The Autumnal City: Symptoms of Schizophrenia in Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren

If you didn’t know where my blog’s name comes from before, you’ll know now. I wrote an “extended critical essay” for Spalding’s MFA program about Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren. The novel’s opening lines are:

to wound the autumnal city.
So howled out for the world to give him a name.
The in-dark answered with wind.

Over the years, I’ve coerced a number of people to actually read the massive thing, and managed to find a few fans in the gaming community, so I figured I’d post the whole essay. It’s only 23 pages long, so “extended” is a bit of a misnomer.

The essay is obviously going to “spoil” some things, but Dhalgren, like all literature, really isn’t something that can be ruined by revealing plot points. It’s not a mystery with a neat answer at the end, and it may even be helpful to have a little bit of context before reading it for the first time. I’ve read the book four times and I’m still finding new things and making new connections.

Just looking over the essay and writing this post makes me want to start reading it again. For me, it’s that book I’ll read every year for the rest of my life. It’s had a huge impact on my life and the way I view the world.

The Autumnal City: Symptoms of Schizophrenia in Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren