining. Later on, he uses GI and Vondramach to do the same thing, fill in holes of information with interesting tidbits. In the process he creates a very vibrant world.
I agree. Considering that I found the novel largely incomprehensible, there were specific passages that really struck me, though I was most interested in his descriptions of things like information processing rather than the descriptions of the physical world. Like on when Marq talks about the microscopic percentage of people who know about the Xlv. You can assume "that nine hundred and ninety-nine people out of a thousand do not know [any given fact]--which goes for the working assumption too... in our human universe, of necessity, all facts are as little known as the works of great poets" (131).
One the one hand, an interstellar community allows for the broadening and condensation of knowledge, the prime example here being the Web. But, the web creates a sort of paradox. It makes the acquisition of knowledge desirable and incredibly easy, but it also renders the knowledge arbitrary. In our current perception of the universe, facts and works of poetry are not typically seen to be on the same plane of existence. I like that this suggests that facts are not the absolutes that we typically assume them to be, but I like even more that Delaney used this one small detail of existence in the intergalactic community to demonstrate it.
I agree as well. This novel as a whole was largely confusing, but there were passages containing "gems" pointing out interesting things about the way information is processed and used. I, however, was annoyed at how in Delany's world reading is no longer a pleasure and is instead merely mass data processing. Everyone has access to a plethora of information and can store vast amounts of it, but any single book or topic from that information has lost some of its appeal and worth.
I kept thinking about how much better I liked Lilith's Brood while reading Stars in My Pocket. The writing style was pretty lean and I think that made it more engaging and much easier to digest. Plus, the story still managed to be thought provoking without getting too bogged down in details.