Dhalgren
I tend to read books one at a time in quick succession. I have to, for the same reason I am so assiduous in writing reviews: I have a poor memory for these types of details. However, every so often I'll have a "project" book that takes me weeks or months to read, in parallel with my other books. I tend to do this with lengthy anthologies; I've been doing it with the Iliad. In retrospect, Dhalgren would have made a good project book. It's lengthy and difficult to read, and if I had invested the
Dhalgren, a book with a reputation that precedes it...kind of. More on that in a moment.The book is more of an experience than a story. For me, it was a memorable and mixed affair I'm happy to have had but also happy to move on from. For others it's one they'll return to again and again trying to understand exactly what it was they read. In a way this echoes what the protagonist of the book goes through. If you do intend to read it I would try to go into it knowing as little about it as
I am limited, finite and fixed. I am in terror of the infinity before me, having come through the one behind bringing no knowledge I can take on.What an odd, warped achievement. Delany provides us a reimagined Ellisonian treatise on Invisibility and Impermanence. He paints a city of possibility and then wipes his creation into a blotchy blur. This is Bellona. Delany also eviscerates the idea of the homo faber. While the depicted poet lacks a shoe, it is hands which reign in Dhalgren. They are
''Dhalgren' is pure top-drawer, high-end Great Books Literature, but it also is an annoying Post-Modernism takedown of EVERYTHING regarding humanity and our creative and architectural conceits (in ALL definitions of the words!). So, the novel is horrendously fricking looooonnnnngggg because the author, Samuel Delany, takes us readers on a slow-moving, if vivid, literary and mythological magical mystery tour of ALL of the decaying fruits of civilization when generative forces go missing. A
I'm sure this has been said before, but this is a very difficult book to review. So much is happening and very little of it has a straight-line plot unless you tackle this in seven sections and treat it as a mystery rite each time in the full awareness that Delaney is messing with us heavily.In what way, you ask?Ignore the fact that this reads more like a heavily-invested tome of mythic allusions in the style of the greats of traditional fiction and focus instead on the topics that Delaney holds
I struggled with this book, and I understand how polarizing such an experimental piece of literature can be. But somewhere along the trip something clicked right for me and I'm thinking now this is probably the best novel to come out of the flower-power movement. It captures the rejecton of consummer society, the free love craziness, the drug experiments, the confusion and the open doors of perception that seemed more important at the time than the bourgeoise conformism of an older genration.It
Samuel R. Delany
Kindle Edition | Pages: 836 pages Rating: 3.77 | 8258 Users | 960 Reviews
Identify Regarding Books Dhalgren
Title | : | Dhalgren |
Author | : | Samuel R. Delany |
Book Format | : | Kindle Edition |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 836 pages |
Published | : | January 7th 2014 by Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (first published January 1975) |
Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Fantasy |
Ilustration Conducive To Books Dhalgren
A mysterious disaster has stricken the midwestern American city of Bellona, and its aftereffects are disturbing: a city block burns down and is intact a week later; clouds cover the sky for weeks, then part to reveal two moons; a week passes for one person when only a day passes for another. The catastrophe is confined to Bellona, and most of the inhabitants have fled. But others are drawn to the devastated city, among them the Kid, a white/American Indian man who can't remember his own name. The Kid is emblematic of those who live in the new Bellona, who are the young, the poor, the mad, the violent, the outcast--the marginalized.Define Books Supposing Dhalgren
Original Title: | Dhalgren ASIN B00HE2JK7G |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | Nebula Award Nominee for Novel (1975), Locus Award Nominee for Best Novel (1976) |
Rating Regarding Books Dhalgren
Ratings: 3.77 From 8258 Users | 960 ReviewsJudgment Regarding Books Dhalgren
The greatest literary litmus test of the 20th century, Dhalgren is not simply "not for everyone" (read: pretentious) - it is a work of poor, lazy, and ultimately insulting craftsmanship. Story, structure, characters, clarity be damned, the prose at least was supposed to be spectacular. One-of-a-kind. If nothing else did it for me in this alleged "love it or hate it" novel, the language, at least, should have left me in awe. What I found inside was a heinous and uninspired repetition of images,I tend to read books one at a time in quick succession. I have to, for the same reason I am so assiduous in writing reviews: I have a poor memory for these types of details. However, every so often I'll have a "project" book that takes me weeks or months to read, in parallel with my other books. I tend to do this with lengthy anthologies; I've been doing it with the Iliad. In retrospect, Dhalgren would have made a good project book. It's lengthy and difficult to read, and if I had invested the
Dhalgren, a book with a reputation that precedes it...kind of. More on that in a moment.The book is more of an experience than a story. For me, it was a memorable and mixed affair I'm happy to have had but also happy to move on from. For others it's one they'll return to again and again trying to understand exactly what it was they read. In a way this echoes what the protagonist of the book goes through. If you do intend to read it I would try to go into it knowing as little about it as
I am limited, finite and fixed. I am in terror of the infinity before me, having come through the one behind bringing no knowledge I can take on.What an odd, warped achievement. Delany provides us a reimagined Ellisonian treatise on Invisibility and Impermanence. He paints a city of possibility and then wipes his creation into a blotchy blur. This is Bellona. Delany also eviscerates the idea of the homo faber. While the depicted poet lacks a shoe, it is hands which reign in Dhalgren. They are
''Dhalgren' is pure top-drawer, high-end Great Books Literature, but it also is an annoying Post-Modernism takedown of EVERYTHING regarding humanity and our creative and architectural conceits (in ALL definitions of the words!). So, the novel is horrendously fricking looooonnnnngggg because the author, Samuel Delany, takes us readers on a slow-moving, if vivid, literary and mythological magical mystery tour of ALL of the decaying fruits of civilization when generative forces go missing. A
I'm sure this has been said before, but this is a very difficult book to review. So much is happening and very little of it has a straight-line plot unless you tackle this in seven sections and treat it as a mystery rite each time in the full awareness that Delaney is messing with us heavily.In what way, you ask?Ignore the fact that this reads more like a heavily-invested tome of mythic allusions in the style of the greats of traditional fiction and focus instead on the topics that Delaney holds
I struggled with this book, and I understand how polarizing such an experimental piece of literature can be. But somewhere along the trip something clicked right for me and I'm thinking now this is probably the best novel to come out of the flower-power movement. It captures the rejecton of consummer society, the free love craziness, the drug experiments, the confusion and the open doors of perception that seemed more important at the time than the bourgeoise conformism of an older genration.It
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