| "Aye, and Gomorrah..." | |
|---|---|
| Short story bySamuel R. Delany | |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Dangerous Visions |
| Publication type | Anthology |
| Publication date | December 1967 |
"Aye, and Gomorrah..." is aNew Wavescience fictionshort story by American writerSamuel R. Delany. It is the first short story Delany sold, and won the 1967Nebula Award for best short story. Before it appeared inDriftglass andAye, and Gomorrah, and other stories, it first appeared as the final story inHarlan Ellison's seminal 1967 anthology,Dangerous Visions. It was controversial because of itssexual subject matter,[1] and has been called "one of the best stories by a gay man published in the 1960s."[2]
Graham Sleight has described it as a "revisionist take" onCordwainer Smith's story "Scanners Live in Vain".[3]
The narrative involves a world whereastronauts, known as Spacers, areneutered before puberty to avoid the effects of spaceradiation ongametes. Aside from making them sterile, the neutering also prevents puberty from occurring and results in androgynous adults whose birth-sex is unclear to others. Spacers arefetishized by a subculture of "frelks", those attracted by the Spacers' supposed unattainability and unarousability ("free-fall-sexual-displacement complex"). "Frelk" is used as a derogatory term by the Spacers in the story, who engage inprostitution by accepting money to give frelks the sexual contact they desire.[1]
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