Equinox (novel)
First edition (under original title)
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| Author | Samuel R. Delany |
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| Original title | Tides of Lust |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Erotica |
| Publisher | Lancer Books |
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Publication date
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1973 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 173 pp |
| ISBN | |
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.
Peter Nicholls in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction described the work as "serious in intent, though likely to be shocking to most readers in its evocation of the extremes of sadomasochism in imagery which is sometimes poetic and often disgusting -and so intended- perhaps as a Baudelairean ritual of passage".
Equinox was written contemporaneously with Dhalgren.Equinox is Delany's preferred title, but the book was originally released under the title The Tides of Lust, a compromise with the publisher, Lancer Books, who wanted to call it Tides of Eros.
In 1975 a translation into the French came out, published by Champ Libre as Vice Versa.
The book was first published in the UK in 1980 by Savoy Books of Manchester. 2000 copies were seized by the police (along with 3000 copies of the Charles Platt novel The Gas) and the rest of the printing withdrawn from booksellers. Following a prosecution one of Savoy's partners, David Britton, was sent to prison in May 1982. When republished in the early 1980s, all ages of underage people who performed sexual acts were increased by 100; e.g. there were 109 year old children in the prose.
A new American paperback edition was published in January 1994 by Masquerade Books, under the RhinocEros label.
Equinox concerns the sexual and violent encounters that ensue -"the search for erogenous gratification of a diverse collection of people"- when an unnamed Black sea captain, sailing his 72-foot diesel boat, the Scorpion, with his dog Niger and two teenagers Gunner and Kirsten, docks at a small American seaport and meets its inhabitants including Robby, a naive drifter; Catherine, a Countess; Proctor, an artist; Bull, the town sheriff (who is himself an active criminal) and his equally thuggish operative Nazi; and various low-life characters including the black and white twins (self described "rape artists") Nig and Dove.
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