Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia in Queereaders

Oct 20, 2012 Megan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: masculinity-studies, trans, feminist, gender, queer

I taught this novel for a course in Queer and Trans Lit this semester -- it's a thick novel as all of Delany's are, thick with social observations and insights, and was challenging for some students, esp those who haven't read much sf; nonetheless it spurred terrific convos, especially in relation to Giovanni's Room (both novels interrogate toxic white masculinity) and Orlando (ie. thinking about the possibilities sff affords for thinking through power and oppression, esp i/r/t gender and sexual ...more

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Aug 23, 2014 Dan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Triton is one of those books that lingers in the penumbra at the edges of my understanding like a jungle cat stalking prey, carefully choosing the perfect moment to pounce. And yet (and yet) I couldn't put it down. Delany's prose is irresistible and his ideas are tantalizing (even if I'm not entirely sure I walked away with a clear understanding). Triton is also an example of a particular type of sci-fi that skips past the distraction of identity politics such as race, gender, and sexuality to g Triton is one of those books that lingers in the penumbra at the edges of my understanding like a jungle cat stalking prey, carefully choosing the perfect moment to pounce. And yet (and yet) I couldn't put it down. Delany's prose is irresistible and his ideas are tantalizing (even if I'm not entirely sure I walked away with a clear understanding). Triton is also an example of a particular type of sci-fi that skips past the distraction of identity politics such as race, gender, and sexuality to get at larger issues, which is not to say these things aren't discussed. Quite the contrary. In fact, the main thing that's widely known, relatively speaking, about this book is how the protagonist switches gender and sexuality. Rather, what I mean is that these categories that are so often divisive today cease to have the same impact in and of themselves in the larger world of the novel.

A post-identity politics is by no means a Utopia, nor is Delany interested in crafting a portrait of a would-be Utopia. He calls the novel a Heterotopia, which is a term from Foucault that describes a space of otherness that, in part, functions to allow a Utopia elsewhere. That's where Delany's real interest lies: in the space of otherness. Neptune's moon Triton is that space in the novel. It's a place of radical individuality where nearly anything is permissible (and in the "unlicensed sector" whatever scant regulations do exist are waived). The basic needs of all residents are met and people can choose to work (or not) to earn more credits if they're interested in elevating their standard of living. But while Triton and the other outer satellites presumably play a vital role as Heterotopia for Terran and Martian societies (though the novel briefly visits Earth and it's hardly a Utopia) they remain targets for a cataclysmic war raging across the solar system. We're never told the reason for the war, only that Triton has managed to stay out of it (for now). Delany uses the tension of the war to propel the plot forward, but that's not really the focus. He's more interested in examining erudite ideas, like metalogic.

Brom Helstrom, the novel's protagonist, struggles to find happiness amid a backdrop of war and identity fluidity. He spends his days playing board games and philosophizing with his co-op neighbors, and earns extra credits working as a metalogics specialist in the hegemony. "Metalogic" being defined at one point early on in a manner that went largely over my head. What I gleaned, however, was that humans rarely employ pure logic, rather we rely on shifting parameters within discourse to approximate logic for any given circumstance (to say that the Taj Mahal is white is, in pure logic, to deny that it is any other color. But what is the Taj Mahal? Is it the building alone or also the grounds, with it's green grass and blue water and yellow sand, etc. And if it's just the building then what of the shades of brown in the grout, or the veins of various colors in the marble, etc?). Delany is stabbing right at the heart of narrative here. Triton is a book about reading, about knowledge, or, more broadly, human discourse, and in that way it ties in nicely with the surface plot. What is a Utopia (or a Heterotopia) without it's "other," and where is the distinction between the two drawn? When Bron's friend Sam reveals he used to be a different race, gender, and sexuality (and when Bron himself undergoes a similar transformation), Delany is offering a radical (perhaps more so in the '70s when the novel was published than today) vision of personal freedom, but he's also gesturing at the fragile nature of social, historic, political, etc. discourses, which are held together like a complicated web of tension rods, each balanced by the others in a stable metalogical way. A place like Triton where nothing is immutable of course will represent a danger to that balance. And so the war between the planets and the satellites rages. And so Bron's affections continue to orbit the mercurial actress known as "the Spike."

I think I'll return to this book down the line. A single read is far from sufficient.

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Apr 06, 2011 J. rated it liked it

Re-read after a long time. Unfortunately, I had the same reaction: I was much more interested in the politics and the war than in Bron. I get that this forms a kind of bookend to "The Stars in my Pockets..." and is important, but I just never felt engaged with the novel. ...more

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