I found Samuel Delany’s Trouble on Triton (1976) quite a challenging read, which is perhaps part of Delany’s goal. Bron is particularly unlikeable, at least in my experience, which keeps me from getting engrossed in the novel like I might usually in other fiction works. He seems very focused on remaining unique and un-categorizable while separating everyone around him into “types.” This focus on separation is very reminiscent of man’s desire to remain distinct and dominant from other creatures. It also seems like this personality trait prevents him from forming deep, meaningful connections. Even with the Spike, he isn’t really able to see her for what she is; he’s too distracted by her “type.”
Bron also goes on frequent tangents that obfuscate the narrative. Many of these tangents are inserted parenthetically straight into the novel’s “normal” structure, which makes it difficult to determine which parts of the story go together. While this structure seems to represent a more realistic stream of conscious experience, I often find myself needing to backtrack to determine to which thread the narrative is returning. I wonder if this is part of Delany’s goal to make the reader scrutinize the text again and again.
Feminist Science Fictions 