Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders

2012 Delany, Samuel R. (b. 1942). Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. New York: Magnus Books. 804 pp. Parts were previously published as “In the Valley of the Nest of Spiders.” Black Clock 7. Ed. Steve Erickson (Spring/Summer 2007): 116-34; and in Coilhouse A Love Letter to Alternative Culture #01 (2007): 12-17; and as “Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders.” The Unbearables’ Big Book of Sex. Ed. Ron Kolm, Carol Wierzbicki, Jim Feast, Steve Dalachinsky, Yuko Otomo, and Shalom Neuman (Williamsburg, NY: Autonomodia /Unbearable Books, 2011), 221-41. PPT

The novel follows two men through their lives from about 2007 to 2077, and throughout it reflects on the nature of utopia from the perspective of black, gay men and refers to a black gay utopian community that one of the men had belonged to. The novel problematizes utopia, as do other works of Delany. See Timothy M. Griffiths, “Queer Black Communities: Touching the Utopian Frame in Delany’s Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders.” African American Review 48.3 (Fall 2015): 305-17. African American author.