Delany Dispossessed (Samuel Delany on Ursula Le Guin's "the Dispossessed"‪)‬

Samuel Delany's reading of Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed relies on the assumption that the writer (any, not just Le Guin) becomes dispossessed of the meaning of her text which functions at a level other than intention (Jewel-Hinged Jaw). Delany calls this other level "extensional"; by this he means that there is a level of meaning which functions outside the jurisdiction of the author's intent. From the beginning of his critique, then, Delany plays on the notion of dispossession as a feature of the writerly task. The readerly task, for Delany, is to read the novel against its own ideal form (JHJ 220). Once Delany commences a reading of The Dispossessed using this model, his critique is rigorous, close; and he determines that The Dispossessed does not stand up to analysis when judged against its own form. He quite roundly dispossesses Le Guin of whatever meaning lies outside of her intention. Delany argues, in short, that The Dispossessed is less feminist and less progressive on matters of sex and gender than it believes itself to be; I intend to show that the same is true of Trouble on Triton. Delany's Trouble on Triton is his answer to The Dispossessed. It seems only fair to me, then, to see how Trouble on Triton stands up to the model that Delany articulates and on which he bases his analysis of The Dispossessed. In this analysis he says, "Such reconstitution [of the elements of The Dispossessed, that Delany has cited, into their proper novelistic totality], even if it comes as the most crushing rejoinder to the exegesis at hand, still leaves our efforts here their minimal worth as goad, if not guide" (JHJ 222). I have no intention of crushing Delany's exegesis or of reconstituting the elements of The Dispossessed which Delany has deconstructed. Delany's analysis is too rigorous and relentless to be crushed. However, Delany's analysis, which is both goading and guiding, seems perfectly appropriate to read the places in Trouble on Triton where the novel fails itself. As such, this Delanyan reading of Delany's Trouble on Triton is working in the foreground of this essay. I will focus most specifically on an episode in the third chapter of Trouble on Triton, as I take the exchanges there between Bron and Miriamne to be synecdochal for the tenor of the novel as a whole. Bron is largely, to me, an unsympathetic character. Focusing on my emotive reaction to Bron is a method of reading as intervention; in the background of this essay are two models of reading that work consistently to justify this focus: empathic reading and reparative reading.