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A review by documentno_is
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue 20th Anniversary Edition by Samuel R. Delany
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
"Life is at its most rewarding and pleasant when large numbers of people understand, appreciate, and seek out interclass contact and communication conducted in a mode of good will."
Putting to form in this ambitious work of auto-theory Delaney states what long term critics of gentrification have championed in a new and unique lens. Not only a focus on the displacement of living areas and lives ( and thats not really what Times Square was ) Delaney focuses on the change of culture and loss of a specific type of sexual third place that was present in NYC in the 80s. The loss of a cultural institution chronicled, albeit one that even its patrons were not so mournful to see go ( as evident in the interviews Delaney conducts in the middle pages of the book. In part the book is a personal history of Delaney's own encounters in these theaters in the time in which he was frequenting them, to establish himself as one of the included members of the community pushed out. The second half is a very academic critique of the loss of this component of Times Square, and as somebody who has frequently been made witness to the late stage capitalist pseudo Disney-hellscape that Times Square currently exists as, a series of adult theaters sounds objectively preferable- although as a bi-woman I'd never ( and shouldn't likely ) attend.
I found this book very informative, poignant, and insightful at parts and equally droning and impenetrable at other parts. The vivid details at which Delaney describes sexual encounters in these theaters I will clarify as likely necessary to set the scene and establish a sense of trust with the reader. Still, actually reading them as somebody who is female and largely queer myself felt like the longest description of an event I had no interest in and wasn't for me anyway. So- I'll sidebar these aspects of the text in my review and not include them in my formation of the text at hand while still informing you, the potential reader, what you are in for.
Still, if you can wade through these sexual descriptions and autobiography I do believe Delaney has so much to say to ANY audience about the nature of change, of the history of New York City, and gentrification as a whole.
Putting to form in this ambitious work of auto-theory Delaney states what long term critics of gentrification have championed in a new and unique lens. Not only a focus on the displacement of living areas and lives ( and thats not really what Times Square was ) Delaney focuses on the change of culture and loss of a specific type of sexual third place that was present in NYC in the 80s. The loss of a cultural institution chronicled, albeit one that even its patrons were not so mournful to see go ( as evident in the interviews Delaney conducts in the middle pages of the book. In part the book is a personal history of Delaney's own encounters in these theaters in the time in which he was frequenting them, to establish himself as one of the included members of the community pushed out. The second half is a very academic critique of the loss of this component of Times Square, and as somebody who has frequently been made witness to the late stage capitalist pseudo Disney-hellscape that Times Square currently exists as, a series of adult theaters sounds objectively preferable- although as a bi-woman I'd never ( and shouldn't likely ) attend.
I found this book very informative, poignant, and insightful at parts and equally droning and impenetrable at other parts. The vivid details at which Delaney describes sexual encounters in these theaters I will clarify as likely necessary to set the scene and establish a sense of trust with the reader. Still, actually reading them as somebody who is female and largely queer myself felt like the longest description of an event I had no interest in and wasn't for me anyway. So- I'll sidebar these aspects of the text in my review and not include them in my formation of the text at hand while still informing you, the potential reader, what you are in for.
Still, if you can wade through these sexual descriptions and autobiography I do believe Delaney has so much to say to ANY audience about the nature of change, of the history of New York City, and gentrification as a whole.