Dhalgren: A Book for Our Times

Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren was copyrighted in 1974. A lot has changed since then, but the issues it addresses all ring relevant today, and its treatment of those issues is ahead of even our time. Reading it, I couldn’t help but think that everyone fighting their own little culture wars today would benefit from this book.

Dhalgren is about a city called Bellona where fires still burn from an unidentified catastrophe. A man who has forgotten his name enters the city and there continues life amidst the ruins and survivors. Usually described as science fiction, Dhalgren has precious little in it of what usually gets that label. Instead, it's speculative in the way it addresses social issues related to class, race, religion and sexuality. What would American urban society be like if cut off from the rest of the world and every remaining person were left to fend for her or himself?

 

 

One issue the novel addresses is rape. In a powerful scene, a discussion between an accused rapist named George and a woman named Lanya reads like something you might run across in the comments section under a feminist piece on rape culture. George is that troll who wants to somehow downplay the guilt of the crime, while Lanya is having none of it. Eventually, George gives his account of an incident that happened on the night of the city’s catastrophe, an incident that has made him a notorious rapist:

 

“We was in this alley, and there was this light flashing on and off, on and off; and people would run in, run out, and we just didn’t care! Or maybe that made it better, that there wasn’t nothing they could do, or that they wanted to do . . . And she got hit and she got punched and she got thrown around and she was yelling and screaming, ‘No, no, oh, don’t, oh please don’t.’ so I guess it was rape. Right? But when we finished—“ George nodded—“she was reaching for it. She wanted some more, awful bad.”

And it appears to be true, because the girl he's talking about, June, spends most of the novel looking for him so they can repeat that night. This is troubling. It’s easy to discount George as a sleazeball, but where does June fit into today’s narratives about rape culture? What about women and men, of all sexual orientations, who like it rough? Dhalgren is full of sexual situations--and more than one sexual marathon is described move by move--that push buttons and raise questions.

Author photograph by James Hamilton.

Delany pushes buttons with class, race and religion as well. George is a man of the streets, while June’s family tries desperately to maintain a sequestered middle-class lifestyle. George is described as a hulking and well-hung black man, while June is a timid little white girl--which maybe shouldn’t matter, but the fact is that race does matter in some way to most people. George has become a kind of deity in a new religion propagated by a woman pastor who spreads the faith through posters showing him dressed in nothing but a leather jacket, cap and boots.

At this point, you’re probably wondering, “What the hell kind of book is this?!” And that’s pretty much what I thought the whole time I was reading its nearly 800 pages of Joycean and Pynchonian tumult. Dhalgren raises a lot of issues, makes you uncomfortable, and makes you ponder what is right, but it refuses to moralize, often leaving you lost.

And that’s why it’s ahead of--or perhaps just outside--our time. Moralizing has its place, but too often today everything is sanctimonious--if not on the surface, then in the subtext. Authors, filmmakers and other creators are always presenting the right message and can be sure it will win approval in certain circles. I’m reminded of the Ellen DeGeneres joke at the Academy Awards in 2014:

It’s going to be an exciting night. Anything can happen, so many different possibilities. Possibility number one: 12 Years a Slave wins best picture. Possibility number two: You’re all racists.

I just saw 12 Years a Slave. It’s a great film that tells uncomfortable truths, but it tells them in a way that’s actually comfortable for most--and indeed it won Best Picture. But I can’t imagine anyone that Delaney’s masterpiece wouldn’t challenge. In 12 Years a Slave, right and wrong are clear to see, but Dhalgren is trickier, forcing you to find your own answers. Much of the time, you may not know what is right with regard to the questions raised, but even when you do, it isn’t because that’s what the author said through the book, but because that’s what you said through the book.

Despite its age, Dhalgren remains troubling, and ultimately it’s beyond my grasp. These are but first thoughts upon finishing the novel, and I’m painfully aware of how uninsightful--and possibly just plain wrong--they are. But that’s part of what I want out of The Gleaming Sword--inquiry over right answers, the labyrinth over the exit.

 

 

More posts on sci-fi books:

The Trials of Dune

Riverworld and the Resurrection

A Review of Clockwork Angels