There’s a city that erupted on the map in January of 1975, a decrepit mid-western one, isolated and populated by the grotesque and strange, through which a wandering kid explores his sexuality and encounters the fantastic — Bellona, the stuff of suburban nightmares and concealed urges given volition and form.
Bellona, the city of Samuel “Chip” Delaney’s Dhalgren, can be travelled to through the wildness of the Beat Generation, via influences of James Joyce, on a road filled with “difficult” books. But Dhalgren has at its heart a similarity to a pop culture phenomenon, and that is….
Sex and the City.
Yes, I’m trying to lure you into reading what many term a “difficult” book. We’ve all heard of it, and many of us have even picked it up. Dhalgren sits on many “to be read” piles. Which is a pity, because the heart of Dhalgren is simply the theme – sex and the city.
Samuel Delaney, noted author and literary critic in multiple genres, was born in 1942, an African-American raised in Harlem, was married for 14 years to poet Marilyn Hacker, has identified as gay since adolescence, is currently in a committed non-exclusive relationship, is an SFWA grand master, and has multiple awards across genre. His themes reflect sexuality in multiple aspects, with focus on power structures and resulting strictures, and Dhalgren remains one of the best-selling and critically acclaimed SF novels. He is an active and current writer and critic and this doesn’t even begin to encompass his reach. He is, was, and yet today remains a powerful creator and critique, with a penchant for autobiography, experimentation, and feminism; an explorer of race, gender, and intersectional issues.
Dhalgren gets an unfair rap as being difficult because its written in an experimental style; events occur out of context, and it relies upon your willingness to go along with the ride, and boy howdy, is Kidd (the narrator/protagonist, also referred to as “the kid”) on the trip of his life – a sexual odyssey through a fantastical, often confusing and metamorphical, city — Bellona.
And I’m totally not kidding about Dhalgren having much in common with Sex in the City. Or rather, Sex in the City has much in common with Dhalgren, given that Sex in the City premiered in June of 1998, 23 years after Dhalgren.
Ok, so the city of Bellona is nothing like Carrie’s glamorous New York. Certainly, Carrie’s NYC doesn’t physically shift, is much cleaner, is definitely NOT mid-western, and isn’t populated by roving gangs or strange holographic beasts. However, Bellona is an urban city and has the same problems for the narrator (the “kid” or “Kidd”) as Carrie encounters – that is, the struggle of surviving, boredom, and co-existing with others (in all the various formats and combinations).
Dhalgren is based on Kidd’s journey through the city. Sex and the City is based on Carrie’s. Both journeys involve sex — a lot of it, in various combinations, both traditional and non-traditional.
Like Sex and the City, Dhalgren incorporates various techniques, including journal entries (along with other Beat literature characteristics, such as stream of consciousness, and a general urge towards chaos).
Unreliable narrator — Kidd isn’t precisely unreliable, but he’s certainly confused and overwhelmed at times and Carrie has a certain filter she applies that also distorts reality. Kid’s bewilderment can be overwhelming, but then, Delaney was free from the constraints of television, and that allows us complete immersion. If one thinks of all of the women in Sex and the City as various viewpoints of Carrie’s larger journey, then Kid is what happens when all viewpoints and perspectives are contained in one – he’s what happens when you roll Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha into Carrie.
Both get a bad rap, because, ya know, sex and societal expectations. Especially where any deviations to the preconceived “norm” occur –mainly regarding areas of promiscuity and partner(s) choices.
If you attempt to “binge” either of them, you will suffer a surfeit of the soul. Motifs will start to become repetitive and the sexual mores that started as startling achieve a certain similarity. It is quite possible you will want to take breaks from both, and entirely more likely that Dhalgren will occasionally cause your mind to fuzz and experience a mild shut-down. “Reading is a many-layered process — like writing,” Samuel Delaney observed in Longer Views, and Dhalgren is one of those you may want to take in measured doses.
Of course, the inherent experience of television and reading are completely different and this whole concept is a bit apples and oranges. There’s nothing to this analogy at all, except…
Don’t you just love the subtitle of Delaney’s autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, published in 1988, ten years before Sex and the City?
The theme, the heart, the underlying beat of Dhalgren, of Bellona, of much of Delaney’s life and work, is sex and the city. So if that’s a theme that resonates with you, if you find Carrie’s journey through the sexual wilds of New York interesting, but would prefer a heartier dose of surreality and the fantastic as only one of it’s masters could accomplish; if you would prefer a male protagonist or a queerer point of view, then may I suggest giving up on the prejudice of Dhalgren as difficult, and give it a try. Journey to the city of Bellona.
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