What I believe is one of the main points of Delaney’s writings is that a book paints an image in the mind of the reader that is altered with every new word read. A 60,000 page book is an image that is formed by the first word of the book that is then changed 59,999 times by the end. He emphasizes how changing the order of/ removing words could be completely inconsequential or entirely transformative to the final image in a reader’s head. Delaney argues that words in a novel do more than just convey information; they also set a tone that influences the reader’s thinking because it molds their impression of the narrator and consider why those particular words are used.

Delaney has more to his definition of science fiction, but his idea that a literary work is something that is changed with each individual word is something I found hard to agree with. While going through the text, I was unsure if he was being literal in that each individual word changes the reader’s perception, every word surely and immediately altering the mental image in the reader’s head, or if that was just hyperbole to state a point. In the end, I decided he was being literal and I vehemently disagree with such an assessment. One of the things that I had the hardest time believing was when he used the sentence “The red sun is high, the blue low” to illustrate his point. The first word “The” was enough to evoke an image of a “grayish ellipsoid about four feet high that balances on the floor perhaps a yard away” for the author. Personally, I found this example to be a little ridiculous and over the top. I considered his explanation to be very literal, that the word “the” was enough to invoke the image of a “grayish ellipsoid about four feet high that balances on the floor perhaps a yard away.” My largest problem with this idea is the importance that is placed on “words.” For Delaney, the 3 word phrase “the red sun” should create 3 separate and distinct images in a reader’s mind. But why are individual words considered more important than pairs of words or word phrases? If a reader was to read a compound word, such as football or microwave, is there only 1 image in their head or 2 for each word in the compound word? It was because of this that I found it difficult to accept Delaney’s point. Such a way of reading seems exhausting and I doubt that this is the method that every reader uses to analyze and interpret a text.