“Blood Moon”: Lunar Monstrous Spaces in Gothic Science Fiction

Situated at the intersection of two different forms of speculative fiction, Gothic Science Fiction (SF) is a genre that combines two seemingly incompatible forms of affect: cognitive defamiliarisation and visceral fear. Traditional SF is famously defined by Darko Suvin as a rationalistic genre, appealing to the reader’s intellect rather than their emotions. The Gothic, on the other hand, as David Punter described it, is a literature of terror, intent to create an atmosphere of dread and confusion. Gothic, or “dark”, SF is a hybrid genre which explores the culturally constructed borderlands of rationality and horror. While there is a long tradition of Gothic SF (including Frankenstein itself), it is noteworthy how many recent examples are located on, or involve, the Moon. It is particularly noteworthy since our satellite is the best explored body in the Solar System and the only one where humans have actually landed, so it seems to offer less latitude for Gothic mysteries of the unknown. And yet, in such novels as Sharman DiVono’s Blood Moon (1999), Johan Harstad’s 172 Hours on the Moon (2012), Rick Chesler’s Luna (2013), Peter Clines’ Dead Moon (2019), and many others, the Moon becomes a stage for the familiar Gothic tropes—ghosts, zombies, doppelgängers, and dark labyrinths. The reason for this, I will argue, lies in the double cultural meaning of Luna: as the focus of a long tradition of mysticism predating science; and as the setting for the greatest triumph of space technology. Thus, the Moon becomes a monstrous space, a cultural oxymoron, in which the boundaries of science and superstition, knowledge and fear, are mapped out and (re)negotiated. In my chapter I discuss the structural and thematic articulation of this monstrous space, focusing on DiVono’s Blood Moon as an early and characteristic example of Lunar Gothic SF. In doing so, I will outline general features of Gothic SF as a distinctive and specific genre of speculative fiction.