Comments on: dhalgren

By: Billy Ransom

Billy Ransom — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:05:54 +0000

I have yet to actually get more than 100 pages through this thing, based on how damned difficult and confusing it is. But I LOVE the prose in it. I don’t know what more there is to say. The only thing I can’t get behind is the elements of erotica. It’s not that there’s a lot of homoerotic stuff in it, it’s the explicit detail of the sexual nature, period.

Other than that, this is a great novel. I’ve skipped around, because I’ve read that it doesn’t take away from the experience at all; in fact, some interpret that you can read it from the middle, and go any which way you please, hopping around as much as you’d like, and the ‘journey’ is just as pleasurable (and it’s true–so far as I can tell).

By: maya

maya — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:46:34 +0000

Hello Geoffrey,
Thanks so much for stopping by! My copy is a 7th printing, but alas, the back cover has long ago been lost, leaving only a ripped up last page. Otherwise I would gladly type it up for you! I know how these things can get into one’s head. I remember that text though and how it said, basically, NOTHING about the book, haha.
Good luck on your quest!

By: Geoffrey Dow

Geoffrey Dow — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:35:13 +0000

Hi there,

Found this essay in a roundabout sort of way. I’m currently re-reading (for the first time in more years than I care to concede) Joanna Russ’ *The Female Man*, in its original paperback edition. Like *Dhalgren* (which I first read in grade 7, if memory serves; I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve *re-read* it), “A Frederik Pohl Selection”.

ANYway …

One thing leading to another, I was reminded of the laughable copy on the back of my now-long-lost copy of the Bantam edition, the one which was nothing but a litany of lies about the content of the novel itself.

Something like, “The world has gone mad, all that was familiar is strange and different …” and concluding with the only thing which *did* occur between the covers, “A young drifter enters the city.” (I know I got the first part wrong but I hope I caught the tone.)

And so, google. And so here I am. And it occured to me to ask, do you still have that battered copy pictured above? If so, and if the back cover is the one I remember (I think they changed with the 10th printing or so), would you be willing to type it out for me? A strange request, I know.

Meanwhile and whether or no, I may pop up here again. I confess that yours is a new name to me, but your bio (do you really live in a yurt?) and your taste in literate suggest there’s much good reading here.

Thanks for your time.

Geoffrey Dow