the diary style part one is captivating and fascinating

the theoretical part two i found to be inspired, but not particularly well argued; i love the distinction bw networking and contact, and the necessity of critiquing old institutional practices of contact so as to generate and prop up ever-new evolving forms to replace to old, but the argument i thought lacked an incisive thrust necessary to demonstrate it methodically ( )

Two long interconnected essays revolving around what's been called the "clean-up" of Times Square NYC. Typically for Delany, the approach is both systematic and discursive, both on the larger scale (the first half, "Blue," is closer to a linear essay in form, while "Red" is all over the place) and the smaller ("Red" structures its digressions with the familiar Delanyisms of numbered sections and sidebars-within-sidebars). Although he's clearly outraged by a destructive land-grab disguised as social reform, he also doesn't believe it's anything particularly new; instead of radical rhetoric about a Republican Armageddon, this is a lament for specific people and places being injured by the folly of the moment.

"Red," an expanded version of a lecture he gave at SUNY, discusses the give and take between different forms of social interaction (cross-class "contact" facilitated by public spaces, versus "networking" within interest groups) and urban organization (the diverse old Times Square versus the new corporate monster). Some of the additions serve to tie the two pieces together, and others are large chunks of what looks to my ignorant eye like Theory. The original version was remarkably well suited to being read out loud and followed by ear; this one (no doubt deliberately) much less so. If that sounds like a complaint, it isn't really. But, both in hearing the lecture and reading "Red," I wished for a fuller treatment of something he seems to treat as a foregone conclusion: after discussing the horrors of the crack trade, he says that real estate developers "encouraged" the spread of drugs and prostitution. How? Either I've missed something obvious, or he skipped it in a rare moment of haste.

"Blue" is a similarly expanded version of an article from Out. It looks at public sexual spaces, mostly movie theatres, in the Times Square area: how they worked, who was there, and how the community as a whole has responded to massive changes in the neighborhood. It's lucidly written with a great sense of place and ear for dialogue, both funny and sexy. It's also an interesting node for Delanyologists since it presents in a literal narrative form the real-life template from which a lot of his writing has sprung (I'm thinking of the "runs" in Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, some of the street scenes in Triton, dozens of characters from all over, and the dialogue-based laid-back porn style of The Mad Man). It's sprinkled with photographs of the area and its residents, which only hint at the scale of the structures and changes he describes; I wish there were more of these. ( )

A really interesting read! Both essays work really well together in exploring Delany's points, and feed off one another in interesting ways. I think the analysis about networking and contact is kind of ALWAYS relevant, and definitely makes me want to have other people read this book and work through their expectations and what they're thinking about on the topic. I would love to see a response from a woman on the topic, because I don't know that his thinking about it necessarily sufficient here, or at the very least he leaves room for other folks to think and explore those concepts.

Some of it feels slightly random--the part where he talks about Althusser seemed to come out of nowhere and not be super relevant to the rest of it, though I do think he had some interesting points in that part--but overall I definitely recommend this. The more theoretical half (Times Square Red) did not feel like it was too dense to be accessible, and I think could be really useful for students to read. I know it provoked a lot of thoughts for me, and I will be returning to it in the future. ( )

Delaney's book is a seminal account and theoretical investigation of subterranean sexual contact spaces in New York City that facilitated the expression of homoerotic desire across class and racial divides. His character portraits of the men he encountered and formed even lasting friendships with in the movie houses are memorable and evocative. The second half of the book gives readers a unique dialogic critical approach to the same topic where Delaney investigates the intersections between sexuality, queerness, infrastructure, economics, and morality politics.

This is a phenomenal book that anyone interested in gentrification, gay subculture, and critical race and social theory should read. One wonders what Delaney might have to say about the racially exclusive and hyper-masculine virtual arenas like craiglist and Grindr since the decline of tangible contact spaces. ( )

If I remember carefully, the book is mostly about getting sucked by young boys in movie theaters before the conservatives wiped out the rauchy sections of NYC. I read this for a graduate seminar. When all is said and done, I paid thousands of dollars to take that seminar. Guess how I feel? ( )