Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren, as a novel, doesn’t fit the mold: there isn’t a linear plot, events re-occur as echoes and distortions, it is unclear what the story is about, and the mind cannot easily detect a natural reading rhythm: it is classified as a novel, I suppose, because there is no other word to describe it. Dhalgren makes the mind work (unless the reader gives up, throws the book into the fireplace, and picks up something else). As I read it, I became — in no particular order — confused, bored, angry, disgusted, and enlightened (these states — in various permutations — were repeated throughout my reading experience). The novel could be viewed as many different things, some of which I’ve outlined below (page numbers refer to the Vintage Trade Edition pictured):

  • It could be read as science fiction literature; the labyrinthine city-setting could be on another world (in Dhalgren, the story takes place in a city called Bellona, purportedly in mid-America; interestingly, in Delany’s novel Triton, Bellona is a Martian city. Mars has two moons and, in Dhalgren, there are two moons at one point in the story). The city of Bellona may be situated at the edge of a singularity, within a rift in space-time that allows no communication with the rest of the universe. Science fiction elements are referred to several times in the book’s pages (e.g.: p.372-373, p.432, and p.439), but I sense that Delany didn’t appreciate being marginalized, or categorized, in a particular genre.
  • It could be read as a panoramic view of the world from the mind of a schizophrenic: there are countless fragmentary episodes (more…)