Atheist in the Attic

In Delany's most recent novel, _Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders_, one of the two protagonists has a life-long fascination with Spinoza's _Ethics_. In this novella, Benedict, né Baruch, Spinoza is a character.It consists of a (long) journal entry by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, visiting Amsterdam at the behest of his patron, an unnamed Duke. On his own time, he visits Spinoza. (I know very little about the life of either Leibniz or Spinoza; I presume Delany does and that this is possible.) They converse for a while, and agree with each other well enough that a second visit is planned -- though not narrated. Leibniz mentions a number of his own peculiarities, of which the most interesting to a science fictional audient will be his invention of a brass calculating machine. Spinoza mentions that he grinds lenses for van Leeuwenhoek, which which he has discovered his famous "animalcules."It _was_ an interesting moment in history. One of the things discussed, almost in passing, is the Netherlands' "_rampjaar_" of 1672, a year in which they were attacked by the forces of France, England, and some German states, and things became very dark indeed. (Some friends of Spinoza's were, apparently, killed and eaten.)Yet their discussion is only the middle of the novella. The opening and closing take place in and around the home of Leibniz's host, named only Gunther in the book. Gunther's visit to a Jewish moneylender at the beginning of the book casts dark reflections on the visit with Spinoza, a Jew whose people have cast him out for blasphemy. (Spinoza mentions being 40 years old; a little calculation puts this meeting about 1672 or 3, and makes Leibniz about 26 years of age; the _rampjaar_ would thus be fresh in the Dutch peoples' minds.)The writing is - as always with Delany - beautiful, clear, and self-intensifying. Delany has a way of mentioning things at carefully spaced intervals that increases their significance. (Outdoor toilets. Smallclothes. Servants. Wigs. Jews.) The story is slight on the surface, but deep in its implications.

Samuel Delany has been publishing novels for 56 years (and, as the first published volume of his journals makes clear, writing them for even longer than that). By that point, most writers have either fallen silent or are producing little but rather bad imitations of their earlier work. Yet Delany continues to produce fiction (and nonfiction) that is not only excellent but excellent in new and different ways. His latest, the novella THE ATHEIST IN THE ATTIC, could have been written by no one else yet is not very similar to any of his other works. Centering on a visit that Leibniz paid to Spinoza in 1676, it is a gripping narrative that contains fascinating details of everyday life in the Netherlands in the 17th century and a good deal of equally fascinating historical and philosophical learning. It also suggests, implicitly, a number of interesting things about life in Trump's America. It can be read in a sitting, and, if you haven't done so already, you should.