John Reagle Journal

While finishing Stars in My Pocket, I was initially quite confused about the overall meaning of the novel, as it is very ambiguous and fails in delivering any concrete conclusions. Even though it is understood that a sequel was meant to follow, I think that there is strong meaning in the lack of a finite conclusion.  The opaque nature in this novel presents the social progressivism that he is trying to convey.

The way that Delaney only uses the “she” pronouns evokes an uncomfortable nature in the text and switches the societal gendered stigma where males have an unequally powerful role. By making all characters, even those with male personas, Delaney braces the reader to transform their perspective of how a society is structured. Similarly the cultural fugue furthers the perception of ambiguityo n what is acceptable. In doing so the reader is pushed to accept progressive cultural notions and make sense of what was once obscure.

Just as the reader is forced into an uncomfortable situations by the content, the way the novel ends puts the reader in one as well. The reader must formulate a conclusion upon themselves. Without the novel telling explicitly what to understand you must accept the content for what was conveyed in order to form a conclusion yourself. Through this acceptance of the novel, the reader becomes inherently accepting to the social progressivism that Delaney proposes.