Book report- Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

One of the things that I am doing with my year is taking book recommendations from all of my good friends. I started this project because a) I was spending WAY too much money on new books, b) it's so much nicer to read books you know will be good, and c) I thought it would be a unique way to get to know all of my friends a little better. 

I wanted to respond not only with words on how I felt about each book, but also with a summary of images, videos and sounds that the feeling of the book evoked for me. 

Dhalgren, was definitely not a book I probably would've picked up by myself. It is science fiction novel written by Samuel R. Delany in 1975. Here is a great summary of the novel that I found on Wikipedia.

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An event horizon, enveloping Bellona, prevents all radio and television signals, even phone messages, from entering or leaving the city. A rift may have been created in space-time. One night the perpetual cloud cover parts to reveal two moons in the darkness. One day a red sun swollen to hundreds of times the size it ordinarily appears rises to terrify the populace, then sets—and the same featureless cloud cover returns, with no hint that it was ever otherwise. Street signs and landmarks shift constantly, while time appears to contract and dilate. Buildings burn for days, but are never consumed, while others burn and later show no signs of damage. Gangs roam the nighttime streets, their members hidden within holographic projections of gigantic insects or mythological creatures. The few people left in Bellona struggle with survival, boredom, and each other. It is their reactions to (and dealings with) the strange happenings and isolation in the city that are the focus of the novel, rather than the happenings themselves.

The novel's protagonist is a drifter who suffers from partial amnesia: he can remember neither his own name nor the names of his parents, though he knows his mother was an American Indian. He wears only one sandal, shoe, or boot. Possibly he is intermittently schizophrenic. Not only does the novel end in schizoid babble (which recurs at various points in the text), but the protagonist has memories of a stay in a mental hospital, and his perception of the "changes in reality" sometimes differs from that of the other characters. Also he suffers from other significant memory loss in the course of the story. As well, he is dysmetric, confusing left and right and often taking wrong turns at street corners and getting lost in the city.

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Nick Blinko

For me the book was super strange, because although there was a huge amount of violence, sex, and strange activities, the book had this feeling of entirely overwhelming monotony. It was confusing even while nothing happened. There was continually a sense that things should be connecting, and then they never would. 

The friend who leant me the book pointed out to me (something I had not noticed) that the book ends with 

But I still hear them walking in the trees: not speaking.
Waiting here, away from the terrifying weaponry, out of
the halls of vapor and light, beyond holland into the
hills, I have come to

And starts with 

to wound the autumnal city.

which makes the book into an enigmatic circle, only enforcing for me the feeling of continual monotony that the book had for me. 

It's hard to explain what I mean by violent and tense monotony, but these two videos captured a little bit of that feeling for me:

The book felt lonely while being full of people. Dangerous although nothing happend. Crazy but you weren't sure why. A book of contradictions while nothing was actually solidified. In short, desolate and confusing. It reminded me a lot of the schizophrenic drawings of Nick Blinko, which was fitting since a large part of the themes in the book revolved around the idea of him going crazy. 

Also, some of the photographs of Jeff Bark give a very similar feeling to the book. The sense of loneliness and yet violence. 

To be honest, this book really frustrated me. I wanted to understand the mysteries, I wanted more character development, and I wanted something to RESOLVE. There were a few things that I did really enjoy about the book however. 

For one, there is a definite normalizing of alternative types of sexuality. There are a ton of instances and discussions of bisexuality, multiple partners, an BDSM. Two of the key characters in the novel are a African American man and a caucasian woman who have an encounter that is deemed through most of the book as "rape" while both the man and the woman discuss the longing and taboos for the encounter they had together. The protagonist himself is in a three-way relationship with a man and woman, and it was super interesting to see the negotiations between them all, all the while have it very natural. 

I also enjoyed the discussion of violence the book brought up as well. The gang members in the book were mostly bored, and barely did anything, but the way that society viewed them was as violent, terrifying creatures. The book had a lot of instances where it brought up themes of societal views versus truth. 

The book was quite poetic as well, although it had no real poetry in it. One of the major topics of discussion in the book was the poems that the protagonist writes, and yet we never got to read a one of them. Yet another thing that was never resolved... One of my favorite lines in the book was;

New moons came, he thought, and all of heaven changes; still we silently machinate towards the joint of flesh and flesh, while the ground stays still enough to walk, no matter what above it. -Pg 104

All in all, the book was worth my time, although it took me forever. (Did I mention it's 801 pages?) It definitely opened up a couple new chapters in my head surrounding the discussion of race and gender, as well as the contained power of marginalized peoples. I do wish that it had been slightly less verbose, but for its time I can see why it was a powerful book. 

One more film that has a similar feeling: I know I already blogged this one, but it is very applicable.