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Dhalgren Samuel R Delany 9780375706684 Books

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Dhalgren Samuel R Delany 9780375706684 Books

As others have said, some love Dhalgren and some hate it. I fall into the "hate it" camp. I found the concept to be interesting; I just didn't care for the execution. Too much of the exposition had a feeling of trying to be '60s counter-culture edgy/daring/experimental/anti-establishment. For me, that feeling hasn't worn well; it seemed dated. I found the repeated explicit sex to be a turn-off. Someone else described the poet character Newboy as the "wise Yoda". I found his endless ramblings about poetry and meaning to be tiresome. I actually expected the protagonist to decide Newboy was a pointless blow-hard. I got really tired of the "Whoooooa Man! Like, it's all toooo INTENSE for me" emotions from the protagonist. That said, there must be a reason so many people like the book. I liked the unconventional sentence structure and language and the way it mirrored the "what is real and what is not and what is going on?" feeling. I liked the snippets of reveal, but I found there to be just too much I didn't care about in between.


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Dhalgren Samuel R Delany 9780375706684 Books Reviews

Samuel Delaney is one of the great writers of our time, and this is his masterpiece. Set in a futuristic city, among marginalized people, in a world that changes even as it is described. In this, it resembles most organic structures, which are altered by being observed. This makes for an unsettling, even surreal reading experience, which can be frustrating if you come to this novel expecting a straightforward narrative. This story loops back on itself, comments on itself, even sometimes self-destructs intentionally. Delaney deliberately and consciously undermines our "contract" between author and reader, bringing us into this world and forcing us to re-assess how we react to fiction -- or even metafiction. This is experimental, cutting edge writing at its best. Expect to be challenged, expect to be delighted, and expect to re-read it for the rest of your life, learning something new every time you do. Highly recommended.
There is a conversation between two characters, late in the book, about the kinds of people who simply would not be able to live in Bellona. Bellona is a city in the center of the U.S. that has recently fallen victim to a most peculiar catastrophe. The vast majority of the residents were evacuated, nearly all electricity is gone, and the city is practically cut off from the outside world. This leaves a bunch of perverts, thieves, and general misfits as Bellona's new population—about a thousand people or so. Written over the course of about four years and first published in 1975, Dhalgren was Chip Delany's first serious attempt at combining science fiction with literary fiction, and the book remains to this day a landmark of postmodernism. There are, however, certain people who will outright not enjoy the book or give it a fair chance. If you're not a fan of leisurely paced stories and prefer something heavily plot-driven, then you won't like Dhalgren. If you're not a fan of experimental narrative styles or unconventional typographical ventures, then you won't like Dhalgren. If you read a book expecting to have every question answered by the end, or even have half those questions answered, then you won't like Dhalgren. If you're of the more conservative persuasion and aren't open to nontraditional sexual antics, then you won't like Dhalgren. This all may of course prompt the question...

Why would you like Dhalgren?

Well, one simply doesn't "like" Dhalgren after a full reading; this is one of the most divisive novels in all of science fiction, and renowned authors have come out as either loving it or hating it. As you can see by the rating I gave Dhalgren, I fall into the "love" category, and I think I can adequately explain why that is.

Dhalgren is, ultimately, a book that begs the reader to question everything. It gives out numerous questions but refuses to answer them, which might be my favorite kind of novel. It's clear that Delany took a lot of inspiration from Joyce, harking back to Ulysses and Finnegans Wake without explicitly referencing them; Dhalgren's bookends may be the most obvious indication of the influence that Finnegans Wake in particular had on Delany's writing, although things go much deeper than that. Rather than shoving foreign words and complex bits of knowledge into the reader's face, Dhalgren is a book that may look comprehensible on the surface. Once you think about it, though—people who have already read the book know what I'm talking about here—the possibilities as to Dhalgren's true nature grow while a clear answer fades into vapor. This is a book that is both long and dense, and will ask a lot of any reader who dares to enter.

Perhaps intentionally, during the weeks that I sat around with a copy of Dhalgren in my lap, I felt a growing connection to the city of Bellona and the many strange characters within it; this is certainly a book that prefers characters over plot, and the cast of Dhalgren is huge and diverse. It can be even hard to nail down what genre Dhalgren falls into, because while I say it's a work of science fiction—a label that I think wouldn't do it harm—it has a penchant for jumping between genres, from straight-up science fiction to slice-of-life drama to pornography and back again. While I'm not quite into everything that Delany showcases here, the man has some interesting tastes, and Dhalgren could work well as an introduction to his more erotic output. There are, of course, discussions between characters about sexual dynamics as well as gender relations, and the book never seems to take a side on the topics it presents; instead, it wants to prompt even more questions. I suspect that many modern readers will find some of the ideas brought up in this book to be outlandish, giving it a sort of Heinlein-esque aura of free love—something that still appears ahead of its time, given the current socio-political climate. Overall, it is quite a strange ride.

Being someone who's been deeply fascinated with the potential of sci-fi literature since his pre-teen years, I've long since gotten used to dealing with unconventional ideas, and Dhalgren is full of them. It's also full of insanity, as its not-quite-right protagonist takes us on a journey that, once it ends, leaves us wondering if it ever happened to begin with. As William Gibson notes in his foreword to the Vintage edition, Dhalgren is a puzzle that is not meant to be solved. At times it is intensely philosophical and mythological without being obnoxious about either, and I can see how the meshing of science fiction and philosophy influenced Gibson's own writing; Theodore Sturgeon, another writer almost too smart for his own good, also praised Dhalgren's dauntingly deep depth and its undying love for the imagination. I have to agree with Sturgeon, as Delany crafted something truly special and in a league of its own over forty years ago. Has it really been that long?
Although it seemed endless, it only took me nine months to finish this. It's not a book that can be read easily. It's better to read a little bit here and there, and return to it after you've had a break.

I didn't like this book, but I had read the reviews and knew what I was getting into. The story goes absolutely nowhere. I knew that going in, but that doesn't make the experience any less annoying.

Speaking of annoying things... Here are the number of times that these words/phrases show up in this

"Sucked his teeth" 22 times
"Sucked her teeth" 11
"Finger" 307
"Thumb" 111
"Hand" 963

The book should be called "Pointless Conversations", because that's pretty much all you get here. That and lots of sex. Then people talking about sex. Food. And people talking about food. Awful beat poetry. And people talking about awful beat poetry. It just drags on and on. And as it goes on, the writing gets more and more creative(?), experimental(?), but not in any kind of enjoyable way.

The reason I give it 2 stars is because although I personally didn't like it, it is still a quite unique and memorable work. Plus, you have to admire an author who can write this long a story, period.

I don't get the rave reviewers. This is not one I'd recommend. Sorry.

P.S. The William Gibson intro was painful to read, in a "trying to be cool like Delaney too" sort of way. Read at your own peril!
As others have said, some love Dhalgren and some hate it. I fall into the "hate it" camp. I found the concept to be interesting; I just didn't care for the execution. Too much of the exposition had a feeling of trying to be '60s counter-culture edgy/daring/experimental/anti-establishment. For me, that feeling hasn't worn well; it seemed dated. I found the repeated explicit sex to be a turn-off. Someone else described the poet character Newboy as the "wise Yoda". I found his endless ramblings about poetry and meaning to be tiresome. I actually expected the protagonist to decide Newboy was a pointless blow-hard. I got really tired of the "Whoooooa Man! Like, it's all toooo INTENSE for me" emotions from the protagonist. That said, there must be a reason so many people like the book. I liked the unconventional sentence structure and language and the way it mirrored the "what is real and what is not and what is going on?" feeling. I liked the snippets of reveal, but I found there to be just too much I didn't care about in between.