Bonnie’s Reviews > Dhalgren > Status Update

Part VI. Palimpsest. Section 6
"Wounding the autumnal city" and reading poetry from Kid's notebook at the party and whatnot...
I still don't like it. I certainly don't like that it's taking ~3 weeks of my reading time to get through. I may grant that my ⭐--one being where we are headed--will denote my not enjoying this doorstopper, not that it's objectively crap.

It's grad-school level, thesis level stuff.

Glass and Vinyl. Are these people, or things he is touching?
New characters. Need to go back, figure out who they are or how I missed them...
Does it matter? No. Keep going.

Section IV. In Time of Plague
Philosophical discussion w/ Lanya and Taf, about Ballona city.
Mr Newboy publishes book of Kid's poetry, BRASS ORCHIDS.
Kid loses time, robs store w/ Scorpions gang

?Confusing the Moon and George?
?Kid and Lanya acquire new chains?
?Why several people have red or coral eyes?

More characters: Nightmare, Copperhead, Denny.

"But I realized something. About art. And psychiatry. They’re both self-perpetuating systems. Like religion. All three of them promise you a sense of inner worth and meaning, and spend a lot of time telling you about the suffering you have to go through to achieve it. As soon as you get a problem in any one of them, the solution it gives is always to go deeper into the same system."

Part III - House of the Ax
Kidd manages to get a shower and a dirty bath.
The Richard's family moves up to a higher floor.
Kidd writes poetry in the notebook, and reads poems aloud.

Yeah. Prob not going to like this one much. Philip K. Dick/Harlan Ellison types wandering through an incomprehensible Jeff VanderMeer hellscape. Plus snazzy literary flourishes a la If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.
Hard to pay attention since I have no idea what is going on.