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Dhalgren

Samuel R. Delany,

William Gibson (Foreword)

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Sep 24, 2011 El rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: society-went-boom, 20th-centurylit-late

I finished this book this morning, and I just haven't managed to find the words to write a proper review. I still can't quite decide between 3, 4, or 5 stars. I started re-reading the first few pages when I finished, and just now read some more of the book - this time at random places in the text.

I don't know what I expected when I started this, but purposely didn't get excited since the whole science fiction genre and I are so hit-or-miss most of the time. I also heard this is like the science I finished this book this morning, and I just haven't managed to find the words to write a proper review. I still can't quite decide between 3, 4, or 5 stars. I started re-reading the first few pages when I finished, and just now read some more of the book - this time at random places in the text.

I don't know what I expected when I started this, but purposely didn't get excited since the whole science fiction genre and I are so hit-or-miss most of the time. I also heard this is like the science fiction version of James Joyce, and considering how I felt reading Ulysses, I thought I'd be a hateful wench during the reading of Dhalgren.

If nothing else, this book has almost convinced me to try reading Ulysses again. Maybe I really was too hard on Ulysses when I read it. Maybe... or maybe I'd rather just watch paint dry.

But really I think Delaney had a clearer vision than Joyce, and expressed himself much more eloquently and - well - interestingly. I'm not going to sit here and wax philosophical about what the book meant, and I'm not going to turn my nose up at others who didn't like the book and accuse them of "not understanding it". No one understands it, not really. William Gibson says so in the introduction to my edition. I like to think I had moments where I thought I understood what was happening, or the direction in which it was going, but it never quite gelled in the right way. Not saying it gelled in the wrong way either. It just... was. One of my GR friends likened it to LOST meets Burning Man, and that's about right (and I'd like to suggest throwing in a little David Lynch as well). As I'm re-watching all of LOST with my brother, and having just spent the afternoon doing that just with him today, that's the most accurate comment yet. And it's not even accurate. Make sense? Of course not.

This isn't the review I wanted to write, not that it even really qualifies as a review. I have a feeling I'll be re-reading this one. Now that I know the story I can look for other things. I probably won't be doing this anytime soon, but the fact that I want to is unusual for me. So that means something. And maybe then I'll erase this entire box and write a real review. One that includes the stuff I really dig about it, the themes, the fact that it was written in 1975 and is filled with issues of the time - sex & gender, race, religion, philosophy, homosexuality & heterosexuality, feminism, mysticism... so many -isms in this book. It's chock-full of -isms.

I wouldn't recommend this book. I probably won't recommend this book. (Except to my brother, and I'm curious what my boyfriend would think, but really, that's it.) It's not a book for everyone, and I wouldn't even know what kind of person it would good for anyway. I think it was good for me because I ~~enjoyed~~ loved reading it. I wanted to know what happened, to the best of my ability. To me that's the sign of a good book - I hated my job the most during the week I spent reading this, not because my job sucks (ummm...) but because I wanted to read this. This book is the reason that I am a reader. When I think about what makes Reading exciting to me, it's because of books like this. The books that I live, breathe, eat, and sleep. My brother might wind up hating it and we'll probably never speak again because he might hate me for recommending this to him. But that's okay. This was my experience. I loved it. There. I said it.

So, okay. I guess that answers my question. 5 stars. ...more

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