Teaching Resources
Despina Kakoudaki
Study Questions for Samuel R. Delany's Trouble on Triton
Comparative Literature 60AC, Spring 1998
These questions will be helpful in your reading of this novel, and may also direct you towards paper and research topics. You should look at particular passages and provide close readings in order to propose some conclusions. You can work alone or in groups. Each group should try to finish and have notes on at least three questions of your choice for our discussion on Thursday.
1. Find three passages that provide us with a description of any character (one of the main characters, or any of the people walking around in Tethys). Re-read those passages. What kinds of information do we get about those described people? Are there any "styles" that you can identify in the descriptions?
2. How do you visualize the spaces through which this story moves? Focus your reading on the following aspects:
the city in general
the unlicenced sector
other cities (ie. Bellona)
Serpent's House
Bron's workspace
3. What is the representation of Earth we get in this text? Find three passages which either mention the Earth, or in which its absence seems important. How are we as readers involved or engaged in a particular view of the Earth? What happens when the action of the novel really goes to Earth? How do you relate the representations of Earth to Delany's introduction to Empire that we read in class?
4. A novel set in a radically other place would also involve the creating of different social structures. Discuss Delany's representation of any aspect of social life. Focus your discussion on three passages. You can choose from the following list, or decide on any other issue.
politics
housing
work
human relationships
social structure
family life
money
the government
5. Discuss the role of fashion in the novel. Select at least three particular styles of dress, and try to visualize what people would look like. Are there differences between particular styles? What other extra things do people use in order to create their styles? What do we know about things that are "out" of style?
6. Discuss the representation of religion and religious sects in the novel. You can start by focusing on the "mumblers" (2-3) and the "Dumb Beasts" (9-10, 12, and 14-15) and connect your reading to any other groups or sects in the novel.
7. Think about Bron as a character, and as our guide to the novel. What do we know about Bron's past, his feelings, his opinions, his relationships? Does our view of him change in the course of the novel? Are there any parts where the representation of Bron seems contradictory or confusing? Discuss the relevant passages. You can also choose a second character (the Spike, Sam or Lawrence, for example) and trace their representations.
8. Discuss the ways in which games, theater, public and private spectacle are represented in the novel. You can start from the passages describing "vlet" (21ff) and the Spike's "micro-theater" performances (10-17), and connect with any other spectacular happenings you see in the novel.
9. In your reading so far, how does this novel work with the themes and topics we have been discussing in class? Find one passage from this text, and one passage from another text to show common themes, ideas, or imagery.