on 4 July 2004 : 10:19, cameron sez:
funny justin, I just finished that book. Picked it up randomly and have been trying to find others to discuss it...haven't heard anyone evyer talk about it or quote it
on 7 July 2004 : 11:14, Stephen sez:
I was *really* disappointed with that book. Granted, I didnt finish it, but I did get about 3/4ths of the way through it. Call me a novice reader or old fashioned, but I think the reader deserves *some* rewards, and Delaney didnt seem to want to give the reader any. I read somewhere that he based the premise for that novel on improvisational jazz. Oddly enough I emailed Howard about this months ago, when I was struggling with "The Writers Ego" and he said he tended to agree with my take on that book. I felt justified even tho I didnt finish it ^_^
on 7 July 2004 : 20:01, cameron sez:
yeah I had trouble with that one. There were certain moments of brilliance that seemed to melt away with the next paragraph....I also found the last chapter; written in 3 voices randomly injected to certain areas of the page via formatting quite difficult to get through...
the free jazz theory does seem to work here...yes it's frustrating that there are really no hints as to what the book is about, aside from some of the social issues he mentions.
on 26 July 2004 : 22:16, Tim Jarrett sez:
For some reason this item popped up in my RSS aggregator again tonight, Justin, but I'm glad since I didn't remember to comment the first time.
I finished reading Dhalgren last summer and was struck by its beauty and by the way that the Kid learns to shape his fate only to be exiled from his unlikely Eden in the end. My God, what a slog parts of it were, though. My immediate reactions from last summer are here: http://discuss.jarretthousenorth.com/2003/08/21#a2561