Dahlgren: Best Science Fiction Novel Ever?
Science-fiction literature has branched into many different directions/subgenres since Jules Verne laid the foundations of SF 150 years ago. HG Wells The Time Machine and Food of The Gods gave us science-fiction as a vehicle for socio-political commentary, a theme later explored by Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. After several decades of cowboys and aliens stories, Ray Bradbury almost single-handedly moved SF into the realm of real literature, with stories centered on human emotion, psychology and interpersonal dynamics, while Theodore Sturgeon pioneered science-fiction/fantasy as a mechanism to explore sexual relations & interaction. In the 1960s and 70s, the New Wave of SF authors exploded into print, widening the field to considerations of gender, identity and the perception/interpretation of the nature of reality itself.
Perhaps no novel better embodies the ground-breaking evolution in science-fiction than Samuel R. Delanys novel Dahlgren, published in 1975. Dahlgren is a challenging (often confusing & frustrating) book, nearly 900 pages long, which has often been compared to Finnegans Wake or Gravitys Rainbow. Chip Delany was the wunderkind of SF in the 1960s & 70's, publishing his first science-fiction novel by age 20 and eight novels (including two Nebula award-winners) by the time he was 26. His magnum-opus novel Dahlgren has been praised & damned by critics, and lauded by authors like Theodore Sturgeon and William Gibson, yet bashed by Harlan Ellison and Phillip K. Dick. (The last is especially ironic, since if Dahlgrens exploration of perception, interpretation and distortion of reality can be compared to any other works, it is closest to the novels of Phillip Dick.)
The novel is set in Bellona, a mysterious, ruined city somewhere in the heartland of America. The catastrophe that shattered a major city is never clearly articulatedit was not a war or universal apocalypse, as we are told that the rest of America (and presumably the world) are doing fine. Whatever happened to Bellona is singular, and no one knows what the disaster was some say a plane crash, earthquake or industrial accident, but these mundane events fail to explain conditions in the city. Bellona is a city in chaos, largely without electric power or basic services, largely in ruins, but with enclaves of normalcy. The entire fabric of reality appears alteredbuildings burn for days or weeks but are not consumed, rubble that looks like the result of aerial bombardment stops abruptly across the street from untouched but empty residential neighborhoods, street signs and landmarks shift unaccountably day by day. The city is shrouded in smoke, haze and near-impenetrable overcastwhen the cloud cover breaks, some see two moons in the sky, or a monstrous sun, a hundred times normal size.
Significantly, the disaster of Bellona is invisible to the rest of America; neither radio nor television reaches into the city, and equipment taken into Bellona will not function to send messages to the world outside. In the absence of media coverage, the chaos and civil disorder of Bellona has been forgotten or ignoredthere are no rescue or relief efforts, and word of the urban chaos filters out only as rumors in the underground. Whatever is wrong with life in a major city remains un-noticed by our society.
We enter Bellona with the Kid, an amnesiac protagonist who cannot remember his name, his immediate past or even his reason for coming to the city. The Kid is an unreliable witness/narrator, as he may (or may not) be suffering from hallucinations or transient psychotic episodes; what he sees or describes may not always be an accurate depiction of the reality of Bellona (whatever that is). Like Orpheus, our hero descends into the underworld of the chaotic city, encountering characters who become friends or foes, personalities that are mundane and yet alternatively seem to have mythological significance. Through the Kids encounters and incidents, issues of race, gender identity, personal identity, power & control, the nature of love and of consensus reality and time itself are questioned and exploredbut never resolved.
Which is more significantcivil authority that cannot or will not respond to urban chaos, or the motley band of outcasts who struggle to maintain a sense of community and support amid the ruins? Which is more chilling & dangerousroving street gangs engaging in random violence, or the normal teenage girl who accidently backs her little brother into an open elevator shaft? Who is really insanethe amnesiac who doesnt know his own name and doubts his own sanity, or the family obsessively insisting that nothing is wrong and maintaining meaningless domestic routines in the midst of urban chaos? Is there an objective reality independent of individual perception? If reality is our consensus agreement, do disparate groups with opposing consensus even inhabit the same world?
All these questions (and more) are examined in the 900 pages of Dahlgren--- the book that William Gibson described as a riddle never meant to be solved
If youve read the novel, please offer your thoughts & comments. If you havent read this book, be warned: youll either love it or hate itlike Gravitys Rainbow, it defies definitive understanding.
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Anyone else read this masterpiece??
I haven't read it but it seems to beckon to me ...
Tnx for stopping in PC--
Give it try... you can score it cheap on Amazon. It was out of print for a good while, but was re-issued in the 90's and again around 2004 or so. If you like any of Phillip K Dick's books or got into the Matrix flicks, I think you'd like it. Either that or you'll hate it-- there don't seem to be many'in between' readers on this one...
Minor forewarning: the novel opens in a 'stream-of-consciousness' narrative that can be somewhat confusing, but bear w/ it, it does clear up & make sense later on. Real brain teaser-- when you get to the end, remember the beginning (DON'Tskip to the end & cheat yourself of a real treat)...
Howdy RG, tnx for checking in...
I think Delany had Detroit in mind, actually... but New York orany aging metropolis with crumbling infrastructure, disintegrating services, inept politics & major civil strife would do. In short (40 years after Delany wrote it)--- pretty much anywhere in America...
Not in my playbook, Robert... if you want to indulge in carom-shot baiting, I'd appreciate it if you'd use someone else's thread.
If you have a comment relevant to the novel which is the topic of this discussion, please offer it. Otherwise, please do me the courtesy of not intruding oblique and unappreciated digressive remarks into this article.
Detroit works for me ...
Thanks & a tip of the Swami's turban Petey...
One theme in Dhalgren is the disparity of experience of life in American society--- what is the 'reality' of our civilization: do the 'haves' and 'have-nots' even live in the same world? In the novel, a privileged few live in relative luxury & comfort, isolated from the chaos & insanity that prevail in most of 'Bellona', while the rest of the nation remains blissfully unaware & uninformed of the disaster that has engulfed the city. Which perspective is closer to 'reality'?
(An interesting semantic note: 'Bellona' can be interpreted as a play on 'belle', from the Latin & French word meaning 'beautiful'-- and Bellona is also the name of the Roman goddess of war...)
Piers B. Anthony - Robert Heinlein - 'nuff said
Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land. Burgess, A Clockwork Orange. Most anything by Jules Verne or Kurt Vonnegut.
Loud applause & hearty agreement, 1st. I'm still trying to finish up Anthony's 'Incarnation' series. I've read about everything Heinlein ever wrote... can't say I agree w/ his politics (a bit to the right of Charleton Heston), but I love the man's work. Still waiting for a quality movie of 'Puppet Masters', and hope to live long enough to see a film adaptation of 'Methusalah's Children'.
Tns for taking the time to comment, 1st...
My personal faves of Anthony are Macroscope, Omnivore& Orn, followed by the 'Incarnations' series. While I read a few of the Xanth novels, I couldn't dredge up the interest to follow through the whole massive collection. I also tend to favor RAH's older works, although I thought Number of The Beast was quite good. Niven's Ringworld novels are excellent-- I'd also give a nod to Hal Clement and Isaac Asimov (for the Rama novels)...
Tnx for stopping by, C.
You gotta go back to the Xanth series - I have never seen so many puns in all my life. And I thought Shakespeare was punny - had me rolling.
I read the first couple-three of them and really did enjoy the puns & word-play, 1st-- he did some of the same type stuff in the 'Incarnations' novels. I'm not as much into fantasy work as I used to be--- apart from Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' series. If you like off-the-hook humor, you'll go nuts over the discworld novels.
You need to start reading the CoC. The author asked you to stay on topic i.e. sci fi and you didn't comply after multiple redirects to the topic. [ph]
Oops, my bad!