Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site nte-scg.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!bnr-vpa!nte-scg!phil From: phil@nte-scg.UUCP (Phil Trubey) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Samual Delany's Dahlgren Message-ID: <124@nte-scg.UUCP> Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 09:24:34 EDT Article-I.D.: nte-scg.124 Posted: Wed Aug 7 09:24:34 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 7-Aug-85 12:31:34 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Northern Telecom Electronics, Ottawa, Ontario Lines: 35 Tim Ryan writes... > My machine/net doesn't have postnews (they won't let us have it for > whatever reason) so I'm forced to reply by mail. Perhaps you could > summarize for the net? I did manage to make all the way through > _Dhalgren_, as well as a couple of other Delany novels, though I only > remember _Triton_. Delany's style seems to be that of taking normal > human beings and casting them into an environment of difference, where > every person and every situation is somehow mutated from our "normal" > world. _Dhalgren_ ends up being a circle -- the main character ends up > leaving the city, only to be in the same situation that he was in at > the start of the novel. I don't think there was a "moral" to the > story, either. I saw the story more as a character study. One of the > things that sticks in my mind was that the main character had badly > disfigured hands. Somewhere in the middle of the novel, it is > mentioned that when the war/conflict/catastrophe occurred, one of the > characters helped some people get out of a mental institution, and > helped a young man who's hands were badly burned. Perhaps the main > character is totally insane? I certainly agree with the original > poster and with you that _Dhalgren_ is a bizarre novel. For a short, > classic piece of Delaney, I recommend "Time Considered as a Helix of > Semiprecious Stones." It won a Hugo and is in _The Hugo Winners_. > _Time . . ._ is also more in keeping with what I remember of the rest > of Delaney's novel. -- Phil Trubey Northern Telecom Electronics Ltd. Ottawa, Ontario Mail path: ...!bnr-vpa!nte-scg!phil