Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren was originally published in 1975. Since its publication, Dhalgren has had its fair share of proponents and enemies - it has been called both the best and the worst book ever to come out of the field of science fiction.  Over the course of its eight-hundred pages, we follow our main character, the Kid, as he wanders listlessly through devastated city of Bellona, located somewhere in the United States on the border between utopia and dystopia.  It is a city where time dilates and contracts, buildings spontaneously combust, obscuring mists curl through the streets.  And here, all society’s misfits and outcasts have gathered under its twin moons.   

In this conversation we discuss the extent to which Dhalgren can be considered science fiction, examine the role of its metafictional games, and think about its presentation of racial and sexual politics.  

The readings in this episode are by Daniel Mills, host of the true crime podcast, These Dark Mountains: https://thesedarkmountains.com/

Bibliography:

‘The Convergence of Postmodern Innovative Fiction and Science Fiction: An Encounter with Samuel R. Delany's Technotopia’ by Teresa L. Ebert Poetics Today, Vol. 1, No. 4, Narratology II: The Fictional Text and the Reader (Duke University Press, Summer, 1980)

‘Rites of Reversal: Double Consciousness in Delany's Dhalgren’ by Mary Kay Bray in lack American Literature Forum, Vol. 18, No. 2, Science Fiction Issue (Summer, 1984)

‘Playing at Birth: Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren’ by Todd A Comer in Journal of Narrative Theory, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Summer, 2005) 

https://lithub.com/dont-romanticize-science-fiction-an-interview-with-samuel-delany/