In Greek mythology, Scylla is a legendary monster who lives on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass dangerously close to Scylla and vice versa.
In Greek mythology, Phorcys or Phorcus is a primordial sea god, generally cited as the son of Pontus and Gaia (Earth). According to the Orphic hymns, Phorcys, Cronus and Rhea were the eldest offspring of Oceanus and Tethys. Classical scholar Karl Kerenyi conflated Phorcys with the similar sea gods Nereus and Proteus. His wife was Ceto, and he is most notable in myth for fathering by Ceto a host of monstrous children. In extant Hellenistic-Roman mosaics, Phorcys was depicted as a fish-tailed merman with crab-claw forelegs and red, spiky skin.
The Strait of Messina is a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily and the western tip of Calabria in Southern Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north with the Ionian Sea to the south, within the central Mediterranean. At its narrowest point, between Torre Faro and Villa San Giovanni, it is 3.1 km (1.9 mi) wide. At the city of Messina it is 5.1 km (3.2 mi) wide. The strait's maximum depth is about 250 m (820 ft).
Dhalgren is a 1975 science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany. It features an extended trip to and through Bellona, a fictional city in the American Midwest cut off from the rest of the world by an unknown catastrophe.
Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia (1976) is a science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany. It was nominated for the 1976 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and was shortlisted for a retrospective James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 1995. It was originally published under the shorter title Triton.
Hogg is a novel by SFWA Grandmaster Samuel R. Delany involving graphic descriptions of murder, child molestation, incest, coprophilia, coprophagia, urolagnia, anal-oral contact, necrophilia and rape. It was written in San Francisco in 1969 and completed just days before the Stonewall Riots in New York City. A further draft was completed in 1973 in London. Hogg was finally published – with some further, though relatively minor, rewrites – in 1995 by Black Ice Books. The two successive editions have featured some correction, the last of which, published by Fiction Collective Two in 2004, carries a note at the end stating that it is definitive.
The Mad Man is a sexually drenched literary novel by Samuel R. Delany, first published in 1994 by Richard Kasak. In a disclaimer that appears at the beginning of the book, Delany describes it as a "pornotopic fantasy". It was originally published in 1994, republished and slightly revised in 1996, and republished again with significant changes in 2002 and again in an e-book version with further corrections in 2015. Delany considers the 2015 version the definitive edition.
In Greek mythology, Crataeis is, by some accounts, the mother of Scylla. In Homer's Odyssey, Circe tells Odysseus:
Ronald N. Drummond is a writer, editor, and independent scholar.
Return to Nevèrÿon is a series of eleven sword and sorcery stories by Samuel R. Delany, originally published in four volumes during the years 1979-1987. Those volumes are:
Scyllatoxin (also leiurotoxin I) is a toxin, from the scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus hebraeus, which blocks small-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels. It is named after Scylla, a sea monster from Greek mythology. Charybdotoxin is also found in the venom from the same species of scorpion, and is named after the sea monster Charybdis. In Greek mythology, Scylla and Charybdis lived on rocks on opposing sides of a narrow strait of water.
Equinox is a 1973 novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany. His first published foray into explicitly sexual material, it tells of a series of erotic and violent encounters in a small American seaport following the arrival of an African-American sea captain. It is a non-science fiction work, though with fantastic elements.
Tales of Nevèrÿon is a collection of five sword and sorcery stories by Samuel R. Delany published in 1978. It is the first of the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series and contains the stories "The Tale of Gorgik," "The Tale of Old Venn," "The Tale of Small Sarg," "The Tale of Potters and Dragons," and "The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers."
Neveryóna, or: The Tale of Signs and Cities is a sword and sorcery novel by Samuel R. Delany. It is the second of the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series. This article discusses the novel itself. Discussions of overall plot, setting, characters, themes, structure, and style of the series are found in the main series article.
Flight from Nevèrÿon is a collection of sword and sorcery stories by Samuel R. Delany. It is the third of the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series. This article discusses the three stories collected in the book. Discussions of overall plot, setting, characters, themes, structure, and style of the series are found in the main series article.
Return to Nevèrÿon is a collection of three sword and sorcery stories by American writer Samuel R. Delany: "The Game of Time and Pain", "The Tale of Rumor and Desire", and "The Tale of Gorgik", and "Appendix: Closures and Openings". It is the last of the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series. The collection was first published under the title The Bridge of Lost Desire.
Heterotopia is a concept elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe certain cultural, institutional and discursive spaces that are somehow ‘other’: disturbing, intense, incompatible, contradictory or transforming. Heterotopias are worlds within worlds, mirroring and yet upsetting what is outside. Foucault provides examples: ships, cemeteries, bars, brothels, prisons, gardens of antiquity, fairs, Muslim baths and many more. Foucault outlines the notion of heterotopia on three occasions between 1966-67. A talk given to a group of architects is the most well-known explanation of the term. His first mention of the concept is in his preface to 'The Order of Things' and refers to texts rather than socio-cultural spaces.
Samuel R. Delany, nicknamed "Chip", is an American author and literary critic. His work includes fiction, memoir, criticism and essays on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society.
Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders is a novel by Samuel R. Delany.
Heavenly Breakfast: An Essay on the Winter of Love is a 1979 memoir by author, professor, and critic Samuel R. Delany. It details the time he spent living in a commune in New York City during the winter of 1967-1968, although altering some details.
