AM I DOING BOOK REVIEWS NOW?

     There are spoilers in this kinda-sorta review so if you don't want to know, you only have yourself to blame for continuing...

     I finally finished reading a novel by Samuel Delaney called Dhalgren and when I say finally, I mean from start to finish, this read took over fifteen years.

     When I was still in college I had gotten into the habit of speaking with my adjunct after class. He would talk about literature, storytelling, and whatnot. One day he recommended to me, based on things I was saying, a novel called Dhalgren. He convinced me of its interesting nature by recalling events like their being an enormous sun and two moons in the sky and some other details which could be gleaned from reading the book's jacket. However, I never asked him how to spell it (or even if it were one word or two) and I quickly forgot who the author was.
     It took me about a year to track the novel down because I had never thought to spell it with a D-H. But I found it and serendipitously at that, and by using a card catalog too...way to date myself! I put in an order at the local bookstore and it soon came into my possession.

     I noticed the first page started in the middle of a sentence and my impatience got the better of me so I checked out the novel's last page to see if it ended on the start of that sentence. I found that it did and that I soon regretted having spoiled myself of what I thought the novel's twist was. I decided that I would not like to read this novel until I had forgotten this detail but as it is with memory, telling yourself to forget something is how you burn it permanently into the fabric of the Gilligan's Island Theme region of the brain.
      Every time afterward I would look at and consider beginning that novel, the memory of my impulsiveness would return.

     Six moves later, I unceremoniously plucked it from my shelf and made it my newest laundry read. A confession: I'm not much of a reader (by my definition anyway**) so I only read when doing my laundry. I'm stuck in that room for about an hour so it gives me something to do as well as an excuse to finally read these books that've been decorating my various residences all these years.
     And so began my long journey to complete this novel, thirty or forty pages at a time once or twice monthly depending on my laundry needs. I avoided looking up anything about it online, even fan artwork, because I wanted to get as much out of it as I could without being influenced from the outside. I'll admit I had grown impatient by the end. When I hit that final chapter (and these are long chapters...it's an 800 page novel with seven chapters), I wanted this over so I actually read on my own time over a couple of days to finish it up and so here I am.


     Dhalgren was a very strange novel and I really don't know what to make of it. I don't remember all its details and not being a literary person, I certainly did not pick up on its symbolism and not being able to picture things in my mind, I also couldn't imagine what anything I was reading about actually looked like. Such is me...

     As far as I could tell, Dhalgren does not have a plot. Literary or not, I have come to expect certain tropes in my storyreading. A plot would seem first and foremost as well as a resolution of mysteries. Ostensibly, Dhalgren is a science-fiction novel but I'm not entirely sure how it earned that designation. While sci-fi elements certainly are present, they seemed incidental rather than necessary to the story which followed the adventures of a protagonist who had forgotten his name but would be given the nickname, the Kid (spelled variously as Kid, Kidd, and kid...I'm sure there was a greater purpose to that but given how long I spent reading it, I wouldn't pick up on its significance, but I did notice it) in a strange, post-apocalyptic city called Bellona which could only be accessed via a bridge crossing a river.
     The obvious sci-fi elements were the brief appearance of two moons in different phases in the night sky on a rare night Bellona's normally all-concealing gray sky parted. A later chapter had the sun rise but the sun was enormous but despite its size (suggesting this city was closer to it than the planet Mercury), it did not melt the landscape nor blind those who would look upon it but it did cause panic which one might assume such an event would.
     The city of Bellona is also weird. Things are constantly on fire but closer investigation at later times shows those buildings to be fine. While how long ago this catastrophe happened is unknown, food is not terribly scarce. Fresh food is, but canned goods are frequently found. One would think all the stores would be looted by now but it seemed a hitherto unknown, but fully stocked, store would be found when food was needed. The landscape also seems to shift, reminding me of that movie Dark City so the way to where you're going may not always be the same. There's no real weather or even wind. The city is covered in smoke but not a choking smoke. Its presence always obscuring what lies up ahead. It never rains...at least I don't recall it ever raining. I only remember descriptions of dry leaves.
     This gang, the Scorpions, which the protagonist eventually falls into and leads have these "optic chains" and "light shields" which project large holograms of various animals like dragons, praying mantises, frogs, spiders, mantichores (whatever those are), etc. Yet, for a novel that feels like it is taking place in the time of its writing (early to mid-1970s...though this is never explicitly stated), no one appears to be amazed by this technology. It's beyond our capabilities even today in 2014 but it's there in the novel and it goes unremarked. Where this stuff comes from and why it even exists is never explained. Yes, the Kid comes across with his friend Tak, a warehouse filled with these items as though they had been mass produced but it's never explained what the significance of this place or the chains the Scorpions wear...or even how they got them.
     There appear to be wonky things going on with time in this novel but again, it's never explained. The Kid sometimes does not realize the passage of time or experiences events that took days for other people as only having taken hours for him. Again, it's never explained. This is a common theme, if a theme may be found in this novel at all...stuff being revealed but never explained or even made integral to the plot.
      The Kid also has a strange bladed weapon referred to as an orchid. It's not really sci-fi but it's mentioned frequently, it's certainly not a weapon that exists in the real world, and the Kid often finds himself wearing it even though he doesn't remember having put it back on.

      Early on in my confusion I really wanted to find the science-fiction this novel was supposed to contain. The city of Bellona still has a functioning newspaper called The Bellona Times, produced by a man named Roger Calkins who, now that I think about it, I don't think ever appears in the novel...but I may be forgetting a scene earlier in the book when some Scorpions beat up the Kid when lurking around Calkins's estate. At the end, the Kid speaks to him in a monastery but cannot see him
as he is behind a wall. Here, the reader is fucked with because the first paper we learn about carries a date in the year 2085.
      I'm like, "A-ha! A wormhole or a time warp! They're in the future, thus those holographic projectors..." Nope. Calkins just likes messing with people. While he makes sure not to repeat the day of the week in less than seven days' time, the date and year randomly change to whatever he feels like perhaps telling the reader that time is rather meaningless in Bellona but whatever. At least another character dismissed that possibility right away rather than leaving me to dwell on it.

      There's a ton of sex in this book, all graphically described. Right away, in fact, the Kid fucks a girl (seriously, page 2) whom he's never met before. The one detail I missed is that she turns into a tree afterward. From reading online, this appears to jibe with the myth of Daphne but then I'm not one who has studied Greek/Roman mythology to any real depth so what would I know.
      And not just straight sex. You get it all: straight, gay, bisexual (the Kid is bisexual), gang bangs...yup. And if I learned anything when reading a detailed account of a homosexual blowjob early on in the novel, it's that I'm really...really straight :-)
      However, one aspect of the novel that was interesting is how accepting people generally were of these various sexual lifestyles. No one seemed to care. Kind of progressive in that respect even if it doesn't necessarily feel that way with various Scorpions calling each other "cocksucker" pejoratively.

      There's also a lot of casual racism against blacks (and I guess gays given the gratuitous use of the word "cocksucker"). I don't know if that's a product of this being a gang or the time as institutional racism had only recently been made illegal in the real world. It was certainly a bit jarring at first but given the novel's length, I slowly got used to it...for better or for worse.

       Trying to get a feel for this book online, I found people didn't like the last chapter. I'll admit that was the chapter I actually enjoyed the most. The last chapter was done in a journal-like format with some marginalia of the Kid's thoughts either of random stuff or further informing the story of the main entry. While much of the novel was a slow read because the text is very dense with description, this last chapter flowed. However, it would not have been a fun read had the first chapter been done like that. It very much helped that by now I knew who these characters were the Kid was referring to and that I could figure out what he was getting at even as several of the entries cut off suddenly (the journal was missing pages at this point).
      It was called a "plague journal" and another chapter was called "In the Time of Plague" yet no special sickness appeared in the novel. A Scorpion in an early chapter was very ill when the Kid was hanging out in their "nest" but that person got better and wasn't a portent of some terrible plague to come.

      The city of Bellona was the site of a catastrophe but what that catastrophe was is never explained. It was a large city but it is now mostly abandoned. Those who are left are a commune of hippies whom I mainly remember for having projects they wanted to work on but never completed because they were easily distracted. Hippies...am I right fellas? ;-) There are some leftover elites associated with Calkins, various vagrants, the Scorpion gang, an armed group holed up in a department store called the Emboriki, a family named Richards who live in an apartment building whose wife, Mary, is desperately trying to maintain a normal life, barflies frequenting a place called Teddy's, the occasional guest (like the poet Mr. Newboy and an astronaut who once visited the Moon, Captain Kamp) invited into the city by Calkins, etc. A city once of millions is now maybe just a thousand strong. Only curious and/or quirky people remain in this city. I guess Bellona drives normalcy out somehow?
     Most of the power is out but electricity is still present in random streetlights and outlets. While there appears to be no functioning gas station, there is a bus that will take people up and down the major boulevard. Clean water can be found here and there (as can food as mentioned earlier). There's ample shelter in the form of abandoned housing. Basic survival needs are met in this city.
      And despite this, the rest of the country is fine. The United States and Bellona can and do function without each other.

     In the end, I don't know what to make of this novel. It was a strange read. It was a disappointing read because it ultimately seemed to be about nothing. However, it was engrossing enough. If Delaney did anything right, it was dangling a narrative carrot that a mystery will be resolved even though none ever was. He also employed thought-provoking language as the characters interacted with each other. There are certainly passages worth quoting...maybe I'll publish some here on this blog another day if I remember.
      I liked following these characters around and getting to know them even though the fates of two important ones, Lanya Colson and Denny, are entirely unresolved. They just disappear as the Kid and some fellow Scorpions are fleeing some bizarre occurrence that brings them to the bridge upon which they have all used to enter Bellona at some point. Everyone we meet always had something interesting to say. They were fascinating to listen to and made points worth considering.

      There are many things I'm leaving out. This is easy to do in a novel of this length. Characters like George Harrison, a large black man with a following. Posters of him nude adorn much of the city. The original catastrophe noted George apparently raping a blond white girl named June (Richards). When the Kid asks about it, George tells him it was not rape but rather what June was into sexually. Given the various sexual relationships described in this novel, I believe him. If the great variety of sex did not factor so much in this novel, I would think his account of the alleged rape to be bullshit but not in this novel. June may look like a prototypical all-American, plain-vanilla girl but in reality she's into some seriously kinky shit that would no-doubt shock the hell out of her seemingly ordinary family.
       The chapter dealing with the Richards family was the least interesting to me though it does bring the Kid closer to the Scorpions. I don't feel like summarizing it here (check out the Wikipedia summary if you're really interested) as I found the chapter tedious.

      I'll admit I liked that the Kid was a poet and that his poems were well-received by Bellona's public when they are published. The reader learns about how the Kid approaches poetry but we never once read a finished poem. I thought that a smart thing to do. It keeps the mystery intact plus allows the author who is not likely to be an impressive poet to have the reader imagine what kinds of poems these must be. I think of it like a TV show about a famous band. It's hard to do that because any music created for the show is unlikely to be a number one single so you kind of have to avoid the whole issue.

     As for the literary loop. It turned out to be true, but not true. Rather than the novel being a circle, it was more like it was a Slinky loop: it came back in on itself but the variables by then had changed. Looking straight down upon it would suggest a circle but any difference of perspective would reveal it for what it really was, a loop atop a loop.
     It starts with the Kid crossing the bridge and encountering a group of women who are leaving. One gives him the orchid weapon. They mention things he will learn about in due time like Calkins and how it's easier for women in Bellona and ask questions about various cities to find that they're still okay. At the end, the Kid and some Scorpions (all male except for one) encounter a Chinese girl crossing the bridge on her way in. The Kid gives her his orchid, they remark how it's easier for men in the city, they ask about different cities to find that they're still okay, and refer to things she will learn about in due time like June Richards.
     I guess you could say the ending rhymes, but does not truly repeat. A new iteration is now beginning. Will it ultimately be the same story but with a girl this time?
     As for the title, Dhalgren, it's another mystery that's never resolved. It appears on a list of names in the half-completed journal the Kid found...William Dhalgren. Given the title of the book, it was certainly tempting to think this was the Kid's name but it's not. The Kid suddenly remembers his name to be Michael Henry F... He can't remember his last name but he got his first and middle. It's not even remarked upon afterward and when reading about the book online, no one else ever mentions it making me wonder if the Kid was just making it up or if he was thinking of somebody else whose name he could not remember. Weird...

      Reading about the novel online has people saying that the book is about what it would be like to have fiction be reality and how it would be really scary to those whom are not the story's main focus. And when the Kid becomes the "main character" how the others fall in line to their roles now that the Kid is their leader. Perhaps the true adventure is happening to someone else? I don't know. I can't admit to picking up on stuff like that. Maybe if I ever reread the novel, I'll keep that in mind.
      I like that concept, assuming its true, but I can't say it was well-executed. The book gets much praise but it's one of those things where I wonder if it's because I'm not smart enough to get or because a bunch of smart people are afraid of looking foolish for not understanding what they've just read so they impart all this meaning into the text.
      I remember when I was in high school and believed I could one day write a book, I wanted to do a science-fiction where the characters in it didn't care that they were living in some amazing future world or where stuff happens around them but not to them necessarily. Executing that idea proved to be too formidable. And by that I meant I wanted them to be rather nonchalant about their technology's awesomeness, much like how we are today with regards to things like the internet and cellphones. I don't know...but that feels like a discussion for another entry I'm unlikely to ever get to either.

      I'd recommend Dhalgren if you're into reading something very different. It's tough at first but once you get used to the style, it gets easier to read. If you're someone who needs to have your fictional worlds resolved when you reach the end, then this novel is definitely not for you as it will frustrate you. But yet, despite that, I found myself interested in this place and its people. I wanted to know what was going on as much as I wanted to read about what they had to say. Still, even if it was never stated explicitly, it would've been nice if the mysteries could be pieced together by an astute reading. I think of LOST and how viewers were disappointed many of the mysteries were never solved when in fact, they had been had you been following what was being said, shown, etc. (you can read many examples here).
      You don't have to follow tropes to the letter to write a good story. After all, tropes have to start somewhere. The idea of mystery-solving teams of teens having a quirky comic-relief animal companion who may or may not have been capable of speech wasn't always a thing. Even if Scooby Doo didn't lead the way and it was in fact some other cartoon, you can find several examples of this...but like I said, it had to start somewhere.
      Even if Dhalgren was not meant to be about its sci-fi elements, I feel it failed to tell a worthwhile story of its characters. I can get into the idea of telling a story non-traditionally: it's certainly an interesting challenge but I think they're still needs to be a point that's not "there is no point". I really cannot tell you what Dhalgren was ever about but yeah, check it out if you're curious. It sold over a million copies so it's safe to say it generated plenty of positive word-of-mouth.

** I actually read a lot but I don't consider much of what I do to be reading. It may only be considered reading if done for entertainment. Therefore, reading the newspaper is not reading...I am informing myself. Reading a work of non-fiction is not reading...I am educating myself. Reading comics is not reading...it's too much like watching television (this is starting to sound like a George Carlin gag). Reading fiction is the only thing that counts as reading.