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Check for Availabilityout of stock. Click on the button below to search for this title in other formats.  This title in other formats:Other titles in the Sexual Cultures series:
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (Sexual Cultures)
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:If one street in America can claim to be the most infamous, it is surely 42nd Street. Between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, 42nd Street was once known for its peep shows, street corner hustlers and movie houses. Over the last two decades the notion of safety-from safe sex and safe neighborhoods, to safe cities and safe relationships-has overcome 42nd Street, giving rise to a Disney store, a children's theater, and large, neon-lit cafes. 42nd Street has, in effect, become a family tourist attraction for visitors from Berlin, Tokyo, Westchester, and New Jersey's suburbs. Samuel R. Delany sees a disappearance not only of the old Times Square, but of the complex social relationships that developed there: the points of contact between people of different classes and races in a public space. In Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, Delany tackles the question of why public restrooms, peepshows, and tree-filled parks are necessary to a city's physical and psychological landscape. He argues that starting in 1985, New York City criminalized peep shows and sex movie houses to clear the way for the rebuilding of Times Square. Delany's critique reveals how Times Square is being renovated behind the scrim of public safety while the stage is occupied by gentrification. Times Square Red, Times Square Blue paints a portrait of a society dismantling the institutions that promote communication between classes, and disguising its fears of cross-class contact as family values. Unless we overcome our fears and claim our community of contact, it is a picture that will be replayed in cities across America. Book News Annotation:Delany, winner of the William Whitehead Memorial Award for a
lifetime's contribution to gay and lesbian literature, looks at the
transformation of New York City's 42nd Street from a strip of peep
shows to a tourist attraction dominated by corporate theme stores. He
paints a portrait of a society dismantling institutions that promote
communication between classes and disguising its fears of cross-class
contact as "family values," and he makes some radical suggestions
regarding what people need in a city. Includes b&w photos of 42nd
Street then and now by the author and by Philip-Lorca DiCorcia.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Synopsis:A noted novelist and critic examines the effects of the gentrification of Times Square on the vibrant cross-class community that once thrived there.
About the AuthorSamuel R. Delany is a renowned novelist and critic, whose award-winning fiction includes Atlantic: Three Tales (1995) and The Mad Man (1994), as well as Babel-17 (1966), Nova (1968) and Dhalgren (1975). Winner of the William Whitehead Memorial Award for a lifetime's contribution to gay and lesbian literature, he has been a professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for the last decade. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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