Holy Shiver: Dreaming, Pleasure, and Power in Speculative Fiction

In this talk, writer Carmen Maria Machado discusses her novel-in-progress, "Holy Shiver," adapted from the concept of the "heiliger Schauer" in medieval German poetry. The novel, set in the near-future United States, follows two lovers as they negotiate pleasure and power against a backdrop of homophobia, cultural decline, and political danger. As the lovers interview their neighbors about their mental states, the grip of fascism closes in around all of them. Machado discusses the topics she researched for her roving, eclectic novel: cults, pandemics, children’s literature, lesbian love, ecstatic visions, ecological dystopia, authoritarian censorship, medieval mystics, and ecstatic visions.