Literary Significance and Criticism
Despite the book's pornographic surface, respected authors have given their endorsement. Norman Mailer, for instance, said "There is no question that Hogg by Samuel R. Delany is a serious book with literary merit." J.G. Ballard, prolific speculative-fiction author and elder statesman of transgressive literature, also praised Delany's work, citing the medium of pornography as being the most "socially urgent" form of art.
Author Dennis Cooper said in his collection Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries that "Hogg is tiresome and indulgent" and that the "pace is molasses-slow". However, he also goes on to say that "the book is a highly charged object... that's reason enough to recommend it."
Jeffrey A. Tucker, associate professor of English at the University of Rochester, comments in his critical study, A sense of wonder: Samuel R. Delany, race, identity and difference, that Hogg "gave expression to the author's hostility toward a heterosexist society, an anger that had no socially constructive outlet prior to the modern Gay Rights movement."
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