Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!jagardner From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Samuel Delaney's Dhalgren Message-ID: <16089@watmath.UUCP> Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 14:49:12 EDT Article-I.D.: watmath.16089 Posted: Wed Aug 7 14:49:12 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 7-Aug-85 23:58:48 EDT References: <662@ihu1g.UUCP> <71@unc.unc.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 43 [...] Dhalgren is a lot easier to understand and appreciate once you know about a few of Delany's learning disabilities. First, Delany is an epileptic who is prone to petit mal fits that wipe out his memories of the past short while. Second, Delany has a learning disability that makes it difficult for him to remember the temporal order of his experiences: in other words, he often can't remember what came first in a sequence of events. Third, he has a form of dyslexia that slows his reading considerably. Fourth, he has a poor spatial memory, which means that he often can't remember exactly where things were. Dhalgren is his attempt to convey his experiences to the reader. The hero has significant memory problems. For example, he constantly finds material in his notebook that he can't remember writing. He occasionally thinks the buildings have moved closer or further away from the river. The order of events is constantly confused. The hero frequently has a good deal of difficulty reading. Many people feel that Dhalgren goes on too long without clarifying anything. On the other hand, if you see it as an attempt to give the reader an experience of the author's world, you _have_ to take a fair amount of time so you can adjust and begin to feel at home. By the end of Dhalgren, I more or less understood what had happened and the order in which it happened. If you can accept the total mental disorientation, I think the vividness of the imagery is well worth the read. One warning though: it is hard to say that Dhalgren has a story as such. A general requirement of a "story" is that a sequence of events changes a character or set of characters in some way. I'm not sure that anyone is changed by the events in Dhalgren (which may be Delany's point). Therefore you get the feeling that nothing has been accomplished. A better way to approach the book is to regard it as a form of poetry (odd concept though that is). Most people don't find Dhalgren their cup of tea, and I can certainly understand that. However, Delany can write the socks off practically any other modern writer, even when you hate his material. It's well worth anyone's while to go to the library and take out Dhalgren to see if you like it. Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo