Dhalgren

Rating:
Summary: A densely written tour de force
Review: "You have confused the true and the real," reads the epigram at the beginning of this long, complex novel. The true and the real? Are they different? So what? What does that have to do with anything, anyway?

Welcome to Dhalgren, the masterwork of science fiction's most learned and intellectual practitioner. I have worked my way through this long book (879 pages in the Bantam paperback edition) once or twice a year since I discovered it in 1976. Each time, I spot more details, attain a deeper understanding of the story and the ideas that lie under it.

The book is the story of a young drifter who has somehow lost track of his name and many of the details of his life. He travels to Bellona, a made-up city that has, some months or years before, undergone some cataclysm, a breakdown of society. Television and radio don't work. There is no contact with the outside world. Almost everyone has departed, leaving gangs, back-to-the-earthers, do-gooders, and others. In the absence of laws and authorities, they find a way to live together. The main character--called variously "the kid," "the Kid," and "Kidd" (keep track, these variations are significant)--finds a place in this anarchic protosociety as a poet and a gang leader. Ultimately he creates an identity, a sense of who he is...and in the final pages, leaves the city.

The city is not a normal place. Buildings burn without being consumed. Some laws of physics seem suspended. One night a second moon rises over the city; the next day, everyone agrees not only that the second moon was there, but they also share an understanding of the second moon's name. None of these details are explained.

The textual complexity is immense. Early in the book, the Kid finds a discarded notebook with writing on only one side of the paper. He flips through it to a random page. The text on the page is almost precisely the same text that appears on page 1 of Dhalgren--that is, Kidd's own story! The kid keeps the notebook and begins using it as a journal. He writes poetry in it. One long section of Dhalgren is presented as a palimpsest--that is, a document in which layers of embellishments and commentaries are presented as an integral part of the text. In this section, it is impossible to tell which portions are written by Kidd and which already existed in the notebook when he found it.

Throughout, Delany uses kaleidoscopic, beautiful language. Pick a page at random and read it aloud; it will sound like poetry. One marvels at the sustained effort that allowed Delany to maintain the vision and tone of this book through 879 pages.

The book starts in mid-sentence, by the way. And it ends mid-sentence. The two ends fit; it's possible that the final words of the book are the beginning of the first sentence, and that the entire novel can be read in a circle.

Explicit sex scenes--heterosexual, homosexual, groups--and adult language mean this book is not for everyone. But if such things don't bother you, pick up a copy. Delany will take your imagination on a ride you will never forget.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, abstract character study --- vintage seventies
Review: I just finished rereading Dahlgren for the first time in 25 years. Man, have I changed! I had a much different reading experience at the age of 45 than I did at the age of 20! A couple of the reviews here are (almost) helpful; but I empathically feel that the prospective buyer may wish to know a little bit more. In short, if you are genuinely intelligent, then you will enjoy this novel; if you go through life pretending to be intelligent, then you will hate it (you will probably become very ANGRY). Forget the fact that this novel does NOT have a plot (in the ordinary sense)! Delany's brilliant writing has created some of the most memorable and believable characters in the history of science fiction! I know of few other writers (read that: "artists") who've so successfully created an experience that places the reader inside the mind of mentally ill person. Brilliant! The entire novel takes place inside of a surreal city where inexplicable things happen: do not try explaining the inexplicable; you will only frustrate yourself. (The setting reminds me a little of Tarkovski's "Stalker.") Now a little history lesson: Samuel R. (aka, "Chip") Delany (nephew of the famous Delany Sisters, I hear) burst upon the science fiction scene in the early sixties and quickly became (arguably) the best science fiction writer in America. Delany could CREATE more original ideas in ten pages than other sci-fi writers could produce in an entire novel! (Read his short stories in the Driftglass collection if you want proof!) When I was reading his books back in the late sixties and early seventies, I got this notion that he was out in the world LIVING life, while other sci-fi writers were hiding away from the world (escaping into their loner self-delusions). Scores of lesser writers have made whole careers from copying Delany's original ideas and style; but Delany is The First, The Original. Read him! If you are new to Delany, then I highly recommend that you read several of his other works BEFORE you read Dahlgren. Delany won back-to-back Nebula Awards for Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection. Read them! He should have won a third Nebula for Nova (at least it was nominated for a Hugo; but they probably felt it was someone else's turn to win). Read it! In "The Fall of the Towers" trilogy (written between 1961 and 1964), Delany has a plot element involving soldiers who are unknowingly fighting a war in virtual reality (20 years before Gibson's Neuromancer and 30 years before the Matrix!). And now for Dahlgren. After reaching the top of his profession as a sci-fi writer in 1968 (at the tender age of only 26!), Delany seemed to turn his back on sci-fi. Although he has denied this in interviews, I have a notion that Delany wanted to become a writer of Great Literature, not just a writer in the lesser genre of sci-fi. (I personally believe that Delany was frustrated that his writing talents had exceeded the reading talents of the sci-fi fans.) And then came Dahlgren. Dahlgren begins and ends in the same style as Joyce's Finnegan's Wake (the end cycles us back to the beginning); perhaps this is Delany's way of telling us something about this novel. As other reviewers have mentioned, Dahlgren does not have a common plot; nothing is explained; there is no resolution. In my mind, this novel is entirely abstract: don't look for crystalline explanations; look for the METAPHOR! Also, this is NOT really a sci-fi book; it is Delany telling you about scenes from his real life (I believe). If you have read Delany's autobiographical book Heavenly Breakfast, then you might suspect that Dahlgren was drawn from Delany's journals from 1969 to 1973. Eighty percent of this novel could easily have been published as a period-piece from that era. In Dahlgren, we are not so much reading about the main character (a native American half-bread named The Kidd) as we are reading about Delany himself (an urban bisexual black man living in a 70s commune with a bunch of characters whose sole purpose in life is getting balled and high). In one scene in the novel, Kidd looks in a mirror and sees not his own reflection, but the image of his creator (the author, that is). And then there is the famous notebook that The Kidd finds at the beginning of the novel: a notebook (obvious dropped by the author who invented Kidd!) that describes incidents in Kidd's life before they happen. (Reminds me of Breakfast of Champions.) And who the HELL is William Dahlgren! ;-) My only complaint: Delany needed his own version of Ezra Pound to convince him to edit this novel. I get the feeling that Delany was unwilling or unable to throw the least scrap of writing onto the cutting room floor! Sometime, plot elements seem to be invented ENTIRELY to glue together unrelated writing exercises! But, what am I saying! Delany is The Master!

Rating:
Summary: The people who love it are right, the people who hate it too
Review: Dhalgren is a book I have read and re-read and I still feel like I missed a lot of its subtle whisperings. The Kid himself is not an especially sympathetic character, the book muses on sex and race for longer than I can easily decipher, in liquid but complicated prose...it's not an easy book, and not a linear book, and there have been times I hated it. But I come back to it again and again, back to Bellona, back to shimmering disguises and strange passages. It's a book I feel compelled to grapple with.

Rating:
Summary: An Epic Enigma, A Surreal Poem Not Bound By Time
Review: In my humble opinion "Dhalgren" is one of the finest pieces of modern epic fiction ever written. I first read this work some 19 years ago, on a friend's referral (Hi "Punk", wherever you are, thanks again - God bless you), when I was an English major in college, and frankly it changed my life - it just shattered any previous concepts I had about the creative process of writing (& reading, for that matter). I have never read anything like it before or since - I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the prose - almost as though every page was a piece of stream-of-consciousness blank verse - soaked in super-real imagery the likes of which are simply mind-boggling. "Dhalgren" is a work that is steeped in questions - most of them left up to the reader's imagination - so if you're the type of reader who must leave "no stone unturned" in terms of resolving such enigmas, you'd probably be disappointed in this work. On the other hand, if you want to take your mind on a trip and simply wallow in some of the finest, most surrealistic imagery ever composed in the English language (not to mention some of the most iconoclastic writing techniques), then you would dig this book (if you're like me and are fascinated with words and their often beautiful, ominous and breath-taking capabilities, you will find this a great read). There are so many layers to this story, so many ways to appreciate this work, it is hard to encapsulate them all here. If I can formulate a fragment of an idea based on the title of the first chapter ("Prism, Mirror, Lens"), it is as though you are viewing this landscape - this forgotten city, wounded by some inexplicable catastrophy - through a prism, your vision being splintered into a dozen distorted views of the same thing -the fabric of time is in a constant state of flux, and, as in a dreamstate, you can not quite put your finger on the pulse of what is reality. It is almost as though, upon completion of the first reading, you can go back to this novel and re-read it (or portions thereof) completly out of sequence and gain further insight into its characters and events - the text itself seems to "work" completly out of sync with itself, if you will. All in all, a fantastic & thought-provoking journey, an enigma rooted in a not-too-far-out reality, a mind-game, a beautifully disturbing dream for the adventurous reader who might prefer something other than the standard "sci-fi" fare. I have often thought that David Lynch might be capable of making this into a film, and perhaps Brian Eno could score it, but this work is ultimately best left to blossom in the mind of the reader, for the rest of their lives (and it will, believe me).

Rating:
Summary: I have come to to wound the autumnal city.
Review: It's hard to write a review for this book. The first time I read was like ten years ago. I was around 15 or 16. It looks intimidating. Thick, and as hard to get into as a bar on Sunset on Friday night.

I was an English major in college and I have never read anything like it. I've read it two or three times since then and I still don't get it all. Am I supposed to? I would love to meet Delany and ask him what it all means, but I'm sure he would say that would ruin the whole point.

One of the things that stands out most is the dialogue. It's amazingly written. Pick out any piece of dialogue (without the speaker's name) and anyone familiar with the text would know exactly who was speaking. That's very difficult to accomplish. His characters are so real, so convincing, it's seem like they are alive somethere, still living.

I think the loop of the beginning and end, "... to wound..." is one of the strengths of the novel. It's better to not know the answers. If everything was spelled out, what fun would that be? The ambiguity gives it depth and intrigue.

I think about aspects of this story with frightening regularity. Everytime I go under a street light, I think of Dhalgren. I swear one pulses and dies just because I am looking. Everytime I look at the moon, I think of George.

An interesting part sticks with me. I'll paraphrase: in a week, I can't remember five days. In a year, how many days will YOU never think of again. How true is that? Wow. What were you doing on Sep. 9th, 1994? If it's your B-day, anniversary, or whatever think of another date. How insignificant mundane, day-to-day things are in the grand sceme of time. Nothing matters, only hugely significant things are remembered or important. Delany goes into many other social, literary and cultural questions which would be too numberous to mention here. But they ALL matter to this book. Everything means something here and to cram in so many ideas and fit them together so well with such simple language is incredible.

What does it all mean? The red eye caps? The optic chains? The light projectors? The scratch on her leg? The notebook? Bill's name-is it William Dhalgren? I always thought that was Kid's name, because of the title. What year is it? What happened to the sun? Why can't he remember everything? Does Kid have multiple personalities? What's going on here?

I honestly don't know and really don't want to. It would spoil the wonder of it all. This novel is a remarkable peice of literature. It, along with The Lord of the Rings, has influenced me greatly. I know I might not have chosen to become a writer myself if it were not for this. To emulate and possibly achieve this level. If only I

Rating:
Summary: Negative Reviewers Begone
Review: Before there was Neuromancer and The Matrix there was Dhalgren. I've read the negative reviews on this site and I have to say that the people who were expecting the usual blithe, fluff and puff were of course disappointed and blamed the writer. But Dhalgren is so much more comprehensive than simply science fictional. It is a journey of self-discovery and quite possibly the best book I've ever read. It is so much more than what I can write here and is best left up to the reader to discover....

Rating:
Summary: For those who enjoy the journey more than the destination!
Review: A nameless drifter enters a ruined city, stuck in time, that civilization has chosen to ignore. Almost nothing that occurs is deliberate but seemingly pre-scripted by the megalomanic Roger Calkins the city's self styled mayor/media mogul/entertainment coordinator/puppet master? I bought Dhalgren in 1975. Since then, I have read it three or four times over the years. I still haven't figured it out. Is it really the kid's story or is he another invention of Roger Calkins manifested for the entertainment value of Roger and his "guests"? Dhalgren is an enigma but an enjoyable read for an adventurous uninhibited reader.

Rating:
Summary: Yes, it is worth every minute.
Review: A friend asked, Does this get worth reading at some point? I read about a third before tossing it aside in frustration.

If you mean, does it start to have a conventional plot, then no, not really. If you mean, do things more interesting than helping some delusional middle Americans move to a different apartment start happening, then yes.

The book is more like poetry in some ways than an ordinary novel. Partly because the style and the wording (the purely writerly aspects) make up a significant portion of why I found it to be a worthwhile read (and, in fact, one of my favorite books). But also because it has a lot of subtle layers of hidden meaning. It is in no way a cyberpunk or SF action adventure. Rather, it is an existential exploration of some of the currents running through our own, real world. Race relaions, inter-racial sex and sexual domination and power issues, repressed desires, the meaning of freedom (from one's own mental walls as well as from laws and social oppression), gender, homosexuality and bisexuality, drugs, madness, delusion (both the delusions of the insane and those that can come from pervasive social agreements/tendancies to think a particular way or fail to see certian things), the difference between what is real and what is believed or percieved.

By the way, I started on it and stopped at various points twice before I read it all the way through. It's not easy, especially before you figure out that it's not aiming to be a typical post apocalyptic adventure, and that it doesn't have any of the same storytelling goals of such a tale.

Rating:
Summary: Many days and nights in the mysterious city of Bellona
Review: At last, at long last, I have finished Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren, and here are my thoughts, enhanced by some quotes from William Gibson's foreword to the book.

Dhalgren is not a book for everyone; in fact, I'd even go so far as to say it's not for most people. Delany's work is definitely influenced by the fact that he is a gay black man, so if you're expecting normal sexual and emotional relationships, look elsewhere. It's also a dense book, which your average Grisham- or Crichton-reading person is not going to get, or even want to get. It's also long and slower-paced than most books I've read.

That said, it's also one of the most fascinating tales I've read to date. I have sincere worries I'll ever be able to look at, say, a Philip K. Dick book with quite as much reverence again.

It is a labyrinthine book, a sort of wandering narrative that somehow stays carefully focused as the tale weaves continually through its long tale. In his foreword, William Gibson said, "I have never understood it. I have sometimes felt that I partially understood it, or that I was nearing the verge of understanding it. This has never caused me the least discomfort, or interfered in any way with my pleasure in the text. If anything, the opposite has been true."

When I read those words before starting the text, I had my doubts, along with a few lofty - but misplaced - ambitions. How, I wondered, could you not "get" a book, yet still enjoy it? "Maybe I can figure its mystery out," I said to myself. How foolish I was.

In re-reading the foreword after finishing the book, I see now that Gibson was absolutely right. "Dhalgren," he says, "is not there to be finally understood." This is absolutely correct; the nature of the city and the events that occur within it are part of the story, but are not the point. The point of the story is the story; it is one of the few works I have read that justifies itself simply by reading through it.

Gibson also describes in his foreword how reading Dhalgren strips the reader of many of the things that readers often consider to be their fundamental rights as readers, because it refuses to deliver itself unto the reader in the typical question/reward fashion. "If this is a quest, the reader protests, then we must learn the object of that quest. If this is a mystery, we must be told at least the nature of the puzzle. And Dhalgren does not answer."

This, too, is true. This may sound strange, but there is simply no way to put into words how this book can be so unconventional, so unyielding of its secrets to the reader, and yet so thoroughly enjoyable.

And the strange thing about this book is that even though it is long and has no overt "point", even though it does not deliver insights on what will happen next, even though it took me over four months to read, I loved it. It feels good to have finished this book, as though I took the ride with Kid and Lanya and all the rest. It's a journey I won't soon forget. And if you're just the right kind of reader, you won't, either.

Rating:
Summary: OK, enough Samuel, I get it...
Review: Before picking up this monster of a book, ask yourself, when almost everyone walks away from this book (Gibson included), and says that they're not sure they understood it or got it all, then how truly great can it be?

Because we're dealing with a famous book here. It could just be that there is nothing there to get. That is possibly the unsatisfying truth behind the various shadows and games that this book throws at the reader.

I enjoyed the creative "difference" of this book, but found myself sometimes flipping through sections where it just read about as interesting as what I did today. An author like Zelazny would be smart enough to make this book, he would also be smart enough to do it in less than 500 pages, instead of bloating close to 1000.

And the sex scenes... oh the sex scenes. I gritted my teeth through them so many times I have to go to the dentist. Mr. Delaney, we get it. Your character likes kinky sex with everything that moves, and possibly some things that do not. Half of them could have been stripped out and still it would have been like bashing the reader over the head with it.

I would get through a few more pages and then groan, right back to having sex.

That is my major criticism with this book. The prose is wonderful, but through major sections I felt like I was watching a juggler who was purposefully showing me how many balls he can keep in the air. Clever sentence follows clever sentence follows clever sentence. If I had written this for my English teacher, she would have bopped me on the head and said, "Yes, I know you are clever, you don't have to keep showing me."

And that in the end was how this book was for me. It is too much of some very good things. Because it plays the game of not telling you what anything is, and loading you down with a thousand unresolved little guessing games, it feels empty.

It's the diary of a guy who likes to suck and screw men women and children. It's the writing of a very smart man who is telling you with this book that he is a very smart man. I frankly find it long, drawn out and boring.

If he had been brave enough to cut out 40% of it, it would have made a better story. If he had been brave enough to drop some of his beautiful lines and language, the ebb and flow of his brilliance would bring it balance.

I don't listen to my music with the volume knob turned to 10, I don't drink from a firehose, and I don't drive at 200mph. And that's what reading this book is like. To me anyway.

I will take Hemingway over this any day of the week. As brilliant as Delany is, as "classic" as this book is, it missed greatness by being too much of everything.